NEW SIGNINGS & TEAM-UPS: SONY/ATV INKS ZAK ABEL TO GLOBAL PUBLISHING DEAL, YOU & ME SIGN WITH HOPELESS RECORDS AND MORE
SONY/ATV INKS ZAK ABEL TO WORLDWIDE PUBLISHING DEAL
Sony/ATV Music Publishing has signed London singer/songwriter and rising pop star Zak Abel to a worldwide deal.
Initially emerging as guest singer on electronic production duo Gorgon City’s UK Top 20 hit Unmissable.
Abel was 17 when he was signed to Atlantic Records, which is releasing his debut album Only When We’re Naked.
Sony/ATV UK Head of A&R David Ventura said: “Zak’s music is incredible. He is truly an extraordinary talent.
“I can’t wait for the world to discover him as he is without a doubt an international songwriter and artist.”
DAVEY LANE JOINS PREMIER ARTISTS
You Am I guitarist and solo artist Davey Lane has joined Premier Artists’ booking roster. This comes as he preps the release of his second album I’m Gonna Burn Out Bright recorded in his Headley Garage studio in Melbourne.
Described as “Lane’s love letter to pop”, the record features guest stints from members of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Saskwatch, Dorsal Fins and GL and Laura Jean. One of the tracks, This Is Hell, is featured in ABC TV’s upcoming medical drama Pulse.
US CABLE DEAL FOR THE WIGGLES
The Wiggles get an ever higher presence in North America after their record label ABC’s division ABC Commercial locked in two new broadcast agreements in those territories.
For the US the deal is with Sprout, the preschool destination within NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment’s Universal Kids network which has a reach of 56 million households.
For Canada, it’s Corus Entertainment’s cable network Treehouse which is in 6.2 million homes.
The deal is for new content from the Sydney act, as their new TV series Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle, as well as 60 hours worth of content including both seasons of Ready, Steady, Wiggle. The Wiggles Meet the Orchestra, Taking Off!, Rock and Roll Preschool and Apples & Bananas..
ABC Commercial also set up a new partnership with Sydney based distributor MGM to distribute The Wiggles’ music digitally and on CD throughout the US and Canada.
THREE PRONGED HARPOONS
Melbourne soul-pop outfit The Harpoons finalised three new deals. It’s a recording agreement with Caroline Australia (which has just dropped their new single Do You Want My Love), and booking arrangements with NSW-based Select Music and London’s Primary Talent.
The band has previously performed in Japan, the UK and New York.
NADINE COYLE MAKES RETURN VIA VIRGIN EMI
Former Girls Aloud member returns after a two year stint in the studio writing her second solo album. The record sees her reunite with the hit band’s former producer Brian Higgins, and will be released through a new contract with Virgin EMI.
“They really share my vision and I’m both nervous and excited to finally share my new music,” she said.
Girls Aloud spun a total of 21 Top10 singles in the U.K., the most for any female group in history. The group separated in 2013 after a 10-year anniversary tour.
ROCKET TO DISTRIBUTE GERMANY’S PELAGIC
German label Pelagic Records gets a stronger foothold in Australia via a new distribution deal with Rocket
Pelagic is closely connected to the Berlin-based international musicians’ collective The Ocean and owned by The Ocean’s frontman, Robin Staps.
Staps commented “We have released records by Australian bands like Sleepmakeswaves, Lo! and Tangled Thoughts of Leaving in Europe, and I’m excited that we will now have proper presence down under.
“I have toured (Australia) three times with my own band The Ocean and am well familiar with the vibrant underground music scene.”
Pelagic releases cover post rock and post metal to experimental, drone, acoustic and soundtrack music.
Its current roster has The Ocean, Cult Of Luna, Bison, Mono (the Japanese act is touring here in October), pg.lost and Emil Amos with upcoming releases from Sydney’s Lo!, Melbourne’s Ylva and New Zealand’s Spook The Horses.
TEG FORMS ALLIANCE WITH DIVISION AGENCY
TEG has today announced a strategic alliance with the Division Agency to promote national tours and events featuring electronic dance music acts.
The joint venture comes after Jason Ayoubi joined the Division Agency as a Partner and Director, reuniting with Scott Robertson. In tandem, they were the driving force behind Future Music Festival andSummadayze.
“We’ve achieved great things together and there’s so much more to come,”Division Agency director Jason Ayoubi said.
“I’m looking forward to producing some massive projects and enjoying the buzz that only comes from doing what I love – putting on iconic and life enhancing events.”
YOU & ME LAND US DEAL
Melbourne band You & Me landed a US deal with Hopeless Records. “Signing to a label like Hopeless Records is one of those things you always strive for and work towards when you’re in a band,” vocalist Jake Wilson said.
They’ve just released new single Overthinking, about the drag of doing a 9—5 job when your passion is music, to follow up last year’s debut EP, Paper Thin.
MORE PROJECTS FOR BRETT OATEN
Sydney-based Brett Oaten Solicitors is now also acting for it’s long time client Ambience Entertainment in relation to the development, financing and production of the 2018 due reimagining of iconic Australian film Storm Boy.
It is also advising Audiocraft on the launch of the Audiocraft Agency – Australia’s first agency for podcast and audio makers which is already placing projects with major media organisations and creative and advertising agencies.
OZPOD RETURNS FOR SECOND YEAR
Podcasting conference OzPod returns for a second year on Friday September 8 at the ABC Ultimo Centre in Sydney, and announced its keynote speaker as Jenn White, host and co-creator of the Making Oprah podcast from Chicago-based radio and podcast powerhouse WBEZ.
CAROLINE DIGS UP FOOL’S GOLD
Universal Music Group’s Caroline imprint will distribute through the world Brooklyn indie Fool’s Gold, co-founded by DJ/producer A-Trak in 2007.
First release under the deal is A-Trak’s new single Believe, a collaboration with hip-hop stars Quavo and Lil Yachty.
Specializing in hip-hop and electronic music, it launched Danny Brown, Kid Cudi, Duck Sauce, Flosstradamus and Leaf, and has a retail store in New York.
SPUNK GETS MELLOW
Grammy-nominated experimental Japanese multi-instrumentalist Keigo Oyamada aka Cornelius has returned after eleven years with the Mellow Waves album through Spunk Records.
A performing musician since his teens, Oyamada created his creative alter-ego (the name is an homage to The Planet of the Apes), in the early 1990s from the ashes of his previous project, Flipper’s Guitar.
ROC NATION SIGNS FIRST ASIAN AMERICAN
Seattle born South Korean hip hop act Jay Park has become the first Asian-American signing to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
Starting out as a B-Boy in America, he moved to South Korea ten years ago, emerging as a member of K-Pop group 2PM and went on to have like Mommae and You Know while running indie label AOMG which also manages hip-hop and R&B artists.
TWISTED BROADWAY RETURNS FOR CHARITY
Australian music theatre charity event Twisted Broadway returns in spring, staged at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on October 2.
Hosted by Rob Mills and featuring TV and musical theatre figures singing songs originally written for the opposite gender, it raises funds for the Victorian AIDS Council and Oz Showbiz Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Twisted Broadway (based on the Broadway Cares fundraiser, Broadway Backwards) was first staged seven years ago.
It has since raised over $110,000 for those living with and touched by HIV/AIDS and has engaged over 300 artists, crew, designers, venue staff and administrators within the performing arts industry.
The Gordon Frost Organisation donated the use of the Regent Theatre for this year’sconcert which is to be staged on the set of Michael Harrison, David Ian and John Frost’s production of The Bodyguard.