Known affectionately by the world as Mallrat, the vibrant Grace Shaw completed her first EP while hunkered down glamorously in a friend’s storage box. Not long after, she started getting emails from record labels. Playing her first shows just after high school supporting acts like Allday, who inspired her to try her hand at producing in the first place, she’s now made it full circle. 

A decade on, Mallrat has perfected her infectious underground pop sound– and fans all around the world are loving it. (And if you’re still wondering where she got the name from, it’s not due to a shopping addiction. She plucked it out of the song “Mallrats (La La La)” made by punk band The Orwells). With a discography awash in unique samples, ethereal vocal lines, and diverse electronic textures, Mallrat’s long-awaited sophomore album Light Hit My Face Like A Straight Right released on February 14th, three years after her last. It’s a universal record, not to mention coming out during one of the best eras for pop since the turn of the century. 

While Mallrat previously felt pressure in the past to stick to certain themes in her music, gradually the people putting on the squeeze realised she wasn’t going to do what they said. Going with her gut paid off. Now she’s doing it all over again with an album that dances between stripped-back folk, electronica, Memphis rap, and even traditional Gaelic melodies. 

In conversation with 1883 Magazine, Mallrat chats about her new record Light Hit My Face Like A Straight Right, finding her fanbase online, advice for aspiring producers, and more.

To start off I wanted to ask, how different was the process of making this album compared to your first?  

It was similar in the way I approached it generally, being quite paced out and working with a bunch of different people and really taking my time. That was similar to the way I’ve made things before. But this time, near the beginning of writing it, I had all sorts of different songs. I had some more kind of bandy, country sounding ones and then I had the ones for this album. I was at a crossroads of which direction I should focus on. I was feeling really excited about the more electronic and dance production. 

It’s such a great time for that music too, serendipitously enough. I read some of your previous interviews where you said some of your early music is just not the direction you want to go in anymore. I was curious how your vision has changed as an artist since those early days? 

It’s not so much the direction or the style of them, it’s just my own voice. That’s probably the thing that I find most challenging to listen back to. It’s pretty uncomfortable because I was still figuring out how to use my voice, and because that’s probably the most personal aspect of it all, it’s kind of awkward. 

You know when people show photos of you as a teenager? Remembering that those songs exist and listening to the very, very early ones feels like people showing everyone my high school journal but thinking that it’s me now. Or I’m worried that they think that’s me now, you know? I think some of the things there are really cool, but I’ve grown so much, so I find it uncomfortable to listen to. It’s not that there aren’t cool things about it, it’s just uncomfy.  

Yeah, I get that. But like you said, a lot of aspects of those songs people really love. Sort of going off of that, talking about your first record Butterfly Blue, you said you wanted it to sound like “angelic children’s choirs and monster trucks at the same time.” I love that description. Is that still a sound you wanted to explore with this album? 

I would say I honestly still like similar sounds and was going for a similar thing. Maybe less monster trucks than the last album, but still that kind of turbo energy and grit for sure. I still love the contrast and vocal textures and choirs. I listened to so much choral music this time around that it did totally influence the way that I wrote and produced.  

That’s really interesting. Do you have any choral music recommendations then? 

The thing that I was listening to a lot when making this album was the University of Dublin Choir. They perform traditional Gaelic music that’s really beautiful. The way that Irish folk music sounds and the melodies have definitely influenced my melody writing.  

That’s such a niche, fun genre to go back to. Aside from choral music, what else have you been listening to lately? I saw you were listening to “Diet Pepsi” a lot last year. That was one of my top songs too.  

It’s so good! Did you see Addison posted a trailer this morning for a new video? 

I saw that! I can’t wait.

Exactly. Same. But otherwise, I love Oklou a lot. Her new album is awesome. I love ML Buch too.

Love, love, love. Those are great ones. Previously you mentioned that SOPHIE is a big influence for you as well, who I know has a similar ethereal sound. Digging into electronic music as a whole, I read that you had fractured your arm while dancing to your demo for “Hocus Pocus”, so it’s a sound you’re clearly passionate about. What draws you to production and electronic music in general?

I think if I was able to play an instrument really well, maybe I would feel differently. But because I’m not a proficient guitarist or pianist, I feel limited by those things in a way that’s sometimes. I don’t feel any sense of limitation with production, and I feel like there’s no limit on what I’m able to do. Because I like more experiential-learning music, and that’s what I find exciting, it’s become a natural tool.  

Shifting gears to a more vulnerable space, “Horses” is obviously a super emotional track from you, and fans have been really affected by that one as well. What was the process of making that song like? I read that you wrote it while overlooking a creek. That seems like a really serene place to write. What was that process like?

Thank you. Yeah, it was beautiful. I was with my friend Alice Ivy at her studio and she played guitar and produced it. It was really lovely and I felt really comfortable. It’s funny as well, talking about writing music. Especially when it has quite vulnerable lyrics, I think people assume that the process of writing is quite emotional, which makes sense because that’s how it looks in movies. People will be writing in their diaries and crying or breaking up. But I find when I write that it’s not emotional at all. 

I described it to someone recently as solving a puzzle or taking a picture. Even though the output is hopefully evocative or has feeling in it, the process of making it comes from a logical part of my brain. So it’s not like I’m crying when I’m recording. But when I listen to the music, that’s how I feel. I’m very easily moved by music, but when I’m making it’s a different thing.  

That makes sense. When you’re crafting it, you’re in a different head space. Speaking of writing, I was curious if you felt like landscape or setting affects your songs? I know you lived in L.A. for a little while, and now you’re back in Australia. 

