CIAO MALZ releases single "Two Feet Tall"

Brooklyn-based Filipino-American Indie artist CIAO MALZ (Malia DelaCruz) has just released her warped, glistening, and surfy “Two Feet Tall” single. The song is taken from her December 6th debut EP, ‘Safe Then Sorry,’ which will be released via the non-binary-owned Audio Antihero Records (Frog / Magana / Nosferatu D2 / Cloud).

Originally from Connecticut, DelaCruz relocated to New York to attend St. John’s University in Queens, and she soon rented a studio space in the Lower East Side. Here she began experimenting with her sound, while also collaborating and performing with Brooklyn’s acclaimed Sister. trio, but it wasn’t until 2021 that she felt ready to begin self-releasing her own recordings under the CIAO MALZ name (pronounced "Chow MaaaahhhLz").

Her music first reached the Audio Antihero label when she issued a cover of Frog’s “You Know I’m Down” sleeper hit in 2023. Impressed with demo material like “Your Winner,” “Always Be My Maybe,” and “Circumstancey,” the label offered to work with her on this debut.

On ‘Safe Then Sorry,’ her most eclectic, complete, and unrestrained work to date, CIAO MALZ takes inspiration from Jordana, Elliott Smith, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Men I Trust to combine an honest introspection, that’s informed by her experience as a young woman of color, with a layered sonic bounce.

“Two Feet Tall is about the feeling of losing an inch every day you put off making that call you really need to make. It’s the pile of clothes growing bigger and feeling yourself getting smaller. Regardless of the overcompensation, the mountains to hide behind — that unsettling feeling persists. I wanted to evoke the feeling of stagnation while everything else is in motion, so the lead on this track quivers in front of the persistent drums that push the scene along.” – Malia DelaCruz (CIAO MALZ)