New Signings & Team-Ups
Image: Sloan Peterson’s Joannah Jackson
LUKE MILLION SECURES GLOBAL AGENCY DEAL
Australian producer Luke Million has inked a worldwide agency deal with Circle Talent. It covers North America, South America, and Europe, said the agency’s Jake Bernstein. Circle Talent reps international names as Paul Van Dyk and Flux Pavillion, as well as Australians Kilter and Go Freek.
Last year Million toured through the US and Canada, picked up specialist radio play in the US, and achieved international viral sensation status with his version of the Stranger Things theme.
He is represented for bookings in ANZ by Poster Child. He’s currently a guest on Client Liaison’s Diplomatic Immunity tour, with an EP set for August, and was announced this morning amongst the artists on the Splendour In The Grass lineup.
MIRROR PICKS UP SLOAN PETERSON
Rising Sydney garage pop act Sloan Peterson have signed with Mirror Records and released their debut single 105. A self-titled debut EP follows in July.
It’s the second band that 24-year-old Joannah Jackson has formed and fronted. At 16 she moved in with her sister and became involved in Sydney’s South Coast DIY art scene. She spent years recording music through her laptop, filming homemade music videos, sifting through dusty records searching for lost gems with friends and lovers, before forming her first band Black Zeros.
Mirror is the label offshoot of Mirror Management Group – who handle Gang Of Youths, Middle Kids and Brightness, among others – and has the well-honed ear of former FBi Radio music director Stephen Goodhew at the helm.
STARR, IVY LEAGUE, JOIN 123 AGENCY
Melbourne-based 123 Agency continues to widen its roster with Phebe Starr and Ivy League.
Indie pop singer-songwriter Starr drops a new EP Chronicles this week, which she launches with three shows in late June in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Growing in a remote NSW farm with no internet, she taught herself to play guitar and piano by ear.
First EP Zero and the track Alone With You earned her syncs on TV shows and movies, even a Samsung ad, millions of Spotify streams and was named Glamour Magazine’s “14 Badass Women of SXSW”.
Ivy League, who made their mark last year with the track Bleached,have just released new single Sylvia and will hit the road nationally with Ali Barter in late April.
THANDI PHOENIX JOINS SUM MANAGEMENT
Stellar Sydney performer Thandi Phoenix has joined boutique music management company SUM Management. Phoenix had a strong 2016 with high triple j picking up her anthemic single Tell Me Where The Lovers Have Gone on high rotation, as well as topping Spotify’s Australian Viral Chart.
She has a huge 2017 planned with new music set to drop in the coming months, including a notable collaboration, plus an appearance at Curve Ball as part of Vivid Sydney.
SONY BRINGS IN LYTTLE
Kevin Lyttle, Caribbean-based purveyor of the soca style, will have his four current projects issued through Ultra/ Sony Music. Lyttle’s Turn Me On, featuring Spragga Benz, reached #3 in Australia in 2004, as well as #3 in the US, #2 in the UK and #5 through Europe.
He remains a high-profile artist in the US. Last year his song Midnight, featuring Latin artiste Nengo Flow, topped theBillboard’s Tropical Songs chart.
JAY-Z EXTENDS DEAL WITH WEINSTEIN CO.
Jay-Zsigned a first-look deal with The Weinstein Co. last September, and has now extended it to a film and docuseries. They’ve acquired the rights to two books about Trayvon Martin;the Florida teenager’s 2012 death sparked protests when George Zimmerman, a member of the community’s Neighbourhood Watch who fatally shot him, was acquitted of murder charges after claiming self-defence even though Martin was unarmed.
NOVA GETS THE CHUCKLES
Nova 100 Melbourne continues its long-standing partnership with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for the 12th consecutive year. It will showcase 30 comedy shows and interview the performers.
For the first time, Nova will also launch the Comedy Kombi to take comedy to the streets by putting on free pop-up comedy gigs in suburbs throughout Melbourne.
LORDE PREPS PUBLICITY TRAIL
Lorde signed with US publicity firm PMK*BNC’s music department. With new single Green Light picked up by US radio and her sophomore album Melodrama due mid-2017, the NZ singer-songwriter is set to hit the North American summer festival circuit including Coachella, Governors Ball and Bonnaroo.
Rumours she was due to appear at Splendour this year were dispelled this morning.
GOLDEN VESSEL: NEW SINGLE, PROJECTIONS
Last month, producer Golden Vessel (Max Byrne) signed with Exist. Recordings, a new label founded by Danny Harley (The Kite String Tangle), and has just released his new audio-visual single Tell The-Girl (ft. Emerson Leif).
The accompanying Annelise Hickey-directed music video features cameos from Byrne and his friends Woodes, elkkle, Seywood, Nico Ghost and Abraham Tilbury.
In conjunction with the single, Golden Vessel will premiere an audio-visual experience titled GV Projections Show – projections he has been working on with two close collaborators over the past six months to create new content designed to move in sync with each track – to be showcased at his hometown Brisbane’s Black Bear Lodge on March 31.
GREYSCALE SIGN ALPHA WOLF, DEADLIGHTS
Greyscale Records have signed up two acts of late, Melbourne’s Alpha Wolf and Brisbane’s Deadlights.
Deathcore-nu metal merchants Alpha Wolf release new single #104 (“about the loss of a loved family figure”) after their Nail Biter clocked up almost 50,000 views on YouTube and pushed past 25,000 streams on Spotify. They hit the road in June.
Deadlights drop their debut album, Mesma, produced by Andy Marsh of Thy Art Is Murder, on April 21. They formed nine years ago disparately influenced by Rage Against The Machine, Tool, Bob Dylan and Terrence McKenna.
BIG RIG GETS KEYTE DEBUT ALBUM
Big Rig Records is releasing Melaleuca, the debut album from Adelaide singerNaomi Keyte. The record, with its themes of self-discovery and self-acceptance, sees her working with a full band featuring musicians from fellow South Australian bands Sparkspitter and Swimming.
Her first release since 2013’s Edge of Morning EP, it was recorded with producer Nick Huggins on the quiet coastline of Point Lonsdale, Victoria, and draws heavily on South Australian places that were important in her life, including the Adelaide Hills and the family beach house in Cape Jervis.