Business mentors announced for Central Australia’s Bush Bands

Northern Territory’s peak music association MusicNT announced the mentors for its Bush Bands program.

It selects indigenous musicians from remote communities across Central Australia and gives them the chance to hone in their musical and performance skills, while also gaining industry knowledge.

They then showcase what they’ve learnt at the Bush Bands Bash concert which this year takes place on Sunday, September 16 at Telegraph Station on the outskirts of Alice Springs.

MusicNT announced on July that selected for this year were six bands from across Central Australia, as well as MusicNT’s Desert Divas and SandTracks touring bands Black Rock Band and Saltwater Band.

Music NT has announced its industry mentors for this year as:

Marketing and digital strategist Mardi Caught, who spent seven years in management positions with Warner Music Australia, and internationally in marketing roles with EMI, MTV UK and Columbia Music Sony UK.

This year she set up her own company, The Annex, a marketing services division working with talent, management and labels to deliver tailored marketing strategies.

Melbourne musician, community radio worker and tour manager Al Parkinson is office and membership coordinator at Music Victoria and is also secretary of the association’s women’s advisory panel.

Chris O’Neill, who’s worked with major festivals as Prima Vera, Splendor in the Grass and Big Day Out, is currently senior manager of national engagement at APRA AMCOS.

It requires him to engage with industry organisations on a regular basis, roll out the APRA AMCOS events program and manage the APRA AMCOS grants program.

Michael Hutchings is the APRA AMCOS Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander national representative.

His role is to support, represent and advocate for the association’s 1500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members.

He was previously label and studio manager at Gadigal Music and indigenous music manager for Music NSW.

Music manager and event producer Emily Murphy is currently a member of QMusic and AAM, engaged by APRA on its Starting Program to deliver music business capacity building workshops and.holds a four-year producer contract with Brisbane City Council to deliver the weekly “Gathering”, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island art and culture showcase in the Queen Street Mall.

Murphy is also the music and business manager for Kahl Wallis, Shellie Morris, Dhapanbal Yunupiŋu and Troy Brady as well as the booking agent for David Spry and Sue Ray.

Dixie Battersby was long time EMI’s WA-based publicist before starting her own consultancy, DB Publicity.

DB Publicity works with local, national and international artists and music event companies, to manage their relationships with the media and other publications. Previous clients include Live Nation, Frontier Touring, Chugg Entertainment and Mellen Events

Brian Ritchie, Violent Femmes bassist has been curating the highly acclaimed and radical Mona festival in Tasmania, which has gone on to win a number of awards.

Violent Femmes sold 5 million records worldwide and toured through 40 countries.

Drew Goddard attended a conservatorium to study jazz guitar and drums before becoming the lead guitarist of Perth band Karnivool.

With them, Goddard toured internationally and took home a number of awards, most notably the 2013 ARIA for best hard rock album for Asymmetry.

He also has experience as a project coordinator, through his regional and rural work with WA’s peak music association WAM.