Table of contents for No. 1377 in Music Week

New year, new view And just like that, a new year is upon us! Out of offices are turned off. The spam messages have long since been deleted. Oh, and the memory of witnessing The Snowman melting away into a frosty puddle of oblivion seems but a distant dream. Yep, the music business is offlcially back in action! The start of a newyear is, of course, typically a time for big thinking and optimism - all supercharged by the revelations and lessons leamed ffom the preceding 365 days. Indeed, it’s an annual Music Week tradition to ask a number of top names to list their hopes for the coming year. As you can see for yourself by turning to P54, there are many points of consensus among them, not least…

“We’re building a company that can compete at the highest level alongside anyone” NAPPER TANDY, ONE HOUSE Launched in 2015, One House scored a No.1 single with Eliza Rose last year and is now working with dozens of artists across recordings, live, management and more. Here, chief exec Napper Tandy talks talent development, teaming with the majors and staff incentives… How widely does One House now extend its operations across the industry? “The business is a full end-to-end marketplace for artists. So we have the ability to create and release records, to manage careers, to book live tours, to do merchandising and consumer goods. We also represent talent across video as well as music and, increasingly, a small roster of adjacent talent - digital creators, sport - and all of…

@faithless We are heartbroken to say Maxi Jazz died peacefully in his sleep last night. He was a man who changed our lives in so many ways. He gave proper meaning and a message to our music. He was a lovely human being with time for everyone and wisdom that was both profound and accessible (Faithless, artist) Saturday, Decembcr 24 @thespeciais It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Terry, our beautiful friend, brotherand one of the most briiliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced. (The Specials, artist) Monday, December 19 @laurenlaverne Rest well, Shaun Roberts. My heart is with your friends and family today xxx (Lauren Laverne, BBC Radio 6 Music) Monday, December 26 @yolandabrown Really honoured to receive an OBE. My career continues…

Yewande Adeniran, Journalist/DJ RUSSELL E. L. BUTLER THREE THINGS MINUS ONE Based in New York, Russell E. L. Butler is an artist, classically trained musician, producer, DJ and sound engineer. I first heard of the Bermuda-born act seven years ago, when Newcastle labei Opal Tapes released their project God Is Change. For anyone interested in afrofuturism and literature more broadly, it is a collection of six tracks in response to US writer Octavia E Butler’s 1990S sci-fi books Parable Of The Sower and Parable Of The Talents. As an artist, Butlerfinds commonality between decolonisation, technological innovation and the archive, while their music floats between sound art, melodic house and rhythmic, deep techno. For a taste of what they’re all about, I highly recommend checking out Three Things Minus One on…

JANUARY 27 DiamondsDancefloorsAtlantic FragmentsTimeOutOf Mind Sessions 1996-1997 Columbia ComeGetYourWifeRCA StingOutOfLine OneDayMerge Nimrod-25th AnniversaryReprise Low-Life DefinitiveWarner FriendsLikeThese Nettwerk GloriaEMI HoneyGrandJury AudioLust HigherLoveEMI ThePlaylistGifted VaiGashMascot ElectrophonicChronic EasyEyeSoundConcord) TheName ChapterTemptation-EP BigHit ChaosColour SilverLining TruthDecay UnderdogAWAL FEBRUARY 3 HigherThan HeavenPolydor BigTalkHooked My21stCenturyBlues HumanReSources QueenOfMe RepubticUMG TheDayMyFather DiedNettwerk TheWaeveTransgressive HeavyHeavy NinjaTune FEBRUARY 10 DarkWatersNapalm LostNot ForgottenArchivesDistance OverTimeDemos2018) InsideOut Foregone NuclearBlast AllOfThisIsChance RoughTrade ThisIsWhyAtlantic TheJawsOf LifeFearless BreakingTheBalisOf HistorySubPop SittingPretty CapitolEMI TheFutureIsYourPast A Recordings OnGrace Dignity4AD NowhereNearThe SkyCookingVinyl Grrr LiveMercury ThisStupidWorld Matador FEBRUARY 14 Desire IWantToTurnInto You Perpetua1Novice FEBRUARY 17 AbingtonGrove PhotoFinish HowToReplaceItPIAS Grade2Hellcat CutsBruisesPolydor TheFineArtOf SelfDestructionOneLittle Independent KeepUpTheGoodWork BellaUnion TheReset Moonslice NateSmithSony TrustfallRCA TheVivianLine CookingVinyl DominionDayOf DestinyAtlantic Inhale ExhaleEarache FEBRUARY 24 HighDrama Warner ShookMatador HowToBe HumanTripel Vandals 3Beat IslandsInThe SkySuicideSqueeze LittleLoveMine IPlayMyBassLoud ThirdMan LightingUpThe SkyBMG CrackerIsland Parlophone Anno1696 CenturyMedia BadMagicSeriously BadMagicSilverLining StrangeDance…

