Mali’s ‘Walk Away’ Gets Immersive Studio Treatment

When Mumbai-based singer-songwriter Maalavika Manoj aka Mali released a live version of her song “Walk Away” on her YouTube channel in 2017 from the erstwhile Cotton Press Studio, her intention was to send the clip to promoters to snag gigs. However, that video has since amassed over 65,000 views on YouTube and Mali says, “I didn’t realize it would become a release of its own.”

Although “Walk Away” dates back almost a decade ago, Mali doesn’t quite remember when she exactly wrote it. She says, “I do remember feeling a new sense of independence after I went solo [as an artist] and my best friend going through a long, arduous breakup at around the same time. I think it came from a place of finding strength and resolve to move on from something.” The singer adds, “The first time I performed it was at a family gathering and it instantly became their favorite song of mine, and it still remains one of their favorites.”

As Mali began performing the song more often at various gigs as well as on other YouTube channels, “Walk Away” ended up gaining a life of its own without there being an official audio version of the track out for the longest time. That’s all changed now with Mali putting out a studio recording recently.

On why she finally decided to get down to releasing “Walk Away,” Mali says, “I wanted to release this song before I started losing a connection with how I felt when I wrote it. At every point, I was more excited about releasing the newer ones because they were fresh and more relatable to what I most recently experienced and ‘Walk Away’ got left in the bottom of that pile.” The musician adds, “I put out a poll asking fans what songs I should be playing for Lollapalooza and I didn’t even include ‘Walk Away’ on that poll, but I had an overwhelming number of people DM me requesting that I not leave it out of the set. I started to see just how popular the song was with my fans, and so this release is for them.”

“Walk Away” opens with rustic acoustic guitars before a hypnotic groove, immersive production as well as Mali’s airy and mellifluous vocals carry the song. Apart from Mali, the song features guitarist Jishnu ‘Short Round’ Guha, bassist Stuart DaCosta (from rock outfit The Yellow Diary) and backing vocals from singers Aria Nanji and Mallika Barot. The track has been produced by Mumbai’s Island City Studios’ drummer-producer Jehangir Jehangir.

The song has also been heavily covered by other musicians through the years. Mali says, “People have made full-on live performance videos and music videos of it before I had the chance to release it on streaming platforms.” She adds, “It just goes to show that the connection one forms with a song has little to do with how big a deal you make of the release or promotion of it.”

“Walk Away” follows the melancholic “Ashes” which was released at the end of 2022. “The thought that I’m releasing two breakup songs consecutively has crossed my mind, although they were from completely different phases in my life,” says Mali. In between these two releases Mali has been focusing on refining her live set with her band. On what’s next, she says, “I’ve got some collaborations in the pipeline.”

Watch the music video for “Walk Away” below and stream the song on other platforms.