Die australische Künstlerin Mallrat meldet sich mit ihrem neuen Album „Light hit my face like a straight right“ zurück und entführt ihre Hörer*innen erneut in ihre ganz eigene Welt aus magischem Realismus und Alltagspoesie. In unserem Interview spricht sie über die Bedeutung von Licht als zentrales Motiv, die Einflüsse ihrer Heimat Brisbane und die kreativen Prozesse hinter den zwölf Tracks. Außerdem erzählt sie, wie ihre Zusammenarbeit mit Alice Ivy das Album geprägt hat und welches Kinderfilm-Soundtrack-Projekt sie begeistert hätte.
Frontstage Magazine: The album is titled „Light hit my face like a straight right“. How did you come up with this title, and what does it mean to you?
Mallrat: It’s a lyrics from track two, Pavement, and a ‘straight right’ is a boxing term.
Frontstage Magazine: Your music often draws from magical realism and finding beauty in the everyday. How do these themes play out across the twelve tracks on the album?
Mallrat: I really zeroed in on that idea of magical realism in Australian suburbia when thinking about the visuals for this album, like the music videos and covert art. In my imagination the hills hoist clothes line (this could be an Australian thing, you might have to google it) is a spawning point for magic, and that’s one of the reasons it features in all of the artwork. I also like that it looks like a spider web from below. I love spiders, and moths, which both make a few appearances across the album lyrics.
Frontstage Magazine: You mentioned that the album is tied together by an exploration of light. Could you elaborate on how “light” functions as a concept or symbol throughout the songs?
Mallrat: I only realised this after I had written the album, and they were asking me about the lyrics for the press release. I didn’t mean for it to be a concept, so it’s hard to explain. But I was reading a lot of non fiction writing about colour and light spectrums over the last few years which is a possible explanation for why it was on my mind when writing. Also, when I write about light, I usually imagine that I’m the bug flying into it, bumping my head over and over again.
Frontstage Magazine: The album seems deeply influenced by your experiences in Brisbane and the feeling of returning home. How did these personal moments shape the creative process and the overall sound of the record?
Mallrat: Those themes are most obvious in Horses. The verses are like a montage of childhood and teenage memories in Brisbane. Catching the train home from school with my sister, mucking out stables at the racetrack, growing up in a drought, floods, the Brisbane river, breaking into hotel pools.
Frontstage Magazine: Working with Alice Ivy on ‘Horses’ and possibly other tracks—how did that collaboration impact the album and push it in new directions?
Mallrat: In my mind Horses was a bridging point that allowed “The Worst Thing I Would Ever Do” (track 11) to stay on the track listing. I wasn’t sure that with the soundscape I wanted for this album there would be much room for guitar, but the way that Alice Ivy and I played with the pitch and tone of the sounds in that song created a point of difference that made sense for the album.
Frontstage Magazine: Comparing „Light hit my face like a straight right“ to your previous work, where would you say you’ve broken new ground artistically or personally as an artist?
Mallrat: I think that the melodies and production choices are super unique and beautiful. I feel really proud of those things in particular. And the visuals.
Frontstage Magazine: Our final question is always a bit different: Which childhood movie would you have loved to create the soundtrack for – and why that particular movie?
Mallrat: I love Fantastic Mr Fox. Except that I don’t really want to change anything about it.
Wir vom Frontstage Magazine präsentieren euch die Tour in Deutschland in Zusammenarbeit mit FKP Scorpio.
15.06.2025 Berlin – Frannz Club
16.06.2025 Köln – Yuca
Fotocredit: Sammy-Jo Lang Waite
