Malachi Greene came up in the Santa Cruz hardcore community playing in such bands as Lead Dream and Jawstruck. I first met him in 2018 when he contributed a cool piece for No Echo about some of the younger bands from that scene.
For the past few years, Malachi's profile rose through his guitar work in Scowl, helping the band rise from Santa Cruz DIY shows to huge festival stages around the world. Since stepping away from Scowl earlier this year, he’s been putting most of his energy into his tattoo work in his adopted hometown of Salt Lake City.
His latest musical project, Skin Show, just dropped their first batch of songs in the form of an EP called Come and See the... Their no-bullshit-style hardcore could have come out today or 1988.
In his first interview since leaving Scowl, Malachi opens up about the transition, the vision behind Skin Show, and how both music and tattooing continue to fuel his artistry.
I know you've been tattooing since parting ways with Scowl. Tell me about that. How long have you been doing it, and do you have a specialty?
I moved out to Salt Lake City with my girlfriend getting closer to two years ago to start tattooing, and when I landed here, it was just kinda like, "alright, let’s do this" since we started a apprenticeship at the same time. So, I’ve been doing it since then. I work at a shop called Lonely Hearts Club tattoo in downtown Salt Lake and I love it. The owner Troy comes from hardcore and everyone here is into punk/hardcore/Oi!
Chuck and Judge (yes he’s named after the band) who I work with play in a sick band called xforeverwarx and it’s cool to be in a place where everyone’s down to play music and vibe with similar stuff. I’m really stoked I landed on my feet out here at a good shop with good people.
We all like American Traditional tattooing and specialize in that, but we can do whatever walks in the door.
You were synonymous with Santa Cruz. It must have been a trip to leave.
I never thought I’d move out of Santa Cruz and miss it everyday, but learning to tattoo here, meeting a lot of good people out here, and being a part of the hardcore scene here has made it feel like home. I’m always back in Santa Cruz and visiting my friends in the Bay. It feels like I have two homes now.
How did Skin Show come to be? Talk to me about your relationship with the other musicians.
Skin Show was just like a concept I had. I was writing a lot of music on my own, and kinda just always write songs on my couch compulsively. I hit up my friend Dirty Mike from Taste of Blood, and Derek who plays in xforever warx and asked if they wanted to do a band with some songs I had written and they were down.
Then, my friend Ian from Mask was down to play guitar when he heard the songs. It just kinda went from there. I wanted to do a band that was just based off all the stuff we liked and that was fun. Who knows where it’ll go, but it'd be fun to do some tours and keep making music our way.
What were some of the influences you discussed in the planning stages of Skin Show?
Bands like The Rival Mob, Negative Approach, Sheer Terror, and Sonic Youth were really what inspired this band.
Tell me about Come and See the... and who you recorded it with. I know Criminalized is handling the release.
Come and See the... I thought was just a funny name for a EP since our name is Skin Show. We recorded the EP with Wes at Archive Recordings in Salt Lake, and it was a lot of fun. Wes is awesome and was down to try whatever we wanted to do. It was really quick it took two days and everything just seemed to flow. I was so stoked on how it came together.
I texted my friend Aldo who runs Criminalized and was like, "hey, I am doing this band if you want to do tapes for it?" and he was just like, "let’s run it." So it was super simple and just cool to do something with a homie.
You just came out of being in a band that did a lot in a relatively short amount of time. How active will Skin Show be?
I told everyone in Skin Show that I’m down to tour and have fun. They seemed to want the same things so I’m stoked. I’m down to see where it takes us. I really want to focus on music, videos, and art with this band. I got some ideas for the future.
The goal is just to write music we like, and hopefully play some fun shows. Would be a lot of fun to do some tours too.
Did you learn any lessons from playing Scowl that showed you that you want to do things a bit differently this time out?
I think what I’ve learned from being in a full-time band is that I gotta pace myself and just do stuff that makes me happy. If you’re in a full-time band, that’s your life. There is nothing besides that and if you try to have a life outside of it then it’s gonna be tough and you’ll feel pulled in two directions.
It came to a point where I was skipping tours a lot being caught between touring and learning how to tattoo. Scowl is a full-time touring band so it made sense to part ways, and honestly I’m stoked to see what they do next.
I love everyone in Scowl, and to be honest, they are tanks for touring how they do. I’m just stoked to tattoo and make music in a way that makes more sense for me. I don’t ever plan on stoping. I wouldn’t do anything different with that band, because we did such cool shit together except maybe take care of my health. I was kinda fried toward the end of my time with them. My back was torched. I could barely walk at one point and my mind was a mess. I had to take care of my health and I should have taken care of it years ago. Stepping away and finding a balance made it so I could enjoy playing music again. I’m happy to be healthier these days and taking care of myself. Now I can focus on doing cool stuff with music, art, and video stuff.
But that being said, I got more gas in the tank and I don’t plan on stopping making music and I like being on the road when I can do it. Nothing beats a gas station bathroom, a random knick knack I find there I can play with in the van most likely annoy everyone but me with it, [laughs] and a burrito that most likely will make me almost shit my pants right before we have to play.
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Skin Show on social media: Instagram
Malachi Greene's tattoo page: Instagram
