Industrial Strength: July 4
ART MUSIC AWARDS SET FOR AUGUST
The seventh annual Art Music Awardswill take place in Sydney’s City Recital Hall on August 22, with finalists to be announced on July 19.
Presented by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre, the awards cover Australian contemporary classical, jazz and experimental music, as well as offer the opportunity to acknowledge the artists, organisations and music educators who contribute to and champion Australian art music.
National categories cover work of the year for jazz, orchestral, instrumental and vocal/choral, and there are also recognition awards for excellence by an organisation, an individual, in music education, in a regional area and in experimental music and jazz.
An additional category, for Distinguished Services to Australian Music, is awarded at the discretion of the APRA Board of Directors. Previous recipients of this honour include Richard Gill OAM, George Dreyfus AM, Helen Gifford OAM and the late composer Peter Sculthorpe.
SCA NETWORK EXPANDS BRANDING TO DIGITAL
Major radio network Southern Cross Austereo has aligned it’s digital radio stations to either the Triple M or Hit networks.
Two new Triple M digital radio stations– Triple M Modern (modern alt-rock and alt-pop), Triple M Greatest Hits (late ‘60s/ early ‘70s album-orientated music) –while returning is Triple M Classic Rock which spins tracks from Zeppelin, Beatles, Stones, AC/DC and Skyhooks.
This takes the Triple M network to 38 stations nationally, while the Hit Network will grow to 46 stations, thanks to the addition of three digital stations (the feel-good Easy Hits, the atmospheric Buddha Hits and Oldskool Hits).
MUSIC NSW’S SOUND ADVICE ON AIRPLAY, FANBASES
The latest series of Music NSW’s Sound Advice panels will be held today (July 4) at 107 Projects in Redfern, with two panel discussions will occurring.
You Got Played offers tips on getting radio airplay from Gemma Pike (triple j), Amelia Jenner (FBi) and Anelia Jeffery-Swiatek (Thinking Loud/ October Records).
The Dial A Crowd panel on building a fanbase through touring and marketing features Stephen Wade (Select), Dan Medland (iE Music), Clara Iaccarino (Perth International Arts Festival) and musician Ali Barter.
VICTORIA REPORTS ON FIRST YEAR OF ‘CREATIVE STATE’
The Victorian Government gave itself a big tick in regards to its first year of the $115 million Creative State strategy – an initiative aimed to help boost the state’s $23 billion creative economy.
The music industry was among the beneficiaries, with $2 million allocated to artists and creative professionals across a range of professions (a 70% increase from 2014/5). A further $113 million will be assigned for 90 small-to-medium arts and cultural organisations over the next four years.
Next year also sees the staging of the inaugural year-long Regional Centre for Culture in Bendigo and the surrounding region as part of the Creative State strategy.
According to Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley, Creative Strategy is the largest and most comprehensive investment by any government in the creativity of Victorians.
“We are proudly working with our creative community to roll out the strategy and ensure it delivers economic, social and cultural dividends that will benefit all Victorians,” he added.
BRISBANE PUNK BASSIST STANDING FOR ELECTION
Victor Huml, bassist with Brisbane punk band Mouthguard, has put his hand up to represent the Greens in the seat of Greenslopes in the Queensland state election in May 2018.
“My aim is to provide positive changes to our political system beyond the self-interest of the major parties,” he said.
“The Greens do not accept donations from corporate interests such as property developers or mining companies, so we are not tethered to these agendas.”
Huml’s family arrived in 1968 as refugees from Czechoslovakia and moved into a flat in Greenslopes, and his time as a local resident has influenced the issues he is campaigning on, including housing affordability, renters’ rights, and affordable and reliable electricity.
Aside from playing in the band from the late ‘90s, he completed a Bachelor of Science degree from UQ, and a Master of Arts in Australian Social Policy from Griffith in-between volunteering and fund raising for community groups and revegetation projects.
The music community has rallied around his campaign, which launches on July 8 at Greenslopes Bowling Club.
The Flangipanis, The Cutaways, Plan of Attack, Hound, The Dead Ringers and Jud Campbell will play the Main Room, with Boss Sounds, Nowhere to Run, The Yard and DJ Honey in the DJ Room.
AUDIO NETWORK AUSTRALIA EXPANDS INTO ASIA
Due to the growth of its Sydney operations, Audio Network has expanded into the Asia-Pacific region.
Previously represented by Hong Kong-based sub-publisher Blonde Media, the Australian arm of the global specialists in original music for film, television and digital media will commence licensing and servicing Asia-Pacific clients, providing over 130,000 tracks curated into albums and playlists.
