Mad Malcolm

Mad Malcolm Bio:

Mad Malcolm Productions, Inc.

Is a one-man team of digital music creation. He's a writer, artist, composer and keyboardist with jazz influences and a love for the arts, the beats and the funky music, technology and underground culture that help create enlightenment through shared experience.

"I grew up as a middle-class white kid in the suburbs; you know, piano lessons, a younger sister, a dog and two cats, the typical 'nuclear' family… But I was bussed all over inner-city Seattle schools as part of the mid-80's 'integration program' and I got a lot of exposure to all the music 'everyone else listened to'. So when I was younger I was always listening to top 40 radio at home and in my room I listened to underground gansta-rap like Ice-T and Too Short on tapes that my cousin would always bring over. We would pump it up whenever I could sneak them into my Dad's stereo system. I used to love trying to find the original samples that the rappers used (like the George Clinton and James Brown samples that Digital Underground loved to use). Both my parents were teachers and musicians and my Dad always forced me to sit down with him and listen to lots of rock, swing, jazz and classical music…I thought he was so uncool back then, but it's something I'm very thankful for now. As a result of his influences, I spent what I consider some of the best years of my life playing in small jazz combos in college, and I discovered the joy of improvisation and non-verbal musical communication. It's the kind of experiences you can't explain… when you can get the guitar player to change keys with you with just a smile and a slight of hand, or move the drummer into a solo with two chords and a blues lick. That's when I knew… Music is my ecstasy.

-Clark Schroeder (aka Mad Malcolm)

Playing jazz charts in and out of college bands for over five years, Mad Malcolm now produces original music from his home studio in Lake Stevens, WA... In the early years he spent time working for Ervin Entertainment in a basement studio creating Hip-Hop and R&B beats and background tracks. During this time he decided to continue on with jazz studies and to pursue his own material. With only a minor in Music at Eastern Washington University, and a major in Marketing, Mad Malcolm took a love of music into the studio. He began using Sonic Foundry's Acid Pro and Sound Forge for sampling and sequencing and the beats just seemed to flow from his fingers.  As an ex-PC guy turned Mac user, Mad Malcolm now uses Apple's Logic , Soundtrack and Garageband software, along with Propellerhead's Reason , for midi sequencing and recording... and Abelton's Live! for live electronic performances and laptop battles!

Samples and loops were the palette through which he could work. Drawing from a diverse listening background that included anything from Duke Ellington to James Brown to Tribe Called Quest to Prodigy and Chemical Brothers to Mozart to pretty much anything that fit his mood, Mad Malcolm madly began purchasing loop CD's and even generated original samples with which he could work. In creative fits that would sometimes last until 4am he blended these random samples into creative expressions, soundscapes and funky beats...

Energy. Music. Technology.

Mad Malcom Productions, Inc. at CDBABY.COM