Born in Montreal, Quebec in 1982, Malinowski's family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia when he was nine months old. He attended St. George's School where he played his first show at the age of 16 as part of a school talent night. He received the Rigg Scholarship in his last year of high school. He attended Queen's University where he graduated with a Bachelor Of Fine Arts Degree in 2004. He met Eon Sinclair at Queen's and after discovering their mutual love of reggae music, decided to form their own band, Bedouin Soundclash, with fellow Queen's student, Patrick Pengelly. By the end of third year, they signed to Stomp Records and had toured across Canada. In 2005, Malinowski moved to Toronto to pursue music full-time. In 2009, Malinowski co-founded Pirates Blend Records. Malinowski participated in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games Torch Relay, carrying the torch through part of the downtown Vancouver course. Upon moving home to Vancouver in 2012, Malinowski started volunteering at St. James Academy on the downtown east side in Vancouver. He taught songwriting to kids in the after-school and summer programs. The students from St. James appear on Jay Malinowski & The Deadcoast's Indian Summer EP, as well as their 2014 full-length album, Martel. In 2013, he walked the Camino de Santiago, a well-known pilgrimage walk that stretches from the Pyrenees Mountains to Santiago de Compostela on the western coast of Spain.
While attending Queen's University, Malinowski met Eon Sinclair and formed Bedouin Soundclash. In 2001, they released their first album, Root Fire, which was hailed as "one of the best debut albums" by Exclaim! In 2004, they enlisted Darryl Jenifer of Bad Brains as the producer of their album, Sounding A Mosaic. The band's break came when Kevin Lyman invited them to play Warped Tour 2005. That year, they signed to SideOneDummy Records. Mike Davies of the BBC championed the hit Sounding A Mosaic single, "When The Night Feels My Song", which rocketed to #24 on the charts and was the second most played song in Canada that summer. They toured with Ben Harper and No Doubt in 2006. The band received the JUNO Award for New Group Of The Year at the 2006 JUNOS in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 2007, they released the album Street Gospels. The band released the EP Where Have All The Songs Played Gone To in 2009, before the full-length album Light the Horizon in September 2011.
On February 16, 2010, Malinowski released his first solo album, Bright Lights & Bruises. The record was said to be like a diary for him. Steve Bays and Paul Hawley of Hot Hot Heat provided backing instrumentation for the record. He toured in support of this album with Michael Rault and Kinnie Starr as opening acts.

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