Kate Dillon knows exactly what she’s doing. The frontwoman, figurehead, guitarist and chief songwriter of Full Flower Moon Band – better known as simply ‘Babyshakes’ when she steps to the mic – is all about subverting expectations and offering a new reality in its stead. So it goes with FFMB‘s third studio album ‘Megaflower’. On paper, an allusion to the megaflora – particularly giant plants, suggests ‘everything that’s come before, to the nth degree’… or so you’d think.
Following on from recent electrifying anthem West Side (and accompanying tour) and steady rock number Illegal Things, the Brisbane rock outfit announce ‘Megaflower’ with the release of their latest hard-hitting blues-twanged single; Devil.
Lyrically illustrating a menacing presence, delivered with such prowess and backed by a landscape of growling, grandiose rock stylings, Devil is best summarised by ‘Babyshakes’ herself as “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. My lover is a broken man, but to leave him for the small chance of meeting someone better seems like more trouble than it’s worth. My next lover could be the same or worse.” Continuing to share that the track was “written when I should have stopped seeing him.”
Taking the nation by storm with performances at Splendour In The Grass, Boogie Festival, Yours & Owls, and a BIGSOUND 2023 showcase (to name a few), alongside support slots with the likes of Nothing But Thieves (UK), The Murlocs, Frankie and The Witch Fingers (USA), Peter Bibby, The Chats, Hockey Dad, Party Dozen, Bad Dreems & more, FFMB have an undeniably powerful presence described by Lillian Phillips (The Music) as “diesel-powered – every note sounds like the jerking of an arm, the breaking of a bone. Each member is physical, with a kind of sweating, old-school body language, but Dillon controls everything around her.”
Produced and recorded by ‘Babyshakes’ Dillon, ‘Megaflower’ features the full five-piece, triple-guitar line-up that audiences have grown accustomed to over the last two years of must-see live shows, consisting of Marli Smales bass + backing vocals, Luke Hanson drums and Christian Driscoll & Caleb Widener on guitars. Mixing, meanwhile, was handled by the award-winning Tony Buchen (Troye Sivan, The Smashing Pumpkins) – a connection Dillon has described as “fate providing a true mentor”. What lies therein is the most diverse sonic array under the Full Flower umbrella to date.
“When you think about Full Flower going ‘mega’, I don’t want you to think about us going harder and heavier,” Dillon explains. “I want you to think about us going in every direction. Acts like the Arctic Monkeys and David Bowie were able to define careers that went genre-less at as many intersections as they could. I want to have permission to do that as an Australian artist, and not get pigeon-holed. My mega is everything instead of one thing. I’m not saying that I’m doing it perfectly yet, but I am saying I will be moving in places that I want to, and we refuse to be just a heavy-rock band. That’s our mega.”
Keeping to this mega mantra, the band is moving to new places not just sonically but physically with a UK tour in May, alongside appearances at The Great Escape, DotDotDot Festival, and Bearded Theory Festival (UK) ahead of the ‘Megaflower’ release.
With thanks to Blue Grey Pink
