Kiwi Brown takes flight

ANTIPODEAN synth-rocker Ladyhawke is touted as the indie-electro-pop queen in waiting – but the soon-to-be-massive Kiwi is determined to keep her feet firmly on the ground.

"I know hype is a scary thing because I've watched the way these things work over the years," says the straw-blonde singer, who plugs her self-titled debut album at Cabaret Voltaire tonight.

"You see the way the press build things up and tear them down, so I'm keeping a level head and enjoying the fact I've an album out."

Ladyhawke, otherwise known as Pip Brown, hails from a small town in New Zealand, where as a child she looked up to the likes of David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and grunge bands.

She was brought up in Masterton, where her mum is a singer and her grandfather a respected jazz drummer.

"I was always brought up around music," she says. "When I was younger I was in a brass band, a marching band and heaps of school bands. I play drums and percussion instruments like the glockenspiel, I learnt how to read percussion and to play the guitar.

"There are a lot of musicians who've come from Masterton and gone on to do things elsewhere. I moved to Wellington when I was 18, which had an impact on me, as Wellington is the music centre of New Zealand and really cultural. There are always bands playing and cool clubs, even though it's a tiny city."

So how did she go from being in the school marching band to becoming a solo singer?

"I think it was just an evolutionary process, from one step to another," she explains. "I got all of the grounding doing things like the school brass bands and then, when I was confident enough, I decided to join a school band as a guitarist, and as my confidence grew I started to do more and more things before I was finally confident enough to go solo."

After a short spell living in Wellington, she moved first to Melbourne and then Sydney.

"I was in a band in New Zealand called Two Lane Blacktop and we broke up," she says. "I just needed to get out as I was just so devastated by the break-up. I had a couple of friends in Melbourne so I decided to go there, I knew it was rich with bands and music."

And then came the move to London. "It was around the same time I was getting signed and I thought: Why not? I'm not getting any younger, I should see what I can do in London and I've got the rest of my life to spend in New Zealand if I want, so I might as well give it a go," she says.

"The vibe in London is one of the best music scenes in the world, if not the best, alongside New York. You can play a different venue every day and get a different crowd, music's a huge part of English culture.

"In New Zealand the population isn't big enough. It's a bit of a shame because there's a lot of really good music coming from New Zealand right now, there just isn't the population to support it."

As well as her own UK headline tour, Ladyhawke has just released her debut album.

"I couldn't really think of a title," she laughs. "You know how sometimes people call their album one of the track names on the album? Well, none of my songs sound like an album name so I thought a self-title would be a good introduction to me."

She worked with five producers on the album, and with it picking up rave reviews and her gigs selling out, things are going well.

"Yeah I can't really process that in my brain," she smiles. "I don't really know what's going on. It's really exciting, though. I just got back from a big tour of Australia and New Zealand and all my shows were totally sold out, which really was a pretty bizarre feeling."

Given that she wasn't big when she left her homeland, it must be satisfying to return a star. "I was known on the indie circuit for other things I'd done, but not like this," she says. "The homecoming in New Zealand was mad, I was shocked by how everyone knew who I was. I had people recognise me and stop me in the street, and I've never had that before."

A big thrill for Ladyhawke was getting to play three different stages at Glastonbury. "When you're in New Zealand it's just so far away you don't think you'll ever get to go, let alone play there," she explains.
"I played the Queen's Head stage, Orange tent and Dance Lounge. The Orange tent is the charging tent where people go and charge their phones, so it was full of people watching but just there to charge their phones, receiving text messages, it was very bizarre.

"The Queen's Head tent was people who wanted to see me and the vibe was really good; the Dance Lounge was tumbleweed desolate. There were a few people but it was pretty empty, but it was really funny."

• Ladyhawke, Cabaret Voltaire, Blair Street, tonight, 7pm, £7, 0131-220 6176