Singer and Local Influencer Tasha Malan Performs Live in Studio

Christian Tumalan (0:03)

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Alexis Madrigal (0:22)

Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. The media world has changed so much. Now, if you spend time on Instagram and TikTok, you're much more likely to see a video of a content creator like our guest this morning, Tasha Malan, than you are to see a traditional entertainer or broadcast journalist or something. Malan makes videos centered here in San Francisco, hyper local fare for the people of the city. But she's also a musician who came up in a musical family and has a debut album coming out soon. She joins us here live both to play her music and to talk about what it's like to be our local Mission District Gen Z Influencer. Welcome to Forum Tasha Malan.

She's going to start out with a song. I think it's Be My Lover.

That was Tasha Malan performing Be My Lover here live in the studio. She's got her father, Christian Tumalan, on the keys. He's co-leader of the Pacific Mambo Orchestra and a longtime musician in the Bay Area salsa and Latin jazz scene here too. You know, Tasha, you're actually the second father-daughter crew we've had in here. We had Ladonia in before, another Mission District legend.

Christian Tumalan (5:37)

It's an honor.

Alexis Madrigal (5:38)

Yeah, right?

Christian Tumalan (5:38)

I know.

Alexis Madrigal (5:39)

It's so fun. I understand the two of you have been making music since you were like seven years old.

Christian Tumalan (5:45)

Yeah.

Alexis Madrigal (5:47)

What was your first song? Do you remember?

Tasha Malan (5:49)

I don't want to disclose because it's on the internet somewhere. I prefer to keep that under wraps. But yeah, I wrote that song, I think it was probably around seven.

We recorded it for just for fun. Then, yeah, we recorded a little makeshift home video. Yeah.

Alexis Madrigal (6:13)

Did you grow up going to shows, seeing your dad play? Do you think that influenced your path?

Tasha Malan (6:19)

Yeah. He never did anything except music. That was his first or second love, one of the two. I remember as a child, he would always bring me to a lot of gigs out here in the city. Ramp, random Latin American festivals that he would play at.

When I was younger, I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now, looking back and realizing it was so awesome to be in that environment.

Alexis Madrigal (6:55)

You grew up in between San Francisco and Redwood City. I have to say, Redwood City is one of the blank spots on my Bay Area map.

Fill it in for me. What was it like growing up as a kid in Redwood City?

Tasha Malan (7:10)

Yeah. It felt like that growing up. It felt like just a city that nobody talks about or cares about, really.

I feel like now people have been showing it a little bit more love, but yeah, I was born in Mexico to a third generation San Franciscan mother, and then I was raised mostly in Redwood City. Yeah, that did shape me a lot, and I wouldn't change anything. I liked growing up there.

Alexis Madrigal (7:38)

Yeah.

What did you actually love about it though? Was it like kind of classic suburban upbringing, like that style?

Tasha Malan (7:45)

I think, yeah, the weather is nice.

But I think like at the time, I didn't really feel like it was that special. It's more the memories that I associate with Redwood City that make it special. You know, growing up in the first apartment that my mom and I and my dad later moved in after he migrated here, had a pool. So I remembered loving swimming. Growing up in middle school, I would walk through Redmore Inn to get to Kennedy Middle School. If you know, you know. But yeah, it's really just the memories that make it make it awesome. And also the downtown area is pretty cool.

Alexis Madrigal (8:27)

Yeah.

Tasha Malan (8:27)

Yeah.

Alexis Madrigal (8:28)

What about musically? Like what was your kind of musical training coming up? Was it just like playing with dad or did you go to, you know, kind of art school, you know, piano kind of classic style?

Tasha Malan (8:38)

Yeah.

I mean, being around music obviously was a huge influence. I didn't go to any music schools. I think my dad actually got me a single vocal coaching lesson with one of his friends and I recorded it. And that was, I was a teenager still. I was probably maybe 18 at most. I don't know. Maybe. Yeah. Really. Yeah. Teenager. And I used that voice memo for the next like five to seven years, at least, to do all of my vocal warmups. I would just be like, yeah, we're milking this session. So I definitely got, we got our money's worth on that one. And then I also took a couple, a couple vocal coaching lessons in high school as well.