New Signings & Team-Ups: DeMarchi inks multi-album solo deal; Six60 lands Capitol deal; Nickelodeon presenting Vivid panel; Violent Femmes to release EP through Sydney’s Planet

Suze DeMarchi inks multi-album solo deal with SFR

Baby Animals’ Suze DeMarchi’s second solo album Home, coming only 15 years after her first, will be out in late July through Social Family Records. The company inked her to a multi-album solo deal. As its title indicates, the album has a “home” theme, covering songs by the likes of The Clash, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sheryl Crow, Adele and Ryan Adams. It features contributions from Jimmy Barnes, Russell Morris, Diesel, Tex Perkins, Dallas Frasca and the album’s producer, Shane Nicholson.

Violent Femmes at Planet/MGM

Ahead of the announcement of an Australian tour, Violent Femmes will release an EP Happy New Year through Sydney-based Planet/ MGM. Happy New Year was recorded on New Year’s Eve in Hobart (Brian Ritchie's adopted home town), after they played a sold out concert at Sydney Opera House. The EP is their first new material in 15 years. The band is doing a 36-city US tour in the next few weeks.

Six60 lands Capitol deal

New Zealand band Six60 landed a deal with Capitol, home of Katy Perry, Elton John and fellow-Kiwis Broods. "It's a huge opportunity for us – we're so, so happy about it," guitarist and vocalist Matiu Walters said. The band, who named themselves after the street number of their share house, have ten songs in the NZ Top 20 and have almost sold out an upcoming NZ tour.

Brands leap abroad for Eurovision broadcast…

OzTam figures supplied by SBS say that 3 million Australians were among the 195 million who watched the Eurovision Song Contest last year. This week’s event has attracted considerable brand interest as Australia enters its first official contestant via Guy Sebastian. Renault, Ahm Health Insurance, Bingle Car Insurance and Harvey Norman have come abroad as official sponsors of the SBS broadcast. The semi-finals are broadcast tomorrow (Wed) and Friday with the finals on early Sunday. SBS viewers can rate each performance in the primetime replays with the Renault Reactor – a technology platform that will show real time ratings and help to find Sebastian on each night. Renault will offer viewers the chance to win a Renault Captur.

Meantime, the excitement has seeped over in Canberra to the Austrian embassy. It and the National Film and Sound Archive (Archive head Michael Loebenstein​ is also Austrian) are throwing a huge Eurovision party at the Archive in Acton on Sunday May 24 from 5 pm.

…while Australia’s Arlene Zelina reports for airline

The Eurovision Song Contest’s official carrier Austrian Airlines hired Australian performer and YouTube biggie Arlene Zelina to provide blow-by-blow interactive visual and audio reports from Vienna to inspire millions around the world to vote for the winner. These are via www.ArleneZelina.com as well as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. “I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to communicate the real, on-the-ground, first-hand feelings and emotions from the perspective of a singer," said Zelina from Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne, who in 2012 was signed by US singer Jason Derulo to his Future History label after seeing her perform at LA's Whisky A Go Go.

ARN, Twitter, team on Greenroom

Australian Radio Network (ARN) has a new greenroom in its studios which it co-designed with Twitter Australia. Its VIP guests and on-air talent can use the GIF Booth to create personalised GIFs to be Tweeted in real-time and a custom-built Twitter Mirror where they can send autographed selfies to fans.

Leona Lewis on Universal Music Australia

British singer Leona Lewis releases her fifth album I Am through Universal Music Australia. It comes via a deal she signed with Island Records in the UK and Def Jam Recordings in the US. New single Fire Under My Feet was co-written by Lewis with the album’s producer Toby Gad. Lewis emerged on the scene in 2007 with her debut album Spirit, which went to #1 in Australia, as well as the US, UK, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand and sold 8 million copies. She had five hits from it, including Bleeding Love which was #1 in 35 counties and set a new record for a British female artist with the highest number of singles reaching Top 5. She won the Ivor Novello Award that year.

Lamb of God thunder at Nuclear Blast …

Nuclear Blast Australia will release US heavy rock band Lamb of God’s seventh album VII: Sturm und Drang in winter. The band has signed with Nuclear Blast Entertainment for all territories outside of North America. Drummer Chris Adler said they’d almost signed to Nuclear Blast in 1997 “but have been flirting ever since! It's now time for a new chapter.”

…so do Metal Allegiance

US metal collective Metal Allegiance’s debut album is out through Nuclear Blast in late 2015. It was put together by metal artist manager Mark Menghi with David Ellefson of Megadeth, Mike Portnoy of The Winery Dogs and Alex Skolnick of Testament to write and record. They reached out to other major names for the album, details to be announced in coming months.

Presto offered to Quickflix subscribers

In a conditional deal, Quickflix subscribers will be offered the Presto TV, Presto Movies and Presto Entertainment bundle across their existing range of services “post the satisfaction of conditions precedent in the deal,” Presto said. The agreement is expected to be formally signed in the next few months.

Nickelodeon presenting Vivid panel

Nickelodeon Australia is on May 24 presenting a panel #Nofilter – The Creativity of Youth at Vivid Sydney. Moderated by Mick Elliott, its Head of On-Air and Creative Services, it will tap on the creativity of teens as photographer Kenyon Batterson, Indy Clinton who developed 50,000 Instagram followers through her selfies, YouTube comedian Sarah Ellen and hit online video content producer DieselD199 on youth perspective on creativity.

Lanks at Select Music

Sydney-based Select Music booking agency signed Melbourne’s Lanks (Will Cuming) and is putting him (with Mister Management) on a headlining seven-date East Coast tour behind his July-due EP Banquet. After his debut last year Thousand Piece Puzzle got attention from the NME and triple j, his new single Settle Down debuted on UK tastemaker blog The 405.

Blur lick it up

Blur launch their own Magic Whip ice cream around the release of Magic Whip, their first album in 12 years. The LP went straight to #1 in the UK. The ice-cream was created with dairy specialist The Licktators and described as "a dairy vanilla custard ice cream rippled with raspberry sauce.” It will be sold on the upcoming Blur UK tour and Co-Operative stores. The Licktators previously released Jiggy Pop (popcorn flavor) and John Lemon (lemon curd flavour).

Sydney convention centre appoints social media, PR partner

In the run up to its December 2016 launch, the $1.1 billion International Convention Centre Sydney in Darling Harbour appointed integrated communications agency History Will Be Kind (HWBK) as its social media, content and PR partner.

SGC, Collision Course, strike partnership

Brisbane music marketing companies, Stephen Green’s SGC Media Group and Tim Price’s heavy rock/metal Collision Course have gone into partnership. The latter moves into SGC’s offices as part of SGC Group alongside SGC Media, Title Track and Music Send but remains a stand-alone under Price. He said in a statement that the SGC partnership “gives us the best opportunity to push (heavy rock) forward.” In the immediate feature, they work on new releases from As Paradise Falls, Guards of May, Balloons Kill Babies and Transience and a number of label deals unveiled soon.

Walk The Moon join Sony/ATV

Sony/ATV Music Publishing struck a worldwide deal with US alt rock band Walk The Moon. It covers their catalogue, going back to their 2010 independently released debut album I Want! I Want! to their current single Shut Up And Dance.

Sony/ATV co-President, US, Rick Krim, said: “We are incredibly excited to be working with this great band who are enjoying the biggest hit of their career right now. Walk The Moon have been on my radar since their first record when I was at VH1 and we made them a You Oughta Know artist, so it’s great to see them having this success.”