Not afraid to plunder the uncool sections of her record collection, New Zealand’s Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, has crafted 13 instantly accessible songs on a self-titled debut influenced by synth-pop, new wave and AOR in equal measure. The songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s album plays like a who’s who of ’80s pop: “Professional Suicide” could be a lost Gary Numan single. The storming chorus of “My Delirium” echoes the power pop of The Bangles. Best of all, “Back Of The Van” is The Pretenders meets Van Halen’s “Jump”.

by Mark Emge

Not afraid to plunder both the cool and distinctly uncool sections of her record collection, New Zealand’s Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, has crafted 13 instantly accessible songs on her self-titled debut, each of which is a potential hit. Heavily influenced by synth-pop, new wave, and AOR in equal measure, the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s album plays like a who’s who of ’80s pop: “Professional Suicide” could be a lost Gary Numan single. The storming chorus of “My Delirium” echoes the power pop of The Bangles. Best of all, “Back Of The Van” is the Pretenders meets Van Halen’s “Jump”.

by Mark Emge

Not long after New Zealand band Two Lane Blacktop (named after a Monte Hellman movie) split in 2003, guitarist/vocalist Pip Brown moved to Australia. While living in Sydney, Pip worked with several bands, but by 2006 she had begun creating songs on her own, playing all of the instruments, under the name Ladyhawke (named after a Richard Donner movie!). Brown relocated once more at the end of 2007, this time to London. “Paris Is Burning”, her debut single, is garnering notice in the UK. Find out what the fuss is about at www.ladyhawkemusic.com.

by Mark Emge

New Zealander Pip Brown, also known as Ladyhawke, is set to release her debut album, “Paris Is Burning”, on 18 November 2008 through Modular Records. Her musical influences growing up in the ’80s were Stevie Nicks, Deep Purple and Joan Jett. A true artist, Pip wrote, arranged and played four instruments throughout the album. Ladyhawke is also a huge fan of arcade games, so much so that she put her own game on her site for her fans to play. You can check it out at www.ladyhawkemusic.com/game.

by Victor Caballero