OneLove Develop Local Artists For World Domination

OneLove HQ is bustling with activity when we call in for a chat following the announcement of the brand's expansion to include the OneLove Talent Agency and growing artist roster, which includes Perth duo Slumberjack, Brisbane's own Flex Cop plus popular Melbourne acts Torren Foot and Dance Cult. Antonio Celestino, OneLove's A&R Manager, is visibly excited about the brand's future. "We work for Frank Cotela who's, like, the craziest guy in dance music in the best possible way, you know? Because his model is just passion, excitement and 'back it 'til it works'," he laughs. "When he set out with the clubs, he was like, 'I'm gonna build the biggest club brand in Australia,' when he set out with festivals, 'I'm gonna make the biggest festival brand in Australia,' and with the label — I don't know if he wants to build the biggest, but he definitely wants to build the most exciting; you know: 'Fuck you, we do what we wanna do and have fun doing it,' 'cause that's a big part of what we do. You've gotta have fun to work here."

"Fuck you, we do what we wanna do and have fun doing it,' 'cause that's a big part of what we do."

Both Celestino and OneLove's General Manager Matt Nugent work on the music group's International Licensing, which Celestino says was their "predominant business" for a long time. Nugent worked as dance consultant at Sony, taking over the responsibility of compiling and licensing the OneLove compilation series. "Basically, we discovered that to do that you had to do such an extent of licensing that you might as well pick up records for the territory," Celestino explains. "So we started to dabble in that and found, straight off the bat I think it was Rozalla — Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)." Correct, that was a monster hit in the early '90s. From licensing deals, Celestino observes, "We've had some great artists that we've fed into festivals and to clubs, so it's been a good way to network the different arms of the business and the relationships."

When asked to supply a couple of examples, Nugent suggests, "We worked on Australian single releases for Bingo Players early on, including the double platinum Get Up (Rattle), and were the Australian home for the Bingo Players label Hysteria for some time, which led to forming a solid partnership with Bingo Players and Bingo Players playing at onelove and Totem OneLove events including Stereosonic."

"The licensing side of the business was pretty good and it's still a big part of what we do," Celestino stresses, "and it still means that us working those artists here, as an independent, and having them as priority; that's why we've been able to be successful with artists like Tiga and Bingo Players, and Crookers recently. And we can take a record which would never have a shot otherwise and actually make something happen with it — or give the artist that in — in our territory. But moving more into the A&R side and developing artists, and doing records and putting artists out — it's good. It's ultimately where we are comfortable."

Both gents have examples of deals that have been inked, as Celestino puts it, "in the shadows, between the strobe lights backstage or something". "Like, Skrillex's label manager at OWSLA came up to me at Stereosonic last year, and we'd been talking about an act, and basically said we have to do something together with this act. And then I saw Skrillex and he was like, literally, 'We've gotta talk about this,' and it was, 'Ok, let's step into my office, backstage,' you know what I mean? 'Let's talk about this, right now, while I've got you'."     

Nugent provides another example: "A couple of years back in Miami, at Ultra Music Festival, we saw the impact of Cedric Gervais's single Molly when played on the main stage; we realised it was turning into an organic viral club hit. We had been with his manager a few days earlier so we tracked him down before we left to come back to Australia and made a verbal agreement on the spot, which led to a contract and us licensing the track for Australia and New Zealand."

"We keep our ears to the ground for everything," Celestino reveals. "You've gotta like everything; people don't just exclusively listen to one thing... Matt comes from deep in a hip hop background, I came from a graffiti and hip hop background a long time ago, and it's sort of like we're excited about R&B and rap again... We're definitely excited about working with different genres; we're excited about working in different models, working with writers — adding writers to our roster. Getting back into live more and more is exciting for us and for the brand and, yeah! Let's just see where it takes us."

"Moving forward, we're focused on developing Australian acts for the world," Nugent concludes. "We feel we have some world-class artists on the roster with artists like Slumberjack, Nicky Night Time, Generik, Kaz James, JDG and Samual James kicking goals all around the world right now."