A Censored Sunlight (musician)

A Censored Sunlight, born Nick Malone, is a comtemporary American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and surrealist. His debut single Temperance became popular in the Chicago area after its worldwide release in 2011.

Early Life (1997-2006)
Nickolas Joseph Malone was born in Chicago, IL in 1997 to financial services director Alex and beauty school graduate Holly Malone. Malone has strictly Russian descent. During the first year of his life, he lived on Waveland in downtown Chicago. He slept in his parent's bedroom while his parents slept on the dining room floor. After having enough of this lifestyle, the family moved to Brookfield, IL, but due to racism issues in the neighborhood in regard to the family's Judaism, they moved yet again to another Chicago suburb. At the age of 5, Malone began guitar lessons, and picked up songwriting on his own. The creative element most likely came from his father or grandfather, both simplistic published poets. Malone attended Blythe Park Elementary School and then Hauser Jr. High School, both in Riverside, IL. Malone's early influences were vastly different- both of his parents hailed from Detroit, but very different areas. Nick grew up on a strange blend of Nine Inch Nails, underground rap, and Spice Girls. Later on, Nick decided to take the Europop route, and fell in love with current influences 'Florence + The Machine, Kate Nash, Lily Allen, and Adele. Malone was eventually introduced to his current producer, Liz Berg, through childhood friend Brendan McDonough. '

Career Beginnings (2007-2009)
Nick began songwriting at the age of nine, and went on to record two of his own EPs, entitled Arrival in Purple and 'The Final Change-Up. At the same time, his brother was also recording his own debut, Scribble. 'The EPs were recorded all in two weeks with a $15 Coby MP3 player from Toys 'R' Us. One of the songs from Arrival in Purple, entitled Satisfied (which also became the lead single for Malone), was performed live at the local Cirque de Soliel-esque show entitled '''Circle of Celebration. '''iLike.com became the main method of distribution for young Malone. Both EPs were eventually taken down due to a so-called "musical growth and maturity." Malone decided to pursue singing and songwriting, and after the mild success of the two EPs, Sunlight took the next step into making songwriting professional.

Musical Style
A Censored Sunlight's music style has been self-described as "the musical love child of Lana Del Rey and Trent Reznor." His vocal range expands from a midrange tenor to a bass. Typically, Sunlight sings either a tenor or baritone, excluding one track from his debut record, entitlled Light, where he sings a low contralto. His lyrics tend to attack mature and dark themes, and the musical arrangement accompanying them are mellow and simplistic. A Censored Sunlight has also described himself as "the indie badass response to Greyson Chance."

Esorie, Escape Ladder, Amplify, and [TheSleeve] (2010)
The following year involved Malone cycling through a large number of stage names and bands. The first two EPs were released under the stage name Esorie, but the name lost meaning for Sunlight.

"I came up with the name Esorie by just getting on my laptop and typing six random letters and that's what came up. My writing was getting more and more meaningful, and I wanted to have a meaningful name to go with this new found maturity."

Malone tried to work with a handful of local musicians (see Amplify and Escape Ladder), but ultimately he decided to take the path of solo work.

Strangers in Uniform and A Censored Sunlight (2010-2011)
After a dry spell of writer's block and some seemingly hopeless band attempts, Sunlight was introduced to Tom Loftus and '''Liz Berg. Liz, the music instructor of Brendan McDonough, '''a close friend of Malone's, heard some of Malone's original works, and suggested that he let her help out with production and tweaking. Malone agreed, but decided that it was best to work with a band for a while.

"I felt like a had a significant build up of songs, but I've always been sort of an introvert when it comes to my writing... I wasn't comfortable enough with my ability at the time to work without anyone else alongside me."

And so, Strangers in Uniform was born. The band, including Tom Loftus, Brendan McDonough, Sunlight, and Mac Catrambone, performed a few small cover shows, but when it came to songwriting, Loftus and Malone had conflicting opinions and ideals. Loftus and Malone still got along, but conflict broke out between the two and McDonough. After a misunderstanding between the three, McDonough ended up dropping out of the band a week before a show.

"I'm not entirely sure what happened- but somehow Brendan and Tom just decided that they really didn't like each other... it was really dramatic, but only because being thirteen, we were all just instigators and everything just got blown out of proportion. It was stupid and me and Brendan have made up since then, and what's in the past can't be taken back. I'm glad I stood my ground then, I'm better for it now. I was just upset with him that he was like... leaving a commitment. I will be honest, though, me and Tom had a seperate thing where I was mad to the point of almost leaving too- so I don't blame anyone. If we had formed the band now, when we're all just a little more mature, maybe things could've worked out."

