"Hopefully I write a hit for Pepsi," Martha Brown was saying over brunch. In front of her on a small table in the courtyard of a Melbourne cafe was a small digital recorder. Though the wind was an average Melbourne-strong, the recorder managed to capture most of our conversation and some of the background music – MGMT’s "Time to Pretend" had just finished, which was then followed by The Weeknd’s "Loft Music". "It's all about brand affiliations," Brown continued with a smile. "I mean, Pepsi is the underdog. even though i like coke better."

A waitress delivered our order – two jars of a dark tea-like beverage. Brown, a self confessed caffeine addict, explained what it was that we were about to drink. "Aeropress is filtered coffee. Except, instead of it going straight through the filter, it’s like a suction cup that that pulls up and creates air between the ground coffee and the water." She paused for a moment to take a couple of sips. "Somehow it’s suppose to be good for you," she went on, "but I don’t know how. It just tastes really good." As I took my first taste, Martha carefully scrutinized my reaction as if she herself had prepared the coffe. "You don't like it, do you?", she asked.

Performing under the moniker Banoffee - a name not inspired by the English desert, but adopted for the way the word is spelt and sounds - Martha Brown is a member of the new wave of Australian musicians and producers quietly garnering international attention. Her voice is elegant and gentle, often forming a duet with the downbeat vocal samples used in her song’s production. She is young, attractive and, when not writing or performing or having brunch, a candidate for the Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne.

Brown claims to be a shy and nervous person who will often stare at her own feet when around a group of people. This image, though, was hard to comprehend as Brown spoke with a cool, poised tone, touching on a variety of issues. She dismissed former NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell’s lock-out laws as “bullshit”. (Brown was locked out of her own Sydney show back in 2014). She criticised the cost of transport (especially taxis) in Australia, saying that she would continue to cheat the system even if she won the lottery. She is also an advocate for the blurring of gender boundaries in music genre. “Women are becoming more a part of genres that have been predominately men dominated, like rap and hip hop,” Brown said. “It’s sort of empowering and fantastic.” 

There is something "very Melbourne" in the way Brown dresses. On and off the stage, she will be wearing ultra-ripped jeans and bright yellow Adidas Originals by Jeremy Scott. Her style is part self-expression and part having fun. "Who doesn't like wearing something a bit silly every now and then?" she asked. A fan of Japanese and Korean brands, she argues that they are some of the most forward thinking and bravest of all designers. "They don’t conform to rules that have been entrenched in us about what you should wear and what it says about you," she told me. And then, without her usual grin, she said: "you give me a Hello Kitty suit and I will definitely wear it on stage."

Banoffee isn't Brown's first project. A few years ago she was one third of the hard-to-pronounce Melbourne trio Otouto. (Her sister, the other third, is now running the independent label Two Bright Lakes). Brown said that the transition from trio to solo had been "shit scary". "It's scary playing on your own and not having other people's opinions.  I need to trust my instincts with my own music. But often I’m like, 'oh, is this really crap? Am I just writing shit here?" Brown paused for a moment and then adjusted her tone. "There are pros. I get to write everything the way I want to write it now and I feel that sometimes that’s a good thing."

The transition from trio to solo has also also given Brown the opportunity to execute and experiment with sounds and equipment she discovered whilst performing with Otouto. "I always wanted to introduce synth into Otouto," she said.  She then paused and gave a small sigh. "But we all became too busy and there wasn't time to develop it."

Brown's debut EP, eponymously titled Banoffee, was written over two years. "I didn't write it to be an EP. I just started writing songs. I then realised it was something I wanted to do," Brown said.  Over a selection of beats produced by Haima Marriott, Oscar Key Sung, and Sam Perry (one-fifth of Architecture in Helsinki), Brown weaves between  themes of personal conflict, inaction and persona. "Every song [on the EP] is pretty much a snap shot of a certain part of my life or an emotion or a relationship," Brown said, running her fingers through her hair. "It's something really personal."

The usual suspects are listed as influences: Arthur Russell, Fout Tet ("a lot of Four Tet", Martha added), and Matthew Herbert. Brown also cited R&B and hip hop as an influence on her current palette of fuzzy synths and funky beats. "I was that 11 year old trying to convince my sisters to give me their IDs so I could go to hip hop clubs", Brown said, grinning. Snoop Dogg, The Beastie Boys and Maria Carey are all singled out and, to prove her point, Brown started singing the chorus of "One Sweet Day" by Maria Carey & Boyz II Men.

Whilst audiences will be quick to tag the Banoffee project as "alternative", Brown insists that she doesn't write songs for a specific audience. "I want it to be relatable", she said firmly. Brown also maintains that she isn't necessarily concerned about whether her music is cool or whether it's popular. "I just want to have fun in what I'm making", she said. "And if it's honest and fun, then it's good".

Forty five minutes had passed and Brown was apologizing. She had another meeting scheduled on the other side of the city. "I'm such a shit brain," she said, as we made our way to the counter. "My brain is seriously like scrambled eggs. I actually have five meetings today and no meetings tomorrow". As we exited the cafe onto a busy Richmond road, the wind having slightly subdued, Brown invited me to finish the interview en route back to Melbourne's CBD.  It was a short taxi ride during which we fought off a bee and talked about her shoe addiction (she has over one hundred pairs).