CIAO MALZ is a

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

-based indie rock project by

Filipino American Filipino Americans () are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos in North America were first documented in the 16th century and other small settlements beginning in the 18th century. Mass migration did not begin until after the end of the Sp ...

multi-instrumentalist Malia DelaCruz, in collaboration with James Chrisman of Sister. and

Felix Walworth Florist is an American indie folk band from Brooklyn, New York. History Sprague met Spataro and Baker while living in Albany, New York. Sprague and Walworth are together a part of Told Slant, a predecessor band formed at Bard College in 2011 ...

Florist Floristry is the production, commerce, and trade in flowers. It encompasses flower care and handling, floral design and arrangement, merchandising, production, display and flower delivery. Wholesale florists sell bulk flowers and related s ...

and Told Slant. She is currently signed to

Audio Antihero Audio Antihero is an independent record label founded in October 2009 with a South East London base, now located in New York. They have been the subject of several radio BBC, PRI and international radio stories. The label has released titles f ...

Early life

Malia DelaCruz was born and raised in

Waterford, Connecticut Waterford is a town in New London County, Connecticut, New London County, Connecticut, United States. It is named after Waterford, Ireland. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Southeastern Connecticut ...

. She relocated to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 2014 to attend St. John's University in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

Music career

DelaCruz started out in music collaborating with h. pruz, James Chrisman and Ceci Sturman, before eventually joining them as Sister.'s live bassist. She began writing their songs under the CIAO MALZ name in 2020, and played her first shows that year. She issued her first single, ''Always Be My Maybe'' on May 28, 2021, and the song was played by

WFUV WFUV (90.7 FM) is a non–commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned by Fordham University, with studios on its Bronx campus and its antenna atop the nearby Montefiore Medical Center. WFUV first went on the ...

when CIAO MALZ was featured as that day's ''NY Slice'' artist. DelaCruz continued to self-release new material, issuing ''Tracks,'' ''Circumstancey,'' ''To Go,'' ''Same Thing,'' and ''Pearl'' between 2021 and 2023. In August 2023, DelaCruz recorded a cover of Frog's ''You Know I’m Down,'' which reached Frog's label,

. The label then offered to work with CIAO MALZ on the next EP. On November 15, 2024, CIAO MALZ released the ''Two Feet Tall'' single via Audio Antihero. The song received

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

airplay from Deb Grant and

Tom Ravenscroft Thomas James Dalglish Ravenscroft (born 6 February 1980) is a British radio presenter and disc jockey. He previously hosted a BBC Radio 6 Music show featuring new and unsigned music. He is the son of the late DJ John Peel. Career Working initi ...

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

, and

Roddy Hart Roderick John Hart (born 16 July 1979) is a Scottish singer–songwriter, composer and broadcaster from Glasgow. As a solo artist, he has released three records – ''Bookmarks'', ''Sign Language'' and ''Road of Bones'' – and one EP, ''The Dy ...

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 N ...

, in addition to national airplay in Europe from

Robert Rotifer The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

of FM4 and Maria Markouli of

Kosmos 93.6 Kosmos Radio () or Kosmos 93.6 & 107.0, is a public radio channel of Greece's public broadcaster, ERT, the most popular among its radio stations. The program consists of world music, jazz, folk, reggae, latin idioms, hip-hop, afro and alternativ ...

. US stations like

KEXP KEXP-FM (90.3 FM broadcasting, FM) is a non-commercial Radio broadcasting, radio station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in indie music programmed by its disc jockeys. KEXP's studios are located at the Seattle Cent ...

KZSC KZSC (88.1 FM) is a college radio station broadcasting from the campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, California. It is a student run, community, non-commercial college radio station that serves as a training ground fo ...

WMRE WMRE (1550 kHz) is a commercial AM sports radio formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Charles Town, West Virginia, serving Charles Town and Jefferson County, West Virginia. WMRE is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. While the station i ...

, and

WMFO WMFO (91.5 FM) is a freeform radio station licensed to Medford, Massachusetts. The station is owned by Tufts University and is run by students and community members. WMFO is funded by the Tufts Student Activities Fee as allocated by the TCU Sen ...

also supported the single, in addition to international stations like

Resonance FM Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station specialising in the arts run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC). The station is staffed by two permanent staff members, including Chief Executive Officer Peter Lance ...

, Canal Extremadura, and Apaçik Radyo. The single also found support on

internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

stations

Dandelion Radio Dandelion Radio is an internet radio station founded in June 2006 with the aim of pursuing the musical legacy of the popular and influential BBC Radio 1 disc jockey John Peel. The station takes its name from the record label Dandelion Records foun ...

and

Amazing Radio Amazing Radio is an international radio station first broadcast originally on digital radio in the United Kingdom. The station plays new music from a number of music genres including pop music, pop, rock music, rock, Independent music, indie, ...

, where it was added to the US C-List, the Outré Indie (Pt.7) playlist, and placed in the station's charts. On the single's release date, CIAO MALZ was featured by WFUV as their ''NY Slice'' artist for the second time. ''Two Feet Tall'' premiered on

God Is In The TV ''God Is in the TV'' is an independent music and culture online magazine founded by editor Bill Cummings in Cardiff in 2003. It publishes independent music reviews, features, interviews, podcasts and media. The webzine's coverage varies from uns ...

and received positive reviews from Indie Shuffle,

Muso's Guide ''Musos' Guide'' or ''musosguide'' is a UK-based online webzine. It was launched in 2003, and has been re-launched four times. It is an editorially independent magazine. History ''Muso's Guide'' was first launched on 30 June 2003 by then-amateur j ...