I go through periods of time writing about my hometown. It often pops up in lyrics. But I don’t think that the actual place I’m in changes it too much, at least not in a way that I’ve noticed. Because I don’t tend to write about things that are happening in that moment, I tend to write about things that haven’t happened yet or that happened in the past, so I don’t think it matters too much where I am.  

In the past I know that you’ve mentioned that “Charlie” is one of your favorite songs that you’ve made. I was curious if that was still the case after you made this album?

Oh, that’s a nice question. I still love it and I’m really proud of it, but there are more songs that I’m equally as proud of now, like “Horses” and “Pavement”. Definitely two of my favourites  from the new album. Also track one is called “My Darling, My Angel”, and that’s another favourite.

What makes them your favourites?  

Sharing “Horses” and seeing people’s reactions to it made me love it even more. I’m proud of the lyrics and the way that such a stripped back thing. It’s basically just vocals, guitar, and piano, but it doesn’t sound stripped back. It’s all warped and pitched in a way that creates this really interesting feeling. It’s almost suspenseful. I just am really proud of how it sounds as well as the lyrics. 

“Pavement” and “My Darling, My Angel”, again, it’s the real traditional Irish music influence in the melody writing that has made them very special, and the way that contrasts with all the different things in the production I’m really proud of.  

You just talked about loving seeing fans’ reactions for these songs. I was curious how big of a role the internet has been in your career? Some of your first collaborations came from people on the internet. You even wrote a song with Azealia Banks after finding out she was a fan of yours on Instagram Live. 

It’s really interesting because I think I found my fan base and community online, rather than in a physical place. I love my hometown, but I wasn’t necessarily performing in a particular scene there, and that wasn’t how I built a fan base. It was all through Instagram, Twitter, and SoundCloud. So I guess finding an audience has taken place online. Just spending so much time on the internet has meant I’ve gotten to hear some really interesting artists early on in their careers too and be along for the ride, which is cool.

True. The internet isn’t perfect, but spaces like that really do open you up to new artists. Moving on, you shared previously that you maintain a childlike view of things and find beauty in things that others might not. How do you feel like that helps you as an artist?

It helps to turn ugly situations into interesting ones. I think that’s probably why I write lyrics the way I do. I’m never the sort of person to just write a song like, ‘this thing is terrible and bad and sad,’ full stop. I think contradictions and the complexities of people and situations in the world is what makes art interesting. It’s not interesting just because it’s good and perfect, and it’s not interesting because it’s bad and terrible. It’s all that in-between stuff that I find interesting.

True. Life is not usually so black and white. The next thing I wanted to ask is if you, a self-taught musician, had any advice for aspiring producers who are also trying to teach themselves how to make music? I’m sure it takes time and patience to get comfortable.

Yeah! It’s really cool to be able to find people in real life that you can ask questions of. If you’re ever working with somebody else, it’s always just fun to worry less about trying to prove that you’re good and instead ask questions like, ‘What plugins are you enjoying using lately?’ ‘What is something new that you’ve learned with Ableton?’ Or whatever software. That’s really fun, iust learning new ways of doing things. But honestly,YouTube is so good as well. I love YouTube. I really hope that we shift to everyone watching YouTube again.  

Agreed. What plugins are you enjoying recently?  

I love synths that sound like voices. And playing chords with choir voices. The other thing that I love doing is humming into my mic or making gibberish nonsense and then running it through auto-tune. I could just spend ages manipulating the speed and tone and pitch and resampling it lots of different ways to try and find interesting things to use. 

Since we’re talking about creating music, I know one of the negative sides that come with making art is pressure. Pressure from yourself, fans, or whatever it might be. You talked in previous interviews about how you’ve taken a few months off of making music to learn new software or something, just to take a break. What advice would you give to those that maybe are struggling with succumbing to the pressure?

If you want to be creative and make something interesting, you have to do your best to protect yourself from that pressure. Generally, those things are not conducive to interesting ideas. Everyone thinks they have good advice, and maybe it’s worth considering all the stuff about how to market music and what people find interesting. At the end of the day, there’s truth in all of it, but there are a million exceptions and making something interesting often means being the exception to all of the rules. And honestly, that’s the stuff that usually cuts through. So you just have to protect yourself from pressure from the outside world, because it’ll probably really water down your ideas.  

That’s great advice. Earlier we were talking about how electronic music is really having a moment right now, which is super exciting. Obviously Charli XCX has been blowing up in the mainstream, and so are other pop artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. You’ve been in the industry for nearly a decade too making great pop music. With your second album, how do you feel about the release while being in such a good era for pop?  

Excited. In the last year or two, I’ve felt really excited about new music, whereas a couple of years ago maybe there wasn’t so much exciting stuff breaking through in my opinion. But now it just feels exciting. I get the sense that people actually care, which I maybe had lost for a minute a couple of years ago. It’s just nice to see people caring about making interesting music and interesting art, and audiences also clearly being receptive to that.

Speaking of, fans are obviously happy you’re back. I was curious what this return means for you?

I’m just so excited for everyone to hear the music. I hope that it goes really well overseas and I can play big tours overseas that are all sold out. That would be really cool. Other than that, I don’t care. I’m just happy that I’m proud of the music and I hope that a lot of people get to hear it. 

Mallrat’s second record Light Hit My Face Like A Straight Right is out now. Follow @lilmallrat

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Featured image Sammy-Jo Lang-Waite