Malvin Moskalez

Just as all life can be traced back to one defining moment – the Big Bang – there is one event in Malvin Moskalez’s life that completely changed the path of his career. Seventeen years ago, a motorbike ride ended in a dramatic accident in which Moskalez lost a lower leg. In a flash, everything was different. Ever since that day, Moskalez has been trying to come to terms with that painful event. Music has offered a vehicle for this process. Now, 17 years later, he is set to release his solo debut ‘For the beauty kept inside’, in which he not only plots the course of his reawakening as a songwriter and musician, but also gives us a glimpse into the soul of a man who will never quite feel ‘complete’.
Moskalez knows the wiles of fate better than most. Just as his career was unfolding as the lead singer of a rock band, an almost unthinkable accident took his life in a different direction. The setting: the hard shoulder of a motorway. Moskalez sits on his motorbike after a breakdown, waiting for help to arrive. It doesn’t. Instead, a drunk driver slams into him. The result is harsh, painful and impossible to accept. Years of agonising rehabilitation would follow. An incredible blow to the young man’s self-confidence and self-image. Every day he wrestles with questions. Non-stop. How to go on? Who am I? How to process the relentless pain?
Moskalez takes the time to heal, seeking mental rehabilitation as well as physical, but repeatedly hits a wall: he has lost part of himself forever. This was supposed to be the prime of his life. Music offers him fleeting respite from his struggles. Under the name ‘Goghal’ he explores the world of harsh noise. Within a short time, he has succeeded in making a name for himself in the niche genre with his bone-rattling noise. His soundscapes evoke pain. As if he sought to reproduce the distortion of his own body through the manipulation of sound. His excursion to this this harsh sonic landscape lasts two years. It doesn’t bring the relief he is looking for, however. Nor did the quarter-triathlon he ran a few years before in an attempt to prove himself. “I can do this”, he insists.
Gradually, Moskalez gets a grip on his new life. He rediscovers his love for guitar, singing and songwriting. In his music he lets his fingers lead the way. Rough soundscapes make way for softness and vulnerability; he surrenders to doubt and self-reflection. Just as his world is beginning to make sense again, he meets a new love. This turns out to be another defining moment: in addition to becoming the mother of his third child, she also inspires him as his muse. Love gives Moskalez wings. He spends his time refining his songs, playing them first for friends and family, and later in living rooms and small bars. For a while, Moskalez continues making plans and moving intimate audiences with his performances.
Enter Steven De Bruyn. This musician, well-known for his mastery of the harmonica, is impressed by Moskalez’s songs. The two get talking and De Bryun proposes to produce Moskalez’ debut together with Brussels studio wizard Géraldine Cappaert. The result is a beautiful DIY collaboration, a cross-pollination between two musicians who find connection in the same musical experience: deeply emotional songs informed by a no-frills approach: pure and unadulterated, yet warm and personal. Moskalez christens his album ‘For the beauty kept inside’, which could just as well be read as ‘nothing is what it seems’. Via a friend of a friend, Moskalez comes into contact with record company PIAS, who enthusiastically take Moskalez under their wings. Photographer – and self-professed Moskalez fan – Stephan Van Fleteren comes on board and delivers an expressive photo for the cover of the new record. With this, the circle is complete.
Moskalez debuts with his first solo LP at the tender age of 48. Moskalez is certainly not the first or the last to make such a late debut. In fact, he’s in good company: Bonnie Rait, Willie Nelson and Sheryl Crow, among others, lived rich and full lives before their careers garnered attention. After all, stories can only be told when they are ripe for the telling. And ‘For the beauty kept inside’ is full of them.
Malvin Moskalez is the nom de plume of Nico Goethals (Ghent, 1973). Behind this stage name lies a touching, personal story: “My grandmother, Malvina Tweckhuizen, ran a pub in Ghent. It was a people’s pub, whose patrons would come for a chat, a glass of the good stuff and a bit of fun. This high-spirited environment was in stark contrast to the life of my maternal grandmother, Tatiana Moskalez, a Russian-Ukrainian who, following two world wars, ended up in Belgium with a hard life behind her. The duality of pleasure and pain is something I also live with. The name Malvin Moskalez is a tribute to my roots, to two women without whom I would not be here today.”