Get to know triple j Unearthed’s new Executive Producer, Tommy Faith
Yesterday it was announced that triple j Unearthed had found itself a new Executive Producer to replace the outgoing Lachie Macara, who left the position last month having been with the station since 2013. His replacement will be familiar to many of you, however, with the news that Tommy Faith will be stepping into the role.
Faith first sprang onto the Australian music scene as the creator of one of the country’s foremost tastemaker blogs Sound Doctrine, which was named Pedestrian’s Music Blog of the Year in 2012. He has since taken on various roles with Mushroom, Warner and Sony, while also finding the time to run his own record label TEEF, producing the Imperium In Imperio charity compilations and events in the process.
With a history of discovering and promoting new music in all sorts of ways, from the beginning, he seems a natural fit for performing that task with triple j Unearthed.
“It was a really unexpected turn of events but it also feels like an ideal new home”
“A friend suggested the role as I’ve been saying for years that I think Unearthed is the best platform for championing grassroots Australian artists,” Faith says. “I’ve known Lachie (the departing executive producer) and a lot of the Unearthed team for a while so I knew it was a team I wanted to be a part of. A few meetings later and it felt like it was going to be the right fit for everyone. It was a really unexpected turn of events but it also feels like an ideal new home.”
While uncovering Australia’s best new artists has always been a focus for Faith throughout his time as a music writer and A&R, he’s looking forward to being able to do that on a greater scale than ever before working with the Unearthed team and triple j itself.
“Unearthed has moved from strength to strength over the past decade so there’s no aspirations to reroute the ship in any immediate way,” Faith tells us. “That said, a big part of those early meetings with the triple j team involved sharing ideas for the platform, so we’ll be looking to build on the existing partnerships that are in place.
“Plus I’ll continue to help the team do what they do best – break new Australian music through the website and digital station, as well as being a link between Unearthed and triple j itself. Dave Ruby Howe has some of the best ears in the country so I’m incredibly excited to be working alongside him too.”
“Almost every role I’ve worked in has seen me spend hours every day trawling Unearthed for new Australian talent”
Having followed a 2011 internship at Sony Music Entertainment with a job at Warner Music Australia as a customer service rep, Tommy took on a role in A&R, before becoming an A&R Manager. Having departed Warner in 2016 he has spent the last year at Mushroom Group as a Creative Manager, and it’s certainly a job he’ll miss.
“Being a part of Mushroom Music Publishing has been a total dream,” he says, “getting to work with one of the best collections of artists in the country including D.D Dumbo, Julia Jacklin, Nick Murphy and Gordi. The A&R team is headed up by Linda Bosidis who’s an industry veteran and one of the most respected people in Australian music, so she’s been amazing to learn from.”
Tommy explains that most of his experience in the industry so far has relied heavily on triple j Unearthed in some way, and after poring over the site for years, he’s excited to bring his industry experience on board and become part of Unearthed himself.
“Almost every role I’ve worked in has seen me spend hours every day trawling Unearthed for new Australian talent,” Faith says. “It’s a format that I’m very familiar with and a team I’ve engaged with extensively. There’s a crazy amount of talent within the team so helping to get the most out of those legends is something I’m excited about too.
“I’ll be looking outward to the industry relationships that I’ve made in past roles to extend the Unearthed reach as far and wide as possible.”
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.