Setting up in the UK 15 years ago, the company also has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and Manchester, with 130 dedicated music advisers and aficionados working with the team.
MIKE BRADY NAMED VICTORIAN OF THE YEAR
Melbourne jingles composer, record producer and radio broadcaster Mike Brady AM has been named Victorian of the Year.
Best known for the unofficial AFL theme Up There Cazaly, Brady was also a member of pop band MPD in the mid-60s (Little Boy Sad), before moving into jingles for major brands, including AAMI, Dodo and Hard Yakka.
He’s also worked tirelessly for charity, holding the position of board member for Variety, as well as being a patron of the Bali Children’s Foundation and long-time supporter of the Prostate Cancer Foundation Australia.
SEVEN S.A. ACTS ADDED TO SCOUTED
Music SA and Sundial Productions have announced an additional seven artists for the inaugural Scouted showcase event presented in conjunction with Umbrella: Winter City Sounds and Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR).
Scouted takes the Adelaide’s East End on July 28 to showcase South Australia’s most prominent unsigned acts, in conjunction with the AIR Awards and the Indie-Con conference on July 27 and 28.
The additional acts are indie rockers Timberwolf, 23-year-old South Sudanese hip-hop poet DyspOra, introspective pop creator Rin McArdle, the electro-pop Nakatomi, ambient Maggie Rutjens, electronic purveyor Hunt and alt soul, blues and R&B singer Ollie English.
PERTH BAND ISSUE REALITY APP WITH ALBUM
After showing off their penchant for cross-platform art experiences on their 2014 debut album Omniliberation, Perth post-rock experimental band Usurper of Modern Medicine will release an interactive 3D listening experience in the form of an augmented reality app in conjunction with the vinyl format of their new album. Everything Is Nothing is out on July 7 through MGM.
Claimed to be the first music-based app of its kind, it was designed by singer Steven Aaron Hughes in collaboration with Perth surrealist painter Liam Dee (whose work is experienced in 3D) and coder Steve Berrick.
PUBLIC TICKETS FOR NT SONG OF THE YEAR
In the countdown to this weekend’s NT Song of the Year Awards, Music NT is releasing a limited amount of tickets for the general public.
Finalists Baker Boy, Caiti Baker, Phoebe Wear and Sam Carmody will perform at the Museum & Art Gallery of Northern Territory on July 8.
RAG‘N’BONE MAN FOR IHEARTRADIO LIVE
The next instalment of this year’s iHeartRadio LIVE in Australia will feature UK bearded baritone Rag’n’Bone Man. The event will be held on Tuesday July 25 in Melbourne as part of Chapel Street Precinct’s festival of the arts, PROVOCARÉ.
PANDORA, SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, WIN FOR MARKETING
In a final piece of irony, Pandora’s sales team went on to win at the Mumbrella marketing awards last week, just days after Pandora dismantled its staff roster in Australia and New Zealand.
While the music streaming service grew its revenues by 60%, the team showed what the jury called “real evidence of commercially successful innovations for their partners”, leading them to claim the Sales Team of the Year award.
The team not only raised the brand’s profile – with partnerships including Nescafé and Holden – but also worked with their biggest rivals for the Unrivalled to roadshow event educate the ad market on the benefits of streaming.
Pandora also entered the experiential scene with Pandora Warehouse, and in-store radio partnerships with Woolworths and BWS.
Sydney Opera House took home Marketing Team of the Year for driving record audiences and revenue, by driving a true digital transformation throughout the business from virtual reality experiences and live-streamed concerts to innovative installations.
EUROVISION FINES UKRAINE
Eurovision Song Contest organiser the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has hit Ukraine with a stiff fine for its bungling of this year’s event.
The state broadcaster UA:PBC has been fined €200,000 (AUD$297,150) for “severe delays which created unnecessary difficulties”, as well as for banning the Russian entrant, in turn tarnished the reputation of the contest.
SPEAKERS FOR REGIONAL TOURING FORUM
A regional forum at next month’s Music Australia’s National Contemporary Music Roundtable conference will be convened by Live Music Office’s John Wardle.
Speakers include Esther Anatolitas, Director, Regional Arts Victoria; Geoff Bell, booking agent, Laing Entertainment; Associate Professor David Cashman, Head of Creative Arts, Central Queensland University; Duncan Esler, Co-ordinator Cultural Development Unit, City of Greater Geelong; Paul Mason, Director of Music, Australia Council; and Sue Savage, Community and Cultural Development Manager, Wollongong City Council
Addressing data, challenges and opportunities in regional areas for gigs and council music strategies, organisers say the conference is aimed at local government councillors and officials, bookers, agents, venues, managers, researchers, funders, policy makers, and musos.
