Sydney-born, Nashville-based filmmaker and concert promoter, Jeremy Dylan is CEO of Potts Entertainment, who together with Chugg Entertainment and Frontier Touring stage the CMC Rocks QLD.
Dylan has directed three feature films, including music documentaries 'Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts' and 'Tommy Emmanuel: The Endless Road'. He has also directed more than 30 music videos, for artists from Robyn Hitchcock to The McClymonts.
Since 2014, he has hosted the music interview podcast 'My Favorite Album'.
Ahead of his appearance as a speaker at 2019 Australian Music Week as well as hosting a Q&A session after the screening of 'Tommy Emmanuel: The Endless Road' and hosting a live recording of 'My Favorite Album' podcast, we have a quick chat with Jeremy.
Tell us about yourself – who you are and what you do?
Depending on who you ask, I’m a concert promoter who runs the southern hemisphere’s biggest country music festival CMC Rocks QLD and tours the world’s biggest country stars in Australia (often with my friends at Chugg and Frontier).
Or I’m a director of three feature films (two of them music documentaries) and dozens of music videos, an artist manager representing Jim Lauderdale and Imogen Clark, and I host the long running interview podcast 'My Favorite Album'.
What will you be presenting as a speaker at Australian Music Week?
I’ll be wearing multiple hats and taking part in multiple sessions. Firstly on 6 November, I’ll be attending the Sydney premiere of my latest feature documentary 'Tommy Emmanuel: The Endless Road', and my producer Jaime Lewis and I will be taking part in a Q&A following the screening.
Finally bringing the film to my home town, with many of the people featured in the film in attendance, is going to be really exciting and I can’t wait to see the audience reaction. It chronicles a period of music history in Sydney that I think will seem revelatory to many younger people who have grown up in this city in the last decade or so.
On 7 November, I’ll be hosting a live recording of my podcast 'My Favorite Album'. Since 2014, I’ve been talking to people from Julia Jacklin to Kacey Musgraves about albums they love and how those records have inspired their own music.
This will be the first ever live taping and I’m really looking forward to doing this with an audience in tow, feeding off that energy. [I] can’t reveal who my guest is, but they are a beloved Australian musician with a long history and plenty to talk about.
Later on that day, I’ll be taking part in the Country Music panel. The rise of country music in Australia over the last decade or so has been an incredibly fulfilling and exciting thing to be a part of and I’m really glad to have an opportunity to talk about it as part of AMW with the other panelists.
In your opinion, how strongly are Australian independent musicians/ labels competing on the global stage?
I think we’re in the most exciting moment ever for independent artists from Australia. The success of artists like Courtney Barnett, and more recently Alex Lahey and Julia Jacklin, means that the whole world has its eyes turned on developing artists out of Australia, acknowledging the extraordinary talent pool right now.
Within your own field of expertise in the music industry, what issues and challenges are you currently facing?
With the expanding audience for country music in Australia, we have to be very conscious not to overstretch the market, or grow the amount of shows faster than the audience for them.
Ten years ago, it was like pulling teeth to get major country stars to visit Australia; now everyone wants to come at once. A great problem to have, but we are being careful not to oversaturate the market and be strategic about when to tour artists, how to build them in this market to do serious headline business, and not to rush the process.
Your favourite band/ artist at the moment?
I saw Gang Of Youths and Gretta Ray play a sold-out night at the Roxy in LA the other week and it was just an extraordinary night of music. It’s like seeing U2 and Joni Mitchell on the same bill. Truly lovely people doing amazing things with music that deeply resonates with me.
An emerging or unsigned act you think people should be listening to?
I’m pretty biased, but I think everyone should be looking out for Imogen Clark’s new music next year. The stuff she’s writing now is next level. Also, my friend Holiday Sidewinder couldn’t really be called ‘emerging’, but she just dropped her incredible debut solo record ‘Forever Or Whatever’ and everyone should listen to it. She’s a genius.
While you're at the conference, where would we find you when you're not presenting?
I haven’t seen the full programme yet, but I see my friend Katie Brianna listed as performing; an opportunity to hear her sing is something that should never be passed up.
