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- Radio Edit | 7.10.23
Radio Edit | 7.10.23
with The Amazons' Matt Thomson
Radio Edit Team
July 10, 2023
Chris Alderton
Currently in the middle of a European festival run, The Amazons’ Matt Thomson took some time to discuss their recent North American tour and the challenges facing UK acts looking to break in the States.
You just got back from an American tour. Outside of LA and NY, which show was the standout on the tour, and why?
It was our first headline tour, so really just a shot in the dark. Chicago was a Malört-fuelled haze. The Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring, MD was as rough and ready a show as we’ve played in years.
You have a reputation for being really high maintenance and impossible to work with. What was the most diva item on your rider?
Fuck you! Finally the truth is out.
Our requests are generally reasonable. The Diva usually comes out after we consume our ration of Guinness and wine.
We played a festival with Die Antwoord years ago and walked past a large collection of goldfish, waiting in a tank outside of their dressing room. That feels like a bar worth beating.
You and I talk a lot about the challenges of breaking in America as an international act, even with the support of a record label and a great management team behind you. For example, Robbie Williams could walk down Hollywood Blvd and probably no one would turn their head. Even as one of the biggest bands of all time, Oasis had a fraction of the impact in America that they had in the UK. What do you think attributes to that disconnect?
The 3,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean are a good place to start. That’s an obstacle before you’ve even begun. In contrast, I can jump on a train at Kings Cross after breakfast and be walking the streets of Paris for lunch.
So that’s a mental barrier, working in tandem with the financial and logistical. It results in bands from the British Isles failing to compete with the volume of shows American bands can achieve. All while operating with less knowledge of the country. In the case of Oasis and Robbie Williams, who, like you said are wildly successful in the UK, belief could’ve played a part.
In America, the roads are long and it takes more than gas to conquer them. You have to believe. Believe that it’s all worth it. It takes a pound of flesh to get to just the starting line, let alone the years it’ll take to carve out a foothold. To us I guess it’s like the holy land. It’s the birthplace of Blues, Jazz, Rock n Roll, Hip Hop. Every time we roll into Chicago, NYC, New Orleans, LA and Nashville we walk among the spirits of musicians past and it fuels our wildest dreams.
If you don’t have a why that transcends just getting rich and famous, you’re going to run out of track, fast.
Just to illustrate the difference, the night we met you were playing to thousands of screaming fans at London's Roundhouse. Literally jam-packed with people singing every word. Meanwhile in America you're playing rooms to a couple hundred tops. What's your reaction to that and does it inform anything as you chart a course for the band's future?
It’s easy for us to contextualize. We’ve toured the U.K. for years while we’ve just begun our journey in America. It excites me that we’re unknown in the US. We can emerge fully formed. We can turn up to bars and burn the place down.
After your recent LA show, you essentially beelined it straight from the stage to the merch table to meet fans and take photos. Why was doing that so important?
Because the root of all this is connecting with people. Otherwise we’d have regular jobs and write music to play in our bedrooms. The point of putting music out into the world and getting on planes and driving hours in a van and staying in crumbling motels is the conversations we have at the merch table.
The stories, the personal histories. Wherever we go, there’s a sense of camaraderie between us and our audience. We’re here for the same reason. To share the same energy. There isn’t a hierarchy.
Theres this trend of giving your fanbase a name right now and it makes me feel uncomfortable. It’s contrived and infantilizing. The people who listen to The Amazons and come to the shows are real people with jobs and families and lives and problems. They aren’t a number or a statistic.
What's the rest of 2023 look like?
Festivals across the U.K. & Europe for the rest of the summer. We’re writing another season of our radio show ZONS FM. Maybe another tour and if it’s ready, new music.
TikTok finally unveils streaming service
After months of speculation, TikTok has announced that they’ll be launching their own streaming service- beginning in Brazil and Indonesia. Available as a premium service only, TikTok Music will sync with users’ existing TikTok accounts allowing them to discover, listen, and share songs that they find on the app.
