New Signings & Team-Ups: December 6

DON WALKER’S SOLO MUSIC GOES VINYL

Don Walker’s entire solo catalogue of six albums have been issued on a vinyl box set called Blacktop on March 23 – five of them for the first time in the shiny black format.

In the set are We’re All Gunna Die, Cutting Back, Hully Gully, Live At The Caravan plus both Catfish albums, Unlimited Address and Ruby.

They were remastered by Don Bartley with instruction from Don: “Please cut as loud as possible”.

Each album will also be available separately. Only 1988’s Unlimited Address, has been available on vinyl before.

Receiving a physical release for the first time is Live At The Caravan, which was previously a digital-only release in 2014.

“It’s a way of reviewing the whole catalogue,” Walker says of the box set, “without doing a best-of.”

As for the title, he wryly explains: “It was a choice between Blacktop and Hits. I was advised that Blacktop was more appropriate.”

Walker and The Suave Fucks will head to the road in April taking in shows in Newcastle, Sydney, Bowral, Adelaide, Bellingen, Melbourne and Mullumbimby.

MUSIC VAULT PARTNERS WITH APRA AMCOS

The new Australian Music Vault – the free exhibition celebrating Australian music and set to open on December 19 at Arts Centre Music – has partnered with APRA AMCOS for a number of music education programs and mentorship.

The first is the AMV Academy, where a number of aspirants aged 14—18 will be mentored in a number of topics in an intensive four day course between Monday January 22 and Thursday January 25.

These include songwriting (mentors: Anna Laverty and triple j presenter KLP), Ableton workshops (Alice Ivy), lyric writing (MC Mantra), VJing (Rose Staff), band photography (Warwick Baker), logo design (Emma Rickards), studio recording (Bek Varcoe), live mixing (and Lara Soulio), merch designing and printing (Johanna Gibbs) and DJing (Mz Rizk).

Attendees will also have the opportunity to use The Channel’s recording studio to learn to record their own music.

The Australian Music Vault opens on December 19.

KOBALT ENTERS LICENSING PACT WITH CHINESE STREAMING SERVICE

Kobalt Music has moved into the Chinese market – “next great land of opportunity for the music market” – with astrategic licensing and distribution deal with Chinese streaming platform NetEase Cloud Music.

NetEase’s 400 million users will access 600,000 tracks including those from Paul McCartney, Max Martin, Miles Davis, Fleetwood Mac, Lionel Richie, Ed Sheeran and others, as well as Asian artists Big Bang, EXO, F(X), Girls’ Generation, Shinee and Super Junior.

The agreement sees NetEase licensing and distributing Kobalt’s publishing and AWAL recording.

Both will work at copyright protection for Kobalt acts in the Chinese market, and will see each others’ artists write and record together.

SONY SIGNS FOREVER EVER LABEL

Sony Music Entertainment Australia partnered with Hau Latukefu, Koolism member and triple j The Hip Hop Show presenter, to set up Forever Ever.

Latukefu, whose people hail from Tonga, spearheaded the rise of Australian hip hop twenty years ago, and revered by the current generation of names as Briggs and Remi.

Forever Ever will not only sign new acts but receive mentoring from Latukefu.

DEW PROCESS PACTS PUBLISHING WITH EVAN KLAR

Dew Process Publishing struck a worldwide deal with Melbourne-based multi instrumentalist and songwriter Evan Klar (aka Stefan Niedermeyer),

Born in Perth and raised in Singapore, Klar spent six years in London as a session musician for Alex Metric and Charli XCX.

He landed a deal with EMI Music after showcasing at BIGSOUND, and released his debut album Deepest Creatures which was produced by Ash Workman (Metronomy/ Christine & The Queens).

The album has been picked up by US label Play Nice Records/Interscope for US release.

Stefan and his brother are building a collaborative songwriting and production complex in Flemington, Melbourne called Fall Back Studios.

It has eight studio spaces and, when it officially opens in early 2018, will have both temporary and permanent tenants.

DO EDM FANS PREFER SPOTIFY OR APPLE MUSIC?

Do EDM fans prefer Spotify or Apple Music? YourEDM did a poll of its readers – and found that Spotify won by a landslide. Votes were 84% to 16%.

123 AGENCY ADDS MIDAS.GOLD

123 Agency’s latest addition is breakout act Midas.Gold. The Seattle-born Brisbane-based performer has struck with trap anthem single ‘Location’ and an impressive showing at BIGSOUND this year.

123 and R.E.A.L Music confirmed shows behind new single ‘Poppin’, at Sydney’s The Chippo (Feb 23) and Melbourne’s Yah Yah’s (Feb 24).

AUSTRALIA COUNCIL WORKS WITH DFAT

Australia Council worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for its first International Arts Leaders round of scholarships.

It is designed to empower leaders in the arts and cultural industries of countries across the Indo-Pacific region.

DFAT is investing $330,000 to support 9 scholarships for exceptional arts leaders, capitalising on the Australia Council’s expertise in the delivery of arts programs.

Australia Council CEO Tony Grybowski said the program“will enable meaningful connections between cultural producers, arts managers and institutions in Australia and the Indo-Pacific region, in line with our strategic goal that Australia’s arts and cultural industries are without borders.”

The participants selected for the Arts Leaders program are visual arts professional Mia Maria (Indonesia), dancer and arts manager Vikram Iyengar (India), marketing and business development professional Menaka Rodriguez (India) and festival manager Ruchira Das (India).

Selected for the Future Leaders Program are singer-songwriter who advocates gender equality through music and the arts Kartika Jahja (Indonesia), Manila Fringe festival founder Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan (Philippines), visual artist and curator Rhine Bernardino (Philippines), arts marketing professional Neha Jaiswar (India) and theatre festival programmer Lin Fu (China).