Ladyhawke

Embracing the bright soundscapes of classic ‘80s synth-pop and gritty ‘90s angst, Ladyhawke builds expansive, genre-blurring songs. Born Phillipa Margaret “Pip” Brown in New Zealand in 1979 and raised in a musical family, she was playing in grunge bands before she finished secondary school. In the early 2000s, she played in punk band Two Lane Blacktop and art-rock group Teenager until the latter’s Nick Littlemore heard her solo tunes and advised her to strike out on her own. Equal parts brash, fizzy and dramatic, her 2008 self-titled debut was packed with hooks, as singles like the relentless “My Delirium” or the incendiary, disco-inflected “Paris Is Burning” attest. In 2012, she laid into the fuzzed-out guitars of her ‘90s influences for Anxiety, where twisted, bristling indie-pop songs like “Black White & Blue” detailed her experience with Asperger’s Syndrome. Brown has never shied away from exploring her personal life through her music: 2016’s Wild Things brimmed with joyful fare like the soaring “A Love Song”, while 2021’s sophisticated Time Flies confronted depression with heavy, catchy pop.