I'm more of a whiz on the guitar and drums. I hear certain sounds in my head, and I find it easy to translate them into synth sounds, but I'm not really technically-minded.

Ladyhawke

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It's amazing. Being clearheaded for a show, for starters. Not being reflux-y because of the amount of beer you've drunk.

drunk shows beer

I'm still always a country girl from New Zealand.

stills girl country

I do enjoy a beer. And a shot of vodka with some apple juice is what loosens me up before I go onstage, because I get really nervous. I wish I could say it was something more healthy, like Pilates.

healthy wish beer

I wear non-gender-specific clothes. I just look silly in girls' clothes. I'm quite tall, and they're never the right cut for me - T-shirts and stuff are always too low-cut or too short. I've worn boys' clothes forever because girls' stuff never felt right for me.

cutting forever silly

I think love is one that can definitely make you go crazy, and it's almost like love can induce mental illness in a lot of people, or bring it out worse. It makes people make crazy decisions.

crazy love-is thinking

I think love and obsession are almost one in the same thing at some times. Because the person you end up falling in love with, there is an element of obsession in the early days - it's all you can think about.

falling-in-love fall thinking

I always make music that's reflective of the mindset I'm in at the time, how I'm feeling.

mindset feelings

I have these thoughts. I think "What if the show doesn't sell well? What if it's a half-empty room?" These are the paranoia thoughts that go through my head on a day-by-day basis.

empty-rooms what-if thinking

It doesn't matter if there are 20, 40, 100, or 500 people there. It doesn't matter how many people. You've got to perform to those people because they've come.

ifs matter people

That's always been my main anxiety - the people in the room. That's my massive stress - thinking that these people in the room are judging me. And, this time around, I've been able to think a little bit more clearly about that. I've been able to think "Well, no. They're here to enjoy a show," and I want to give them that. I want to give them their money's worth – for starters.

stress people thinking

I would be happier if it were a full audience full of drag queens. It would be my dreams come true.

queens would-be dream

I was living in the U.K. I was back in New Zealand for the New Zealand Music Awards, which is like our annual New Zealand GRAMMYs.

annuals new-zealand awards

Lucy Lawless presented a couple of the awards. And, when I walked off the stage with her after one of them, she said "Oh, I want to introduce you to my friend Madeleine," and that's how I met Madeleine. I realize that's a ridiculous story.

awards couple stories

“Money to Burn” is a fantasy. I mean, I would love for that to be a true story. Most of my songs are written in metaphors.

stories song mean

When I say “when you’re always almost lonely, you forget to take it slowly,” I mean that you don’t always take care of yourself.

care lonely mean

A few people said to me on the UK tour 'that feeling you're feeling is natural. Everyone feels nerves. But, you've got to use that to your advantage. You've got to use that nervous energy and pull it into your performance’. And, I'd never thought of that before.

energy feelings people

Since I've stopped drinking I'm way better at singing. I can project my voice better. I can actually walk on stage and make eye contact with the audience, which I never used to know how to do in the past. So, it's made a huge difference for me.

eye drinking past

I always make music that's reflective of the mindset I'm in at the time, and how I'm feeling.

mindset feelings

Years ago I was in a band called Two Lane Blacktop - we deliberately named ourselves after the 'Two-Lane Blacktop' movie, 'cuz it's a car chase movie. All our songs were based on movies, every single song. I love movies, and that was something that me and the singer in Two Lane Blacktop bonded over - we were design students together, we did a film-class together, so we became obsessed with movies. It's followed me around ever since then, it's a constant theme.

class song years

I remember writing a song when I was about 15. This is the one I can remember. I know I'd been writing poetry for a long time, since I was about eight, but I remember my first one that I put to chords. I was really trying to be like the psychedelic era Beatles, I was obsessed. All I could think about was Beatles and Hendrix. So I tried to write a psychedelic song, and it was the worst. I couldn't even... If I read it now - I still have the book somewhere - it makes me cringe out loud. It was just about psychedelic stuff.

writing song book