COVER STORY Both figurativelyely and literally, Shania Twain is ready to get back on the horse. When MusicWe.ck oatches up with her in LVegasgas, the rrtuming global superstar hag some epie-sounding plans for tee éxacomenaént heresséâs duties are done for tdaydâyI “í’ve had interviews all moming, so af terthI'm Fm going to go out and ridy h liorse in the desert,” sheuganehs. For a depictionf what Twairfn'equestrian antics look like, you néee only qocsult the qocer of her highly-anticipated sixth album Queen OfM e - due BéFeuary g via Republic Nasllhlle/EKHMIThat particular rpyol appellation is one Twain Iras long grown accustomed to. ‘‘For many, many years I’ve been referred to as the ‘Queen’ of something,” she explains, her rich Canadian accent still charmingly unaffected by deeades of globe-trotting. “It’s the…

ON THE RADAR: 2023 SPECIAL “What happened to me last year felt like an out of body experience” Back at the beginning of 2022, when she was making ends meet pulling pints in her local pub and working as a personal trainer, Erin Doyle was close to giving up music. The 21-year-old Kent-bom producer and songwriter better known as Venbee had been writing songs since she was nine, but she was starting to lose faith. “I had no hope whatsoever,” Doyle begins. “It was like, ‘I don’t think I’m going to get there.’” Her TikTok videos weren’t making any impression beyond approval from family and friends and she wondered if the people who told her that it wasn’t realistic to dream of a career in music were actuallv right. And…

RELEASES: Essential (out now), So Here You Are, Drowning (TBC) LABEL/ MANAGEMENT: Neighbourhood Recordings MEET THE TEAM: Ruby Atkin (manager/A&R,eighbourhood Recordings): “Kamal is such an incredibly compelling artist to work with. On one hand, he is a timeless musician, natural songwriter and a ridiculous pianist, but he’s also very much of his generation. He’s comfortable straddling different sounds because he has this very singular tone and a candid approach to songwritingthat really gets under your skin, there isn’t much he shies away from. In 2023, we are very excited to release his new mixtape, his strongest body of work yet, and it is our priority to continue to grow him on an international scale and amplify all he has to say.”…

Lucy Dickins Global head of contemporary music and touring, WME “Being the first woman to lead an agencVs music department has provided me the opportunity to advocate for more female voices to be at the top of the industry, and Fm proud to continue empowering women in more executive roles. We need more racial and gender diversity among our execs to better reflect our client roster and audiences. That will involve more mentoring and recruiting from underrepresented communities.” Selina Webb EVP, Universal Music UK “It’s got to be seeing new British artists shining on the world stage.” Dipesh Parmar President, Columbia “I hope that touring becomes easier for new artists. That we, as an industry, save more smaller venues and see more open to fuel the dance music economy. And…

I was recently fortunate to be invited to the Music Policy Forum in Washington DC. It’s unusual within music industry conferences in that it has a very strict focus on the fature. Once a year, a limited number of delegates from around the world come together to spend a couple of days totally focused on ground-breaking ideas, innovative policies and real-life initiatives that are about where music is going, rather than where it’s been. The 2022 gathering covered an incredible range of topics, and that was all before ending up with a gritty debate on where funding from music comes from and where it goes to, juxtaposed against where it should come from and go to. The agenda that emerged from the Music Policy Foram should be the playing field…

OFFICIAL AMERICANA TOP 20 ALBUMS OFFICIAL HIP-HOP & R&B TOP 20 ALBUMS OFFICIAL CLASSICAL ARTIST TOP 20 ALBUMS OFFICIAL JAZZ TOP 20 ALBUMS SPECIALIST ALBUMS TOP 20s OFFICIAL COUNTRY ARTIST TOP 20 ALBUMS OFFICIAL FOLK TOP 20 ALBUMS OFFICIAL DANCE TOP 20 ALBUMS OFFICIAL ROCK & METAL TOP 20 ALBUMS…

Your essential primer for the month ahead “Breaking new ortists is olwoys central to whot we do” Linda Walker, Warner Music UK Major label execs have opened up about the challenges in maintaining streaming growth, global prospects for UK stars and why the term ‘catalogue’ may be outdated. Domestic acts Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran were in first and second place on the year-end albums and singles charts. According to the Official Charts Company, Columbia-signed Styles had the biggest album (Harry's House - 460,432 sales) and single (As It Was -1,573,672) of the year in the UK. As well as the artistry of Styles, Charles Wood, VP of market planning and sales at Sony Music UK, credited the fan-first initiatives that helped to drive the Harry’s House campaign. “He’s a…

