Music > Interviews

Interview with Ladyhawke

02/05/12

There must have been some ancient Antipodean magic swirling around the heads of New Zealand’s Pip Brown and the Aussie Nick Littlemore around the time they formed the duo Teenager in 2004. One, Nick, would go off to form Empire of the Sun, and the other, complex and talented Pip would evolve into Ladyhawke, both of which acts provided the psychedelic soundtrack to 2008 with their respective debuts. Was it magic, or does talent and musical intuition and taste of that order attract each other? Whatever the reason for the magnetism, we’re glad it repelled to give us two treasured acts. Ladyhawke now brings us her sophomore from the comfortable position inside our hearts and feet, but to talk to her, she doesn’t believe it…

You’re coming to Norwich next month as part of what is a fairly hefty tour around the UK, aren’t you? Yes, that’s true. If I remember correctly, I think Norwich is one of the last dates on the tour as well.

It’s getting towards it, yes. Have you trawled your way round the UK so extensively before? I don’t think I’ve played in Norwich before, but I definitely think I’ve been to Norwich.

Just for general pleasure purposes? Well… I don’t know because I’ve been to so many places around the UK because I was touring for like 2 years and I ended up going to so many places and not always playing in every place I went to, just passing through, or stopping for some lunch or something. I have a feeling I have been to Norwich.

I was trying to think of what Norwich is famous for, to see if it jogged your memory, but all I could come up with was two cathedrals, so unless you were having a particularly religious day, that might not have marked your day… Well I love going to big old cathedrals and churches; they’re beautiful.

So you’re about to go back on tour, and I read that you used to get really nervous before shows – surely that’s dissipated now, has it? It’s definitely eased off a little bit, but because I’m touring a new album, like the shows I’ve done so far, I’ve been more nervous than I ever was in the past. I’m not sure why, I know that it’ll be fine; once I’ve got the first show over and done with on this tour I think I’ll be OK, but one of the big things is knowing that people don’t know my stuff yet. They don’t know my new album because it’s not out, so I worry that people will be bored and just want to hear stuff off my first album… which I will play! That’s one of my main worries.

I wanted to talk to you about New Zealand - I interviewed the Naked and Famous and they said the music press there are pretty brutal, like they’re not quite sure whether they want you to do well, or let you go… Yeah, it’s a bit of a shame, it’s like you get any sort of praise or success overseas and you sorta get slammed in New Zealand. We call it ‘tall poppy syndrome’, like if you grow taller than any other poppies you get cut down to size. I was gone for such a long time, like I left in 2003, but still I was in a band and sort of in the music scene when I was living there and everyone knew who I was because I was this sort of rock chick in this band and we had lots of mates and it was a really good time, but still, I wanted to get out and see the world. I remember, before I even started Ladyhawke, getting some people saying ‘Oh, look who’s too good for New Zealand!’ which is a shame really! And still I struggle in New Zealand, like out of everywhere, I seem to go down best here [in the UK]. Obviously in New Zealand they love me, but it’s been quite hard and sometimes I dread going back there for tours.

The Naked and Famous said they’d received their single best critical praise and their worst insults from the same paper. It seems someone who’s crazed with love – they don’t know how to act with you. Well the sad thing about the papers is that they’re so desperate because everyone’s going online and papers are becoming obsolete, so they’ve resorted to tabloid journalism and there’ll be a headline like ‘Ladyhawke about to release her album, ‘Anxiety’ and if it doesn’t get many hits, they’ll change it to ‘Ladyhawke has dramatic breakdown’, and they actually did that! That’s how bad it is, so I imagine The Naked and Famous would have suffered from that as well.

I know you had Australia in the middle, but how did the momentum shift musically when you came to London? Erm, it just sort of snowballed. It was a slow snowball though; I had like half the album done when I first came to the UK and I had no label and no management or anything, so I just kept working for Pascal and stuff and getting the album done, then the next thing I know, I’m doing shows. I started playing shows and they were really nothing shows you know, like no-one came, but word of mouth slowly built up over the year. I did so much touring that I wouldn’t change a thing because all that touring helped word of mouth get around, and got people hearing the record. I just loved it because I felt that from the minute I got here, people wanted to help me; there was a lot of love and support.

