The end of an era: Farewell Soundwave

Soundwave founder AJ Maddah had already dropped the bombshell earlier this week when he announced that the 2016 edition next month would be the festival’s last.

He tweeted he was “over it” (running festivals), as the “hard work, stress & risk” only brought “hate & stupidity”.

But the 12-year festival ended its run 12 months early when Maddah announced the three-city event was axed “due to poor ticket sales. I am very sorry. I tried my best.”

Ticket holders have been told by the festival’s ticket agent Eventopia to contact Soundwave regarding a refund. Eventopia issued a statement to TMN overnight maintaing AJ Maddah is responsible for refunds.

“In line with our ticketing sales agreement, the Festival Promoter is responsible for all ticketing funds that were advanced, and is directly liable to all ticket purchasers for issuing customer refunds,” read the statement. “Customers should contact the Promoter of the Festival directly to request their ticket refund in full using the contact details supplied below.”

:: Read the full statement from Eventopia here

AJ Maddah has advised ticket holders they will be refunded sooner if they contact their credit card company:

Maddah’s financial woes date back to 2009 when the first operating company of Soundwave (KMW Productions) entered administration (ASIC). In more recent times, Maddah was battling to pay the huge international contingent with American dollars when the Aussie dollar had dropped. According to the CX site, quoting Deloitte figures, the festival’s previous operating company World Stages (which went into voluntary administration in September) owed 186 creditors a total of $25.8 million. Then in August this year Soundwave Pty Ltd entered voluntary administration as Maddah launched another holding company to operate the festival, Hounds of Hell Pty Ltd.

Music Feeds has said it obtained documents from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) outlining just how much Soundwave owes its past performers. Among them are reported funds owed to Fear Factory ($78,263.96), Fall Out Boy ($394,107.14), Marilyn Manson ($588,000.56), Slash ($484,628.00), Incubus ($571,428.58) and Slipknot ($1,645,299.29).

In Soundwave’s final week, Maddah was battling with Eventopia to make good their alleged promise to come up with a huge advance on ticket sales so he could put a down payment on some of the acts. Some acts like Bring Me The Horizon were starting to distance themselves this week while L7 cancelled. Maddah tried to get Rage Against The Machine to reunite but failed.

Soundwave, which started in Perth before expanding to five cities, had a large and loyal following. It brought out not just superstars but turned audiences to new acts and sub-tribes of its rock, metal and punk creed. In 2013, with a bill headlined by Metallica, Linkin Park and Blink 182, the festival reached almost 250,000 fans over five cities and grossed $63 million, it overtook Big Day Out as the biggest festival in Australia.

Soundwave had already become a victim in recent years to changing attitudes by Australian festival fans. The big touring festivals were over. New experiences overtook big names. Maddah dropped Adelaide and Perth for the 2016 run when they failed to deliver enough crowds. The two-day format was abandoned.

Maddah said, “Thank you to all the fans, bands and people who supported the event for the last 12 years. I wish we could have ended it on a better note.”

While the demise of Soundwave has unfolded in both an ungraceful and unfortunate manner, there’s no denying its influence on the Australian and New Zealand festival markets, as well as its contribution to heavy music in general. As the springboard for many local acts including Northlane, Dream On Dreamer and to a degree Parkway Drive, Soundwave took many local touring bands to the global stage.

Soundwave General Manager Chris O’Brien, who just this week launched his own mangement company WhataVibe, told TMN Soundwave was the first festival in Australia to champion heavy music.

“Others had dabbled in it over the years but no one had ever taken it to the masses,” he said. “It takes an incredible amount of commitment and knowledge to put an event of this size on especially with the skeleton crew we always worked with.

“We had an incredible team of people working on Soundwave from the core staffing to production and site management and I am immensely proud to have worked alongside all of them.

“The reason why heavy bands in this country have had a huge year of massive chart debuts, record sales and big concerts of their own right can be directly attributed to Soundwave,” he added. “It has managed to open the eyes to a new legion of heavy music lovers and also media who have come along for the ride and helped put it in the spotlight.”

“I will always look back at Soundwave with the fondest of memories but as one door closes another always opens. Rock on!”

Luke Girgis, Label Director/Head of Music at Shock Records, told TMNit’s Australian artists and music fans who have lost the most.

“Regardless of your feeling towards AJ, the biggest loser of Soundwave closing is Australian musicians and music fans,” said Girgis. “I see people celebrating a downfall but failed festivals are good for no one. I hope we see someone else fly the flag or a similar one as soon as possible.”

Dave Jiannis of Epitaph Recordsused his tribute to commend the crew behind the festival.

“R.I.P Soundwave. Thanks for all the memories. A big shout out to all the amazing people who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make it all happen and who made sure the bands and label folk were well looked after,” he told TMN.

Genna Alexopoulos, owner of Sydney-based PR and communications agencySuper Duper, highlights the festival’s contribution:

“All politics aside, Soundwave made an enormous change for heavy music in Australia. To see mainstream media finally give heavy music the attention and air-time it has always deserved changed a lot for us; it carved a new path and new opportunities for all those bands who were always cast straight to the ’too hard’ basket,” she said.

“We worked with 50 bands over four consecutive years – 24 in 2013 alone – and the energy each artist carried around on and off stage was just soelectric, it moved straight through the audience in each city, and that moved through the audiences in each city,”Alexopoulosadded. “Heavy music fans are a tight community, and seeing them as straight up stoked as they were when Soundwave rolled into town isn’t something you’re going to forget in a hurry.”

It’s not known how many of the class of 2016 – including Disturbed, The Prodigy, Deftones, NOFX and Bullet For My Valentine – will still make it out on their own tours.

The official Soundwave Festival Facebook account has been removed.