@lizzieberchie How did you getyour role at Parlophone? “I started as an audience engagement intern in 2020 through Creative Access, which is an amazing organisation that helps people of colour into the Creative industries. Internships are not easy! There is a lot of work to manage, but the key thing that helped me handle the load was being organised and finding different ways to make certain processes smoother, as well as always remaining calm under pressure. Mistakes are bound to happen, so rather than dwelling on it, move to find a solution. Ifs also important to show ways thatyou are a valuable member of the team by being a part of conversations and not shying away from opportunities to give insight in areas thatyou are either interested in or have…

THIS MONTH'S HOTTEST BRAND NEW ACT FLOWEROVLOVE Teenager Joyce Cisse targets world domination with nature-inspired pop… KEY TRACK: I Gotta I Gotta LABEL: Flowerovlove MANAGEMENT: First Access Entertainment TWITTER: @flowerovlove There was lots of hype around you last year, how has your industry experience been up to now? “I feel like I know a lot about the industry now and the experience has been both great and useful. Everything so far has been really informative and memorable, but l’ve also lèarned that news spreads very fast! Also, I would definitely say that being a musician is a lot more work than it seems!” Nature inspired your name and your music. What draws you to it the most? “I’m strongly impacted by nature and I feel that all beings have a…

This is your first album since Cocoa Sugar in 2018, how did you approach it? “We made a point of not starting anything until the three of us were in the room together, then we’d start hitting or singing things and making the music. This is our first album where we didn’t have an externai producer in the studio, it was just the three of us. We didn’t even have a voice of reason! I think what keeps us together is that feeling of excitement from venturing into the unknown. This record took things from certain kinds of folk music, but not twee folk, indigenous folk and music from around the world like old Alan Lomax records, where the music is driven mostly by the human involved, by their passion…

Chloë Roberts’ phone has been blowing up. She was named Businesswoman Of The Year at the Music Week Women In Music Awards, but the surge of messages are more than just congratulations. Roberts used her speech at last November’s show to give an industry-wide shout-out to everyone who works in operations, and it seems her words were heard far and wide. “It's for the COOs, the lawyers, the accountants, the administrators,” she said. And they responded by texting by the bucket load. A win for Chloê Roberts, chief operating officer at Young since leaving First Access Entertainment in 2021, was a win for all of them. “Look at this,” she says, leaning across a green sofa in Young’s new ofFice and studio space in East London to show us the…

RELEASES: Gutter (TBC) LABEL: Columbia MANAGEMENT: Wednesday Mgmt MEET THE TEAM: Alex Eden-Smith (director of marketing, Columbia): “Venbee is an extremely exciting and talented artist who is carving out her own unique space in the industry and we are looking forward to a lot more to come from her.” Hayley Marchant (head of marketing, Columbia): “lt’s an absolute pleasure working with Venbee, she knows exactly who she is as an artist, which really helps inform what we do. She is a real force to be reckoned with, has a genuine and fun personality and is super-talented. It’s great as well to see a woman smash it in the D&B space!” Jamie Spinks, (A&R director Columbia/MD, Room Two Recordings): “Venbee had an amazing breakoutyear in 2022 and we couldn’t be more…

ON THE RADAR: 2023 SPECIAL “If my fans don’t have the balls to say something, they can use my music” For Caity Baser, the biggest reason her fans find her music so emotionally affecting is because she writes songs as if she’s talking to her friends. “I think when they listen to it, they feel like they're speaking to me and it feels like they're close to me,” says the chipper 20-year-old from her home in Brighton. “Fm not being metaphorical, it’s literally, ‘Here’s what happened, start to finish, every single detail.’ A lot of people have gone through what I've gone through and it’s nice to hear it completely honestly.” Baser says the life experiences resonating so keenly with her ever-growing group of diehards (she has 11.8 million TikTok…

“Spotify want to be all things audia, but atDeezerwehave music at our heart” JERONIMO FOLGUEIRA DEEZER If you had to name the top streaming Service, the answer would normally be Spotify or Apple. But that’s not necessarily how it looks across the channel. “It is a head-to-head fight with Spotify in the French market,” asserts Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO of Paris-based DSP Deezer. “In France, we’re really big. We’re a force when it comes to local music, we’re the home of French rap. We do a lot of really strong things in the French market with French artists.” Cultural differences abound between the UK and France, so it’§ perhaps no surprise that the country - the fifth biggest music market in the world, according to IFPI - should have its own…

UNITED KINGDOM Raye & 070 Shake Escapism - Sped Up (Official) Song Creations: 323,500 The latest single from newly independent singer-songwriter Raye has seen huge suceess on TikTok thanks to multiple sped up remixes created by the community that have collectively amassed over 650,000 video creations. Fans on TikTok have been using the sound to share their 'get ready with me' videos and relationship healing stories using the hook: The man that I love sat me down last night/ And told me that it’s over/Dumb decision.' As a result of its virality on the platform, Escapism reached No.l in the UK Hot 50 TikTok Chart and No.l in the UK Official Singles Chart - the highest Raye has ever charted since becoming independent. Raye has since taken to TikTok to…

