New Signings & Team-Ups: August 9

ALISON WONDERLAND COLLABORATES WITH MICROSOFT FOR LIVE SHOWS

On the eve of dropping her second album and an Australian tour, producer and DJ Alison Wonderland has collaborated with Microsoft as part of their ongoing Music x Technology series.

Wonderland’s custom performance kit, running on a Microsoft Surface Book combined with Kinect, will see her “produce jaw-dropping, dynamic visuals, inspired by spiritual iconography and elements of high fantasy, that she and her VJ are able to control in real-time from stage, and will be a key part of her homecoming tour at the end of the year as part of the WonderlandScarehouseProject.”

The set up will be used for the first time in outdoor amphitheatres, barns and warehouses.

WonderlandScarehouseProject will feature international and local artists, hand-picked by Wonderland herself. This new project comes off the back of her successful WonderlandWarehouseProject, which has completed two sold out laps of the country since 2014

She plays Brisbane on Sunday November 26, Melbourne on Saturday December 2, Sydney on Saturday December 9 and Auckland on Saturday December 16.

SONY LIGHTS UP RIVAL FIRE

Sony Music Entertainment Australia has revealedt it signed Melbourne hard rock band Rival Fire last month, and is issuing its debut album War on August 11.

The record has been three years in the making, with the band starting to play around the traps a year before that. The record started out as an EP but Sony wanted more tracks,

The band is fronted by Rob Farnham whose father we hear made waves as a singer in the 1960s.

Farnham Jr, 36, says the lyrics of the title track, out as a single, “are about internal struggle, it’s about the war inside your head, the war you’re facing on a personal note.

“It’s not a ‘self-help’ kind of thing, but I understand the concept. Everyone has their own problems and issues, I just want people to know they’re not alone.”

RICE IS NICE SWEEPS IN LOWTIDE

Sydney indie Rice Is Nice has signed Melbourne atmospheric-rock band Lowtide, releasing their new single Alibi.

The track, recorded with Matthew Hosking at The Aviary Studios in Abbotsford, is launched August 25 at The Northcote Social Club with No Sister and Great Outdoors.

The band are through late August and September also touring Europe playing festivals and their own shows. They are working with UK label Opposite Number who represent them in Europe.

URTHBOY FINDS ROLE IN NANDO’S MUSIC PROGRAM

Nando’s has tapped Sydney hip hop producer Urthboy to be one of the mentors for its Global Music Exchange program. Six Melbourne music students from JMC Academy are going to record at London’s Roundhouse Studios, as will entrants from other countries which will also contribute mentors.

This is the first time that Nando’s has extended the program to Australia.

PR manager for Nando’s Australia, Cath Palfreyman, said.

“Nando’s has a strong history of working with home-grown talent and feeding their passion for music through various programs.

“We’re really looking forward to participating in the Music Exchange this year and helping more emerging artists follow their dream.”

ALI BARTER PROVIDES TAMPONS FOR WOMEN IN NEED

Ahead of her biggest tour yet, singer songwriter Ali Barter will partner with former Neighbours actress Saskia Hamplele, who is founder of social enterprise/start up Gift Box to Help A Sister Out.

In Australia, there are an estimated 46,000 homeless women who, each month struggle with access to sanitary care.

Gift Box is the world’s first one-for-one organic tampon brand which provides similar quality and price as its rivals but donates the same product to a woman in need.

At Barter’s upcoming One Foot In Tour (alibartermusic.com), she and Hamplele will have a limited run of tea towels designed by illustrator and tattoo artist Lily Gloria, who was featured in issue one of Barter’s A Suitable Girl zine.

Proceeds will be funnelled through Gift Box’s Help A Sister Out donation option.

Barter explains, “We all get our damn periods so I love that if I buy a box of tampons from Gift Box Organic, it means someone more in need than me gets one too.

“It’s important that all women have access to sanitary care, and tampons are, for many, non-negotiable.”

HAVAS DATA COLLECTING WITH TEG ANALYTICS

Havas Sports & Entertainment, whose GM is former music manager Francis Coady, has partnered with data science provider TEG Analytics to provide marketers insight into how their audiences are spending money within the world of music, entertainment, film, sports, TV and the arts.

These cover data matching, audience definitions, customer profiling an analysis will also be made available through the partnership.

TEG Analytics’ customer attribute analyser Genome Live will be marketed through the partnership, mapping the entertainment preferences of Australians.

