#260 Malachi Gagnon
In this episode of Songwriter Trysts, Rae Leigh sits down with the talented Malachi Gagnon to explore his inspiring journey as a singer-songwriter. Hailing from the serene and woodsy landscapes of New Hampshire, Malachi shares how his surroundings fuel his creativity and passion for music.
In This Episode:
🏞️ Inspiration from Nature: Malachi talks about the calming influence of New Hampshire’s countryside on his songwriting process.
🎸 Beginning in Music: Learn how Malachi’s musical journey started just four years ago, including his first time singing in front of his family during the pandemic.
🎵 Debut Release: Hear the story behind Malachi’s first song, "Craving Me," and how it marked a pivotal moment in his career.
🎤 Artist Growth: Malachi discusses his transition from covering songs on social media to writing and releasing his own music as a verified artist.
Join us for an insightful conversation about overcoming fear, the joy of creating music, and what it takes to grow as an artist in today’s world.
Connect with Malachi:
Transcript
Rae Leigh: Welcome to A Songwriter Trysts. We've got Malachi Gagnon. Thank you so much for joining me. I like to get, start this podcast by getting you, the artist. Tell us a little bit about who you are and where you come from.
malachi Gagnon: Yeah, I'm from New Hampshire in the United States. It's like one of the smaller states up in the top, right? closer to Boston basically yeah, I grew up here and moved to Florida. I lived there for five years, maybe six. And then moved back here recently. I'm back in New Hampshire now. And I love it. This is my favorite place on earth. It's pretty Yeah, it's pretty cool.
I yeah, it's like woodsy, it's pretty mountainous and lakes and stuff. So it's countryside. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: I'm sure it's very inspirational.
malachi Gagnon: Yeah, it's calming. And you're out in the woods a lot and it's just peaceful. And so you get, good ideas. We'll go out, we have some land and just, we'll be clearing it.
moving some trees and you'll have a song I did. Yeah. I just pick them up and put them somewhere else because they're in the way. But yeah, it's normal. I'll have an idea or something. Just being in nature. It's good for. The soul, the mind, it's peaceful and good for thinking.
So it's a good area to live in, especially in when you're creative. I feel like,
Rae Leigh: yeah, tell me about your musical journey. Where did music start for you? I
malachi Gagnon: started four years ago. I'm just trying to think of the timeline now. Yeah, it's been four years. I started playing guitar then and in July and that same month I sang in front of my family for the first time and another family.
So this is during the pandemic when I was bored.
Rae Leigh: I had never sung
malachi Gagnon: too much extra time. I had never sung in front of anybody. They'd heard me like through the walls when I'm singing in the shower or something, but that's, muffled and I just I just went for it. I sang you are the reason by Caleb Scott and yeah, my family was like, when did this come from?
I was like, I don't know. I just went for it and they were extremely excited and supportive of that. And my dad encouraged me to start like an instagram and the tiktok and just do, covers of, whatever country song that I was listening to. And I did that and it went well.
People really liked hearing me sing, which was cool. And I did that for two years and decided I'm going to make my own I write a good bit, so I'm going to, I'm going to take one of them. I'm going to put them out and I put out my first song and it was probably the coolest thing ever, show up to school then that Friday and everyone's okay, I'm like, yeah, I did it.
I did it, yeah Verified Artist yeah I it's I'm verified,
Rae Leigh: you
malachi Gagnon: should get
Rae Leigh: a, put that on a shirt, verified,
malachi Gagnon: I might, I've been thinking about it yeah, it's been a pretty great journey, I've been doing releasing music for two years now. It's just, it's the best. I love music.
Writing is my favorite thing to do. And making it sound nice is the second. It's, the first
Rae Leigh: How did you choose what to release first and how did that go?
malachi Gagnon: It was like the only one that sounded like a good writing. It sounded like good writing. And so I was like, Hey, I like this one.
So I asked some people around me, like some of my friends and they were like, yeah, that one's really good. You should do it. I'm like, that's what I'm thinking. Yeah I went to a studio in Clearwater. With a guy named Spencer Bradham and it was the first studio. I had a couple of studio visits lined up just to talk to them again.
