On the heels of her second album, Mallrat today unveils her final single Pavement ahead of ‘Light Hit My Face Like A Straight Right’s release on February 14 via Dew Process / Universal.
A self-proclaimed early highlight – “this might be my favourite on the album?” – Pavement is a vibrant closure to Mallrat’s string of singles priming her upcoming record. Written and produced with Buddy Ross (Frank Ocean, Miley Cyrus, Bon Iver) with additional production by return collaborator Styalz Fuego, Pavement is an animated demonstration of the misty, club fuelled electronica at the centre of Mallrat’s forthcoming record. Sleek with a gritty underlayer that sees the return of DJ Zirk’s Born 2 Lose sample (previously featured in Hocus Pocus), and Cub Sport’s Beg U, delivering a masterclass of the vocalist’s creative instinct and production prowess.
Mallrat shares, “I love this song because there are two very contrasting samples in it. Cub Sport are a band from my hometown Brisbane and my best friends. I have been obsessed with ‘Beg U’ since Tim from Cub Sport sent me the demo a few years ago. Tim and Sam from the band are married and their first dance was to a Buddy Ross song. So ‘Pavement’ feels very full circle. Sampling is my favorite thing about making music, even more so than writing lyrics. It’s exciting to be able to imagine sounds in new ways, even if it’s just sampling my own voice. It builds a story and injects vivid characters into the song; it feels more from my heart.”
Visually continuing her collaboration with Tom Carroll, Pavement‘s music video presents a nightcore iteration of ‘Light Hit My Face Like A Straight Right’s earlier singles. With a cameo from Cub Sport‘s Tim Nelson in line with Beg U‘s sample, Mallrat takes to dimly lit cityscapes where rainfall and Carroll‘s CGI animals run wild. Under the veil of nightfall and the fluorescent glow of skyscrapers, underground tunnels and dashboards, she basks in the reflection of moonlight and rainfall – the ‘straight right’ impact they manifest in her creative universe.
Mallrat‘s new album, ‘Light Hit My Face Like A Straight Right’, arrives born from a world of magical realism in Australian suburbia. With an ounce of influence from her time growing up in Brisbane, Grace Shaw consistently seeks out (real or imaginary) magic in the otherwise ugly and everyday, as a means to understand the people and world around her. Twelve songs bound with expressive breaks, heartfelt moments, and dance floor ready beats, primed with earlier singles Horses, Ray of Light and Hocus Pocus, the record’s sum isn’t abstract or tied to didactic stories, but instead, presented as its own inherent being – the music Mallrat loves making most captures a feeling or time that words alone don’t do justice.
‘Light Hit My Face Like A Straight Right’ explores the intangible and mysterious allure of human connection, held together by curious investigations. In Mallrat’s
Pavement IS OUT NOW – BUY / STREAM HERE
‘Light Hit My Face Like A Straight Right’ WILL BE RELEASED ON 14th FEB, 2025 – PRE-SAVE / PRE-ORDER HERE

Thanks to twnty three