PIP Brown is back in town – this time, to perform.
St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival will showcase the internationally renowned pop songstress Ladyhawke, originally from Masterton, but whom Wellington strongly claims as our own, at the alternative music festival on February 1 at the Town Hall.
This will be Ladyhawke’s first NZ gig since last year’s Big Day Out. Following the show, she retreated to her home in Masterton after she collapsed. There, she spent time recuperating.
More recently, the 2009 multiple NZ Music Award winner (for Single of the Year, Album of the Year, International Achievement, Best Female Solo Artist, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, and Best Dance/Electronica Album) has been recording her second album with producer Pascal Gabriel, who has also worked with Kylie Minogue, Goldfrapp and Dido, in a small French village in Provence. The album will reportedly sound “darker” than her self-titled debut album.
Capital Times wished to talk to Brown but our best efforts to get hold of the reputedly reluctant interviewee failed. However, Wellington musician Nik Brinkman, from Over The Atlantic, let us in on a few secrets about his latest project with Ladyhawke, although he was unable to offer us more information until his record label gives him the nod. He could say that all will be revealed in March, when he plans to release the first single from his project featuring Ladyhawke.
This time, Brown, who was recently nominated at the Brit Awards for International Female Solo Artist, will perform at home amongst friends. It is the Wellington debut for the international Laneway Festival, which started in Australia in 2004 and now travels through Singapore, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Auckland. Last year, hundreds of Wellingtonians groaned when it only went to Auckland, but this year promoter Mark Kneebone was determined for it to come to the capital.
“The original plan was to do the first one in 2009 and try to do it around Cuba Street but we couldn’t do it,” he says.
“Cuba Street is not a viable option after talking to the council and the problems the Cuba Street Carnival had. Last year we took it to Britomart in Auckland but we were itching to get it to Wellington as the capital is renowned for supporting different kinds of alternative acts and festivals.”
Laneway favours talent rather than mainstream success and includes international bands Yeasayer, Beach House, Blonde Redhead, Deerhunter, and Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti.
“It’s a music lover’s festival – a good chance for people to discover a whole lot of different bands. We could have got Arcade Fire or bands like that and sold-out the festival but it’s not what we are about. We are not competing with the Big Day Out – it’s like comparing pears with apples,” he says.
Kneebone plans to bring the complete show (or Auckland version) to Wellington next year and expand the festival to either the waterfront or university.
“There could even be a twilight show in Christchurch in the future,” he says. “Who knows?”
Laneway Festival featuring Ladyhawke, Town Hall, doors open at 5pm, Feb 1.