VALE
Award-winning Jimmy Chi began writing songs after a car accident in Broome which left him in a coma for three weeks. He formed the band Kuckles. After they split in 1982, he developed some of their songs into the groundbreaking musical (later a film) Bran Nue Day, about an indigenous boy returning to Broome after being expelled from his Perth school. Chi died in hospital aged 69.
Les Bruton was well-known in Coffs Harbour and the NSW Mid North Coast for his performances with his wife June at folk/bush music festivals and country music concerts. The one-time bricklayer moved to Coffs Harbour fifty years ago and devoted himself to the community. Burton died of a heart attack at 88.
Country music singer-songwriter Coral Dasey was best known for her Golden Guitar-winning song The Warrumbungle Mare, although other songs as Buddy Williams At The Opera House, Country Jamboree, Echoes In The wind, One Man Girl and Vietnam Lullaby were also acclaimed. She was among the founders of the Tamworth Songwriters Association. Dasey died at 77.
RICHTER AUDIO GOES DIGITAL RADIO
Local award-winning loudspeaker brand Richter Audio has added affordable-entry digital radio to its product range from this month.
“Radio is a big part of people’s lives and, now that so many digital-only radio services are catering for different genres, Richter is set to play an important role in this exciting audio category” Brian Rodgers explained.
Following the release of the Digital Essentials Radio range this month, the Sydney-based company will follow up with the Smart Audio Digital Radio later in the year.
ORCHESTRAL STUDY
The Sound Practice Report investigation into members of Australia’s orchestras found that physically they function at the same level as elite sportspersons, with long working hours conducted in conjunction with long exposure to high levels of sound.
AUDINATE LISTING A SUCCESS
Audinate, the Sydney-based seller of PRO digital audio and networking technology, had a successful listing on the ASX.
It was founded by Aldan Williams, who serves as Technology Director, the company’s stock went up 23% after listing.
NO DEPORTATION FOR ADELAIDE MUSICIAN
Adelaide-based keyboard player David Lee has been granted permanent residence after almost being deported back to Malaysia.
The Federal Government initially deemed Lee, who arrived in South Australia ten years ago to study music at the University of Adelaide, a cost to the country because of his blindness.
The campaign to keep him here attracted 14,000 signatures on a Change.org petition.
AND A FEW OTHER THINGS,…
The Weeknd’s Starboy tour has added second shows in Sydney and Melbourne due to “overwhelming demand”, as has Paul McCartney.
Is Tex Perkins thinking about doing a show around his new autobiography Tex, co-written with broadcaster and label exec Stuart Coupe?
The Berlin based Schall & Schnabel-directed video for Boyfriend by fast-rising Sydney outfit Confidence Man sees them go somewhat sadistic. Throughout the stop-frame clip, Barbie doll’s boyfriends Ken and Kevin are seen increasingly bruised and battered. The band’s Janet Planet explains, “We haven’t played with Barbies for a while, but it seemed like the right time to get my old Ken dolls out.”
The latest recipients of PerthbreweryOtherside Brewing Co’s regular $5,000 grants to give WA acts a helping hand are rock band Verge Collection.They’ll use it for a national tour next month behind new single For The Story. Watch the video below:
Brisbane music journo and singer-songwriter Sean Sennett (Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney’s most favourite Aussie scribe) has a new album out this week called I Left My Heart in Highgate Hill. Ten Queensland female artists including Sahara Beck, Shelley Evans, Jackie Marshall and Libby Munro sing his songs on the record. Sennett tells us it started out as just a single with Evans on backing vocals but “she sounded so good I got her to sing the entire track.” Helping on co-writes were Andy White and Robert Parde, while Neil Finn gave him the title for We’ve Come A Long Way,which Beck sang on.
In between an extensive Australian run, Perth band Rag ‘n’ Bone pop over to Singapore to play Baybeats Festival on Saturday July 15.
Also heading overseas to Japan is Sydney singer-songwriter Miriam Lieberman, to play the Festival of World Music and Dance in Hakodate and some other gigs. Lieberman’s back in action after losing her voice–at the, uh, Festival of Voice–and getting violinist and opera singer Susie Bishop to step in. On her return from Japan, she plays with orchestra members through NT, including the acoustic spaces of an old World War II oil storage tunnel in Darwin and inside the Cutta Cutta Caves of Katherine.
Fresh from her appearance at the Devonport Jazz Festival, Tasmanian singer-songwriter Annia Baron will walk the 200km journey from Hobart to Launceston on July 19 to raise money for more music facilities in aged care homes.
Image source: Citizenj and Facebook