For Immediate Release:

Plug Research Presents
Adult Karate’s Sophomore Album
My Friends Are Internet And I Want To Break You Open
Genres Spanning New Wave, Electronic and Indie/Dream Pop
Set for Release on July 31, 2020
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Two Advance Singles out June 26 & July 17

LOS ANGELES, CA—June 24, 2020—Adult Karate (the musical moniker for versatile artist K.C. Maloney) is poised to release his second album, My Friends Are Internet And I Want To Break You Open, on July 31, 2020, on tastemaker label Plug Research. More than a year and a half in the making, this new album is a true expression of the artist’s musical evolution, a culmination of both his personal life journey and the integration of his various musical influences. This dynamic, boundary-crossing release defies genre pigeonholing and seamlessly glides between musical styles while Maloney’s candid, sometimes confessional lyrics and reverbed-out vocals hold the whole picture together. Two singles will precede the album release: “Euphoria” will be available on June 26, and expect “Keep Your Love” on July 17, 2020. For more information, please visit https://www.adultkaratemusic.com.

My Friends Are Internet… is Adult Karate’s most wide-ranging effort to date, adeptly mixing and crossing over genres from acid house to disco to indie rock, all the while maintaining the kind of tender introspection that lies at the heart of Maloney’s music. Listening to the album, you get the sense that Maloney has hit his stride after working through a troubled past marked by addiction and issues around sexuality and identity—that there has in fact been a kind of trial by musical fire that’s both inspired and fed the artist’s journey through these personal issues/demons. One might interpret Maloney’s musical growth from the first Adult Karate release LXII, which the artist has said was “mostly an excursion into dark electronic music and slowed-down deep house” to the genre-bending ride that is My Friends Are Internet… as the artist’s finding more confident musical footing and integrating all the various aspects of his musical personality into one enthralling whole. The result is a powerhouse of an album—catchy, haunting, introspective, celebratory.

Lead Single “Euphoria” out June 26

Adult Karate’s first single, “Euphoria,” which comes out this Friday, June 26, is, according to Maloney himself, “by far the poppiest-sounding music I’ve ever written.” Indeed, its four-on-the-floor drumbeat and catchy, Interpol-esque guitar hook recalls the best indie rock of the aughts more than the dark electronic roots where Adult Karate began, but Maloney’s plaintive lyrics and strong vocal performances, along with the crescendo-ing, electronic-leaning choruses, make this one of his crossover-genre masterpieces. “Euphoria” lyrically mines the process of forgetting an ex, a familiar yet timeless subject that Maloney describes poignantly: “It’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s necessary.” It’s a song for shoegazing as much as it is for taking a long, breezy drive with the top down—there’s something in it for fans of genres spanning electronic, dance and rock.
Stream the track here.

Second Single “Keep Your Love” out July 17

The second single off of All My Friends Are Internet… was born from an idea Maloney originally worked on for his second EP, Indoors. What started out as more of a deep house track grew into more of a “dark disco kind of thing,” with an infectious groove built from live drums and looped guitars layered in lockstep. Outgrowing the house beat and moving toward the organic drum track changed the feel of the song completely, and opened the door for one of the strongest vocal performances on the album. On the lyrics to “Keep Your Love,” Maloney says, “It’s about the passage of time and how unforgiving it can be. Fear of aging and all that. Partly inspired by some health issues I’ve been going through the past few years.”
Stream the track here.

ABOUT THE ALBUM:

All My Friends Are Internet… starts off with “Prelude,” an ‘80s-tinged, one-minute-long orchestral synth piece that begs the question “Hey now, where you goin’ / with your tears a-flowin’?” We immediately know that we are being hypnotized and guided into the richly textured, melancholic musical world of Adult Karate. We later hear the same lyric in its true context, in the chorus of lead single “Euphoria.”

As the album unfolds, each track reveals a new facet of Maloney’s musical and personal sensibility, the whole oeuvre wrapped in layered, mesmerizing vocals and beautifully arranged synths, guitars, blips and beats (most of the time). “We’re Friends”—not one of the singles, although it certainly could be—is a churning, danceable track with a poppy, soaring chorus that just begs to be placed in a Netflix series. In stark contrast, the dirgy, drumless “Epitaph” comes off more like a somber electronic hymnal, though still melodically engaging in its own right.

