Two Feet Tall

"If you had an EP, CIAO MALZ would listen."

Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist CIAO MALZ (Malia DelaCruz) has announced her debut EP, 'Safe Then Sorry,' to be released via Audio Antihero Records (Frog / Magana / Nosferatu D2 / Cloud) on December 6th. It will be preceded by the free/pay-what-you-want Two Feet Tall single on November 15th. Her music first reached the Audio Antihero label when she issued a cover of Frog's You Know I'm Down sleeper hit in 2023, and the label then offered to work with her on this debut.

Inspired by artists like Elliott Smith, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Men I Trust, she combines witty introspection, informed by her experience as a young woman of color, with a layered musical bounce. While her self-released demos earned supporters at NPR: WFUV, Loud Women, and others, this is her most mature, eclectic, and complete work to date.

'Safe Then Sorry'ranges from the breakneck Indie Rock frustration of Two Feet Tall ("Drinking all the milk and missing all the three-pointers / Think about it still, find new ways to disappoint her") to Alt. Country on Bad for the Bad Guy ("I feel like Mary Shelley in 1818 / Getting bored and do something extraordinary / Strike the pen to the paper, making sense of it later") and aching Folk Pop for Take Me Out of Here, ("Occasionally my patience leaves the room / Here comes that busted attitude / That I can't stand how the sky's blue / But what I would do, to give it to you") andGold Rush("Got no temptation, to sit around have the same conversation / Going in circles, going berserk / There's nothing that I have not heard").

In addition to numerous other collaborations at her Lower East Side studio, Malia DelaCruz has also been seen playing bass for the acclaimed Sister. group (with Hannah Pruzinsky, Ceci Sturman, and James Chrisman) since 2023.

Artist Quote – 'Safe Then Sorry' EP:

"Two Feet Tall is about the feeling of losing an inch every day you put off making that call you really need to make. It's the pile of clothes growing bigger and feeling yourself getting smaller. Regardless of the overcompensation, the mountains to hide behind — that unsettling feeling persists. I wanted to evoke the feeling of stagnation while everything else is in motion, so the lead on this track quivers in front of the persistent drums that push the scene along." – Malia DelaCruz (CIAO MALZ)