The second Turn Up music industry conference has wrapped – continuing to punch hard delivering high-calibre speakers in top-notch facilities to diverse and enthusiastic audiences on the Sunshine Coast.
Last year's keynote speaker, Barry Bull (prolific career in record industry, music retail, and more recently author) opened the event and welcomed Sunshine Coast Mayor, Mark Jamieson, who spoke of the critical role the music industry would play in the identified future vision for the region.
The first workshop in the Nambour Civic Centre's main auditorium was 'Lend Me Your Ears: Writing A Great Song', which offered a fascinating insight from four Australian songwriters all with international experience to impart: Tyrone Noonan, Peter Koppes, Taylor Moss and Stu Boga Fergie who broached topics including lyric or song first (melody in the vast majority of cases, by the way) and songwriting credits in band and collaboration environments.
L-R: Owen Van Larkins, Phil Emmanuel. Image: © Marc Austin-Zande.Conference breakout sessions included 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps: Tips and Techniques From The Experts' from no lesser exponents than the prolific Phil Emmanuel and Owen Van Larkins; and 'The Word: Managing Press & Publicity' with national print and online publisher Howard Duggan, and event promoter and entrepreneur David Dean.
Further specialist sessions encapsulated Networking, Artwork Complimenting Music, and Pre-production & Recording.
Photo gallery: Turn Up 2015
Dennis Dunstan's (Fleetwood Mac manager of 17 years) keynote speech was a broad-ranging short course in music management from the musician's point of view. Artists were encouraged to get a good PR person before looking for a manager (they'll find you when you're ready to be managed) and get as much gig time as you can. He spoke about the love-hate relationship Australia has with TV talent programmes – their dangers and opportunities, and lamented Australia's lack of a stadium band for over quarter of a century. He believed this unflattering statistic could change and he explained why now was the perfect time to seed that change.
L-R: Howard Duggan, David Dean, Katie O'Malley. Image: © Marc Austin-Zande.The event closed with 'Do You Want To Know A Secret - Exposing The Secrets Of Music Business' – a high-powered finale featuring Dunstan, Jeff Chandler (Gympie Music Muster), Tyler McLoughlan and BJ Hemmling, facilitated by noted Sunshine Coast music identity and professional, Ant McKenna.
Each speaker was asked for a take-home nugget for the attendees, to which the audience received the following gold (pens out!): BJ Hemmling - "Back yourself", Jeff Chandler - "Get on TV", Tyler McLoughlin - "Look at the all the ways to leverage your music including sync licensing to TV", and Dennis Dunstan - "Work your arse off in the rehearsal room, because when you get on stage you never know who's in the audience" which was supported with an anecdote of how Men At Work secured a support run for Fleetwood Mac.
The event began and and finished with showcase performances – before finally wrapping in the wee hours at the Bison Bar (underneath the Civic Centre). Attendees left having been treated to masterclasses from a range of industry professionals who imparted practical and relevant music industry how-to's.
Something very special is happening on the Sunshine Coast.