First two day I visited and I was like, yeah, this is the one we're going to. And I was like, yep. I was like, there's no question about it. And now I've been working with him for two years. A good friend now. And but yeah we just went to town. We made a good demo. Which I, it was such a weird process that I had never.
Even thought of like when you think of making music, I thought, it was completely different. I remember fully what I thought, but I just didn't, I wasn't expecting it to be so like, honestly, tiring, but it takes a lot out of you, but it's so like rewarding and so fun. It, it's called craving me.
It was my first song. It's, uh, it's fun. It's poppy. It's it's the first song for sure. It's, I still look back on it. No, it was just a more of an idea, like a feeling. I wasn't really writing it about anybody, but it was yeah, it's a first song.
That's why, I look back on it fondly and I look at the lyrics and I still think, it's good. The style isn't really where I'm at anymore. But I can still look back at it, see the lyrics, hear the feeling, and know That's where I was at that time. And it's cool to reflect on it.
It's almost like having like home videos, like you can look back on a memory and be like, Oh, I remember that, that feeling or that like moment. Pretty vividly. So I remember like writing it and being like, Oh, I like that. Like that line. I can think back, like sitting outside and being like, Oh, this is the, this is a good line.
This is a cool ride. That's so funny to say like eye candy. And so it was yeah, it's just a, it's like a, what's the way to, what are they called the time capsules where you like you bury it and then you dig it back up a few years later and you look back and you just reminisce.
And so I'll do that sometimes when my friends are like, put it on while I'm standing there. I'm like, let's not bring that back up. Yeah, I was, they, my friends love my first two songs. I'm like, guys, I have eight others out.
Rae Leigh: I'm like, my most
malachi Gagnon: recent one is probably my favorite. And yeah, the psychopath is really good.
Rae Leigh: Very verified. Someone told me that if you don't cringe at where you were, it means you haven't grown.
malachi Gagnon: Yeah, I I removed some old Instagram videos just because I was, 10 at the time,
Rae Leigh: yeah.
malachi Gagnon: All, wait, no.
12? I would've been 12, almost 13. My sister, yeah. Around there.
Yeah, I yeah, I would have been, I would have been 12. So I took some of those down just because they're old covers. And so I'll go back through my like story archives, which I just found on Instagram, which is pretty cool.
malachi Gagnon: So you can go through and see all your old stories and I'll be like, Oh, I remember seeing that. I re I found one of them. It was the first cover I ever did on Instagram. And I remember so vividly locked in on learning this song. It was pretty heart by Parker McCollum. And hearing my voice sing that song is hard to listen to, but, watching, like seeing that and then knowing I had no clue what I was doing then.
And then looking like at it now and knowing so much more about just music, about the guitar, about singing and like vocal techniques. It's just like such a weird, like I criticize myself. I'm like, wait no I'm 12. Yeah, you
Rae Leigh: were 12 and you're 17 now. Like you. gone, you've done so much so quickly.
Did you just go one track mind? This is all I'm doing. Like, how did you achieve so much in such a short period of time?
malachi Gagnon: I I focused on both like growing social media stuff and writing for myself and like releasing songs, but also remembering that it's, this is just what I love doing.
And so if I get too focused on like numbers and stuff, it. Becomes more of like a drive for that. And that's not what I'm about. Like I genuinely just love writing songs. I love listening to music. I like making music. I've released mostly single, I released only singles actually. And that's what I plan to do just for a little bit.
I think my style hasn't really been consistent until now. And so it's like it's grown with me. And I've reached a point where I feel like I'm pretty consistent for the past. for the next few that are coming out this year. And yeah, so I think, yeah, you have to just, it was just growing.
And I made a lot of country music, country pop for the first nine songs. But it fluctuated between more pop or more country or more, Cause why not? And I would, it fluctuated. It'd be up and down different things.
And so now, I've found a linear, these next four songs or the next three are much like, think about me.
And they're very, they're consistent. They're the same vibe, which is good. I'm not, yeah. Switching it up. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Tell me about Think About Me.
malachi Gagnon: Think About Me is like a, be, it's hard to explain it without sounding weird because like it's just what the name of the song is. It's just, You sound
Rae Leigh: mean all the time to most people. Yeah
malachi Gagnon: that's true. I yeah, it's just asking yourself, are they thinking about me too?
