We are celebrating International Women’s Day at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney with a special panel conversation about women in music featuring young music industry professionals. Host artist manager Lexy will be joined by musician Nicole Millar, senior booking agent Katie Rynne and merchandise manager Katie Holcolme.
It will take place at lunchtime in the Student Lounge at AIM’s Sydney campus.
IWD Panel Guests:
Lexy (Host) – Artist Manager
Starting her career booking DJs for weddings and local bars, Lexy knew music was the industry she wanted to be involved in. Ministry of Sound Australia was a launch pad, taking her from touring coordinator to become Ministry of Sound’s first female talent agent at the age of 23.
This power house took the role in her stride and quickly showed the change leadership she was capable of by heading up and creating the Corporate division for Ministry of Sound in 2016.
Lexy is constantly searching to stimulate positive change in the industry she loves and after two years at the Ministry of Sound,meeting DJ and Vocalist GG MAGREE was the opportunity she nurtured, leaving Ministry of Sound to help shape and carve the career, as the full time manager, of the emerging artist.
Within the last three years of GG MAGREE & LEXY working together they have made some serious power moves including being signed to the worlds #1 talent representation agency –Paradigm Talent Agency.
Headlining every major dance festival globally, and clocking up millions of plays on all music releases both solo releases & collaborations with dance royalty such as Billie Eilish, Zeds Dead, NGHTMRE and The Chainsmokers to name a few. With their most recent announcement being that the pair have moved in-house with RED LIGHT MANAGEMENT home to acts such as Lionel Richie, Slash, Maren Morris, Allan Stone, Odesza, Hayden James, Duke Dumont and Amy Shark.
Nicole Millar – Musician
Nicole Millar is ready to introduce Excuse Me, her anticipated debut album.
It’s the product of two years of life, a whole lot of growth and a rollercoaster of emotions. Excuse Me charts everything from admitting your faults and owning your shit to wild nights with best friends and the bittersweet parts of love, lust and relationships.
Pop music with bite and electronic production collide on Excuse Me for songs that bleed glitter, guts and neon pink. Some of the tracks are tributes to getting rowdy with girlfriends or daydreams about wanting to be rich in New York, others are eyerolls at fake people, button-pushing boyfriends and ex-lovers. They’re all feisty, fun and made up of real, relatable feelings.
Nicole wrote on every song on the album, working with producers Sable, Dan Farber, Hoodboi, xSDTRK and Kyle Shearer to bring her words to life in studios between Sydney, Stockholm and L.A. Every song is a piece of her history, the work of a woman who’s found her sound and is sure of herself. For Nicole, the vision was to create music that’s “pop, but not”.
The album features Nicole’s hit singles ‘Signals’ and ‘Blindfolded’ as well as her new 80s-inspired release ‘Gimme A Break’, an anthem-in-wait for women who want to go their own way and won’t be tied down. Excuse Me also features collaborations with two of music’s best upcoming names, Sydney pop identity Muki (who features on ‘Pink Sundae’) and Bay Area’s HENO (on ‘Sign Me Up’).
“I can’t help it, but I write about boys and love and problems,” Nicole laughs. “But I’ve had so many EPs where it’s mainly just me writing about boys, so I wanted to write some songs about other fun stuff too. I’m confident with myself on the album, and even the love songs are a bit cheekier — because if someone’s been mean or let me down, I’ll try and twist them and be like “actually, I’m okay”. Like, bitch, I’m not crying for you. I don’t cry for anyone. I had a lot more fun with these songs.”
But while the songs might be big and bright, the subject matter is personal, inspired by a feeling, a visual, a memory, or a frustration that had to be vented in song. And, Nicole says, “At the end of the day, I made the album for me.”
Things have been non-stop for Nicole Millar Since she stepped out as a solo artist in 2016 with her EP Tremble, which went Gold in Australia and amassed a cool 8 million spins on Spotify. As well as scoring massive radio play with ‘Signals’ and ‘Blindfolded’, Nicole’s been picked to tour with Troye Sivan, support SZA and fit in sets at Splendour in the Grass.
It’s been a rapid ascent for the girl who broke through as the voice of Peking Duk’s ARIA-Winning, triple j-conquering, three times Platinum hit ‘High’ in 2014. With Excuse Me, 2018 is sure to be her biggest year yet
Katie Rynne – Senior Booking Agent
Katie Rynne is a senior booking agent at Village Sounds, a Sydney based agency, and part of Secret Sounds Group which oversees Splendour In The Grass, Falls Festival, Dew Process & Dew Process Publishing, and Secret Sounds Touring.
Representing a roster that includes Something For Kate, Wafia, Alex Cameron, Mo’Ju, Bad//Dreems, Miiesha & Sycco, she spent the first 8 years of her agency career at Select Music where she was the agent for Ziggy Alberts, Montaigne, WAAX, LANKS & I Know Leopard amongst others, and was instrumental in their live development.
She was nominated for Booking Agent of the Year at The Industry Observer Awards in 2018, and has appeared as a speaker at a number of industry conferences including Bigsound, Face The Music, WAMCon, and VIVID Ideas.
In her years prior to being an agent, she worked in management & tour management for acts such as Lior and Passenger (UK).
Katrina Holcolme – Merchandise Manager
Katrina Holcombe works for Sony Music Australia as Merchandise Manager and has been responsible for the setup of their merchandise business The Thread Shop Australia.
The Thread Shop started in New York and looks after the likes of P!nk, ASAP Rocky, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Iggy Pop and Bob Dylan. The Thread Shop Australia looks after local artists such as Amy Shark, Tones and I, Ruel, Daryl Braithwaite, Guy Sebastian and Midnight Oil.
Katrina previously worked as Senior Artist Relations Manager at Unified Music Group looking after merchandise for their local roster and sites such as 24Hundred, Space Mirror and Triple J. She also worked for The Araca Group looking after artists such as Skeggs, Hockey Dad and Cub Sport. Along with pop-ups for P!nk around Australia and Britney Spears Asia Tour.
Katrina has been working in the industry for over 10 years, starting her career at Universal Music and studying Music Business Management and Graphic Design.
Emma Garry – Marketing Manager
Emma is a passionate marketer and music lover, with significant experience in marketing for recordings. Emma has spent the past 6 years working with emerging and established artists at TMRW Music (previously Ministry of Sound), taking up her current role as Marketing Manager in 2019.
Working across a variety of music roles within her career so far, Emma has experience in digital marketing, A&R, project management, team management and events to name a few. In her current role, Emma works with internal and external teams to plan and execute marketing campaigns for a variety of local and international releases, ranging from electronic and dance, to indie, pop and hiphop projects, from debut releases, to artists with significant back catalogue. Over the past year, Emma has taken on additional duties during a maternity leave cover for the Group Marketing
Director, as well as navigating the rapidly changing landscape of the industry. 2020 saw Emma work on release campaigns from ARIA Award winning trio PNAU, triple j Hottest 100 chart topper FISHER
and radio airplay chart dominator Brando, as well as the launch of PNAU’s record label Lab78, and working closely with exciting emerging names like CLYPSO, Taka Perry, Donatachi and Blanke just to name a few.
Emma is passionate about being a part of the Australian music landscape and supporting emerging artists and future industry leaders as they navigate their careers.
