Mallrat Goes Deeper Into The Machine

This is the exact album she wanted to make, and no one was going to stop her.Butterfly Blue began to take shape around the release of In the Sky, on which Shaw added more complex and overlapping synths into her production on tracks like the sonically packed “Groceries.” After Driving Music was released, Shaw buckled down and spent the next several years largely in Melbourne crafting her debut, a lengthy process she’s grateful for in that it allowed her to craft and tinker to bring her vision to life. She became interested in the contrast between “really distorted, aggressive sounds, and really beautiful vocal samples,” as found on the hook of “Heart Guitar,” which combines a gently sung melody with a gruff looping guitar riff.Butterfly Blue is both cohesive based on the pop elements Shaw has used as Mallrat before, but unrestrained by any idea of what a pop song can or cannot be. This was a key focus for Shaw, who says she wants to keep her music “timeless.” She stays up to date on trends and new production techniques, but always with an ear towards making them her own, like on the exhilarating waves of electronically enhanced vocal harmonies and fuzzy electro-pop of “To You.” “I don’t pull up a recent popular song that we like and say, ‘How can we recreate this?’ We just make something that's cool,” she says.Her collaborators help keep the energy exciting.