Like I'll go, You go somewhere that used to be with that person. And you're thinking like, do they drive by here and think about me too? Cause you were a big part of my life. Was I important to you? And that's a feeling that I felt I know a lot of people have felt that I've talked with people who have, and so it's That's this weird dilemma.
It's they were such a big part of your life and you were a big part of theirs. Did it mean as much to them as it does to you now? So you'll just I'll, drive past a certain road or hear a certain song and I'll just be like, Oh, reminded of that person. And so I wrote it as like a, Yeah.
Just asking that question. Are you thinking about me? I bet. I bet you are. I bet you're thinking about me.
Rae Leigh: There's a strong saying in songwriter world that you can't write until you've had a broken heart.
So was that song about someone in that experience for you?
malachi Gagnon: Not a specific person. I don't really have many songs about a specific person more than it is about a feeling that I know I felt. It's definitely true that you can't write without a broken heart or a good heart, right? And so like a love song which I did write about somebody, there's, there's a couple that are written about people.
And but most of them are just feelings or like ideas. As much as I, I use. I use it as like some authors of books and stuff that are movies, they put themselves as much as themselves as they can into their characters and live out almost like past experiences in the way they could, or they wish they could, or live through a different scenario.
And so that's what I do. I take like pieces of me and write a scenario or a story. I wrote one. Thank you. I, my next song is. relationship for once. So this is good. But the reason to live is yeah, it's it's coming out in September. It's about my friend who took his own life three years ago now.
He, it was just, he was hurting. And so I wrote this as more of a letter almost to him. And if I knew fully what he was going through What I would have said. I came downstairs and I played this song for my parents. And I was like, I think I need to put this out for people. It was supposed to be one of the songs that people never hear.
Yeah, the songs that the states, they sit in your voice notes or your notes app and you just, they don't get touched again. They're just for healing. But I thought about it and I'm like, this could heal more people than just me. If I put it out and so I put it on Instagram I was, I said I wasn't planning on, I'm not planning on releasing it, but I want people to hear it and hear the words that I'm saying and the response to it.
Cause it isn't, it's an encouraging song. It's not really, it's not like a sad, talking about how I feel. It's just encouraging other people who feel The same as my friend, and so I put it out and the response to it was, beautiful. I was, sitting in school, I had teared up reading some of the comments which was embarrassing a little bit, I, it was just such a moving, like they were saying these words were so impactful.
Like you don't even know. And they helped me find closure with my dad or closure with a friend, or they helped me, feel better about who I am. And so I was like, that's. That moved me and people were asking to put it out. And so I decided yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to release this one because I think it could mean more to even to someone else than it does to me.
And like the beautiful thing about music is. I wrote this song that means so, so much to me. It could mean as much or more to someone else. And so if they never heard it, it almost be like an injustice to them, and so I decided yeah, I'm going to put this out and I put a lot of heart into this one.
And being able to put this out next month is special.
Rae Leigh: You have a real gift and obviously a very good heart. And the fact that you're giving it out into the world and letting fear hold you back.
You're only going to be rewarded tenfold. So I'm, I've only just met you, but I'm proud of you for doing that.
malachi Gagnon: Thank you.
Rae Leigh: How do you manage your mental health around that sort of stuff?
malachi Gagnon: Yeah, it's a prevailing thing for anybody who does anything online. It's so it's all criticism at this point. Some, yeah it's scary.
It's dangerous, but if you go into it with the right mindset, I think it's easier to, push through power through it. I got, I get. Hate comments. People, say they sound like a dying cat and I'm like obviously I know I don't so that's good. I just, I keep in mind what Your
Rae Leigh: parents would have told you if
malachi Gagnon: that was the case.
Yeah, they would have tore down the dream pretty quick. I I just, I keep in mind what I know it's true about myself. Who my family knows me as, my friends, God knows me as. I just keep that in mind. Keep that at the center and just remember what these people who don't know me are saying.
It can't there's no way for it to be true. Because, and I look past even that I love doing this. So even if other people don't like that I do it, it's not really an issue to me. I'm happy doing it. So,
Rae Leigh: yeah, I saw a great artist an actor who is doing a real or an interview and they said, if you've got a problem with me, call me.