I can’t imagine 2008 now without the Ladyhawke debut and also the Walking on a Dream album, which is strange, so I wondered what you think the musical tapestry would have been like for you had you not gone your separate ways? Oh wow, me and Nick, erm I don’t know; I think we were always destined to go our separate ways, you know? He’s a man with many fingers in many pies, he’s a producer – like that’s his main thing, he’s just a really creative guy. He’s the one that heard me quietly singing and playing guitar; I was at his house and we recorded the sides for this song I’d written at home and he kept saying, ‘Man, you’re a star darling, you’re a star’ – you’ll know what I mean if you ever meet him! He has this like half-British accent from spending so much time here and being Australian. I had no confidence, like, I was just used to being the guitarist off to side and I was quite happy there, but he kept telling me I could do it. Luckily it worked out and I’d love to do more stuff with him one day.

This new album is allowing me to enjoy memories of early 90s bands and the time when I started to develop my individual music taste – British bands like Elastica and Garbage. I wondered if you had that time in your childhood where you started to stamp out your own tastes? Yeah, yeah, that was the same sort of era for me, like 90s and I remember I always liked a whole variety of music anyway, I didn’t stick to one thing, but when I became a teenager, because I was a drummer as well, I started getting in to much heavier guitar music. I really loved Garbage; I bought a ticket when they came to New Zealand and I lived in a really small town. I bought the ticket to see them in Wellington and my mum wouldn’t let me go! I’d saved up and I had like three jobs and to this day she can’t remember and feels so bad! I always bring it up, like ‘do you remember that time you wouldn’t let me go and see Garbage?!’ I loved Ash as well – I remember they were touring with Ash, I mean, I can’t believe they were supporting Ash, that’s amazing, such a cool line-up! I was into Nirvana as well, like the heavier the better but I loved a good hook as well – that’s always what reeled me in.

You went home for a while, I read, but you ended up writing most of it with your producer in France – is the studio very conducive place to writing for you, or is there a perfect place you like to be in? Well I like homely environments and I never work in a big, fancy studio at all – I just like being in somebody’s home, you know. Pascal, that’s the only way he works; he likes his home comforts and his studio is just like a little room and he’s got like cool lamps and cool posters and pictures and gadgets and toys and instruments, like a really cosy room with a couch and his cat comes in and curls next to me. It’s just really cool and that’s the way I prefer to work. It just feels more relaxed and I can be creative that way.

And are you a coffee and pencils girl, or word processor and tea kind of girl? I have never tasted coffee in my life! I’ve never had a cup of coffee, but I have a book and I usually just sit down with the guitar or drums or something and bash something out, create a rough idea and see if it sounds inspiring to me, you know. Once that’s done, I’ll just sort of scribble some lyrics out.

I was listening to ‘Cellophane’ off the new album and it’s the slowest track you’ve made; that kind of expansion often demands bravery, I think, to slow something down. Do you think you’re at the bravest, musically, that you have been? Yeah, I definitely feel like I’ve become more confident in my own songwriting, like I feel more self-assured and I used t feel a bit more guarded, like ‘if I sing about things that are a bit too dark, it’s opening myself up too much’, you know. I just played ‘Cellophane’ for the first time live actually the other day, just to see how it would go and it sounded so good – it really changes the pace of the set though; it goes from being really upbeat to ‘Cellophane’ – BAM!

I was thinking about the way you’re able to evoke decades past, and I was also thinking about some of the places you’ve played, like CBGB’s before it closed – with venues like that, could you feel yourself as part of a long musical lineage while you were there? Ooh, that’s a good question, I don’t know; definitely the CBGB’s thing was really cool because I was pretty young, just playing guitar in a rock band and we were pretty DIY, like had no money, just saved up had to do things ourselves, but yeah, that was amazing. It blew my mind because we played a lot of other cool places as well like the Troubadour in LA and I remember back then being really excited about everything because that’s where the rock ‘n’ roll explosion sort of happened with bands like The Strokes and The Vines, The Datsuns and all those bands who were coming out and I felt like I was playing my tiny little role in it, you know! I felt like I was part of it even though we were just some scrappy little punk rock band from New Zealand!

That was an awesome time – I was just going to university and it was like the dust was blown off a thousand guitars at once. Now Pip, you’re coming to Norwich next month and we know you’re gonna bring us an awesome show to us, we’re so excited about it, but what, as an audience can we bring for you? Ooh, I guess just not too cynical! I hate cynicism, like when people are really cynical you get people who come not to enjoy it, but almost to see if I’ll slip up and I really don’t want them to do that!

I don’t think people have enough money for cynicism any more – they have to genuinely love something to buy a ticket, which is cool… That’s a good point! I don’t know – just come with an open mind I guess and try and pretend that you’re singing along just to make me feel better, even if you don’t know the words!

Emma Garwood

Ladyhawke brings her headline show to The Waterfront on May 8th. For tickets, go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk.