Kate Miller-Heidke On Navigating Record Company ‘C**k Forest’

Appearing at BIGSOUND in a keynote for delegate attendees earlier this week, Aussie favourite Kate Miller-Heidke took the audience through her illustrious career so far.

From releasing five top 10 albums in Australia to writing musical theatre productions such as Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical, Bananaland and The Rabbits, representing the country at Eurovision, and much more, Kate Miller-Heidke is one of our most beloved, ambitious artists.

With her many crowning achievements, you’d think that Miller-Heidke would be a constant on Australian radio. However, at her keynote, she revealed that wasn’t the case. But let’s backtrack to signing with Sony.

In 2004, she said, she met Richard Kingsmill at BIGSOUND, handed him her Telegram EP, and the following week, her track Space They Cannot Touch was added to high rotation on triple j. Her audience seemingly doubled overnight, and record labels were after her.

“I was offered deals,” Miller-Heidke shared, “I went with Sony. I was in for a crash course in identity, genre, and of course, disappointment.

“At the time, Sony had Augie March and Something For Kate on their roster. I liked the head of A&R, Courtney Hard. She was a rare woman in the cock forest of early 2000s Sony executives.”

“I realised I wasn’t in Kansas anymore,” she said, recalling signing with Sony and receiving a Maroon guernsey with her surname on the back from then-CEO Denis Handlin. Then, she was sent off for media training.

“What I couldn't have foreseen was how the marketing and packaging of my music would come to define the way people saw me for years,” Miller-Heidke said. “Even today, I'm stalked by the words quirky and ‘popra’. Although, Princess has massively fallen away in recent years, maybe I am fucking quirky, I don't know.”

She continued, “I was appalled when the cover of my first album sleeve [Little Eve] came back with a heavily airbrushed version of me on the front. My was skin infused with a shocking Hollywood tan more orange than Donald Trump. Sony agreed to reprint the first run with a more natural complexion, but I still looked like a cartoon elf.

“It's hard for me to know how to explain how I let all this happen,” Miller-Heikde added. “Maybe I was a bit too grateful to be on the same label as Tori Amos. Maybe I should have mutinied. Maybe I had a manager who was just as excited as me about being on Australia's then-most successful label, and this didn't always leave much of a buffer between me and the Sony PR department. Maybe I was young, green, a woman and too willing to go against my instincts and defer to so-called marketing experts.”

According to Miller-Heidke, she was put on “triple j’s infamous blacklist” after signing with Sony, despite having support from triple j in the early days.

“The upshot was that my name was inscribed on triple j’s infamous blacklist,” Miller-Heidke said, “And they never gave me significant airplay again, despite the fact that Space They Cannot Touch was on the Little Eve album, and it was among songs from the same crop produced by indie stalwart Magoo.”

In 2013, she told The Music that she was happy she wasn’t “a triple j artist”.

Miller-Heidke continued to note during her keynote that it was “a huge disappointment” to not be played on the national youth broadcaster, as triple j “was the station I listened to. It was where my favourite artists were played, and being on triple j was, at that time, the mark of artistic merit.”

However, she found that the upside of the triple j blacklist was the silver lining of finding a new creative path unencumbered by the pressures of playlisting. “Triple j not playing me actually led down a very interesting path,” Miller-Heidke shared. “It's very possible that if they had played me, I would no longer have a career.

“It forced me at a pivotal time in my artistic development to try something new. Creative work tends to thrive because of limitations.” Miller-Heidke noted that she was luckier than others, as she was still signed to Sony, and “had a budget for a second album and a small but loyal following.”

She asked herself, “What would happen if we just went hard in the other direction and made a pop record aimed at commercial radio?” She admitted, “It was definitely the opposite of what triple j wanted. I succeeded in that. But it wasn't what commercial radio trusted either.”

The Music has reached out to triple j for comment.

In early 2024, Kate Miller-Heidke will embark on an expansive Catching Diamonds regional tour. Tickets are available here.

Craft Music & One Louder presents

KATE MILLER-HEIDKE

The Catching Diamonds Tour

With special guest Georgia Mooney

FRI 19 JAN        CANBERRA THEATRE    CANBERRA, ACT

SAT 20 JAN      BAY PAVILIONS THEATRE          BATEMANS BAY, NSW

SUN 21 JAN      BARN ON THE RIDGE    MILTON, NSW

SAT 27 JAN      ODEON THEATRE         HOBART, TAS

SUN 28 JAN      CIVIC SQUARE LAUNCESTON, TAS “LAUNCESTON SUMMER SERIES”

FRI 2 FEB          THE WEDGE PAC         SALE, VIC

SAT 3 FEB         GIPPSLAND PAC          TRARALGON, VIC

SUN 4 FEB         COWES CULTURAL CENTRE      PHILLIP ISLAND, VIC

TUE 6 FEB          AVOCA BEACH THEATRE         AVOCA BEACH, NSW

WED 7 FEB       ART HOUSE      WYONG, NSW

FRI 9 FEB           THE PAVILION PAC      SUTHERLAND, NSW

SAT 10 FEB       BLUE MOUNTAINS THEATRE      SPRINGWOOD, NSW

SUN 11 FEB       GLEN STREET THEATRE  BELROSE, NSW

TUE 13 FEB        GOULBURN PAC          GOULBURN, NSW

FRI 16 FEB         GRIFFITH REGIONAL THEATRE   GRIFFITH, NSW

SAT 17 FEB        ALBURY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE         ALBURY, NSW

SUN 18 FEB       WANGARATTA PAC     WANGARATTA, VIC

TUE 20 FEB        BURRINJA THEATRE       UPWEY, VIC

WED 21 FEB      FRANKSTON PAC         FRANKSTON, VIC

FRI 23 FEB         GEELONG ARTS CENTRE          GEELONG, VIC

SAT 24 FEB        WENDOUREE CENTRE  BALLARAT, VIC

SUN 25 FEB       THEATRE ROYAL           CASTLEMAINE, VIC

THUR 29 FEB     MANDURAH PAC         MANDURAH, WA

FRI 1 MAR        MARGARET RIVER HEART         MARGARET RIVER, WA

TUE 5 MAR       CALOUNDRA EVENTS CENTRE CALOUNDRA, QLD

WED 6 MAR     THE J THEATRE  NOOSA, QLD

FRI 8 MAR        IPSWICH CIVIC THEATRE          IPSWICH, QLD

SAT 9 MAR       LOGAN ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE        LOGAN, QLD