HTRK Signs With U.S. Management Company SemaphoreMGMT

New York-based boutique management firm SemaphoreMGMT welcomes HTRK to its eclectic roster.

Comprised of Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang, the Melbourne underground duo (pronounced Hate Rock) will be represented by SemaphoreMGMT on a worldwide basis, and becomes the company’s first Australian signing.

HTRK will be co-managed by TMN 30 Under 30 alumni and AAM breakthrough manager of the year nominee Udaravi Widanapathirana and Semaphore’s managing director Taylor Brode.

Announced this week, HTRK new management deal comes as the pair eye-up 21 years since forming in Melbourne’s north-western suburbs. 

An early incarnation of the project included Sean Stewart on bass guitar. In 2005, a debut EP Nostalgia dropped on Fire Records, and was followed in 2009 with the breakthrough LP Marry Me Tonight (Blast First Petite), produced by Rowland S. Howard, an important figure in Australia’s underground rock scene who played guitar for the Boys Next Door and the Birthday Party and wrote the classic song “Shivers.”

Howard died that year following a battle with cancer. Stewart passed away the following year, in 2010.

Four HTRK studio albums would follow — Work (Work, Work), Psychic 9-5 Club, Venus in Leo (Ghostly International) and 2021’s Australian-Music Prize-nominated Rhinestones, released via their own imprint N&J Blueberries.

A 10-strong collection of demos was released in 2022, Death Is A Dream. 

“HTRK were the first Australian band we ever discussed,” comments Widanapathirana and Brode in a statement, “and even before meeting one another, had mutually come to the conclusion, were the single most important act to emerge from the continent in either of our (industry) lifetimes.”

Theirs is a body of work that has been “consistently thrilling” across two decades. “We are beyond thrilled and will be diving into both new music and retrospective work where there has been no better time to export Australian music.”

SemaphoreMGMT represents such artists worldwide as 2023 Polaris Prize winner DEBBY FRIDAY (Canada – Sub Pop), Machine Girl (U.S.), Desire Marea (South Africa – Mute Records), Meth Math (Mexico City), Dana Dentata (U.S.) and Kamixlo (U.K. – PAN).

Its founder Brode previously served as label director at Sacred Bones Records, where she signed David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, John Carpenter, Psychic TV and others.

Based in Sydney, Widanapathirana joined the business in 2022 as an artist manager and leads business affairs across all artists, having previously worked at SXSW Sydney, Dark Mofo and PIAS.

Widanapathirana was recently awarded a $5,000 grant from Sounds Australia to attend Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) as an artist manager.