When you hit play on a Ladyhawke song, you might feel like you've been transported back in time - or had a song transported forward in time.
The Kiwi musician has a remarkable knack for creating modern music that somehow sounds like music you loved many, many years ago, but was lost for decades until she unearthed it for you.
"That's the feeling I've been obsessed with for as long as I can remember: Creating nostalgia from something that hasn't existed before," she tells Newshub.
"I love trying to capture that feeling that makes you feel nostalgic when you listen to a song, even though you might be hearing it for the first time. That's something I love to do with music and I'm always playing around with it."
She certainly played around with it on her latest album, Time Flies, which critics say sounds more like her 2008 debut than all the music she's released in between.
While many of us were able to take time off during this year's COVID-19 lockdown, Ladyhawke was busy. She wasn't only finishing off this new record but also frequently livestreaming to thousands on her Twitch channel and, of course, juggling all that with raising her four-year-old daughter.
Now, she's bathing in the warmth of having Time Flies finally released.
"It's been like a huge relief to have released the album. I feel amazing - I feel great to have it out and the response has absolutely blown me away. It just feels like overwhelming positivity, which has been really nice."
She says making the album provided her catharsis as the pandemic raged around the world.
"When it came time to actually get stuck into the record, I was just so happy to be making music. I felt a new sense of gratitude to be doing what I was doing - I felt privileged," says Ladyhawke.
"It's hard being a musician, you know? You're not taking the easy path in life. But I really did feel like this is something I love doing, it brings me so much joy. And that came out in the record - me working through everything and feeling this overwhelming sense of joy to be making music."
Now she's preparing for her first bunch of live shows in several months.
Of course, every live musician in New Zealand will be excited about a return to the stage, but Ladyhawke has the added excitement of having brand-new songs out she'll get to hear sung back to her from a crowd for the very first time.
"I'd love to hear people singing 'Guilty Love'. It's quite a rocky song and I can imagine it at a festival, you know? I mean, anything that the crowd sings along to just blows my mind, every single time. I'm stoked with whatever anyone wants to sing along to, even if it's the wrong words. I don't care!"
'Guilty Love' is a collaboration with Broods and came about when Ladyhawke and Georgia Nott bonded over their Catholic upbringing.
It was released in March as a single, along with a video directed by Lula Cucchiara that vividly brings to life the song's themes.
"We came up with the idea for the song after talking about our shared experiences growing up Catholic and going to Catholic school. We wrote the song about how that affected us," says Ladyhawke.
"Whenever you're being taught that things are 'incorrect' but you're feeling them anyway, I think that's quite dangerous. I have a lot of good memories from my time in school, but I also have some bad ones that I don't think are going to go away, ever. And I know a lot of other people do as well."
Why the fourth album sounds like her first
Time Flies was released in November just over 13 years after the release of the self-titled debut from Ladyhawke, real name Pip Brown.
Although that first album came out during a very different time in her life, critics are hearing a lot of similarities in her latest release.
- "Time Flies is a glitzy reminder of everything that made Ladyhawke unique when the New Zealander first emerged with her self-titled debut album in 2008," wrote Leonie Cooper for The Guardian.
- "Brown's latest record seems freer than 2012's Anxiety and 2016's Wild Things," added Belinda Quinn for NME.
- "Time Flies is the sonically lightest, most hook-filled Ladyhawke album since her debut album, and rhythmically catchy single 'Think About You' is shaping up to become another of her signature songs," said Amanda Mills for NZ Musician.
"That doesn't surprise me. I feel like I came to this record in a similar state of mind to when I was working on my first record," says Ladyhawke.
"On the first record I was a complete unknown and I'd never done anything like that before. I'd always been in bands playing guitar or drums, so I was new to being a solo artist and I had no expectations whatsoever. I didn't put any pressure on myself and just thought if anyone liked my music, I'd be happy.
"As the years went by I got a little bit burned and jaded - as we all do - but then making Time Flies that old feeling came back. I was just so excited to see what happened and I felt that same feeling again of no expectations. I didn't have any expectations for this record, I just wanted to make it."
