Today we’d like to introduce you to Malachai Johns.
Like most music industry folks, William Johns aka “Malachai” got his start as a musician. Beginning the study of classical guitar at six years old, he followed a winding musical road through his early teens playing in rock, punk and funk bands before finding his love in DC based Go – Go music in high school. His percussive playing style allowed him the opportunity to play with some of the most iconic bands in the genre like Northeast Groovers, Optimystic Tribe, Backyard Band and The What? Band.
His college years (in Montana of all places) found him putting the axe down and moving behind the scenes. As the Assistant Director of the school’s Concert Committee he helped to book and promote acts like Run DMC, Everclear, Chris Ledoux, Hootie & The Blowfish and comedians Chris Rock and Adam Sandler. He also held a weekly on – air spot and the position of Urban Music Director at the college/public radio station while DJ’ing twice a week at a local club. A job with another local promoter opened his eyes to more niche circuits, writing press releases and filling rider requirements for acts like Widespread Panic, Medeski Martin and Wood, Joan Baez and Jimmy Cliff.
After a stint as Promotions Manager at HOT 97.5 KVEGas in Las Vegas and a production company signed to Universal Records in Los Angeles, Malachai returned east and began working for the iconic 95.5 WPGC 95.5fm, at the time the #1 radio station in Washington, DC. In 2003 while working at the station, he began to execute the plan he had hatched in LA and assembled the groundbreaking, original Go – Go band “Mambo Sauce” as manager and record label owner. He handpicked each member, co – wrote, produced and played guitar on their debut album “The Recipe” and booked and promoted over 200 shows for the band throughout the mid – Atlantic, Northeast, Southeast and Midwest. In 2007 and 2008 Mambo Sauce had two singles hit the Billboard Chart and a video in rotation on the MTV and BET Networks. Their single “Welcome to DC” is still used as the intro song for most DC sports teams including the Washington Wizards, Mystics, Nationals, Redskins and Capitals. The Wizards licensed the track for a TV spot promoting their spectacular 2017 season. Okplayer.com called “The Recipe”, “The best album I heard all year” in 2009.
Johns separated from the group in 2009 and went on to briefly manage Alt – Soul up and comer Nick Hakim and X – Factor finalist David Correy as well as co-writing and executive producing his EP “Urban Rock Odyssey”.
A few years of promoting successful weekly shows in the DC/Maryland area prompted a friend to suggest he apply as the Entertainment Manager for Maryland Live! Casino, a new 330,000 square foot casino opening between DC & Baltimore. In 2013, Malachai took over Entertainment for the casino, programming seven nights a week of live entertainment with a budget in excess of $2 Million. He created four successful theme nights, including a Go – Go Night (of course) and booked headliners like Ed Sheeran, Lee Brice, Eli Young Band, Mint Condition, Macy Gray, Biz Markie, Salt & Pepa and many more. He served as an elected Governor for the DC Chapter of The Recording Academy from 2011 – 2014.
In 2015 Johns returned to Los Angeles and in 2016, he began co-managing the career of his longtime friend and #Tidalrising artist Tabi Bonney. He helped launch his first single release in 4 years, “Bang Bang” feat. Wiz Khalifa and the 2018 EP “Le Bon Voyage”. In 2017, he worked with The Empire Agency in Hollywood and in 2018 launched Allive Agency and reached $1.5m in bookings in the first year and a half. In 2019, he launched an event listing site and blog for fans of Go – Go music called GOGOTIX.CO and in 2020 started a companion weekly Youtube series called GOGOTALX where he interviews Go – Go musicians and music industry professionals from companies like Atlantic Records, Interscope Records, RCA Records, Radio One and The Washington Post.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not always been smooth although I consider myself very fortunate.
At age 10, I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and had to have surgery and radiation treatment to remove it.
Most of my time as a musician was extremely lean and even in creating my own band and record label, I was choosing between paying the rent or booking studio time.
After creating, funding, managing, producing and breaking a Billboard charting group, things still went south and I left the band and had to start back over again.
Radio jobs may be sexy, but they don’t pay well at all. It wasn’t until I started working in the casino and then started my own agency that I started to make a somewhat respectable living. And then COVID hit and shut down the entire live music industry.
Allive Agency | GoGotix.co – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Allive Agency: Allive Agency is a boutique music booking agency borne out of a desire to leverage technology to create efficiencies in the live music space. I’ve worked in the live industry since college. It’s a very relationship-driven business (that will never change), but even at the highest levels is run in a very old school fashion with somewhat of a disdain for technological innovation. I wanted to build a nimble, technology-forward company that can serve our clients better than a major agency by being quick enough to provide them with opportunities but small enough that they don’t get lost in a large roster of clients.
GoGotix: Go – Go is a niche form of music based in Washington, DC which was very influentia in the formation of Hip – Hop. A lot of early hip-hop hits used samples of Go-Go bands. Go – Go is primarily a live music-focused, local circuit where bands play to large crowds at concert ticket prices every week throughout DC, MD and VA. It’s an insular community and I created GoGotix as a place where someone interested in the genre who might want to check out a show or learn more about what’s going on in the culture now would have a central place to find it. We sell event advertising to companies like Live Nation and City Winery as well as independent promoters and showcase events impacting the music and culture.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There’s nothing like hearing your song on the radio for the first time, but the band I created Mambo Sauce had two songs in heavy rotation on major market radio, while also on the Billboard Charts and with a video being played on MTV and BET Networks all at the same time.
Breaking a million dollars in bookings heading into my second year of owning my agency was a close second.
Contact Info:
- Website: gogotix.co
- Phone: 202.410.4843
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @getgogotix
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gogotix.co
Image Credit:
Guitar photo credit: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Interview set photo credit: Backie Thomas, Sunglasses photo credit: Shawntá Johns.
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