123 AGENCY REPPING WHARVES

Melbourne-based 123 Agency is repping Lennox Head, NSW-based Wharves, and putting them on the road in late September behind their new single Man You Want Me To Be.

Wharves, inspired by The Strokes and Foals, recently opened Splendour In The Grass as triple j Unearthed’s entry.

Such was their performance, Wharves manager Nathan Luke says, that they were approached by 123’s founder Damian Costin and senior agent Harry Moore “literally as they came off stage.”

NETFLIX ACQUIRES COMIC BOOK CREATOR MILLARWORLD

Netflix has made its first company acquisition, comic book publisher Millarworld, as it moves towards more original content than just licensing it

Scottish-native Mark Millar is the current generation’s Stan Lee, creating 18 characters and stories as Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Wanted, Reborn, Jupiter’s Legacy, MPH, Chrononauts and Old Man Logan through Millarwood which he set up in 2004.

These will be brought to life in Netflix films, series and kids’ shows. Millarworld will create and publish new story and character franchise under the Netflix banner.

Millar was seven years at Marvel (which was bought in 2009 by Disney) where he came up with the comics and story lines which inspired the first Avengers movie, Captain America: Civil War and Logan (Wolverine), which collectively grossed $3 billion in the global box office.

GERMANY’S POPVIRUS ENTERS AUSTRALIAN MARKET

Germany’s POPVIRUS will make its presence in Australia and New Zealand, after signing a publishing deal with Queensland-based Motion Focus Music.

The Munich-based company has 15,000+ tracks over 450 albums spanning four labels including music, international, soundtrack and planet.

Motion Focus Music’s Daniel Gatland said: “The quality and range of the POPVIRUS catalogue is among the best in the world and we are excited to offer this collection across their four different labels exclusively in our region.”

The new partnership will augment Motion Focus Music’s presence in the TV, film and advertising landscape, with recent TV placements including Simply Nigella, Top Gear UK and various documentaries on the National Geographic network. Motion Focus Music’s custom music studio, Jarsonic, has also worked recently on advertising campaigns out of China, Japan, India and Los Angeles.

CAROLINE AUSTRALIA PACTS WITH SIV JAKOBSEN

Caroline Australia struck a deal with Norwegian singer songwriter Siv Jakobsen to release her London-made debut album The Nordic Mellow. It follows on from the Oslo-based act’s 2015 EP The Lingering.

GAMES MUSIC BOSS BATTLE LABEL EYES GLOBAL AUDIENCE

Boss Battle Records, a new video game music record label founded by Fabian Malabello, the director of Australian video game audio agency The Otherworld Agency for five years, is eying the global market.

Two Australian video games developed through The Otherworld, Hacknet,’ and This Is The Police, had their musically-acclaimed soundtracks out through BBR.

Malabello says his label will see a shift in the way video game soundtracks are released and marketed. Currently these are mostly through aggregators but leave the marketing and audience growth to the composer.

Hence it has entered a partnership with Remote Control and its overseas partners to take the pressure off composers. Aside from overseas releases, a key growth aspect includes video game concerts expanding their audiences, the largest being 30 000+ for Video Games Live in China.

POLYDOR EXPANDS CARIBBEAN SOUNDS

Polydor has increased its West Indian content with an agreement with BrukOut Records, a UK-based label that celebrates Caribbean music and culture. The deal will focus on new emerging artists.

TWO DEALS FOR STELLA DONNELLY

West Australian singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly, who emerged with her Thrush Metal EP and among those showcasing at BIGSOUND in Brisbane, has finalised two agreements to build her career.

Philip Stevens Management (John Butler Trio, San Cisco, The Waifs) has picked up her management, while international bookings are by Alex Bruford of Europe’s ATC Live.

WARNER CHAPPELL INKS JOSH RECORD

Warner/Chappell Music signed a global publishing deal with London-based singer, songwriter and record producer Josh Record.

Aside from releasing his own records since 2012, he has

written for Jorja Smith, Ella Henderson, LP, Anne-Marie and Mr Probz and collaborated with fellow songwriters and producers, Adam Argyle, Katy B and Mike Del Rio.

OMNY TO DISTRIBUTE AUSSIE PODCASTS ON SPOTIFY

Omny Studio, the Australian on-demand audio platform set up for broadcasters and enterprise podcasters, will have its 300 podcast series played through the Spotify desktop, iPhone, Android and web apps.