Defamer Australia Versus Ladyhawke

Alright, ladies and gentlemen. There’s nothing I hate more than transcribing but there’s nothing I love more than you, so despite my extreme laziness, I have tapped out some of the Ladyhawke interview I did last week for your consumption. Happy?

The show which will see the very lovely Ladyhawke (aka Pip Brown) programming the playlist will be airing in January at some point on RRR 102.7FM. I’ll be sure to give you a heads up. But in the meantime, you can check out the little chat we had before I let her wreak havoc with her pop-filled iPod, and her thoughts on Bruce Springsteen AND Icehouse’s Electric Blue.

It should be noted that the latter selection, combined with her desire to spin the Baywatch theme on the radio (I AM ALWAYS DJING THAT SONG, IT IS EPIC!), means I am certain – certain – Ladyhawke is a future bestie. If Bassingthwaighte falls through, anyways.

DEFAMER AUSTRALIA VERSUS LADYHAWKE

DA: We’re very lucky to welcome our special guest Pip Brown aka Ladyhawke. How are you, Pip?

LADYHAWKE: I’m good, thank you.

DA: That’s good. Are you glad to be here?

LADYHAWKE: Oh yeah, it’s amazing.

DA: Thank you!

LADYHAWKE: (humorously overenthusiastic) AMAZING!

DA: The energy level coming from both of us, I think, is astounding.

LADYHAWKE: I feel like my brain just collapsed or something inside my head.
DA: Yeah, but then you’ve gone to some kind of pop heaven where what you’re about to do is just rule the airwaves for however long you like.

LADYHAWKE: Excellent.

DA: Obviously this has been a massively successful last couple of months for you. When did it all really blow up?

LADYHAWKE: Uhh, that’s hard to say because I’m not really sure which point is considered blowing up. I actually just found out today that my single My Delirium has gone to #33 in the UK charts which is pretty cool.

DA: That was my pick from the album! I feel pretty smug.

LADYHAWKE: No song in my entire life has ever done that well.

DA: You’ve charted! That’s forever!

LADYHAWKE: Top Forty!

DA: And then eventually you’ll be included in one of those compilations, Now That’s What I Call Music!

LADYHAWKE: (giggles) Now That’s What I Call Music #256!

DA: Exactly! It’s everything that anyone who loves pop could ever dream of!

LADYHAWKE: Yeah! (returns to subject) But I can’t think of what point it all happened.

DA: It must have been full on though. You moved to London – when exactly did you move over there?

LADYHAWKE: A year ago now, it was. It was December 3rd 2007.

DA: Was there anything promised to you over in London when you went over? Or were you like, fuck it – I’m gonna take a punt.

LADYHAWKE: Nothing was promised and… I’m such a cynic. I don’t really like the music industry and I have this kind of mental thing that I live by where I tell myself that everything I have at this particular time is all I’ll ever need so whatever happens, it’s just a life experience. Hippy kind of stuff like that. So I mentally prepared myself for pretty much just going over there and giving it a crack…

DA: … and hanging out at a Walkabout. No! Never do that!

LADYHAWKE: No! Oh my god, no! (giggles) Yeah, hanging out in some pubs, going to see some gigs… but it turns out it just got full on when I moved over and I didn’t get a chance to go and see any gigs and I just started touring straight away.

DA: Well, which is good and bad, I guess.

LADYHAWKE: No, it’s really good! I love touring!

DA: Really?

LADYHAWKE: Yeah, I do! It’s something I’ve always done, I love playing gigs…

DA: You started playing in bands at sixteen? Or was it eighteen?

LADYHAWKE: Ahh, well I started playing in my first band when I was… I think I was sixteen, yeah. I was in a geeky brass band when I was like fourteen, thirteen or something… and that was a great experience. (giggles) I actually loved it, it was very nerdy but I had heaps of fun. And then I was in a rock band at school, and then moved on to various other things after that.

DA: So you’ve always done the touring thing. And you were saying you played Glastonbury in 2008?

LADYHAWKE: Yes, I did, yeah! That was amazing – I played on the Sunday which was the last day of Glastonbury, so at that point everybody was walking around like the living dead.

DA: Pleasantly mashed.

LADYHAWKE: Yup! And it hadn’t been raining so it was all dry, which was good. And I had to do three shows in the one day, so I had to go from stage to stage to stage, and by the third stage I was ready to throw myself over a cliff, ay? (<-- note adorable NZ-ese)

DA: Oh really? (laughs)

LADYHAWKE: My roadie forgot my drummer’s drum kit.

DA: That’s gonna be a big problem in concert, I’d imagine.

LADYHAWKE: Yeah, yeah – just lucky The Presets were there and they were playing right after me, so Kim lent me his drum kit.

DA: Bless them. Is there anything those boys can’t do?

LADYHAWKE: I know! They’re really lovely guys, we’ve played so many shows together and they always end up helping me out in some way.

DA: God love ‘em.

Here we are attempting to look “chillaxed”. The snaps were themed, you know.

On Bruce Springsteen:

LADYHAWKE: I used to have a bit of a thing for Bruce Springsteen when I was five years old.

DA: Really? When I was five years old, I didn’t understand Bruce Springsteen, but now I get Bruce.

LADYHAWKE: I have a little confession – I used to imagine myself AS Bruce Springsteen when I was five years old, standing on a stage playing guitar in front of thousands of people, wearing denim on denim with the red bandanna tied around my head.

BOTH: (laugh)

DA: And did you ever have Dancing In The Dark fantasies of pulling someone up on stage with you?

LADYHAWKE: Yeah, like Monica from Friends? (laughs)

DA: Exactly! Get Courtney Cox up!

LADYHAWKE: Maybe Jennifer Aniston can join me on stage.

DA: She’s got nothing on her plate at the moment, clearly. She’s all Brad this, Brad that – shut up! You could put her in your video clip and say it’s your weird little homage to Bruce Springsteen.

On Icehouse’s Electric Blue.

DA: I have a whole CD with nothing but “Electric Blue” on it. I’m obsessed by that song by Icehouse.

LADYHAWKE: That song used to make me feel funny when I was a kid.

DA: (incredibly excited) DID IT?

LADYHAWKE: Yeah!

DA: I meant to download this other Icehouse song, and I accidentally downloaded that one – and it came on the iPod and I was like, THIS IS THE GREATEST SONG THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED

LADYHAWKE: It’s amazing! It’s the feeling that I get now, like, if I hear a song for the first time that I like, I now recognize that feeling as me absolutely loving Electric Blue. It’s the same feeling I get in my stomach when I write a good song. It’s really weird, I can’t explain it. It’s like butterflies or something.

ED: And there you have it. Ladyhawke is extremely awesome and her album is my favourite of 2008 so go out and buy it, for fucks. Also: I said I’d interview her before the year was through and I did. My god. Is this the kind of thinking Anthony Robbins is always going on about? ON JANUARY 3RD 2009 I WILL WIN THE LOTTERY. IN OCTOBER 2009 I WILL WIN AN ARIA FOR A HIP HOP COLLABORATION WITH BINDI IRWIN. NATALIE BASSINGTHWAIGHTE WILL WRITE ON MY FACEBOOK WALL. That ought to keep the gods busy for a while.