As catchy and poppy as some of the songs are, Maloney is unafraid to go deep with his lyrics, exploring his troubled past (as on “Ships,” which expresses new grief for an old friend), existential questions (as on “Keep Your Love,” which meditates on time passing and the fear of getting older) and perhaps a more optimistic present on songs like “Christopher Street” (which is something of a downtempo celebration of Maloney’s coming out of the closet and eventually finding a greater sense of connectedness with the modern-day LGBTQ+ community).

Maloney is wide open and unafraid of vulnerability about his story and his music, with the exception of the final track on All My Friends Are Internet And I Want To Break You Open. Of “Back Pocket,” a two-chord slow burn that’s at moments reminiscent of a ‘90s U2 ballad, Maloney will only say, “Don’t really want to talk about this one. It’s an artifact of a darker time in my life.”

TRACK LIST:
1. Prelude
2. Ships
3. Euphoria
4. We’re Friends
5. Epitaph
6. Keep Your Love
7. Christopher Street
8. Back Pocket

Request a streaming or download link here.

ABOUT ADULT KARATE:

Equally comfortable creating new wave-inspired indie rock as well as dark electronic soundscapes, Los Angeles based musician K.C. Maloney has been releasing an eclectic mix of music under the name Adult Karate since 2016. While originally focusing on sprawling and dark, dance-oriented material inspired by acts like Nicolas Jaar and John Talabot, as well as visionary filmmakers like David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick, Maloney’s sound has progressed over the years to include such varied influences as dream pop, indie rock, new wave, psychedelic rock and ambient.

Born and raised just outside of Los Angeles in Pasadena, California, Maloney immersed himself in music at a very early age. Thanks in part to his older siblings, by the age of 10 he was an expert on the catalogs of bands like Depeche Mode, INXS and U2 as well as classic older material like David Bowie, Kraftwerk and The Beatles. He started his first garage band with a neighbor by the time he was 13. Over the next decade, he worked as a rave DJ, played in a free-form psychedelic band and, under his own name, recorded several indie folk-rock EPs inspired by the likes of Elliott Smith, Nick Drake and Beck. Maloney went through a troubled period that undoubtedly has informed his music both past and present, struggling with his sexuality and battling heroin addiction, then getting sober in 2011 with the help of the MusiCares program.

From 2012-2015 Maloney was focused on Radar Cult (formerly Kyivan Rus), an indie electronic duo that got signed by legendary LA label Plug Research. When they disbanded, Maloney chose to go back to working solo again. Fed up with the serious-sounding band names often favored by his peers, he went for “Adult Karate,” inspired by observing patrons as they entered a karate studio in a Burbank, California, strip mall. Adult Karate’s previous three releases, LXII (summer 2016, EP), Indoors (spring 2017, EP) and Del Mar (summer 2018, LP) are all on Plug Research, each one building on both the acclaim and musical versatility of the last. The musically diverse, introspective concept album Del Mar (which features collaborations with Adaline, Christian Gibson and techno legend John Tejada), garnered much praise and attention, including coverage in Billboard and NYLON (view Adult Karate’s press history here). Del Mar and Adult Karate got another boost in September 2019 when “Your Ghost,” the collaboration with John Tejada, was remixed by LA techno duo Speaking In Tongues. The remix was highly promoted and a massive success, gaining support from radio stations like KCRW and from world-renowned DJs such as Sharam, Guy J, Hernan Cattaneo, Nick Warren, Jody Wisternoff and Jason Bentley.

Maloney currently resides in North Hollywood, California with his husband and two cats.

ARTIST LINKS:

• Artist page: https://www.adultkaratemusic.com
• Label’s artist page: http://www.plugresearch.com/2018/08/adult-karate-2
• Artist’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adultkarate
• SC: https://soundcloud.com/adultkarate
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3i8FZ52lJ8BJ7QWHl5xNvs
• Press page: https://www.adultkaratemusic.com/press
• Images (photos & album art): here

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For more information, photos, to schedule an interview or request audio files, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

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QUOTES:

“Fine electronic soundscapes that are vast and soaring and introspective in equal measure.

~Americana UK (praise for Indoors)