Ladyhawke

All Music Guide:

New Zealand-born Phillipa "Pip" Brown got her start as lead guitarist in the Wellington-based band Two Lane Blacktop in 2001. Just as the group was set to head to Australia to tour with Modey Lemon, they suddenly dissolved. Brown decided to continue on with the plan to travel to Australia, and ended up relocating to Melbourne in 2003. Once there she met up with Nick Littlemore of the Sydney-based band Pnau (and later Empire of the Sun) and he asked her to play in his new band Teenager. They gigged together for a few years, releasing the album Thirteen in 2006 before, at Littlemore's urging, Brown set off on a solo career. Dubbing herself Ladyhawke after the 1985 Richard Donner movie, she began recording her solo album with producers Pascal Gabriel and Hannah Robinson. Released by Modular in 2008, Ladyhawke was a hit in Brown's native country, and the modern pop sound and catchy hooks made it a success elsewhere (namely Australia and the U.K.) as well. After a year spent touring and promoting the album, Brown returned to the studio with Gabriel to work on a follow-up, but the sessions fell apart due to Brown's post-tour exhaustion. After taking a break, the pair began working in Gabriel's studio in France; in 2012, her second album, Anxiety, was co-released by Modular and the rejuvenated Casablanca label. The record's lyrics dealt honestly with the Asperger's Syndrome that Brown was diagnosed with in 2006 and featured a stripped-down feel that leaned more toward the harder edges of the '90s alternative rock scene, rather than the more dancefloor-oriented, '80s-influenced sound of her debut.

Wikipedia:

Phillipa Margaret "Pip" Brown (born 13 July 1979), better known by her stage name Ladyhawke, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She was part of the Wellington-based band Two Lane Blacktop (2001–2003), named for the 1971 road film of the same name. After moving to Australia, she formed the Sydney-based art rock band Teenager in 2004 with Nick Littlemore of Pnau (and later Empire of the Sun). Ladyhawke took her stage name from Richard Donner's 1985 film of the same name. In 2007 she relocated to London. She is best known for her hit singles "Paris Is Burning" and "My Delirium". Her self-titled debut album was released on 22 September 2008 on Modular Recordings and topped the RIANZ Albums Chart. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2009, Ladyhawke won Breakthrough Artist in both album and single categories. Her second album Anxiety was released in May 2012.

Early life [edit]

Phillipa Margaret Brown was born on 13 July 1979 in Masterton, a town in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. She came from a musical family, with her mother being a singer–guitarist and her stepfather, a jazz drummer. During her childhood, various illnesses and allergies kept her in and out of hospital. At age ten she contracted erysipeloid, a disease that is common in seagulls but had not been seen in humans in New Zealand for twenty years. Her allergies to antibiotics, penicillin and antihistamines greatly complicated treatment efforts and almost put her into a coma, and she came close to dying.

Brown has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. She believes that the large amount of her childhood she spent absorbed in music, be it listening to the radio or to her mother's Beatles and Pretenders albums, was attributable to this syndrome.

While attending Chanel College, she played in several grunge bands. After high school, Brown moved from Masterton to Wellington.

Recording career [edit]

Two Lane Blacktop [edit]

In 2001 in Wellington, Brown formed the band Two Lane Blacktop with some friends, playing lead guitar. She described the group as being "like Iggy and The Stooges meets The Clash". She cites her experience playing the notorious New York City club CBGB with Two Lane Blacktop as being a defining moment. In 2003 Two Lane Blacktop disbanded when their lead singer, Matt Harrop, and drummer, Phil Smiley, both quit the band two days prior to a scheduled tour of Australia with Modey Lemon, after which they were due to play at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Brown then made the impulsive decision to take her flight to Australia anyway, and she relocated to Melbourne.

Teenager [edit]

Some time after Brown's move to Melbourne, Sydney-based musician Nick Littlemore of Pnau (he later formed Empire of the Sun) heard of her relocation and asked her if she was interested in joining an art rock band he had started called Teenager. Brown liked Littlemore's music and, in 2004, decided to join. Brown and Littlemore played together for two years, with Brown relocating to Sydney to be closer to the band, as well as other people she enjoyed playing and writing music with. Teenager's song "Pony" is featured in the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

Teenager issued their debut album, Thirteen, as well as the related singles "Pony" and "Bound and Gagged", in 2006. Mess + Noise's Craig Mathieson described the album as "a pop record, albeit a particularly exotic species that equally suggests creative guile and hints of self-indulgence ... 'Pony' is the closest the album comes to cheap genre holidaying, approximating rock attitude when the organic and desperate growth of 'Bound And Gagged' is so much more impressive". Brown and Littlemore co-wrote "Alone Again" and "West" for Teenager. Soon after the album's appearance Brown left to concentrate on her career as Ladyhawke, she later credited Littlemore:

I was quite happy playing guitar [in Teenager], contributing my ideas and stepping back [...] [Littlemore] heard me singing a song, and rushed in and said, "What’s that?" I was like, "It’s just like, you know..." [...] I had a Myspace page, calling myself Ladyhawke with a couple of rough demos up there. Nick was like, "That's cool, you should really follow that up. You just need to get in a studio and record it". So we jumped in the car, and he drove me out to his parents' house, and we recorded that song ... that was the start for me, where he helped me get the confidence.