If you don't have my number, then you probably don't know me well enough with me. I like that. It's great. Tell me some advice that now with all the lessons you've learned over the last four years of recording and releasing your own music, what would you, if you go back in time and talk to 12 year old Malachi, what would you say?
malachi Gagnon: That's a really good question. I don't think I've ever been asked like to give advice to myself I think I just remind him like you just have to you got to work hard That's all you have to do because I have an issue with that I have a little you know, I have a little bit of a lack of effort And so I like I try hard, but sometimes it's just you know, I can't get it But I would remind myself.
I just continue giving it your all and there's no way you can You There's no, you can fail, honestly.
Rae Leigh: I love that.
malachi Gagnon: Yeah. It's, I go golfing which kind of sometimes makes me angry, but yeah I love That's right. That's right. It was probably like an hour ago. Yep, I was there an hour ago. I got here and I was like, I got there and I was like, I have to make sure that I don't miss this interview with golfing.
Don't lose yourself too much. No, that's okay. I love the driving range as
Rae Leigh: well. It's like the best place for me to get out of my rage if I'm angry at something. Yes.
malachi Gagnon: Yeah, of course. I'm going I went golfing I had an eight day streak. I was on it. I love golf. I love golfing. Sometimes it makes me angry.
Oh, yeah, we have we just got one. It's 50 maybe it might be an hour 20 from here. But I like I drive that I would drive that I went with my friends for We did like a birthday party with me and one of my close friends and it's pretty great. I, Tom Clubs are great. It's like super informal and so that's or informal you don't have to, yeah, you don't have to worry about actually golfing.
You just have fun. I do worry about actually golfing, but you don't have to,
Rae Leigh: you don't have to. I don't mind. A good game of golf, but I don't have time to go and do full games very often.
malachi Gagnon: It's tough too, but I, it's like my movie time, and cause I'm usually, driving my brother around cause he doesn't have his license yet.
Or yeah, I yeah, I'm a chauffeur. Or I'm, out doing something where I'm working or I'm writing or I'm doing interviews. And so if I can schedule usually it's it takes two and a half hours to play nine, but I'll find a day where I can get. a five hour break, which is hard, but if I can, I will go golfing and I will, and I taught four of my friends how to play.
So then I'm not alone. And they fell in love. Now we only send each other like golf Tik TOKs, which isn't good, but it's better than most other addictions, so
Rae Leigh: If you could collaborate with anyone in the world dead or alive, who would it be? And why?
malachi Gagnon: I try to keep my answers here consistent. It's just tough. I I think Post Malone is, he's such a, like, he's nuts with his music. I think he's very talented, but to even sit in a room and watch him work would be crazy.
But to do a collaboration with him would be, the coolest thing ever. He's just, he's talented. He, I can tell he just loves music. He he's in the lane. He did a folk song, so I'm right there.
Rae Leigh: What would your song be called? Your. I don't know, I have, Ooh,
malachi Gagnon: alright, yeah Fadeaway, I have a song already coming out like that.
But I think he would, I think he'd fit, I think he'd fit. I don't know, maybe I'd toss it his way. I'd toss it his way, DM
Rae Leigh: him. Yeah,
malachi Gagnon: That'd be pretty cool, that'd be the breakaway, that'd be the hit.
Rae Leigh: Before we finish up, is there anything else you would like to share with people listening in tuning in about songwriting or about your journey?
Awesome. Can't wait to hear the new one. But I'm, yeah, I really like what you've done so far. And I think if you've been consistent and passionate and just doing what you love, you're going to just go far. And I can't wait to hear that collaboration with Post Malone. It's going to be amazing.
malachi Gagnon: That'd be really cool.
I'll let you know if that ever happens.
Rae Leigh: Oh my God, I will be following and I will be tagging him in all your posts and I'll be like, come on, do it
malachi Gagnon: Post Malone, please.
Rae Leigh: Please. All right. Yeah. Thank you so much. I'll talk to you later and I can't wait to show this.
for having me. All right. No, no problem. See ya. Bye. Bye.
