“David Maloney” Interview by Santtu “Rebel” Kaskela
DAVID MALONEY, The Founder and Owner of the biggest and most popular metal music community MHF with all it´s Sub-channels and The Official Metalheads Forever Magazine.
A very special day today… Got the chance to interview my Friend, David Maloney, who years ago got tired of what FB and different Metal music groups had to offer and came up with an idea of a brand new group, Metalheads Forever (MHF). After hard work, a little ups and some downs, total dedication and passion to make his way to the top during these years. The results are perfectly clear.. Now over 94,000 members enjoying themselves, feeling at home… This man has to be doing something right, time to find out what. Let’s go…
Hello Bro… How are You doing today ?
Hello Rebel, I’m doing great another day in the Metal World.
What happened years ago ? You just got tired of what the internet and other sources had to offer to a metal music fan and decided to start something new… Or what ?
Honestly it’s a little or a lot of everything you just mentioned within this very question. In my opinion Metal needed somewhere to happen to rediscover it’self again, the Fans of the whole Genre and sub-Genres needed somewhere to go and find all their Metal music needs in one place. A place to listen/watch the Classics while finding the future of the industry as well. I wanted a place where the average fan could go A) find music new and old B) interact with fellow music lovers C) A platform for New bands to expose themselves D) A place for established bands to exist.
Obviously You started the whole process by Yourself… Was it a struggle from the start or did You have a group of Friends to back You up… Friends with similar thoughts and ideas?
Like all our members , I surfed the web and other Facebook communities and enjoyed posting music and reading other comments and of course giving feedback on others and their threads respectively. It became redundant to me, searching many communities to find what I was looking for in terms of Genres and information and in terms of interaction with fellow fans. I thought why not start my own Community and begin running it the way In which I was looking for everywhere else, why not do it myself ? Like anything and everything it began with one person, than two , than three so on and so forth. I must confess it didn’t take off like I expected but with hard work and endless hours of sharing and interaction with each member and making everyone feel welcomed and a part of the family. It started to grow and the only way I can best describe it is “It took on a life of it’s own” the key to the success of anything are the people you have working with you, the people you surround yourself with. I realized I could not do this alone and started selecting Admins from the community and the machine started from there.
Where did You get Your ideas at the beginning… How did You make Your group different than others, more interesting and popular, a group everyone wanted to join and invite their Friends and relatives too ?
As I eluded to earlier it was more or less a hobby and place to go and fulfill my music needs. I can’t sing, Dance, or play any instruments. The next best thing is to write about the music, to talk about the music and to share the music to the masses. One of the things that members gravitated to was the fact everyone was instantly treated like an equal and a family member, everyone had a voice and could be heard without prejudice. I love to talk and interact with as many members as possible. I think it resonated to the community as a whole as we all grew together. One huge difference that helped us grow and maintain our growth is the fact that we are predominantly a Metal Community but we also support the grassroots in terms of the evolution of Rock to Hard Rock to Metal and all Sub-Genres. In a nutshell we support everyone and their tastes within reason, as I said we are predominantly a Metal entity.
Can You remember the day MHF started to expand as a worldwide organization, started to have members (and also admins) from all around the world ?
From Day one, but to reach all corners of the World , it took a couple years for us to honestly say we are a “global entity” Since the start of our Magazine we’ve become a major player in the Metal World, with more to come.
Are You happy with the results of Your dedication and passion… Started soon to be the biggest organization, MHF and everything it has to offer, not that many years ago ?
We started in October/2010 with this crazy ideas of having something to offer everyone. Did I expect to become the World’s Largest Metal Entity on the Planet some 6 plus years later? “Hell Yes” ……….
Seems to me You are online 24/7… Do You fucking know how to relax and just let Your “employees” take care of things ?
We can’t be the best if we aren’t dedicated and I love this job and wish there were more hours in the day lol. Doing what you love to do and doing (without sounding ego driven) what I was born to do is relaxing and taking on the music World is challenging but fun and we’ve only scratched the surface of where we are now and where we are heading. Without the staff we have in place we would not even be having this conversation. The dedication from the administration in place as been nothing short of outstanding.
We don´t share too many favorite bands and musicians… Tell us Your Top 5 favorite bands, and maybe some reasons why they are simply the best ones ?
My love of Metal is endless and forever evolving and growing and finding new loves, new favorites year after year. It’s just so hard to pick just five bands. With that being said some bands and albums have been the soundtrack to my life and have attached themselves to my soul (If that makes any sense) and have helped define me as a person. My Absolute all time favorite band and album is 1)DEATH ANGEL-ACT III. This album defines everything I love about Metal, especially Thrash. I love the whole album, not one filler on this album and it’s very unique from other Death Angel work. This album was a little more polished and commercial but still had the crushing guitars and it showed their softer side with some beautiful acoustic ballads but maintained the melt your face Thrash sound.2)Black Sabbath.3)Warrior Soul 4) Metallica-And Justice for All.5) In Vain-Mantra.
Your CDs, vinyls, playlists… Including only mainstream, the most popular music… Or ?
I have a variety of Underground Indie bands and a little or a whole lot from each Genre. If it’s Metal and it sounds good ………life is good.
Are You a “Metalhead” ? If (and when) so, tell me what the fuck that means, since I don’t know how to define that stereotype ?
I was a Metalhead from the day My brother Jim bought me Judas Priest-British Steel. Hit my teen years with Metallica- No life til Leather Demo and Kill’em all and my Metal History began. To me a Metalhead is obviously someone who lives and loves Metal music and all it entails, the Attitude and the camaraderie it brings. It’s more than a stereotype it has a life of it’s own in a sense and it means different things to different people. One thing for sure it brings strangers together and become friends for life. It brings respect and unity out of something that some would consider chaos.
You’re having Your Birthday very soon (one of the reasons this will be in April Magazine)… Any special plans ?
Probably go see a show or two with my son Downtown Toronto, Have to support the Local scene for the next Generation of great bands.
The admin team seems to have had a lot of changes during these years… Is it hard, sometimes even impossible, to find people who You can trust ?
Yes indeed that can be a game breaker or a game maker. We can’t be here 24 hours a day so we need to have people in place we can trust to keep things organized and running smoothly. Thank god we have great people in spades, we don’t have to worry.
Is it a surprise how fucking popular MHF Magazine has become in such a short period of time ?
Yes and no, I knew with a community of this size we would get viewership and interest. When we became friends with Alpha Omega management and EMP Label Group that positioned us and opened us up to a whole new massive audience. We are getting better and bigger with each issue.
Several subchannels, podcast, magazine etc etc… Whats next, what can we expect in the near future, besides “World Metal Domination” ?
Hope in due time to have some great news to announce to everyone in regards to some business ventures we are involved in and looking forward to getting our Podcast off the ground. I’ve been looking into what it would take and how to go about starting our very own online radio station. Stayed tuned.
Any last words (not literally) to people who are reading this, the Family of MHF ?
Thanks for the Interview Rebel, I hope our Metal Army Continues to grow and I hope that everyone likes what we have to offer and if you have any questions or issues please contact Me anytime.
Thanks for the support everyone. WORLD METAL DOMINATION
www.mhf-mag.com
www.facebook.com/groups/MetalOnLoud
Thank you so much..
Santtu “Rebel” Kaskela / MHF Magazine