Solo career [edit]

Still close with Littlemore, Brown decided to leave Teenager to focus on a personal project she had been developing for some time, a persona she had dubbed Ladyhawke. She named herself so after a character played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1985 film of the same name because she sees herself as "a sort of pop superwoman creating radio-friendly songs with a single bound". Brown says she started Ladyhawke out of a desire to do her own project where she could completely express herself in any way she wanted. She says: "I wanted to make music that could put a smile on peoples faces and give them a feeling of nostalgia even though they may be hearing my songs for the first time. I love how music evokes memories of a certain time, I wanted to see if I could find a method of songwriting that would evoke those feelings from me on writing the song and then on the individual when listening to it for the first time."

Ladyhawke's eponymous debut album Ladyhawke was released on 22 September 2008 by Modular Recordings. The album topped the albums chart in New Zealand one year after its release, in October 2009, and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand for sales in excess of 15,000 copies. In both Australia and the United Kingdom, it reached number sixteen, and was certified gold. Its biggest hit single was "My Delirium", which charted inside the top ten in both New Zealand and Australia.

Ladyhawke appeared for the first time in a Triple J Hottest 100 with two entries in the 2008 countdown; "My Delirium" at number eleven and "Paris Is Burning" at number twenty-six. Pnau's song "Embrace", which features Ladyhawke, was voted in at number twelve. Brown was nominated for an NME Award for Best Solo Artist.

A limited 7-inch version of "Back of the Van"—each one hand painted by Sarah Larnach—was sold on eBay. All proceeds were given to the Parkinsons Society of New Zealand.

In August 2009 it was announced that she would co-headline a North American tour with Ida Maria, starting 10 September in Atlanta and concluding 3 October in Los Angeles. The tour was sponsored by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.

In April 2011, Ladyhawke stated that she was preparing to release new material in the following months. Her second album was initially scheduled for an October 2011 release, but in September, a spokesperson stated that it was not due to be released until 2012. It was later announced that the album was due for release in March 2012, and that it would be titled Anxiety. Anxiety's release date was later pushed back to May 2012.

In an interview with Digital Spy, Ladyhawke said "I've made an album I'm really proud of, so I just can't wait to start playing with the band again, and touring and having some fun. I can't wait to get back into it."

"Black White & Blue" was released as Anxiety's lead single on 24 January 2012. The single "Sunday Drive" followed in April, and the album itself was released in late May. In July 2012, a third single, "Blue Eyes", was released.

On 28th March 2013 via her Instagram, she announced she would return to the studio to record her third solo album.

Collaborations [edit]

Ladyhawke collaborated with Pnau on "Embrace" from the duo's 2007 self-titled album, one of their best-known songs.

The Charlatans' Tim Burgess said in September 2010 that he is collaborating with Ladyhawke and members of The Horrors and Klaxons on his second solo album. "I've been working with Josh [Hayward], the guitarist from The Horrors and Stefan [Halperin], the drummer from the Klaxons and right now we can only do stuff when our other bands aren't doing things. But when we do get together, it's really explosive and it'll be well worth waiting for. I've also got Ladyhawke singing on it." In December 2011, Burgess revealed that he had collaborated with Ladyhawke on a song entitled "Just One Kiss".

In 2011, Ladyhawke collaborated with New Zealand singer Nik Brinkman, better known as Junica, on the single "Living in My House". Also in 2011, she remixed American singer Alex Winston's song "Sister Wife".

Influences and comparisons [edit]

Ladyhawke is noted as being influenced by 1980s music. She has been linked to a wave of 1980s-influenced, individualistic, androgynous female musicians in their twenties who emerged in the late 2000s.

Brown also draws inspiration from music of the '90s. "Listening to Nirvana takes me back to being fourteen at the school disco. Bands from the nineties have that effect on me."

Peaches, to whom Ladyhawke's music has been compared, remixed the single "Paris Is Burning", and the two have performed together, with Peaches taking DJ duties. Ladyhawke's music has also been likened to that of Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar, Kim Wilde, Annie and New Young Pony Club.

Brown has stated that her five favourite albums of all time are Hunky Dory (1971) by David Bowie, Time (1981) by ELO and three Fleetwood Mac albums: Fleetwood Mac (it is unclear whether she was referring to the 1968 album or the 1975 album), Rumours (1977), and Tango in the Night (1987).

Other pursuits [edit]

Ladyhawke appeared as herself in the third episode of the British ITV2 sitcom FM, originally aired 11 March 2009. Also in 2009, Ladyhawke designed Music Inspired Art labels for limited edition bottles of Beck's. Labels were illustrated by Sydney-based artist Sarah Larnach, who lived with Ladyhawke back when she was first getting started on her music career.

Personal life [edit]

Brown dresses in men's and boys' clothing. She likes wearing hoodies, tight jeans and big boots. Her jeans are slung low enough to reveal boys' underwear. She said, "I don't wear women's clothes because I'd feel like a fraud. It's not just that the cut is all wrong on me, I feel much more of an individual in menswear." She feels that "I don't lose any aspect of my femininity by wearing boys' clothes".

Brown is a fan of video games, describing herself as "a big, big gamer".

Awards [edit]