Full Flower Moon Band are in full bloom with the blossoming of their third studio album 'Megaflower'

Veronica Zurzolo
Jul 19, 2024
3 min read

Photo Credit: Joel McDonald

The big day has finally arrived for beloved botanical Brisbane beasts Full Flower Moon Band (FFMB), with the release of their third studio album Megaflower via Dirty Power Studios (AU/NZ) and Silver Arrow (rest of world). It arrives nearly three years after their acclaimed 2021 effort Diesel Forever, which launched the burgeoning project onto theatre and festival stages across the country. While it was one of the year's most acclaimed Australian rock albums, only one thing stopped Diesel Forever from being FFMB's best record: The fact that figurehead and bandleader Kate “Babyshakes” Dillon knew she hadn't written that yet.

“I could have easily not challenged myself, but I made a point of going through a real metamorphosis with every song,” says Dillon on the creation of Megaflower. “For the first time, I didn't have a grand concept going into making an album – I just had a point to prove.” That point? FFMB – and there's an entire botanical garden of ideas growing out of the dirt. Whether it's the trippy haze of Illegal Things, the jangly slow-dance of Man Hands or the reverberating balladry of Kiss Him Goodbye, Megaflower portrays a band in a constantly-shifting state.

This was entirely by design of Dillon, who sees the album as an experiment in surrealism after an album that indulged in the hardest and heaviest of rock hedonism. “I'm trying to subvert everyone's expectations,” she says. “They've been heavier than I could have anticipated, and there's a lot of pressure that comes with them. The cliff-edge is omnipresent, and it's been up to me to ignore it and make an album with real twists and turns to it. I ended up having a lot of fun with it.”

Megaflower is the first FFMB album to feature the full live ensemble in the studio with Dillon: guitarists Caleb Widener and Christian Driscoll, plus the rhythm section of bassist Marli Smales and drummer Luke Hanson. With co-production (alongside Dillon) and mixing handled by the award-winning Tony Buchen (Smashing Pumpkins, Kirin J Callinan, Troye Sivan), Megaflower's widescreen vision is fully realised by Dillon's circle of trust. “I really appreciate my bandmates for sticking around and being on this ride with me” she says. “It's been epic – it's exciting being an underground, rock'n'roll band pulled from the West End of Brisbane onto the world stage.”

As for Buchen, Dillon is quick to emphasise how much he helped the course of proceedings. “As soon as we met, I felt that the record was in safe hands” she says. “We had these very intensive weeks of mixing the album, where I'd be up working until the early hours to get it right. Tony was a real guide – I could tell by what he was responding to and the tracks that he was gravitating towards what the vibe of the record was going to be. I felt ecstatic – he's become someone that I completely trust.”

In addition to Megaflower's explorative sound, Dillon also notes that a lot of the fun that came with making the album was its wry streak of humour. Super Like came from a fascination with Tinder Gold and the men who opt for it, while the aforementioned Man Hands and the slinking Alpha playful ogles and toys with both masculinity and working-class coarseness. “It's a very cheeky, sarcastic album”, says Dillon. “You could read the lyrics like prose, I think. There's a funny take on the modern age in there, from a lot of varying perspectives.”

To celebrate the release of Megaflower, Dillon and co. are set to take it on the road this August to September with a series of Australian headliners. Tickets for that are on sale now via https://www.fullflowermoonband.com/tour, and likely won't last very long. In the meantime, Dillon hopes you get well acquainted with Full Flower Moon Band's new terrain – and, with a hushed awe, behold the Megaflower.

“I would hope that ideally, people put this on and hit a sense of pleasurable listening,” she concludes. “Every single song feels like it's there for a reason. I hope they feel liberated listening to it, because we go everywhere together. I hope people enjoy the generosity of that emotion and pick up on the fearlessness of it, and get a sense of fearlessness themselves – because that's what it took.”

Full Flower Moon Bands third studio album Megaflower is out now.