Make Way for Mallrat
Making music about her thoughts, feelings and memories is what Mallrat – aka Grace Shaw – does best. Her electro-bedroom-pop sound is clever and considered, with her acclaimed debut album Butterfly Blue cementing the producer-songwriter as one of the genre’s most exciting artists to date. Now, a year after the record’s release, she’s going on tour to let Butterfly Blue take wing.
Words by Zara Richards // Image by Meg Siejka
Image supplied
Butterfly Blue dropped almost a year ago. How are you feeling 12 months on from the release of the record?
Honestly, it seems so far away. When you’re making music, you write and finish it so long before it goes out into the world. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s new to a lot of people and that we haven’t really played the album to anyone.
Why was now the right time to dedicate a national tour to Butterfly Blue?
There’s not a very sentimental answer to that! It’s just how the touring schedule panned out with the different festivals we’ve been doing. Also, it’s only starting to make sense to tour again after COVID.
How do you feel to be back on tour now that the pandemic craziness is starting to settle?
It’s something that I didn’t realise how much I missed. There’s a part of me that’s, like, ‘Oh my god, it’s so boring to talk about lockdowns and COVID…’ But honestly, when lockdowns first happened, it was a much-needed break from touring. I thought I preferred writing to playing shows. And then I started to notice myself getting grumpier and less like myself. Eventually, after we did a few shows, I came home and felt like myself again. I didn’t realise how much I enjoyed and cared about it. I’m really savouring these experiences now.
What’s it like performing a headline tour after having that time away?
It’s a pretty indescribable feeling. I feel so much gratitude that people go out of their way to buy tickets to things and know the words [to songs]. I write songs in the corner of a studio or the corner of my bedroom – and when I do it, I tend to be whispering the words to myself, because the stuff I write is very difficult or scary to articulate. It’s surreal to have hundreds or thousands of people singing the words back to you.
Right now, you’re 24. But you’ve been making music, touring globally and leaving your mark in the industry since releasing Uninvited in 2016. How do you stay creatively charged?
It sometimes feels a little out of my control. I’m not always feeling creatively charged, is the honest answer. There’s definitely periods of time, like months and months, where everything I write, I think is terrible. I give up and feel so defeated by it. But it passes. I have to re-frame how I’m thinking about a process. Sometimes I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing.
Is it a similar feeling to imposter syndrome?
I have an opposite thing, where it’s like, ‘I don’t know anything, and that’s an advantage’. I definitely have insecurities and other parts that I overthink. But honestly, I’ve never really had imposter syndrome, and I hope I never do.
Your songs are personal yet universal. How do you balance writing about your life in a way that protects yourself but also connects with a wider audience?
I think that’s where I get hung up on the process. It’s easy at the beginning when you don’t realise people listen to your music. But then you start building a fanbase, and people are listening to what you say and asking questions about it. You realise songwriting is not the diary entry you thought it was. It’s a very public thing.
The problem is, I’m really private. But at the same time, what I value in songwriting is honesty, intimacy and specific details. I hate vague metaphors and all those other things that make it easy to hide what you’re actually feeling or talking about. I’ve gotten myself into a bit of a conundrum. I have to trick myself into saying things out loud. I tell myself I’m writing for the sake of writing, and I don’t have to share it with anyone. It’s just for me! And that’s when the good stuff happens. Then I have to be, like, ‘Alright, that was a joke. Now I have to send this to some people’.
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Something I admire about you is that you’re not shy to call out gender disparity in the music industry – I’m thinking about your comments on last year’s male-skewed ARIA nominations or the lack of female representation in crews. Tell us more about your experience as a female artist in a male-dominated industry.
It’s interesting. I was thinking about the ARIAs the other day and how [my thoughts were] taken out of context by the media and turned into clickbait. They ran a different version of events as headlines and people didn’t bother to read the articles. If they had, they’d have realised the CEO of the ARIAs agreed with me.
It’s funny, because it’s one thing to speak on these things. Being an artist on Twitter or Instagram, it’s hard to know how much impact you have other than starting conversations or being fuel for clickbait. I always try to match my actions to my values. My touring crew is almost entirely female or non-binary. That’s my personal contribution to the things I care about. In a lot of ways, I feel like being a female artist isn’t a disadvantage at all. Even though there are far less of us, there are advantages to it. But I think there are unspoken rules and pressures to feel like you have to hide or protect certain parts of yourself to be taken seriously.
How do you hope the disparity shifts?
It would be really cool to see more non-male producers, engineers, crew, touring managers and lighting technicians – all of those [positions] that are a little bit behind the scenes but really valuable. I think young people don’t realise these jobs exist and how interesting they are. Honestly, when I was calling out the ARIAs and saying ‘there are all these male artists’, I was frustrated at how homogenous it all was – how Australia really favours the nonchalant dude with a guitar. I would love to see risk-takers being embraced.
You’re a producer yourself. How did you get into that side of the industry?
Before I started writing songs, I thought I wanted to be a DJ. I was learning how to DJ, playing at people’s 18ths, and I thought I should make my own beats. This was in high school when I had GarageBand. I figured out how to make songs on there and then eventually started to sing on the stuff I was making. Even though it was quite a naïve level of production, it was through this love of production that I started writing songs. I think the way I make [music] is a little different to some people because it’s so intertwined with the production side of things.
Who are some of the young producers who’ve caught your eye?
Lonelyspeck, who’s from Adelaide! They’re fantastic and so underutilised. Lonelyspeck is one of the most exciting Australian producers to me.
What about other local Australian artists you’ve been listening to lately?
I’m so excited about my support acts for the tour – Cat & Calmell and biblemami. Biblemami is a good friend of mine so I’m lucky enough to hear her demos that aren’t out yet. I know people are going to love them when they get to hear them. I think they’re [both] so cool. I’m a genuine fan. And once again, I feel really proud to have an all-female line-up wherever possible.
Musically, what does the rest of your 2023 look like?
I’m writing my next album. It’s early days, but I’m having a lot of fun chipping away at it. But I’ve been listening to a lot of dance music lately and I think that’s coming out in the songs. I’m [also] going to be spending a lot of time in America, working with people there.
See Mallrat plat at Hindley Street Music Hall this May 13. Tickets on sale now.
