In April 2025, Malcolm Todd opened his self-titled debut album with the track ‘Harry Styles’, in which he so bravely bled: “I wasn’t picked for Flog Gnaw / I should have been there / But I don’t gotta be mad ’cause next year I’ll play at a better time of day.” Fast forward to November, and Malcolm Todd played a 7 PM slot at that very festival to a massive sea of electrified fans, proving he’s always known exactly where he was supposed to be.
Garnering over 11 million monthly Spotify listeners, the LA native has become one of the most enticing names in indie pop. With the inescapable ‘Chest Pain (I Love)’ marking his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, he’s taken his viral momentum and molded it into a career of promising longevity. Yet, even amid the frenzy that surrounds his name, he remains humble and wholesome. Just a boy as much as he is a musician, Todd is simply happy to be here, and it only makes it easier to root for him.
Clash got a quick chance to catch Todd moments before his Camp Flog Gnaw set, in which he successfully solidified his graduation from rising act to a fully realised star.
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You’re so young, yet your sound is so completely wisened. What kind of music did your parents put you onto that informed your love for music?
MT: My dad played a lot of Grateful Dead. A lot of folk music like James Taylor, Paul Simon, and Jack Johnson, singer-songwriter stuff. And then my mom was into The Beatles, a lot of musical theater, like Into the Woods and Wicked. Cool stuff too, like Stevie Wonder, and my dad loved Bob Marley, too. Just a very wide variety of classic music.
Are you still a Wicked girl?
MT: I’m a huge Wicked girl. I went to see it on Broadway, I took my sister. I love it.
Broadway and Bob Marley is a far stretch, does that inform why you feel so musically unbound?
Yeah! I just love music. I try to not let there be a box, I try to let music be one big thing.
How were you discovering music, did you participate in the blog era at all?
No, I actually discovered music through YouTube a lot. That was kind of my thing. I didn’t have a lot of social media growing up, I didn’t have TikTok until I started putting music out, which was when I was like 18 or 19. So my music discovery was through YouTube videos. I discovered Rex Orange County and Omar Apollo through their music videos.
Which is crazy because you just got to work with Apollo on ‘Bleed’. How does it feel to have people you were once inspired by now be your peers?
It’s super cool. I’ll think about it here and there, like in the shower or something, and I’ll be like “Wow.” But in the moment, it’s like everyone’s just a person. They are people I look up to but they’re just people like me, so it’s just cool to be around them.
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You’ve been baby-girled by the internet, everyone feels like you’re Princess Diana. Does it impact the way that you create music, thinking about the way people may be consuming you?
I try to put it away. I think I got where I am just with my music and at the end of the day, I’m a musician. That is the part I really have to think about. Everything else having to do with myself or my personality is just me putting one foot in front of the other. I just try to focus on the music and remember that that’s what people really fall in love with, the music.
It’s crucial to note that we’re at Camp Flog Gnaw right now, a festival you once very boldly proclaimed disappointment in not getting picked for. Was there a vulnerability you had to push to even speak to that feeling?
I think that’s what music is, being vulnerable. I try to write my music in real time. So on that day, that was my thought. And I just said, “Well, if this is what I’m thinking, I should say it out loud. That is my job.”
And now you’re here, how does it feel? Are you gagged?
It feels so good. I’m gagged. It’s definitely the music festival I am most connected to because of the music and me being from LA. I’ve always wanted to be here. Now that I’m here, it feels so cool. I’m really excited for Tyler’s set, I think it’s such a legendary thing to see him at his own festival. The enthusiasm for him is so inspiring. I’m excited to be in that energy, it’s like seeing The Era’s Tour if you’re a Taylor Swift fan. The hype is so real, so being around that energy is really inspiring.
Speaking of that, last question: what is your favorite Tyler project and why?
It has to be ‘Flower Boy’. I think the answer to that question depends on whichever formative years you found whichever album, he has one for every high school class of whatever. I think it was eighth going into ninth grade that I found ‘Flower Boy’. That’s such an unmistakable time, 14 and 15. Those are years your soul takes shape and that’s what was what I was listening to then.
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Words: Jazmin Kylene
Photo Credit: Aidan Cullen
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