The amazing and ever-so-funny Mal Webb summed himself up beautifully by interupting our interview in the first 10 seconds, yelling, “I LOVE TRAINS!” in response to the “choo” of the QMF festival train. By far the most eccentric musician we interviewed over the weekend, Mal Webb has had a fascinating and varied career.
Playing drums at the age of four, he quickly developed into a song writer by his ninth birthday. A man of many talents, Mal had the crowd in awe as he played the guitar, trombone, slide trumpet, mbira, singing, beatboxing, and some other tricks I’ll leave as a surprise. He’s played in 13 bands, including an imaginary band with his brother called “Spider”. He also got the job writing, playing, singing and recording the music for the ABC TV and Working Title co-production, “The Adventures of Lano and Woodley”.
Although he’d rather not be known as a “comedian”, his act is a balance of amazing musicanship and hilarious gimmicks, including naming ever single African country in a pun, using his face as a map.
Not so surprising was the fact that Mal’s vocal interests were both inspired and driven in part by Bobby McFerrin (Of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” fame). Mal’s range is incredible, spanning so many octaves I gave up counting. Over the years he has learned to hone his vocals, now perfectly pulling off “sideways yodelling”, as well as marvelous loop-station creations.
The act was definitely an act for all ages, singing an ode to his bike entitled “My Pack Rack” in 5 languages, beatboxing and then getting members from the crowd to join him in a spontaneous and thrilling session of interpretive dance.
I know I’ve never rated anyone before so you have nothing to compare this to, but I give it a big 4.87 out of 5!
Mal Webb does workshops teaching to beatbox, sideways yodel etc. and you can find those on YouTube by searching “Mal Webb”, including a video of him singing with a small camera watching his voice box as he sings.
Mal Webb
Vue Grand Hotel @ QMF
Saturday 28th November
6.30-7.15pm
on Dec 10th, 2009 at 9:04 am
hes amazing!! can you post the youtube clip here so we don’t have to search it? love your work : )