CHARITABLE MALPRACTICE
First NPZ interview with MALPRACTICE
NPZ #2 — DECEMBER 2024 — PAGE 4
Hey, I’m Max the frontman of the band. I do guitar and voice for the band. Currently live in San Ramon, near Dublin and Pleasanton for those that do not know. For a year or so Fairfield was my home though. It’s kind of tricky answering how longs the band been a thing depending on how you gauge what a “band” is really. The idea of Malpractice started off in 2020 when Tasker, myself, Harley from Jellyfish Method, and a good friend named Andy Thanos got together for one jam during peak Covid time. Nothing came of it, so I kept writing a lot of the first batch of songs in my bedroom alone for a year until I hit up Tasker again a year later to try the band again. You can say this is when the band started when the two of us just started kicking it all of spring and summer of 2021 and then around the same time in August/September Axel and Isaac came into the picture through recommendation both in and outside the band.
Yo, what's up ? My name's Axel, and i play drums for MALPRACTICE. I joined MALPRACTICE almost 2 years ago now, heard Word of a band in nedd of a drummer from a hometown homie in Fairfield. At the time, I was planning on getting some folks together myself, so that just worked out perfectly.
TELL ME MORE ABOUT GIVE BACK FEST!
(AXEL) Give back fest was an Idea I had a while ago it's not an original ofc. They have for the children fest and many others. I just noticed no one partook in those events around the bay, so I made my own. Especially when folks come and trash the place up, it's best to give back.. hence Give back fest . hopefully, it will be a yearly thing. wanna try and get a toy drive and many other things to help the cities we play in.
But for this being the first year it went amazing! We made about 600 dollars with both cash donations and door sales !, all went into buying warm blankets and hygiene products to pass out . We passed out everything on 12/7 with @west.oakland.punks.with.lunch
I’M NEW TO THE SCENE HERE, IS IT PRETTY COMMON FOR PUNK AND METAL BANDS TO BE ON THE SAME TICKET? ALSO DO METAL BANDS AROUND HERE DO CHARITY EVENTS LIKE THIS OFTEN? I FEEL LIKE YOU HEAR ABOUT MUTUAL AID CAUSES FROM PUNKS MORE OFTEN THAN METALHEADS, BUT OF COURSE CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG.
(MAX) There’s all types of bills in the Bay Area music scene. The Bay Area has multiple bubbles of scenes so it really varies from city to city. Some people stick to their own genre and don’t want outsiders, others genuinely don’t give a fuck as long as it’s good. For the East Bay, Penninsula, and South Bay though I would definitely say this is the prime time to be doing this. The 2010s were a pretty dark time out here unless you were in the North Bay. Specifically Sonoma County. I (Max) got my start in that scene right before Covid through bands like Sporadix, Trecelence, Plague, Incredulous, Violent Legacy. A lot of kids new to the scene probably don’t even know these names, but these bands were the shit at the time. Only thrash, death metal, and punk up there.
Covid made a drastic shift in what’s in with the Bay so a lot of these bands faded out or just became way less active. As far as I know the charities done around the Bay Area are definitely dominated by punk and hardcore bands. Can’t really think of any bands in the metal realm doing this off the top of my head.
ANYTHING ELSE TO ADD?
We’ll have something special out next year for those that are patient enough to wait and that are genuine fans of our shit. Currently we’ve had at least one release a year since 2022 and don’t intend on breaking the streak anytime soon. So be on the look out for that!
Photos: header and bottom right pics courtesy of MALPRACTICE, others by me (shaun); AXEL on far left, MAX on far right
