photo by Dave Gergory

Malik, a founding member, started playing drums at the young age of seven.

Like most musicians Malik joined the school band in the 4th grade. At the age of thirteen he started teaching himself to play piano. "My parents wouldn't buy me a drum set for Christmas so they bought me a small Casio Keyboard since it still had to do with music. It had maybe 20 keys and you couldn't play more than one note at a time", Malik chuckles.

"At that age the only influence I really had was TV, specifically cartoons, so I started learning the theme songs from shows like Transformers, Inspector Gadget, Sanford & Son, etc. My parents realized I had really gotten into it so around fifteen they bought me a Yamaha that had maybe 31 keys and that could play chords. I even had a 4 song sequencer on it!"

At this point Malik was interested girls so he learned every slow song he could. "It really impressed the ladies", he says with a smile. Malik was also playing drums in the North Forsyth Marching and Concert band. After graduating he went to A&T State University where he also played drums (quads) in the A&T Marching Machine. In 1993 he transferred to Winston-Salem State University and played in the band for a year.

Around that same time he met another musician that played trumpet and piano who was trying to put a band together. From 1993 to 1995 different people came and went, never really being able to fit the mode they needed. Realizing that they needed two keyboard players more than a drummer at the time, he started playing keyboards.

Near the end of 1995 they formed the band "Canvas" which played for local dance and jazz clubs from Virginia to Charlotte as well as many private functions from weddings to frat parties to events honoring such people as Maya Angelo. "Canvas" ran for about eight years. After that Malik did a lot of freelance work, sitting in with different bands that needed a drummer or keyboard player for different gigs.

Scott Marvill had heard of Malik through an associate at work and invited him out to a practice for an audition. "When I first went out there I was kind of burnt out but the vibe there was great. They played pretty good too", he says laughing. After about two weeks Malik joined Freeport as their keyboardist.