Home entertainment

Inspired by… Ladyhawke

Phillipa ‘Pip’ Brown, aka Ladyhawke, lives in Los Angeles with wife Madeleine Sami.

The childhood memory I will always treasure… Any time I spent with my Nanny (my mum’s mum). We were really close when I was growing up – kindred spirits. She lived just down the road from me in Masterton and I literally saw her every day. We’d watch old movies together – I have such fond memories of that.

My greatest achievement is… Ignoring the voices in my head and doing my music anyway. Making the decision to be Ladyhawke meant not listening to those voices, which were saying don’t do this.

If I was a billionaire I would… Buy a house or two, then give the rest away to charities, friends and family. I don’t think anyone needs a billion dollars – that is way too much money.

If you could bring someone famous back from the dead… It would be scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla. Everyone thought he was crazy but he was a genius who basically invented free electricity. I would love to see what he could do now.

A perfect evening with my friends is spent… Cooking a meal, sitting around the table and then watching TV together. I have a good little group of Kiwi and Aussie friends here in LA and it is my favourite thing to do.

When I am working hard I unwind by… Watching TV or playing my PlayStation. If I am into a TV show, I can binge watch an entire season in one sitting. I am also very good at sitting down and playing a video game until I have completely finished it. My favourite game is The Last of Us. The story is incredibly immersive and you just get drawn into it because the script, the writing, the characters, the acting and the game play are all amazing. It’s all about strategy and using your brains.

The song that makes me want to dance is… Who Do You Think You Are? by the Spice Girls. No one expects me to say that. They came out when I was at school. I was playing in a rock band and listening to Metallica but in secret I was thrashing my Spice Girls CD.

The most memorable place I’ve visited… Was a little remote island off the island of Corfu in Greece. I went there last year for a friend’s wedding. All our best friends were there and we’d be in the water at 10pm at night. It was lukewarm and you’d put your hands through it and all these bright lights would flash up because of the phosphorescence. It was a pretty amazing time.

What would your advice be to your 16-year-old self? When you are 16 you think that if something bad happens it’s the end of your life – I would tell myself not to worry about stuff like that because life goes on.

My most prized possession is… A 1989 Gibson Explorer guitar I bought when I was in my first band. It was the first guitar I spent serious money on. So many memories and good times are attached to it.

The quality I most admire in a friend is… Humour and intelligence. I love a good sense of humour. I have a really hard time with earnest people who are always on the verge of spitting poetry. I like someone I can have a good chat and a joke with, maybe a dirty joke as well!

Ladyhawke’s latest album, Wild Things, is out now

Related stories