Indie Artist Underlay Signs With Nettwerk

Newcastle-based indie artist underlay is the latest musician to join the Nettwerk family. The artist, real name Cody Broughman, makes a self-described brand of "nervous pop".

Using jangly guitars, analogue synths and introspective lyrics, underlay is sure to connect with listeners.

Upon signing with Nettwerk, underlay shared a catchy new single, Hometime. He explained the song's meaning: "Hometime was written during the middle of our longest covid lockdown in 2020. It’s a mash of different imagined scenarios while on nights out with friends or partners, and me yearning for that drama because even though those moments were stressful in my life, at least they were exciting."

He continued, "I was creating these scenarios in my head to escape the monotony of day-to-day life. The song was recorded with longtime collaborator and friend Campbell Burns (Vacations) towards the end of September 2021. Some restrictions were still in place, so we recorded unusually, not all being allowed to be in the same room at the same time, communicating from the control room to the tracking room and then bouncing parts back and forth between our laptops."

Dan Medland, Nettwerk Australia’s General Manager, is thrilled to have underlay on board. He shared, "I was fortunate enough to see Cody explode onto the stage at Vacations’ Mates Festival up in Newcastle earlier this year, and it was clear that he has incredible charisma and energy."

"Handshake MGMT is dedicated to working with unique and interesting artists, artist that are looking for a lifelong, global career," added Leigh Treweek, founder of Handshake MGMT. "Cody Brougham (Underlay) was a perfect fit for our roster, and we are excited about the journey".

underlay joins a roster alongside Alex The Astronaut, Mallrat, Hermitude, Jaguar Jonze, Vacations, and many more exciting artists across all musical genres.

Vacations drummer Joey Van Lier caught up with The Music's Bryget Chrisfield about finding greater success overseas than if they stayed at home. 

Throughout it all, the drummer says his band has “always tried to keep the same ethos”. “Vacations has always been a different project, from the outset,” he explains, pointing out it “was always a very internet-heavy project”. “So originally, Campbell was literally doing bedroom recordings, and he would just upload them online. And it didn’t really matter to him if they got traction or anything like that – he was never really worried about that stuff – and I guess we’ve just built on that tradition.” Read more here.

Listen to Hometime below.