While COVID-19 delayed her 2021 tour dates, Ladyhawke was able to do one gig in November - a virtual concert broadcast live via her Twitch channel.
And it was a hit - at the time of publishing, the video is just shy of hitting 100,000 views.
The power of Twitch
Part of the reason that broadcast did so well is that Ladyhawke is already a well-established Twitch streamer. An avid gamer, she's built up close to 3000 subscribers on her channel where she invites people to observe and even take part in her gaming sessions.
"People call it 'backseat gaming' and I love it, I love laughing along with them. I'm like, 'yeah, tell me what to do. I'm stuck - what do I do here?' I love getting everyone involved with whatever game I'm playing."
That passion is supremely obvious the instant you watch Ladyhawke on Twitch. She may have a reputation as being shy - at least when she's not performing onstage - but on Twitch it's clear she's having a hell of a lot of fun and not holding anything back.
"I've really come into my own since streaming on Twitch, I've found a new confidence," she says.
"I love it because I've gotten to know my community and the people that come and hang out with me every time I stream. We're friends! I've made proper friends through it and it just brings me a lot of joy."
She says she's definitely keen to do more live music on Twitch, too; even though she couldn't stop reading the live chat as it was projected on a wall in the studio.
Of course, the internet can be wild and filled with toxicity, trolls and plain old nastiness. But for Ladyhawke and her fans, their Twitch community is quite the opposite; it's a haven for like-minded folk to relax and have fun.
"Depending on what you're looking for, I think it's really good to seek out streamers that encourage a safe space. For example if you're a female gamer and you want to be in a safe space and watching another female gamer, you can find that by typing the right things into the search bar," she says.
"You can type in 'LGBTQIA', I think you can type in 'female' or 'trans', 'nonbinary' - anything like that. Then you can find gamers all over the world who are streaming with those tags. I always stream with the LGBTQIA tag just so that people know it's an inclusive, safe space to come and hang out.
"Then we've got mods who moderate the chat - just for the love of it. So if anyone comes in and tries to troll, they get rid of it usually before I even see it. It's really cool."
- Watch the full interview with LadyHawke below:
Love for The Last of Us
Ladyhawke says recently she's been playing a lot of Civilization VI recently, but as for her favourite game of all time? She doesn't have to think about it for a moment, instantly revealing it to be The Last of Us.
The 2013 PlayStation release is regarded by many as the greatest game of all time, but the 2020 sequel was somewhat controversial. It earned a large collection of industry awards and millions of fans, but it ambitiously took some big gambles with its narrative that upset some players.
Not Ladyhawke, however - she says she's obsessed with The Last of Us Part II.
"They absolutely knocked it out of the park. I was just blown away by it, it drew me in so well and made me so emotional," she says.
"I thought it was so clever the way they made you feel for both Ellie and Abby, the two main characters and bitter enemies. It teaches you that no one's innocent and everyone's the villain.
"The story is amazing, and there are queer characters and a trans character - it's just such a great game."
It's also the sort of game Ladyhawke doesn't like to share on Twitch.
"There's only certain games I'll stream. I won't stream a big story game because I want to get lost in it - I want to get immersed in it and just forget.
"So I didn't stream Ghost of Tsushima when I played it. I tried streaming The Last of Us Part II after I'd already played through it the first time but even then, I couldn't concentrate, I kept looking at the chat."
She's also very excited to see the upcoming Last of Us TV show, but is avoiding coverage on it so it'll all be a surprise when she eventually gets to watch it.
Ladyhawke's upcoming live shows
In January, Ladyhawke is playing at Dance Farm in Whangamata and Nest Fest in Hastings, then touring Australia through February and March.
She's then back in Aotearoa for Wellington's Homegrown Festival on March 19 before her rescheduled solo shows, which are set for:
- Friday April 8, 2022 - San Fran, Wellington
- Saturday April 9, 2022 - Blue Smoke, Christchurch
- Friday April 22, 2022 - The Hollywood, Auckland
Before those, you can listen to Time Flies and her three previous albums, and have a chat with her on Twitch.
