CC senior releases single ‘Take My Stress’

By Kate Hayden | khayden@charlescitypress.com

It must feel pretty good to see your single spread like fire across classmates’ social media accounts.

Charles City High School senior Malik Knighten got to enjoy the feeling after releasing his song “Take My Stress” in early November, on iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud. Written three months ago, the song is being promoted by social media management agency Phase, which Knighten has signed with.

“Most of my friends heard the song before it came out, but they still all loved it, they all added it to their iTunes,” Knighten said. “Going to school the next day, the people that didn’t hear about it, they loved it, they said ‘this song sounds like a radio song.'”

It’s a cool feeling to have his song hosted on the site where artists like Usher and Justin Bieber sell their music, he said. Writing “Take My Stress” came about pretty easily, he added.

“I was having girl problems,” he said, smiling, “And honestly, it came out pretty quick, because I knew what I was saying, and this person took my stress away. It took me about an hour to write.”

A week after writing, Knighten visited a recording studio in Waterloo for a different piece, where he recorded “Take My Stress” on a whim. He sent that off to a friend in Michigan who mastered the track, which was then sent off to Phase in Los Angeles.

Knighten said he’s always had a passion for music, but he didn’t start writing his own songs until he crashed his sister’s car and had to serve the resulting grounding.

“I got a guitar that Christmas, so I started playing the guitar and singing. Once I realized I could sing, I started writing, and once I realized I could write and express my emotions, I just kept doing it,” Knighten said.

At Press time, Knighten hasn’t heard from iTunes how many downloads the song has had, but he said friends across the U.S. and in Mexico were telling him they’ve listened to the single.

“The support I’ve been getting, not only from people from my town but people out of town, everyone’s telling me they buy it, I see it on Snapchat,” Knighten said. “I’m thinking it’s getting a lot of views. It’s still in the promoting stage.”

Knighten has already been working on his next piece –– a Christmas song that’s slated for a December release. He’s also planning to release an EP called Crushes around Feb. 15.

“(Phase) wants to take me down to L.A. to do a meet-and-greet thing, so that’ll be cool. They’re talking about doing that in January,” Knighten said. “They’re just setting things up for me right now.”

He already traveled to New Mexico over the summer, where he was working with a small group of musicians in a studio. Now, Knighten has been pondering taking a gap year after high school graduation and seeing where he could go with his music in L.A.

“I love doing it and I have a passion for it. I really think if I work hard, I can go somewhere with it,” Knighten said. “But I kind of want to start college to, so right now I’m just going back and forth with it.”

For now, Knighten is working to get his song heard on larger radio stations and have it known.

“People told me that they can pretty much relate to it, to have someone that takes their stress away,” Knighten said.

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