The band did an on-stage collaboration with Abby Schwarz for their last public show before eventual disbandment.

Malone decided to take on solo work, but lacked inspiration. Unfortunately, inspiration came in the form of tragedy. His parents divorced in February of 2011. From this, the song Temperance was born. His first song since his debut single as [TheSleeve] in 2010, it was obvious his writing style had matured.

"Temperance was inspired by this like... guilt inside me. My parents got divorced and everyone was like 'Oh, it's not your fault, you didn't do anything', but I didn't have a reason why it had happened. So there was like this empty void just like laughing at me so I wanted to blame myself to shut that void up."

Temperance debuted on August 15, 2011 worldwide. The song spawned Bloodlines, Sunlight's debut LP. Several buzz singles were released on Soundcloud soon after. The follow-up single, Sick, was released to online music stores on Janurary 21, 2012.

Two more singles were released from the record throughout 2012, all featured on the BandCamp EP, Midnight Fission, the third announced EP, and the only one to be officially released. Bloodlines, the title track from the debut album, was the final single to be released to iTunes. It was announed that after the single's release, the rest of the album would be recorded and released by the end of 2012.

Bloodlines and ihes iluna (Winter 2011-Present)
Shortly before the release of Temperance, Malone decided on the new stage name, A Censored Sunlight. Malone and producer Liz Berg dove into producing and recording Sunlight's debut record, Bloodlines. Sunlight described the debut...

"Bloodlines is sort of like a musical grey area. It seems like today, there's mainstream pop and there's obscure indie, and that's all everyone cares about. Now, I looked at my set of songs and saw that well... my music wasn't really fitting into either of those categories. So, I just decided to set up my debut in the little awkward limbo between the two that was only inhabited by like... either very quirky songwriters and gospel singers. Bloodlines is really deep and conceptual... it's pretty dark and confrontational, but the mainstream crowd can enjoy it too."

Simultaneously, Sunlight was producing a companion LP entitled ihes iluna.

"ihes iluna was like Bloodlines' counterpart. Similar to Lady Gaga's Fame/Fame Monster, it was like Bloodlines/ihes iluna. ihes iluna means "escape the dark" in Basque... the phrase means a lot to me because I was in a time of darkness in my life, and I was listening to a lot of music by YACHT... one of their lyrics was 'Don't fight the darkness, bring the light and darkness will disappear.' This really inspired me, so I was wondering like, what is the best way to escape the dark? My version of bringing the light was that this album was going to be a lot lighter and happier than Bloodlines- less confrontational, more quirky, screw-you kind of stuff. If I had to describe it, it would be like a saxophone player like in a subway getting eating by a monster, but won't go down without playing his last note."

After the third single from Bloodlines was released, Malone announced that due to quality issues and production lag, ihes iluna would not be an official release. The promotional singles from the planned record, however, remained available through the ACS Soundcloud, and were made available for free download.

Second Studio Album
After a fairly long period of silence from Malone, following the release of the Midnight Fission EP and the cancellation of ihes iluna, two new songs were released onto Soundcloud that were not seen on the Bloodlines track listing. When speculation on the new material began, Malone took to his blog to explain.

"I've written a treatment almost, for a new record. I know it's way too early to be planning a thing like this, but like I've said before, I really never stop writing, and Bloodlines has been finished in that respect for a long time now, and I don't want all these new good songs to go to waste. I'm not sure what I'm going to call it yet, but the mood is going to be a lot different from the stuff you've heard from Bloodlines so far- I'm taking the music in a happier direction. I've been listening to happier stuff, and I'm an overall happier person when I'm writing these songs. The songs that are done already (there are about five) have an irony to them, where the song is very light, but the content is very dark. It's sort of a compromise between my lyrical style, but also my need to make my songs sound different."

Malone described the new release as "music for a coffee house revivalist rally", but credited the album's influence to yet another wide span of artists, including James Taylor, Fatboy Slim, Azealia Banks, Fiona Apple, and Jun Miyake.

"It sort of manifested in the same way Bloodlines did. I was listening to SO MANY different kinds of music, and then I just had the idea for one song, and after I wrote that, the project just took off. For Bloodlines, that song was Temperance, and for this one, that song was I Won't Give Up. I've been listening to James Taylor, Fatboy Slim, Azealia Banks, Fiona Apple, and Jun Miyake... God, I really wish I could write like Jun Miyake!"

Malone has also announced that the first five songs from the new album have been completely written.