Having teased the track earlier this week, Mallrat has officially released her first solo single of 2020, sharing the dreamlike “Rockstar” today.
Premiering on triple j earlier this morning, “Rockstar” was written in the the Brisbane native’s part-time home of Los Angeles, and serves as a collaboration with songwriter/producer Tommy English (Kacey Musgraves, Carly Rae Jepsen).
A dreamy cut reminiscent of acts such as Mazzy Star, the single sees 22-year-old Grace Shaw looking ahead to the future with lyrics that appear as aspirational, heartbreaking, and wistful at the same time.
“Maybe I’ll fall in love with a rockstar, we’ll be married forever, I’ll forget all about ya, one day,” Mallrat sings in the chorus. “Maybe when I’ve won all the Grammys, and I’ve got my own family, I’ll forget all about ya, one day.”
“I feel like ‘Rockstar’ reminds me of a mix between Lana Del Rey, Kacey Musgraves and Violent Soho,” Mallrat says of the song in a statement. “All through my teens (and obviously still) I loved the early Violent Soho albums self-titled and Hungry Ghost – those two albums I’ve listened to a lot and I think that’s seeped its way into the track. A lot of the songs I’ve been writing lately have been me realising my power.
“I wrote the chorus first, it has a completely different attitude on its own, but when you listen in the context of the verses and the really aggressive guitar outro it completely flips the perspective of everything. When I wrote the rest of the song a year later, I was feeling a lot more sure of myself. It’s interesting how time can reframe things that you still think and are still true but just give them a whole new house to sit in.
“I’ve always thought of myself a whisper singer and not even a very good singer, but when I listen to the chorus of ‘Rockstar’ it reminds me that I have more range than I probably even give myself credit for.”
“Rockstar” serves as the first solo single from Mallrat since the release of her Driving Music EP in 2019, and was previously described by the artist as “the most iconic song of the year” in a Twitter post earlier this week. Its release also comes accompanied by a limited edition mini magazine that is available to order now.
With the track also released as a CD single, the magazine features a fold out poster, exclusive images, and an interview with Tim Nelson from Cub Sport, whose track “Break Me Down” featured the inimitable talents of Mallrat when it was released in August.
While Mallrat has been hard at work writing and recording her debut album, a post on Twitter last month saw the artist claim the record was “actually very close to being finished”, though no potential release date has been shared as yet.
Mallrat’s “Rockstar” is available now, with physical copies of the single available via her merch store.