Philip Selway drummer, Radiohead/singer-songwriter In February, Radiohead's drum prodigy Philip Selway releases his brilliant third solo album Strange Dance. Here, he reflects on his career so far, and reveals his fears for the next generation of bands coming through… My new album assembles an array of different musical voices… “I asked Quinta, Adrian Utley, Hannah Peel, Valentina Magaletti and Laura Moody to come on board with the project because I had a feeling those voices would blend well. With Marta Salogni produdng, the finished product surpassed any of my expectations.” I gave myself the boot when it came to drumming on strange Dance… Id been focusing so much on getting initial templates of material that I hadn’t really thought about drams at all. Originally, I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll do the…

IGGY POP Strung Out Johnny (Atlantic/Gold Tooth) ‘God made me a junkie, butSatan told me so,' goes Iggy Pop, growling his way through an urgent, daustrophobic account of addiction that features on his 19th (!) album Every Loser, the first to be released via his Gold Tooth partnership with producer Andrew Watt. Contact: Phoebe Sinclair phoebe.sinclair@appetitepublicity.com MIMI WEBB Red Flags (RCA) Heavily teased on TikTok, Red Flags should cement itself as a Mimi Webb classic ahead of parent album Amelia’s March release. Few can combine bombastic production and on-the-nose relationship drama like the former Music Week cover star, who is set to conquer 2023. Contact: Sarah Hall sarah.hall@sonymusic.com KELELA On The Run (Warp) Kelela’s second studio album Raven arrives on February 10 and on this evidence, it should be a dassic.…

SEND YOUR PICS TO: George Garner george.garner@futurenet.com “The person that drove my direction was me, I'm the queen of my own success” Shania Twain…

VANIECE JNO-BAPTISTE (EUROPEAN ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING, PUMA) Vaniece Jno-Baptiste has quietly been behind some incredibly high profile campaigns in recent years, working on everything from the Vogue-approved launch party for Dua Lipa’s second drop with Puma, to JD x Puma’s latest Mayze Stack campaign with Sha Simone, Amaria BB & Bellah and Gorillaz x G-Shock. Throughout her career, she’s collaborated with Kojey Radical, Wstrn, Foals, Tion Wayne and Charli XCX, plus brands like Vivienne Westwood, Huawei and 1800 Tequila. In her current role at Puma, she identifies, secures, contracts and builds entertainment partnerships that drive and enhance the brand. Here Jno-Baptiste shares her top career tips… 1. Be Kind! “It’s simple, but it’s so important and can be easily missed! People don’t forget the way you make them feel and the…

ON THE RADAR: 2023 SPECIAL “Playing my first live show was like ecstasy, I’ll never forget it” For 20-year-old Kamal, life has changed somewhat in the last couple of years. From uploading his first song, Smilingdownthephone, to SoundCloud as a BRIT School student in 2019 and catching the ear of Neighbourhood Recordings, to collaborating with Dave and reaching the ears of Billie Eilish, the indie-R&B artist is on a pretty steep trajectory. Now, with a first full-length project on its way - 10-track mixtape So Here You Are, Drowning - he’s set to have a huge 2023. The mixtape’s title, So Here You Are, Drowning, is a nod to Caleb Azumah Nelson’s 2021 novel Open Water, which particularly spoke to Kamal. “I just immediately fell in love with the characters…

BECKY HILL & DAVID GUETTA REMEMBER The world's greatest songs. By the people who made them. What I do to make records is spend days on my own where I write loads of chords, little song starters and ideas. For Remember, I’d written these chords that Pd sat on for ages and then sent to publishers. And got to Becky Hill and Karen Poole. About a month later, I was sent a vocal written over my basic piano chords. It was Becky Hill and it sounded incredible. I put it over some synths and piano, kept the chords the same and produced it up, and that was how it was made. It doesn’t normally happen that easily, but Fve learned that simplicity always wins - and that applies to lyrics,…

01 GRAND VINYL TAYLOR SWIFT Midnights (EMI) SALES: 84,450 No.1 overall for a third consecutive month with sales of 84,450, Taylor’s Swift’s Midnights also came out on top in the vinyl rankings for December. Swift’s blockbuster LP sold another 16,771 copies on vinyl, which ensured that Midnights iras the biggest seller on that format during 2022 with a total of more than 89,000 copies. With total sales during the year of 416,965, it was the third biggest album of 2022 despite only being released in late October. Following a festive chart contest with Cliff Richard, Swift also secured her first Christmas No.1 with the long-player. In the first weelc of 2023, Midnights topped the chart again for a fourth time to become the US superstar’s album with the most weeks…