There’s a reason why Pip Brown goes under her stage name of Ladyhawke.
Not only did she want to be on people’s lips for longer – but if Brown referred to her actual first name, the Kiwi muso ran the risk of being mistaken as an adult entertainment star in some countries.
“Pip is almost too brief, plus it means ‘hand job’ in French, and ‘Pippa’ means ‘fucking’ in Swedish,” she said.
“So whenever I’m in France, I introduce myself as Phillipa to avoid the remarks from the crowd.”
Introductions are about as interactive as Ladyhawke gets on stage – she admits that she likes to focus on the music and isn’t the best at ‘between song banter’.
“It usually involves me accidentally hitting my head on the microphone and causing feedback.” she said.
“I’ve cut my lip doing it before… I don’t have a good relationship with the microphone at times.”
Having said that, it’s uncertain whether there’ll be any doctors on standby if a repeat incident occurs when Ladyhawke tours Australia for club shows in July.
The tour is in support of her upcoming album Anxiety – which hits the shops next month.
Ladyhawke admits she had ‘second-album syndrome’ thrown upon her almost instantly as she worked on the follow-up to her self-titled debut.
“I had a lot of people say that to me before I even started writing it…so that almost prompted me into over-thinking it too much,” she said.
“But once I got into the swing of it I was fine.”
She believes the album is a lot more ‘dark’ compared with its predecessor.
“It’s sort of still pop, but grittier and more lo-fi guitar based,” she said.
“I can’t wait till it’s out, it’s gonna be good.”
The new material has already caught the attention of some of Ladyhawke’s favourite artists, including the Scissor Sisters – who have done a remix of her latest single Sunday Drive.
“I was really stoked about Scissor Sisters cause I’ve been a massive fan of theirs and I was hoping they’d do something,” she said.
“Our albums are coming out at the same time and I knew they were super busy…but it got pulled out of the bag at the last minute, so it’s awesome to have that support.”
Anxiety is out on May 25. Ladyhawke plays in Melbourne, Canberra, Newcastle, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide in July – and also at Splendour In The Grass in Byron Bay. For all the details on the shows click here.
