Los Angeles, CA · indie pop · R&B

Malcolm Todd

3 festivals played ↓

Funk-flecked Gen-Z bedroom pop — 'Chest Pain (I Love)' and a fast-rising live rep, Steve Lacy instincts with his own snap.

Malcolm Todd Hobert was born September 15, 2003, in Los Angeles and raised in the Palisades neighborhood, attending Palisades Charter High School. His father, a former television scriptwriter who worked on the sitcom The Middle, introduced him to folk and rock artists such as the Grateful Dead and James Taylor, while his mother brought him to Broadway soundtracks and Stevie Wonder.

He picked up bass guitar at sixteen and taught himself to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, later moving to acoustic guitar. Writing and producing with his friend Charlie Ziman through high school, he released his first EP, Demos Before Prom, in 2022, the same year he dropped out of a planned music program at the University of Oregon a week before starting.

Todd's songs 'Art House' and 'Roommates' went viral on TikTok in 2023, leading to a deal with Columbia Records; both tracks appeared on his 2024 mixtape Sweet Boy. He played his live debut that July at a sold-out show in Venice, Los Angeles, and later opened for Omar Apollo on the North American leg of the God Said No World Tour.

His self-titled debut album, released in April 2025, sits between indie pop and R&B, built from loose funk guitar and conversational vocal phrasing, keeping some of the intimacy of bedroom recording even as the production grew. Its single 'Chest Pain (I Love)' became his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album itself reached number 49 after a deluxe reissue that August.

In 2026, his 2024 track 'Earrings' became a global sleeper hit, reaching number 20 on the Hot 100 and the top 40 in the UK and Canada. That year's second album, Do That Again, reached number five on the Billboard 200, and Todd's live shows have grown from bedroom recordings into full-band performances.

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indie popR&B