If You're A Musician, BIGSOUND Just Unveiled THE List Of Speakers For You

Yearly industry conference and showcase BIGSOUND always attracts an impressive list of executives, representatives and performers to Brisbane, but the newly announced first list of speakers and buyers for 2016 is, without hyperbole, one of the strongest line-ups we've ever seen.

If you're an aspiring artist or band, this September's crop is the premier list of people you could ever want to have the chance to play for and speak with. To start with, as a keynote speaker, UNIFIED boss Jaddan Comerford  — the seventh-most powerful person in Australian music, by AMID's estimation, and a runner-up for the MBW Young Executive award in 2015 — will fly in from his headquarters in New York to discuss his remarkable ascent to the world stage as a trailblazing torch-bearer for heavy tunes as well as playing a major part in the career of celebrated troubadour Vance Joy.

Joining Comerford atop the list of keynote contributors are Briggs and Trials, collectively A.B. Original. The incendiary rappers have both carved out respected positions for themselves among a nascent and often fickle scene, and their politically charged lyrics and socially conscious themes make them perfect candidates to sit down with Lindsay 'The Doctor' McDougall for a sure-to-be-standout interview. Their recent single 2 Black 2 Strong gave us a generous taste of their strength and power with words and, as we saw with Pitchfork's Jessica Hopper last year, BIGSOUND is a perfect platform from which to move people to their very core.

It's not just Aussies who'll be filling out the ranks, of course; as always, BIGSOUND has ensured the inclusion of several influential international reps able to give our local legends a leg-up in the global arena, including the likes of Jim Pitt — who's he? Oh, just the music segment producer for Conan O'Brien's talk show — as well as film-and-TV-synch doyen Marcy Bulkley (music director of Wild Card and the person who helped acts get songs in films like Jurassic World, Independence Day 2, Inception and others) and contemporary Jackie Shuman, whose work as music supervisor of Good Ear has seen her seal commercial music deals with the likes of Google, Twitter, Apple, Samsung, Southern Comfort and others.

And that's before we even start to look at the first batch of A&R reps heading Down Under specifically to network and feast their ravenous, well-trained ears and eyes on our best breakout acts; ramping up the pressure on performers this year will be the attendance of Taylor Testa (Universal Music Publishing Group — Kacy Hill, Tobias Jesso Jr), Jon Salter (ATO — My Morning Jacket, Alabama Shakes), Jeremy Maciak (Vagrant Records/BMG — The 1975, PJ Harvey), Zac Ives (Goner Records — Jay Reatard, Ty Segall), Emmy Feldman (Canvasback — The War On Drugs, Alt-J, Frightened Rabbit), Lawson Higgins (The Royalty Network — Justin Townes Earle, The Soft Pack) and Jon Coombs (Secretly Publishing — Bon Iver, Jens Lekman).  

There will also be a raft of tastemaking live bookers from around the world roaming the streets of Fortitude Valley, including folks from seminal New York crew The Bowery; German metal agency Avocado Booking; ATC Live, out of London; Hong Kong's Songs For Children; and transatlantic juggernaut the Creative Artists Agency. 

That said, the local community will be out in force too, with Aussies on the bill of speakers and buyers including Laura Byrne (Made In Katana/The Scouted), Alastair Green (Maker), Dean Ormston (APRA AMCOS), Katie Rynne (Select Music) and Edwin Tehrani (New World Artists), though the crop is set to broaden across the board to more than 100 speakers and buyers for 2016, with further announcements as we lead up to this year's event.  

With previous successes breaking out of BIGSOUND including Flume, RUFUS, Courtney Barnett, The Temper Trap, DMA's, Boy & Bear, The Jezabels and more, the importance of the annual event for industry and artists alike can't be understated; and it was a theme that held up in 2015, too, where acts such as Tired Lion, Gang Of Youths, The Goon Sax, Ngaiire, Polish Club and Koi Child were among the highlights of the conference.

BIGSOUND returns to Brisbane's Fortitude Valley precinct from Wednesday 7 September through Friday 9 September. Tickets are on sale now, with extremely limited early-bird conference passes still available until this Sunday, 15 May, or sold out.

If you're an artist keen on having a shot at performing at this year's BIGSOUND — and, in the wake of this announcement of speakers and buyers, why wouldn't you? — applications are still open until 22 May, so get along to BIGSOUND's website for all the requisite information.

BIGSOUND 2016 — first speakers/buyers