Power 50 - #22: Rachael Comerford

In a One Of One piece, Comerford explained it was when she watched a Robbie Williams doco and admired “this super organised road manager” that she was inspired to do something similar. After investigating the courses that would be suitable in order for her to pursue a career such as this within the music business, Comerford moved to Sydney from Cairns at the age of 17, studied at AIM and then did work experience at Modular Recordings. Interning at Hub Artist Services then led to a full-time job for Comerford, which saw her working with artists such as Megan Washington and Dappled Cities. After moving to Melbourne, Comerford then worked with Ralph Carr who represented artists including Vanessa Amorosi, Cosentino, Jon Stevens and Kate Ceberano.

Now with UNIFIED Music Group, Comerford manages Vance Joy and co-manages Amy Shark. We all know how huge Vance Joy (aka James Keogh) is already, absolutely killing it both here and internationally (he even supported Taylor Swift on her US tour in 2015), and Comerford has obviously been instrumental in developing the strategies and then following through to make all this happen. As well as touring all ‘round the globe in 2017, Joy also released two strong singles, Lay It On Me and Like Gold, as teasers for his second album, Nation Of Two, which came out last month.

Comerford has also co-managed Amy Shark since the Queensland singer-songwriter signed a management deal with UNIFIED at the end of 2016. Shark’s debut Night Thinker EP dropped in 2017 (peaking at #2 on the Australian charts and debuting on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums list at #8 following her debut US late night TV appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden) as did her ARIA Gold-certi ed smash hit single Weekends.

Shark’s trophy cabinet must be near toppling over after she cleaned up at 2017 awards ceremonies, picking up three Queensland Music Awards plus the Best Pop Release and Breakthrough Artist ARIA Awards (for Night Thinker). Shark was also announced as the first Australian artist to be featured by Apple Music as their Up Next artist and we sure can’t wait to see what’s next for her and her gifted management.