Hailing from Brooklyn Ciao Malz is the moniker of Malia DelaCruz, a multi-instrumentalist, best known until now as the bass player in Sister. After spending a lot of time working on other people’s records at her Lower East Side studio, Malia recently teamed up with Audio Antihero, to release her brilliant debut EP, Safe Then Sorry.

Across just four tracks, Ciao Malz dips her toe into everything from the sprightly jangling charms of Two Feet Tall to the swooning Angel Olsen-like alt-country of Bad for the Bad Guy and the luxurious swirling bedroom folk of Gold Rush that has all the glamour of Basia Bulat or Natalie Prass. All this musical variety is underpinned by Malia’s introspective witticisms as she seeks to share her experiences as a young woman of colour in America in this age of insecurity, whether dissecting struggling relationships, laying out her obsessions or celebrating female creativity, with a particularly charming nod to Mary Shelley, “getting bored and do something extraordinary, strike the pen to the paper, making sense of it later”.

Celebrating Safe Then Sorry’s triumphant release, today Malia sketches her vision of a perfect Christmas through the medium of music that takes in everything from Sad Acoustic songs to jig along to through to songs that remind her of one of my own personal Christmas Eve institutions, watching It’s A Wonderful Life.

Section 1 – Sad Acoustic Jigs

Phoebe Bridgers – So Much Wine

If a sad person brings out an acoustic guitar at a Christmas party, I’d want to hear these songs. Starting with so much wine, it’s so Phoebe Bridgers. Phoebe as the original let-me-tell-you-exactly-what-I’m-seeing type songwriter takes a deep dive into a melancholic alcoholic Christmas. Instrumentally it does not stray far from the Phoebe sound-scape, maybe just a bit chillier than normal.

Dave Matthews Band – Christmas Song

Christmas Song by Dave Matthews band is a rather serious song for DMB Christmas time. Incredibly depictive, loving, and accurate? It’s basically the story of Jesus’ birth and it’s beautiful. It’s eight minutes long, lending itself to be a potential easter song. Technically, the Christmas part is only about five minutes long. The rest goes back into a DMBBAU ‘Dave Matthews band business as usual’.

Section 2- Christmas Heaters

Kelly Finnigan – Waiting On The Big Man

The intro to Waiting on The Big Man hits like a wave of heat, crashing straight into the soul. It has a groove that’s both fresh and comfortingly familiar for a Christmas song. It feels like the band momentarily forgot it was a holiday tune, making it personal, only to bring it back to the season’s spirit. And honestly, isn’t that what Christmas is about—balancing your own struggles with the festive chaos?

Otis Redding – Merry Christmas Baby (Alternative Mix)

I love this alternative version because Otis Redding sounds a bit stressed—and honestly, let’s normalize being a little mad and stressed at Christmas! The real magic happens at the end, where his energy peaks. You can tell he kept going long after the track fades out.

Section 3 – Old Faithfuls

Vince Guaraldi Trio – O Tannenbaum

What would Christmas be without the CLASSICS? The Charlie Brown Christmas album will never get old, no one comes close to what the Vince trio did on that thing. To this day, the muscle memory of O Tannenbaum comes out whenever I’m lucky enough to be at a grand piano.

Brenda Lee – Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree

Brenda Lee was rockin’ around that thing, giving it her all. The guitar tone was created by Santa’s coolest elf (probably). It’s so fun, I’m dancing around like the mannequins and cardboard cutouts at the home-alone house.

Section 4 – It’s A Wonderful Life Core

Frog – Wish Upon A Bar

Wow, how I love Wish Upon a Bar. When I think of the bar, I picture the one in It’s a Wonderful Life, the good one, not the one run by the evil Nick. Wishing upon a bar is not that different from wishing you were never born, as the movie depicts. This song reminds me of another favorite of mine, Clementine by Elliott Smith. Similarly wrapped in a warm, saturated blanket, I find myself returning to this song year-round. Its warmth feels like having one too many drinks, like riding across the bridge so late at night that there’s no traffic. The zinger last line always gets me, ‘I Wish upon a bar, you’ll come back to New York’

Nosferatu D2 – It’s Christmas Time (For God’s Sake)

I’m not sure how Audio Antihero manages to find it. Another raw and realistic Christmas jingle cries out, “I just can’t get through this time of year without you.” The powerful, unjolly misery carries through the rest of the song. It reminds me of that scene in It’s a Wonderful Life where the main character comes home and, overwhelmed, smashes the model ship, bringing his children to tears.

Safe Then Sorry is out now via Audio Antihero. For more information on Ciao Malz visit https://linktr.ee/ciaomalz.