On October 4, 2024, the Kappa Sigma House held a charity concert for individuals affected by cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease with severe side effects. The concert was headlined by the local Travis County-based band, Vice in the Doorway, and Chuck Mallard, a local rapper and Kappa Sigma alumnus. Vice in the Doorway opened, playing a host of originals and a cover of the Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man.” Mallard followed, performing a variety of original songs. Interspersed between them were comments about his songwriting process and the significance of each song in his life.
The event was organized by Kappa Sigma brother Cooper Alford, who spoke about its significance to the fraternity: “This event in particular is about a problem that affected an alumnus of ours, Chuck Mallard. He’s the one performing tonight, and he had fibrosis, and basically what this is… it’s having a brother come back and play here, and also addressing a problem that’s affecting a brother. So it’s very much about community.”
The band describes their influences as “bands like R.E.M., Television, and bands like Talking Heads.” Discussing their favorite venues, the band mentioned The Spiderhouse Ballroom, a popular spot for local Austin bands on Fruth Street. “Big shout out to the Love Barons,” the band added. “They’re probably one of the friendliest bands we’ve worked with.”
Describing their creative process, the band remarked “Really, it’s whoever had the idea first, we’ll give them pretty much full reign to do whatever they want …it’s just kind of a collaborative jam.”
Although primarily a solo artist, Mallard opts for a different style of music, collaborating with the rap collective DARKWEBMAFIA, “I definitely like experimental stuff…I love music that kind of pushes a boundary; I like to think of it as asking questions, like what would it sound like if I painted that instead of this, kind of like challenging traditional conventions. So really big artists for me are like Denzel Curry, JID, and JPEGMAFIA.”
When Mallard starts to play, it’s clear that he takes these influences to heart. He plays fast, beat-driven, electric rap, often infused with his struggles, such as the feeling of being forced to be optimistic about one’s future while battling something as life-threatening as cystic fibrosis in the song “Optimist’s Dilemma.” Mallard expressed the importance of the concert, stating “This is a fire charity; it helps kids with cystic fibrosis. I got that. It’s a real pain in the ass sometimes, bro, it messes my life up, you know? They do a lot to help further the progression of medicine, help you with insurance plans, do all this stuff that makes it hard for people with this to live.”
Mallard’s philosophy is described as “DIY or Die.” He produces, records, and writes his music entirely, self-sufficiently on Logic, an online program for editing and producing music. With the rise of the internet, websites like SoundCloud and Bandcamp have allowed for entire subsets of the rap culture to spring up online, and access to tools like GarageBand makes it easier than ever to access music production. His advice to those looking to get into the scene “YouTube is your greatest resource; there are like a million kick-ass producers on there. A lot of great Twitch streamers too, who have like a lot of accreditation in music society. I learned a ton from when the pandemic hit. One of my favorite producers, Kenny Beats, would stream all the time, just him making beat battles with his audience, so just watching them, paying attention to what they do, what they say, and trying to mimic it. There’s a great quote by Neil Gaiman that’s like, ‘You gotta sound like a lot of different people before you find your own voice.’”
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease in which the CFTR protein becomes dysfunctional, causing a buildup of mucus in the lungs. This makes sufferers of the illness particularly vulnerable to infections, inflammation, and respiratory failure. Roughly 1 in 35 people in the United States carry the gene for cystic fibrosis. To help people struggling with the illness like Chuck, donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.