MALLRAT EMBODIES THE SPIRIT OF BUTTERFLIES THROUGH 'BUTTERFLY BLUE', NOW 'TEETH'
ARE you a butterfly lover?
These precious insects is indeed a symbol of reinvention, freedom and fleeting beauty.
To spot one in the wild feels like luck. To get butterflies is a universally understood sensation of a fluttering, physical symptom of romantic obsession it's impossible to ignore.
Mallrat’s prized pop songwriting has become a beacon the Australian music industry will eagerly follow, and on her debut album 'Butterfly Blue', she embodies the spirit of its titular creature – but without the delicacy that keeps you at a distance.
Over a dozen clever and open-hearted tracks, Mallrat draws you in close and shows you the world through her wide, hopeful eyes.
“I’ve always valued music that is interesting, beautiful and unpretentious. Something timeless and not reactive,” Shaw says.
“‘Butterfly Blue’ was made with that in mind. It’s a demonstration of not pretending to be anyone else," she added.
Shaw was just a kid when her parents brought home the CD that would inspire her first album, 17 years later.
"I remember when Mum and Dad got The OC soundtrack. When I heard Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap for the first time I was so confused and fascinated by it, thinking, 'How can a voice do that?'
On 'Butterfly Blue', a lifetime of collecting influences across genres – from folk, country and Florence and the Machine to the moody noir pop of Lana Del Rey and Azealia Banks' bold and charismatic hip hop – come together into one vast and tender debut, a compilation of Shaw's emotions as eclectic and cohesive as those soundtracks she pored over.
"It's so true that the music you listen to when you’re little really shapes you or at least it hangs out in your subconscious for a very long time," says Shaw.
And in a full-circle moment, it sees her team up with Banks, who contributed an unforgettable verse on single Surprise Me.
"The first album I ever bought with my own money was 'Broke With Expensive Taste’," says Shaw looking back.
After crafting the track with producers Jam City and Styalz, Shaw’s stars aligned and Banks not only supplied the verse, but also decided she and Mallrat "should Eve and Gwen Stefani this shit” – and stuck around for Surprise Me's outro.
"She was truly the best to work with," Shaw says. "It felt like she really cared, which you don't always get with feature artists; often it can feel like they’re fulfilling an obligation. Maybe I'm biased, but hers is one of the most iconic and memorable verses I’ve ever heard."
Long before she was collaborating with her idols, Shaw began making music in her bedroom in Brisbane, channeling teenage fears, hopes and obsessions into lyrics set to beats she sourced online.
With combined streams topping 300 million, her trio of early EPs – 'Uninvited' (2016), 'In The Sky' (2018), 'Driving Music' (2019) – are documents of an artist on the rise.
In the process of making them, Shaw swapped the Brisbane suburbs for Los Angeles, and toured both at home and internationally, including European and North American supports for Maggie Rogers and King Princess, selling out headline shows from London to New York, and collecting fans in the likes of Mark Ronson on the way.
Lyrically, her focus expanded from rap-influenced tracks capturing the inner monologue of an introvert to stories tracing her parents' relationship (on Charlie), and pleading for romantic security (on Groceries).
Her songs became anthems for young people in their bedrooms, and transformed Mallrat into their figurehead.
“I haven’t changed as much as I’ve grown,” she reflects. “I was in high school when I put my first song out and I had really amazing listeners that were also young. Over the years I’ve watched them grow up – online and at shows. Some have transitioned or come out, and they’ve really blossomed into themselves. We’ve definitely done some growing together,” she added.
As her audience grew – in their selfhood and size – so too did her ambition.
Rockstar, the first single from 'Butterfly Blue' is pop potential writ large. Shaw's formative love of Lana Del Rey shines in the track, which sees her dreaming of musical success so grand it'll make her forget all about a broken heart.
No-one chronicles heartache like Mallrat, and Obsessed, written earlier than any other album track, serves as a marker for the growing pains she had to overcome in the process of becoming the artist she is now.
“My voice sounds younger, but the sentiment behind it does too. It’s about trying to impress and get the attention of people who’ll never give me that. It shows how much I’ve gained in self-belief over time,” said Shaw.
Early in the process of compiling the album Shaw held two thematic reference points in her palms: angel choirs and monster trucks.
While some tracks fall into each distinct camp, Heart Guitar is the sonic manifestation of where they converge.
Drawing from the storytelling traditions of country, the heart-rending ballad is Shaw’s “little secret nod” to Johnny Cash, and was inspired by an eerie folk tale in Dolly Parton’s catalogue.
Over crunchy, severe guitars, Mallrat sings a sweet, sensory painting. Everything she hears, feels, remembers – even the way she sits – is as vital to the song's story as the person whose floor on which she's found herself curled up.
In many ways, Heart Guitar operates as a kind of spiritual sequel to Charlie, which landed at #3 in the 2019 Hottest 100.
Immediately becoming a pop classic, Charlie was, at the time, Mallrat's most open and vulnerable song. As a master pop lyricist, she understands the power that comes with committing her truest feelings and observations to paper, without the shield of wordplay or allusion.
"My favourite lyrics are not airy fairy metaphors; they’re saying, This is what your car sounds like. I'm here watching TV. It feels like this. I love when you can vividly describe a scene – that's my favourite style of lyric writing."
Such a naturalistic style can feel, at times, like luck or chance. But Shaw is determined and driven as a songwriter and producer, insisting that the work invested in every bar be recognised.
“I think this music deserves to be understood as intentional, rather than a happy accident. I know when something feels right, and I don’t want to compromise. These songs deserve a really big audience.” she continued.
The most measurable way of noticing her growth, Shaw says, is as a producer. As her resources and reach grew with each early EP, she began spending more time in studios with some of the country's tastemakers, picking up ideas and offering her own until she could stand beside them as a peer.
Early on, she toyed with the idea of self-producing the record entirely, but as time went on that gave way to a more considered goal: to create the best possible debut album she could make.
She did that with not only Jam City and Styalz, but also Alice Ivy, Konstantin Kersting, Sakima, Japanese Wallpaper, Big Taste and Grammy-winning producer Tommy English.
“Producing a whole album myself is something I can do in a couple of albums’ time," she adds.
'Butterfly Blue' solidifies Mallrat's reputation as a master of clever, timeless pop. Sweeping across vast, airy production are often surprising samples and sounds tucked under the surface: chopped-up Gangsta Pat bars, a flipped recording of a children’s choir performing Lisztomania. distorted effects recorded from
discarded children’s toys – a sonic gift from producer Clams Casino.
Layered, like an instrument all their own, are her signature breathy vocals, more assured than ever, worthy of the same attention and fixation she once applied to Imogen Heap’s.
Mallrat’s journey to become the artist capable of making such an accomplished record has been a fascinating one – to watch and experience.
Describing the metamorphosis of her favourite insect, she explains breathlessly: “The transformation they undergo is almost incomprehensible. They dissolve into goo and then reconstruct themselves – but hold onto the memories of their time as a caterpillar.”
She could just as easily be describing the next phase for Australia’s rising pop princess, as she prepares to unfurl her wings and show you how she’s grown.
#Mallrat #Teeth #ButterflyBlue #GraceShaw #AustralianPopSinger #Teeth
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