, Various Small Flames, and numerous others. The single was also included in Best of the Month lists from Grimy Goods, Mindies, and Vanyaland. The ''Safe Then Sorry'' EP followed ''Two Feet Tall'' on December 6, 2024, after premiering with Under the Radar the day prior. The EP was added to rotation by KEXP and received further BBC support on the

Radcliffe & Maconie ''Radcliffe & Maconie'' is a weekend radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music in the United Kingdom and via the internet. It runs from 8-10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and is presented by Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie. The show origi ...

show. The EP received additional airplay from stations like

WMBR WMBR is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's student-run college radio station, licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and broadcasting on 88.1 FM. It is all-volunteer and funded by listener donations and MIT funds. Both students and commu ...

WRUV WRUV (90.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a free format radio station. Licensed to Burlington, Vermont, United States, the station is owned by The University of Vermont. History WRUV is the radio voice of the University of Vermont. It is a non-profit ...

, WSUM, Radio Boise, and

. The WMFO support included ''Two Feet Tall'' being included in the Tardis Jukebox ''Best of 2024'' show on January 1 2025. The EP was praised in reviews and features from

KLOF Magazine ''KLOF Magazine'' is an independent online music and culture magazine launched in 2004 by Alex Gallacher. Content ''KLOF Magazine'' primarily features writings on music as well as interviews with a wide range of notable artists and musicia ...

, The Alternative, God Is In The TV, Post-Trash, and Atwood Magazine, among others. With the EP's release, CIAO MALZ also reached No.1 in both the ''Popular Now'' and ''Most Posted Artists'' charts on the

Hype Machine Hype Machine is a music blog aggregator created by Anthony Volodkin. History Hype Machine was originally a music database created in 2005 by Anthony Volodkin, then a sophomore computer science major at Hunter College.Heilemann, JohCapturing the ...

blog aggregator. In January 2025, the ''Safe Then Sorry'' EP entered the North American College and Community Radio Charts. It first reached #7 in the 'Adds' chart before entering the NACC 200 at #81 on January 21, and rising to #54 the following week. Other chart placements in this period included WMSE, 90.3 The Core, WVUA, CHIRP Radio,

UMFM CJUM-FM (101.5 FM, ''UMFM'') is a volunteer-driven campus radio station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, based at the University of Manitoba and transmits with 1,200 watts from an antenna located at Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg. History ...

and

CJSR CJSR-FM (''CJSR FM 88'') is a Canadian campus-based community radio station, broadcasting at 88.5 FM in Edmonton, Alberta. The CJSR studios are located in the Students' Union Building of the University of Alberta, while its transmitter is locat ...

. Early 2025 also saw CIAO MALZ record radio sessions and interviews for

East Village Radio East Village Radio (EVR), begun in August 2003, is an Internet radio station which broadcasts from a storefront studio in the East Village of Manhattan. Originally a pirate radio station broadcasting at 88.1 MHz, the station shut down on ...

, Brainrot Radio, BBF FM, and receive airplay from WNYU, WKDU,

KXLU KXLU (88.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting out of Loyola Marymount University in southwest Los Angeles, California. It was first on the air in 1957, and in 2007, celebrated its 50th anniversary. It is a non-commercial college radio statio ...

, and KRUI. On February 1, CIAO MALZ collaborated with

Jack Hayter Jack Hayter is a British musician. He is best known as a multi instrumentalist with Hefner but is also an acclaimed folk singer-songwriter in his own right."", PLAYBACK:stl, 6 December 2005, retrieved 2011-07-06 Hayter also played with alt-co ...

on a radio session for WVKR's "THE EXEC SHOW," which aired as part of an artist profile broadcast, which played songs from her back catalogue. That same month, CIAO MALZ's Audio Antihero label-mate

Avery Friedman Avery Friedman is a Brooklyn-based musician and singer-songwriter from Cleveland, Ohio. Her lineup includes James Chrisman (Sister. / CIAO MALZ) and Felix Walworth (Florist / Told Slant). She released her debut album 'New Thing' via Audio Anti ...

announced her debut album ''New Thing,'' for an April 18 release. DelaCruz was credited with additional recording, and the album features CIAO MALZ's Walworth and Chrisman. In March, WFUV published an "NY Slice" session with CIAO MALZ, and she released a cover of "Clementine" by

Elliott Smith Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known as Elliott Smith, was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon, whe ...

, which was played on BBC Radio Scotland by Roddy Hart.

Discography

EPs

*''To Go'' (CIAOMONEY RECORDS, 2022) *''Safe Then Sorry'' (

, 2024)

Singles

*''Always Be My Maybe'' (CIAOMONEY RECORDS, 2021) *''Tracks'' (CIAOMONEY RECORDS, 2021) *''Circumstancey'' (CIAOMONEY RECORDS, 2022) *''Same Thing'' (CIAOMONEY RECORDS, 2023) *''Pearl'' (CIAOMONEY RECORDS, 2023) *''Two Feet Tall'' (

, 2024)

Other Credits

*Various Artists - ''For Palestine'' (GUNK, 2023) - Bass on "Gorilla vs. Cold Water (live)" by Sister. *

- ''Flowers Fell - Single'' (Self-Release, 2024 /

, 2025) - Additional Recording *Avery Friedman - ''Photo Booth - Single'' (Audio Antihero, 2025) - Additional Recording *Avery Friedman - ''New Thing - Single'' (Audio Antihero, 2025) - Additional Recording *Avery Friedman - ''New Thing - Album'' (Audio Antihero, 2025) - Additional Recording

References

External links

CIAO MALZ Bandcamp Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:DelaCruz, Malia American singer-songwriters Musical groups from Connecticut Living people St. John's University (New York City) alumni Female-fronted musical groups American all-female bands