On His BIGSOUND Keynote, Truthbombs From Nina Las Vegas & His Worst Day

It's no mean feat to direct metalcore and heavy acts like Northlane and The Amity Affliction to the #1 crown on the ARIA charts (the latter for three consecutive times), especially in an era where mainstream music is dominated by EDM kings like Calvin Harris or mammoth pop stars like Adele. But that's exactly what Unified boss Jaddan Comerford achieved in the last year, the reason why his being shortlisted for the global MBW Young Executive Award was so impressive. Add to that list the global domination by sweet, lanky, honey-voiced Vance Joy, who is managed by Unified's WAU, and it's no wonder Comerford was enlisted for a BIGSOUND keynote this year - the man has secrets to share.

He humbly explains that Joy's success is all Joy, and he won't be speaking "in too many specifics about each particular artist 'cause, I guess, I've never really wanted to sort of take the artist' spotlight". "I don't want to be trading up an artist's successes, so although I'll share some anecdotes, it's not gonna be [me] just standing there talking about Vance Joy for an hour."

Comerford hopes that this year's music industry pilgrimage to BIGSOUND will bring about some discussions about streaming and why we should stop painting it like the big bad wolf.

"We had a lot of females at the company quite upset about the allegations 'cause they knew it's not the way that we are, or who we are."

"I think it's really important that we as an industry in Australia start to really understand what streaming is doing to the market in a positive way. I think too many people are convinced otherwise, that it's not good for the music business, not good for the future of artists. I'll be talking about streaming in my speech for sure." He also adds, "One of the topics we need to discuss less is festivals; we just spend so much time talking about festivals, and festivals are amazing. Most of them are doing really, really well, and people just love to complain."

Comerford's hot tips for who to rub shoulders with this BIGSOUND include Marco Walzel, owner of German booking agency Avocado, and Matt Ash, Bring Me The Horizon's manager. "It's quite incredible how entrenched [Avocado has] become in Australian hardcore. But I'm sure a lot of young hardcore bands are gonna want to meet Marco, he's an absolute champion." Having gotten behind local heavy acts like In Hearts Wake and Hellions early on, Comerford's keynote will be a treasure trove of tips for those hardcore kids aching to become the next Northlane. "It's a hard one to give advice on 'cause if your band's good then you'll create opportunities for yourself... but a lot of our bands tour Europe very early on and it seems daunting, but there's so many opportunities out there and if you know how to direct your contacts and your music, you just never know what might be possible."

It hasn't all been smooth sailing for the label in the last year, though. The company's uber-successful Unify: A Heavy Music Gathering festival was dealt hefty criticism for the lack of women on their upcoming 2016 iteration (only two bands with women were booked). Comerford says that "was probably one of the worst days of [his] life".

"We just booked what we believed was the best line-up for the festival — Tonight Alive was one of our headliners in 2015 — but the thing is, we don't book our line-up to fill quotas or anything like that. We book our line-up to be the best it can be. We had a lot of females at the company quite upset about the allegations 'cause they knew it's not the way that we are, or who we are," he clears his throat, visibly moved. "Sorry, I literally get upset when I talk about this."

He continues, "One person I spoke to about it was Nina Las Vegas…  I was like, 'Nina, what do I do?'" And she was like, 'Jaddan, you've done nothing wrong. You've booked your festival and it's awesome and it's kickass and everyone's gonna be stoked. And no one wants to be booked just because of who they are.' But she said to me, 'Just be more aware. Just try a little harder to find more females in bands.'"

Comerford says he now makes "more of an effort" to check out bands with women to give them a fighting chance to get booked. "Ultimately the whole thing is really positive, 'cause it has brought the topic to a head and it is something that we take very seriously."