'Time Flies' may be the name of the fourth album from New Zealand's electro-rock icon Ladyhawke, but it most aptly describes her first album.
Fifteen years have passed since Ladyhawke's debut album of the same name, but you could be forgiven for thinking it came out yesterday, such is the sonic quality and brilliant, catchy songwriting it contains.Songs 'Magic' and the epochal 'My Delirium' shot the album into top 20s around the world, and we (and our MP3 players) were never the same again.
Much has unfolded in the space between. Ladyhawke became a mother, which was a mixed experience due to the onset of postnatal depression. Then a year into motherhood, she discovered a Clark Level IV melanoma and underwent treatment, being cleared after what felt like an eternity.
With a newfound appreciation for life, Ladyhawke continued doing what she does best, creating. Celebrating milestones calls for reflection, and for Ladyhawke it is bittersweet and revelatory. She balances who she was with who she is, and says she could draw from her younger self.
"As a young songwriter, making demos for my first record, I was very naive. That first record is like a time capsule. Every record is. You don't know it at the time, but it's like a diary entry of what you're going through in your life at the time.
"And sometimes it takes a few years to look back and realise, 'wow, I was going through some sh.t'. You don't know what you're writing at the time sometimes.
"Getting back to that naivety, I love that I had that back then. There was no being jaded by the music industry, having been through the ringer and come out the other side, that hadn't happened.
"That innocence in the way I approached songwriting, I was just in the moment. I want to channel that side of myself now, because it was a bit freer. There was no weight of the industry and weight of the years of going through this and that.
"Everything was just pure excitement. I hadn't been through the 'release a record, see how it does' thing. 'Here are all the reviews, here's what people think. Let us tear your personality down a little bit.'
"I hadn't been through any of that stuff. But I think I needed to have the years of that experience to be able to look back on that [album] and see how awesome that is. I kinda need both in a way. That is something I wanna channel more."
The music business is tricky, made even more so when straight off the bat, it throws you multiple awards and international acclaim without an adequate support network, something Ladyhawke wishes she'd had at the time. "I wasn't prepared for it and the way my personality is, I suffered for years with depression and anxiety and all sorts of mental illness. I wasn't prepared for anything.
"I think the biggest thing was, I wasn't prepared for there to be scrutiny on myself, me as a person, and the pressure made me retreat further inside myself. The way the world is now, the Ladyhawke I was back then would have been accepted a lot better now than it was back then.
"People were trying to fit me into a certain box and I didn't fit into any of those boxes. I remember management and label wanting me to be straight. I wasn't straight. Wanted me to be wearing more feminine clothing. I didn't wear any of that stuff.
"It always felt like a battle, and that stuff that came with that first record, I think nearly ruined me. It nearly destroyed me. I wish I'd been more prepared or had some sort of mentor that could have helped me through it, or said, 'this is what to expect'. Because there's no one preparing anyone for that. It definitely affected me, the success of that first record."
Sonically, 'Ladyhawke' struck a delicate balance between synth-rock's punch and pop's catchiness that resonated for many, and still does. Ladyhawke fondly remembers the album's production process, smiling at her archaic technology idiosyncrasies before sharing what element she is most proud of.
"It's funny because I look back at all the computers that we were working on back then, the old versions of Logic. I remember my MacBook Pro, I've still got it actually, it was humongous. It's like this heavy brick, and it could barely run Pro Tools without exploding," she laughs.
"There was something cool in that. Sonically though, there's something about the drums throughout that record. I'm a drummer and always have been. My percussion and drums were always so important to me.
"I listened back to that record and it's very percussive. That's something that I'm really proud of, the way the sound of the drums and percussion has stood the test of time, 'cause that is something that can give away the age of a record. You listen to it and go, 'that's digital. Listen to that, that's very 1999.' I'm pretty proud of the drums."
Selling out the UK anniversary tour, Ladyhawke will kick off the Australian leg in July, with the Brisbane stop coinciding with The Tivoli and Princess Theatre's Open Season programme.
By re-exploring the songs that started it all in front of those who have loved them for a long time has afforded Ladyhawke some soul searching. "It was so cool. Some of the stuff I hadn't revisited for such a long time, and one song, 'Morning Dreams', which is the last track on the record, I'd never played that live until this year.
"'Crazy World' was a song I only ever played live a couple of times, and was like, 'I'm never playing that one again'. Not for any reason other than, I always found that one quite hard to sing.
"But with age, my voice has changed. None of it's hard for me to sing anymore. It's all easy. So it was really, really fun. It was therapeutic for me, because I got to revisit everything and see the love that people have for the record. It was nice. It was quite healing in a way."
Ladyhawke herself has fallen a little bit more in love with the record. "I remember writing 'Morning Dreams'. That was the last song on the record, but that was also the last song I wrote for that record. It was me and my friend Pascal, we wrote 'Magic' and 'Morning Dreams' in the same group of sessions right at the end of everything, 'Magic' first and then 'Morning Dreams'.
"I remember, at the time, being really proud of 'Morning Dreams'. It felt like the perfect exit to the record. Then listening to it again and playing it again, I was like, 'this is cool, this has got some cool vibes going on'. I felt even more proud of it. I feel like it's my favourite track to play live as well now."
Time flies, but some things remain constant, like the timelessness of a classic record.
Ladyhawke 2024 Tour Dates
Fri 26 Jul - The Gov (Adelaide)Sat 27 Jul - Freo.Social (Fremantle)
Thu 1 Aug - Open Season @ The Princess Theatre (Brisbane)
Fri 2 Aug - Metro Theatre (Sydney)
Sat 3 Aug - Northcote Theatre (Melbourne)
