Power 50 - #28: Tim Janes

Caroline spent most of the past 12 months consolidating on the restructure that happened at the start of 2016 and as such Tim Janes and his team had their best year yet.

There was the ongoing success of Glass Animals, Catfish & The Bottlemen and I Prevail, who capitalised on their 2016 albums by hitting our shores in 2017, usually to sold out shows and strong reviews. The profile of the likes of Loyle Carner and Sylvan Esso meanwhile grew over the course of the year, to such an extent that both were just here for Laneway.

On the release front, Caroline hosted the recent return of Marilyn Manson, whose Heaven Upside Down set debuted at #4 on the ARIA album charts. Other internationals emerging from the Caroline umbrella in the past year include Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, St Vincent, Manchester Orchestra, the buzzy Slotface (whose BIGSOUND appearance was much talked about) and the even buzzier Ho99o9.

Jason Isbell’s most recent album came out via Caroline through Spunk and just picked up two Grammys. With the local albums, it was all about Alex. Alex Lahey released her debut album I Love You Like A Brother, distributed by Caroline, and proving that such 2016 accolades as picking up the Josh Pyke partnership and being the #1 played artist on triple j Unearthed weren’t a fluke, she stormed onto the main triple j airplay charts, being the #33 played artist overall on the station last year, plus saw her album bow at #15 first week in on the ARIA charts.

There were also props for Kllo’s new set, plus Caroline also facilitated the return of Holly Throsby, Marlon Williams and stalwarts Augie March. On the label side of things, Jane scored a coup by partnering Caroline with Because Music globally, and is keeping his devil horns up by extending their deal with legendary heavy metal label Nuclear Blast.

Locally, Caroline recently partnered with Spinning Top (basically anyone and everyone in the Tame Impala musical family tree), the first new fruits of which will be GUM’s album (aka Jay Watson from Tame Impala/Pond).