Kiwi pop star Ladyhawke makes music comeback and books Australian tour after cancer scare

It’s been five years between albums for Ladyhawke with the Kiwi pop artist sharing her terrifying health scare after the joyous birth of her daughter.

Indie pop queen Ladyhawke did a lot of living – and fighting for her life – in the five years between albums.

The Kiwi artist, known as Pip Brown when not being a fabulous pop star, had a wealth of experiences to draw from when writing the songs for her fourth record, Time Flies, which will be released in October.

The triumphant – the birth of her daughter Billy Jean with actor wife Madeleine Sami. And the traumatic – a police shooting metres from the front door of her Los Angles home and a diagnosis and treatment for melanoma and ongoing battle with depression.

New Zealand artist Ladyhawke drops new single Mixed Emotions. Picture: Supplied/ Lula Cucchiara

The My Delirium award-winning songwriter and performer had been living in Los Angeles for several years to pursue her music career when the decision to move home to New Zealand was accelerated by the post-traumatic shock she suffered after a man was shot dead by police next to her building.

Brown was pregnant and Sami was in New Zealand filming her 2018 comedy hit The Breaker Upperers.

Brown relocated back home after a police shooting near her Los Angeles home. Picture: Lula Cucchiara

“I was listening to an audiobook, heard the gunshots and then all my neighbours yelling ‘He’s got a gun!’” Brown says.

“I called Madeleine and said ‘The police just shot a man dead 20 metres from our door. I think we should move home.’

“I was pregnant and it was stressful enough … it’s been a weird thing to process. I was in shock for a while … it was surreal and I don’t even really talk about it because how could people realise something like that could happen.”

The birth of their daughter Billy Jean in New Zealand in 2017 in New Zealand, after Brown had wrapped up the global touring and promotion for her 2016 record Wild Things, seemed perfectly timed.

But their happy family bubble was burst about nine months after the birth when a suspicious mole on Brown’s leg proved to be melanoma.

The Breaker Upperers stars Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek. Picture: Annette Dew

The fair-skinned Kiwi said she could recall only one time when she was badly sunburnt on her legs and her specialist told her “that’s probably what did it.”

“The one time you don’t wear sunscreen. I just couldn’t believe it; I never really sunbathe or do any of that … it was really awful,” she says.

“It was technically a bad one and the likelihood of spread was high so they were preparing me for chemo and all that therapy.

“I got into see this incredible surgeon and he did a wide excision on the back of my leg to take out quite a large amount of flesh and removed one of the lymph nodes as well.

“It didn’t spread; I was extremely lucky but that was a bit of a nightmarish time I went through a couple of years ago.”

The new Ladyhawke album Time Flies is released in October. Picture: AAP.

While trying to sort out how to finish the songs she had started in Los Angeles via Zoom and new collaborators at home, Brown also decided to courageously tackle her depression.

“It felt like last year I changed my whole life. I decided to try medication for the first time, and it turned everything around and made me feel like a haven’t in a long time.”

Yet the first tastes of her new record have been far from a melancholic exorcism of her challenges. They are bright and shimmering pop songs which have already excited a legion of fans worldwide.

The first single Guilty Love, with fellow Kiwi sensations Broods, has had more than one million streams since it dropped in March.

The next instalment, Mixed Emotions, lands as she confirms an Australian tour to launch the Time Flies record in October.

That song was written with her longtime friend, PNAU pop magician Nick Littlemore. Their friendship and musical partnership dates back to 2004 when they formed the art rock band Teenager and he encouraged her to pursue a solo career after hearing her songs.

“Me and Nick, and this is going to sound kind of fruit, have some kind of soul connection,” she says.

“If we have multiple soulmates in the world, Nick is definitely one of mine. He’s someone that is psychically in tune with me and we come and go in each other’s lives over the years – and can go a long time without talking – but we both have such respect for each other and make something really awesome.

“It’s almost like siblings, I reckon, that deep connection we have and I don’t really have that with anyone for music.”

The Australia/New Zealand Covid-19 travel bubble has opened up touring opportunities between the countries and Brown is beyond excited about returning to play her first shows here in five years.

“I’m really excited about it even though there is that little worry in the back of my head about ‘Where is the Covid-19 hiding?’” she says, laughing.

Ladyhawke performs at The Triffid, Brisbane on October 27, Miami Marketta, Gold Coast on October 28, Factory Theatre, Sydney on October 29 and Corner Hotel, Melbourne on November 5. Frontier Touring pre-sale kicks off on June 2 with general tickets on sale from June 4.

Mixed Emotions is out now, with Time Flies released on October 8

Originally published as Kiwi pop star Ladyhawke makes music comeback and books Australian tour after cancer scare