A singer, songwriter, and producer based in Los Angeles,
Banoffee makes off-center dance-pop with a vulnerable disposition. Her debut album, 2020's
Look at Us Now Dad! celebrated surviving various forms of adversity.
A native of Melbourne, Australia, Martha Betty Glenn Brown grew up in a musical household and started playing viola and composing music around the age of eight. She switched to guitar and played in local bars as a teenager. After attending Sophia Mundi Steiner School in Abbotsford Convent, she backed her older sister, singer/songwriter Hazel Brown, as a member of her touring band before the two joined forces with fellow touring bandmember Kishore Ryan to form the avant-pop group Otouto. Led by Hazel, with Martha on keyboards and vocals and Ryan on drums, Otouto issued the album PIP on Hazel's label Two Bright Lakes in 2010.
Adopting the moniker
Banoffee and a wonky, stylized synthesizer pop, Brown began releasing solo material as early as 2012. The self-produced EP Banoffee arrived in 2014. Following some personal ordeals including what she described as a mental breakdown, she relocated to Los Angeles for a fresh start. During a period that included touring with
Taylor Swift as a member of
Charli XCX's band and opening for
King Princess on her own, she wrote and recorded what would become
Banoffee's full-length debut. The survival-themed
Look at Us Now Dad! saw release in February 2020 on the Cascine label. Co-produced by
Banoffee and
Yves Rothman (
Nasty Cherry,
Overcoats), it featured collaborators including rapper
Cupcakke,
SOPHIE, and
Empress Of. ~ Marcy Donelson