Casey Malanuk
- Caitlin Billard
- Nov 4, 2017
- 2 min read

Every Casey Malanuk song is a hit. Above all else, he is a songwriter - despite his love for producing and his history performing live. His secret: making each song the absolute best version of itself, rather than trying to squeeze them into a consistent set of genre expectations from track to track.

He explains, “If I write a pop song tomorrow, then I’ll produce it and make it as much pop as possible. If I write a rock song, I don’t want to produce it to make it sound pop-y like the last one, I’ll produce it in its own way.”
Malanuk’s new album consists of 24 tracks - 12 songs with a) a fully-produced and b) a raw acoustic version of each. He is releasing one each week on his Spotify account until he reaches the end of the album. Though a common thread runs through each track, Casey doesn’t limit himself to a certain /aesthetic/. Each song on the album is treated with dignity and is just as able to be one part of a whole as it is able to stand alone.
The beauty of Malanuk’s discography is that you don’t tire of it 3 songs in, because his songs don’t meld into one another in an indistinct haze. Each track is a radio-friendly hit with an alternative edge. Though Malanuk is young (18, y’all!) and his music has a youthful energy, his songs suggest experience beyond his years.
Casey wrote the first single, Reminiscity, in 4 minutes - roughly the length of the song itself. It came between waves of writer’s block, but when the inspiration finally hit, it resulted in his most rock-sounding track yet. It features lyrics like “you wanted me to rot in hell, well guess what, I don’t do well with the spell,” and ends in a 20 second guitar solo.

Malanuk says the song Conflicts is “pretty much a hodge podge of lyrics that [he's] saved from [his] phone from like 3 years ago.” The first line of the second verse, “love is like a fine wine, she can taste better with time but she didn’t,” was salvaged from his notes from July 2015, while the rest of the verse, “aesthetic revelation are you my predestination? I’m religiously out of my mind,” was finished in August of this year. Despite the time gap, it all comes together in one cohesive, satisfying alt-rock track.
The first two minutes of (G)host start out simple, with quiet, straightforward guitar and echoey, layered falsetto vocals. Then the song takes a turn. The reverb in the vocals becomes more synthetic, building tension that reaches its peak with a slightly unsettling, distorted guitar solo.
Casey Malanuk’s live shows are a quieter, more personal experience than the average rock show. “I like to really tell people about what my songs are about and play them for them,” Malanuk says. “I really like intimate, kind of slow shows.”
He’ll be playing a cozy set at The Vinyl Countdown tonight at 6 p.m. Be sure to stop in to hear the new album live.
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