"The complicated heroine’s / in short supply again." Portland-based songwriter Malachi Graham writes lush, intimate Americana inspired by complicated women. It’s no wonder— as the descendant of five generations of formidable, tale-telling Portland women stretching back to the Oregon Trail, Malachi learned early that great stories come from unreliable narrators and that the strongest characters are often the most flawed. Since she started writing songs five years ago, Malachi has drawn on history, poetry, and cinema in charater-rich narratives. Her sound has coalesced into something richer than the sum of its parts, her forceful and nuanced electric guitar and vocals working tightly together to tell strikingly sincere stories. On her debut EP Selfish, recorded live to an 8-track at Mike Coykendall’s Blue Room Studios and produced by Dustin Hamman (Run On Sentence), Malachi's character-driven songs come to life with percussion by Dan Galucki (Wooden Indian Burial Ground), bass by William Joersz (Nick Jaina, Ezza Rose), and slide guitar by Courtney von Drehle (3 Leg Torso). Selfish channels female voices that are— like the leading ladies of classic cinema— intoxicating, self-sabotaging, mesmerizing, and not preoccupied with being liked; the compulsive wiretapper, the jealous lover, the censored femme fatale, and the title track’s confessional narcissist. Capturing to tape in single takes, Malachi and this team of top-notch Portland players craft a punchy, electrified folk record led by her strong, unaffected voice, a sound that perfectly mirrors her honest and unapologetic heroines.