Face The Music announces first 12 speakers: Zac Abroms on what to expect from FTM #10

Face The Music this morning announced the first of its 12 speakers for its November 23 & 24 summit in a new (but yet to be revealed) venue in Melbourne.

They are:

• Los Angeles singer/songwriter and multi instrumentalist Ariel Pink who in a keynote will be talking about his eleventhalbum Dedicated to Bobby Jameson and the influence Jameson had on his music, It’s co-presented with Recital Centre and Melbourne Music Week.

  Jameson was a singer songwriter who in the ‘60s was touted as a major star but never reached the heights despite a 1965 album Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest now acclaimed as a psychedelic gem and nearly becoming a Monkee.

  Disillusioned with the music industry, he received attention for his suicide attempts, addiction, periods of homelessness and institutionalisation, criminal activity and was rumoured to be dead for years before he died in 2015.

• Toronto DJ, rapper, actor and writer Chippy Nonstop who’ll be addressing the significant gender and sexuality imbalance within the music industry.
• Ramones drummer and punk rock historian Marky Ramone,whose keynote will presumably touch on his 2015 book Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life As A Ramone.
• Silke Westera, booking agent for FKP Scorpio, whose roster includes Warpaint, Wolf Parade, Yeasayer, Twin Shadow, Metz, and locals Amy Shark, Alex Lahey and Middle Kids.

• Rebecca Young who heads up boutique booking agency Collective Artists, which reps the likes of GL, Jen Cloher, Jeremy Neale, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Body Type.
• Anika Mottershaw, A&R at UK indie Bella Union which was founded by the Cocteau Twins and responsible for launching Father John Misty, John Grant and Beach House among many others.
• Bjørn Pfarr, music programmer of Hamburg, Germany conference and festival Reeperbahn, which draws 37,000 each year.
• Dancer, choreographer, activist and Bundulung and Ngapuhi woman Amrita Hepi.

• Nick Findlay, Music Director at triple j.
• Brisbane-based singer and rapper Mallrat.

• Writer and journalist Monica Tan who was Deputy Culture Editor of The Guardian Australia and co-host of the Token podcast.
• Nicole Prutch, Music Supervisor of US-based entertainment marketing agency Lussier.

Face The Music Programmer Zac Abroms told TMN that Westera and Pfarr are the first of six speakers from Germany, as part of the Victorian Government’s new Music Passport initiative.

He explained, “[FTM]aims to partner with industry from a single key market country. In 2017 the chosen country is Germany.

“Reeperbahn is less of a household name than SXSW or The Great Escape but the Hamburg-based conference and festival attracts 37,000 people annually and has been cited to me by many in the global music game as a legitimate gateway to growing one’s European business.”

Abroms alsofilled TMN on a couple more details about the highly anticipated conference.

How will FTM’s new venue impact on the summit’s debates?

A function of our partnership with Melbourne Music Week is that we set up shop within their annually shifting hub location (not a bad outcome considering they more or less have keys to the city of Melbourne).

I had doubts as to whether the grandiosity of last year’s venue, the State Library of Victoria, could be topped but Face The Music’s 2017 digs will eclipse that.

If the architecture of a setting can be said to influence the quality of the ideas that flourish within it then 2017 attendees can expect an enlightening affair.

What kind of new topics will be touched on?

Without revealing too much about the program we’re recognising that the act of presenting a summit that seeks to encapsulate what it means to participate in music extends well beyond the well worn path of addressing key market segments – that’s the domain of other music conferences.

Spoiler alert… in 2017 it’s not all going to be about music.

Any format changes to mark FTM’s 10thanniversary?

I recall reading somewhere that even the most successful company would be wise to blow-up its own business model every ten years… or let someone else come along and blow it up for them!

Did Steve Jobs say that? Idon’t know about the turtlenecks, but he was right about a bunch of other things. Face The Music isn’t a business as such but the same principle can be applied.

In 2016 we made dramatic changes to the summit with a view towards sharpening its core message and more closely aligning with the best of our international counterparts.

The tenthanniversary edition could be described as an extension of the initiatives we set in motion last year.

A good music summit should be a mirror for the brightest examples of the day and a looking glass through which we can collectively step and speculate on what the future may hold for our industry and livelihood.