Ladyhawke: Home of the wild and free

Ladyhawke - aka Pip Brown - releases her third album, Wild Things, on Friday. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Self-styled synth pop superwoman Ladyhawke - aka Pip Brown - on Friday unleashes her third album, Wild Things, and is confident, excited and proud of her latest offering to the world, she says.

The 36-year-old Masterton-born singer songwriter, speaking from the Los Angeles home she shares with actor, comedian, musician wife Madeleine Sami, said the creation of Wild Things had paced a burgeoning stability in her personal life and mounting self-assurance as a songwriter and recording artist.

"I just felt a lot more confident in my songwriting for this record. I felt freer to experiment with new sounds, which meant more synths and percussion, and pushing myself vocally a lot more than I have in the past," she said.

"I think feeling stable in my personal life has been a huge factor in my frame of mind.

"I've lived in Los Angeles for just over three years now, and realised the other day that the place I live in here in LA is the longest I've lived in any house since I was a teenager living in Masterton. So that's pretty big for me.

"Having the comfort in knowing you have the same place to come back to when you've been away, the same bed to sleep in, and all your favourite stuff around, it's huge for the state of mind.

"No matter how much stuff changes in my life and how much I travel, at least I have my place to come home to," she said.

"I just think it's hugely important for the timeline of my career. You can sorta see with each record the evolution of my songwriting and the state of mind I was in at the time of writing."

Brown, a multi-instrumentalist and multiple New Zealand Music Award-winner, said she and Chicago producer Tommy English together laid down the album and, as with her self-titled debut from 2008 and sophomore offering Anxiety from 2012, she kept both hands on her music throughout production.

"I always have full creative control on everything I do, I think that's incredibly important as an artist. This record was definitely an evolution for me.

"The more you grow as an artist and musician the more it shapes the way your music sounds. I had a very strong confidence making this record, and a lot of fun in the process."

Wild Things features artwork from Brown's friend and Grammy-nominated fellow Kiwi Sarah Larnach, who also worked on the first two albums; and imagery from photographer friend Jen Carey, while English had been vital, Brown said, as a creative sounding board and partner on the latest album.

"He's been a great inspiration to me, creating ideas with Tom and seeing the album from beginning to end with him was a really rewarding experience," Brown said.

A stand-out memory during the creation of Wild Things, she said, was completing the title track for the album.

"I think the moment we finished the song Wild Things I felt really really excited - I knew I'd created a sound I was really proud of, and it set the tone for the rest of the record," she said.

"Embrace the wildness."

Ladyhawke will stage album support shows at the CPSA in Christchurch, Bodega in Wellington and the Powerstation in Auckland from July 21 to 23 on the back of a support mini-tour through the US and UK.

Tickets for her New Zealand shows are available online at ticketmaster.co.nz and her album Wild Things and merch is available at ladyhawkemusic.com.