Ladyhawke’s Favourite Top Five Albums

Despite Ladyhawke’s busy schedule, the New Zealand musician talked to ELLE.com about the albums that have changed her life and turned her into the synth-pop maestro she is today.

Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, has already had a huge summer. Her third studio album, Wild Things, came out in June, and she’s just finished up a tour with sold out shows in Australia. Now, she has a new video for the title song title track, which sees roller derby teams battle each other against a background of rippling synths.

Brown says although Michael Jackson’s Bad is not her favourite album, it changed things for her.

“I got it for my eighth birthday. We didn’t have much money growing up, so being given music, tapes, whatever, was a really big deal. It was the first thing that I ever owned on a cassette tape. And I really, really wanted Bad – so badly!

“I loved his drum beats. They were sort of industrial and massive. And his electric guitars always sounded unworldly; they never sounded like normal electric guitars. They were these sort of alien sounds.”

Fleetwood Mac’s 1987 album Tango in the Night is another to make her top five.

“I met this guy named Michael de Francesco in Australia, who loved ‘80s music,” Brown explains. “He gave me a mix CD and put Tango in the Night on it. He was like, ‘If you are going to make an album, you should listen to this.’

“Christine McVie plays the synth, which is sort of stamped all over the record. It is by far Fleetwood Mac’s most ‘80s album. If you asked a lot of people, they would not say this was their favorite Fleetwood Mac album; they would say Rumours or Tusk. But Tango in the Night was essential for me in the early stages of my first record.”

Original article by Estelle Tang, ELLE, July 20, 2016.