Banoffee

Based in Los Angeles, Banoffee crafts off-center dance-pop marked by a vulnerable tone. Her first full-length effort, the 2020 release Look at Us Now Dad!, focused on overcoming multiple hardships, while the 2021 follow-up Tear Tracks took a more confrontational stance and the 2022 single “Angel Girl” offered an early glimpse of her third album.

Born Martha Betty Glenn Brown in Melbourne, Australia, she was raised in a home filled with music and began composing as well as playing viola near the age of eight. During her teenage years she shifted to guitar and performed in neighborhood venues. After studying at Sophia Mundi Steiner School in Abbotsford Convent, she joined her older sister, the singer/songwriter Hazel Brown, as a touring musician; together with fellow band member Kishore Ryan they later formed the avant-pop trio Otouto. With Hazel leading, Martha contributing keyboards and vocals, and Ryan on drums, the group issued PIP in 2010 via Hazel’s Two Bright Lakes imprint.

Brown adopted the name Banoffee and began issuing her own recordings around 2012, favoring a quirky, stylized brand of synthesizer pop. The self-produced EP Banoffee appeared in 2014. Following a mental breakdown and other personal setbacks, she moved to Los Angeles seeking renewal. While participating in tours—including serving in Charli XCX’s band for dates supporting Taylor Swift and headlining shows that opened for King Princess—she wrote and tracked the material for her debut album.

Issued on Cascine in February 2020, Look at Us Now Dad! was co-produced by Banoffee and Yves Rothman and included contributions from Cupcakke, SOPHIE, and Empress Of. The November 2021 set Tear Tracks contained the pointed tracks “Idiot” and “Never Get to Fuck Any1,” and she resumed sharing material from her forthcoming album with the mid-2022 release of “Angel Girl.”