When Ophir Admony was 18, she spent a year split between Tel Aviv and Perth. Having grown up in the San Fernando Valley, a child of Los Angeles sprawl, she’d gone to Israel to study (postmodern philosophy and English literature, no less). But, when she met an Australian boyfriend, she spent a year going back and forth, from Israel to Australia. “I got to meet a lot of amazing people I still know,” Admony recounts. “Some of the Methyl Ethel crew and Pond people are some folks that I’ve just known since I was 18.”
In the decade since, Admony hasn’t returned to Australia, but she’s longed to. Living in LA — where, starting this year, she works as A&R for the Secretly Group, home to the labels Secretly Canadian, Jagjaguwar, and Dead Oceans — she’s been surrounded by so many expats she feels like she’s living in “mini-Australia”. And through her work with Secretly and, previously, Terrible Records, she’s worked with numerous Australian artists. Coming to speak at BIGSOUND in Brisbane, at the Labels And DSPs hook-up, she has one clear goal, beyond all the imminent rock’n’roll: “I’m looking forward to having a lamington.”
Admony first found her way into the music industry when studying in Tel Aviv, helping out local management and artists, her being bilingual (Admony also speaks Hebrew) an instant ‘in’ for Israeli acts hoping to connect with an international audience. Upon returning to LA, her big ‘break’ was a classic foot-in-the-door moment. “I just showed up at Terrible Records one day, was there for like a month, and they offered me a job,” she recalls. “I worked at Terrible alongside a couple of my really good friends, and then I just jumped to Secretly. I always knew I wanted to be at an indie label, I think it’s the healthiest environment in the music industry.”
Working in LA, she’s seen both sides of the coin up close. “LA is a funny place, there’s so much major-label shit, and there’s so many indie labels,” Admony offers. “It feels like a place where they meet. At Terrible we had a deal with Interscope, so that meant that, at times, we were working sort of in between the two [realms].”
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One of those ‘between the two’ albums was Miya Folick’s debut, 2018’s Premonitions. “Miya was so creatively fun to work with, and her music says something so important. I felt like my heart was just fully there. She’s the most lovely person, and it was a beautiful record.”
Beyond working with Folick, when asked to nominate other favourite experiences, Admony alights on a couple of local provocateurs: Kirin J Callinan (“challenging and fun and weird; that’s definitely my preference, doing shit that’s confronting and interesting”) and Alex Cameron (“being able to work on his project at Secretly feels kind of like a gift”).
Working on Bleached’s new album, Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?, was also a joy; especially given that band’s Clavin sisters, like Admony, grew up in the Valley. “When we met it was pretty exciting: just these Valley Girls getting to work on a project together. We discovered we had a bunch of mutual friends, so it all felt light and easy. And they just wrote a fucking banging record. That’s all the work.”
Secretly’s vast roster of artists — which includes Jens Lekman, Bon Iver, Julianna Barwick, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, Mitski and Stella Donnelly — makes Admony feel like a fan, even when at work. “That I get to do this every day is just a dream. I feel like I’m in a good place,” she says.
The group just held its own music conference, Secretly Summit, at their HQ in Bloomington, Indiana, where all three labels and the dozens more they distribute came together. That got Admony in the mood for BIGSOUND, which she’s looking forward to, not simply for the lamingtons, but the social experience. “Every time I’ve gone to a conference or a showcase festival,” she offers, "I always meet people who I feel like I’m going to stay in touch with for the rest of my life.”