According to a press release, the service will launch with a full catalog of music from thousands of labels and artists, including the three majors. Notably, this includes Sony, whose catalog has been unavailable on TikTok’s existing streaming service Resso since September. The statement further notes that beginning on September 5th, access to Resso will be unavailable in Brazil and Indonesia and users in those territories will instead be invited to join TikTok Music via a free 1-month trial. This news will surely please rights holders who have been lobbying for TikTok to adopt a premium-only model over an ad-supported one- noting that paid subscriptions accounts for 77% of all streaming revenue.
SoundCloud expands their member benefit program with new perks
After launching ‘SoundCloud For Artists’ in 2022- a member benefit program that provided exclusive offers and discounts to participating creatives, SoundCloud is now introducing several new partnerships that members can take advantage of. With this latest rollout, SFA members now have access to the following features from:
Squarespace: create captivating websites and unique domains with extensions like ‘.band’, engage with fans, and sell custom merch
Discord: a complimentary three-month subscription to Discord Nitro including features like Server Boosts, customizable emojis & stickers, and HD video streaming
Rap Plug: members can take advance of online courses from professionals who have collaborated with artists like Drake, Rihanna, Jay Z, Lil Baby, and SZA- offering their knowledge and experience to help artists elevate their career
Adobe: 20% discount on Adobe Premiere Pro and access to trial versions of Adobe Express Premium
Preexisting features available via the SFA program include: the service’s ‘Fans’ tool, direct messaging on mobile devices, a ‘Comments’ tool, a global licensing deal with Merlin, and additional features via their partnership with Feature.FM.
Acknowledging the laundry list of things an artist must do to effectively manage their careers- from managing their online presence, creating social assets, and community building- SoundCloud’s is looking to help manage this workload by offering exclusive benefits that can help an artist across all areas of their career.
ROSTR Pro gives you unlimited access to contact details, signings, advanced search, tour & festival directories + more
SIGNINGS
AFROJACK has signed with The Shalizi Group for management
STREAMING | RADIO
Country music consumption is up 20.3% y/y, and Morgan Wallen accounts for 40% of that growth
Artists have been seeing streaming bumps following their guest appearances on the podcast Call Her Daddy; Anitta (155%), Madison Beer (130%), John Legend (200%) and John Mayer (350%) to name a few
Spotify will no longer be accepting Apple’s billing service for premiums subscribers
Tidal announces subscription price increases for Hi-Fi tier to $10.99 for individuals and $16.99 for family plans
LIVE | TOURING
Pollstar is forecasting that Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is expected to gross approximately $1.4B when all is said and done
TikTok has been announced as dance festival Tomorrowland’s official content partner; providing behind the scenes footage and TikTok LIVE broadcasts of various artist sets on the platform
LABEL
Deadmau5 has re-acquired his back catalog from former label, Ultra Records
PUBLISHING
HarbourView has acquired select recording assets from Wiz Khalifa and Nelly recording assets. The latter’s sale is estimated to be around $50M
ELSEWHERE
Gold Theory’s James Vitalo on his management philosophy and charting courses for clients like Turnstile and Knocked Loose
Grammy chief Harvey Mason Jr. clarifies the Academy’s new rule on eligibility for songs written by AI
Currently incarcerated, Young Thug charts #1 R&B/Hip-Hop album from jail
Looking to provide a necessary mental health break to musicians and music professionals, Live Nation has launched a dedicated mindfulness app where music meets meditation
APPOINTMENTS
CD Baby brings on Faryal Khan-Thompson as SVP, Marketing & Community Engagement
Rob Jones (Executive Creative Director) and Alan Hynes (Senior Creative Director) join Vinyl, Me Please
Warner Music Latina has tapped Andrés Shaq as their new A&R Director
Palash Ahmed has been hired in Sony Pictures Television’s newly created Head of Music Development role
Tim McGraw’s EM.Co has brought on Doug Phillips as VP, Marketing & Digital
DEPARTURES
Liliahn Majeed has left her role as Global Chief Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer at UMG for a similar role at L’Oréal
PJ Harvey / I Inside The Old Year Dying (A) / Partisan
KennyHoopla / Blink And You’ll Miss It (EP) / Mogul Vision
Gus Dapperton / Henge (A) / Let Me Know
