Native Tongue is an independent music publisher, with offices in Australia and New Zealand.
Besides acquiring rights to local writers, we also administer the works of overseas writers and catalogues for Australia and New Zealand.
Established in 2003, Native Tongue has built a respected catalogue of local writers. We set out to provide writers with a publishing company dedicated to assisting with the development of their skills as songwriters and composers throughout their careers.

Although we are a small company, we see this is one of our major advantages. It enables us to be far more proactive than our competitors and react quickly to the needs of our clients, whether they be film and television companies, commercial advertisers or the bands of which our writers are members.

We see our role as getting out there and getting things done, working with the band, the management, the record label and the distributor to make things happen.
Our job is to work with you to help you achieve your goals, as a songwriter and in many cases; an artist. We have a broad network of contacts we can utilise in all areas of the business – record companies, distributors, booking agents, promoters, publicists, radio, etc.

We will work with you, your management and record distributor to maximise sales of your record. You probably have most bases covered but there will always be something we can do to help squeeze those extra sales. It may be that we help a band get on a festival bill, provide advice on obtaining touring grants or come up with that song opportunity in a film that breaks through at the box office – who knows – it's an ephemeral business and its not always easy pinning down where things will come from.

If you are looking to place songs with other artists we have a worldwide network of contacts who work songs on that basis. If you want to co-write we will work with you to develop connections with writers you want to work with. If you want to compose film or television scores we are ideally placed to help you realise these ambitions.
We get out there and do the hard yards wherever it is required.
We have over the years developed publishing relationships internationally and through our music supervision business have come to know those companies who work particularly hard gaining sync licenses and pursuing the ancillary income that is available around the world. We have also established a network of international sub-publishers to administer our works around the world. In each case our sub-publishers are established independents with a long term track record of working within their own territory.

Native Tongue also enjoys strong relationships with all the major US, UK, Canadian and European music supervisors and can submit clients works for use in a wide range of projects around the world.

We are also the only publisher with offices and staff on the ground in Australia and New Zealand enabling us to fully represent your copyrights in the key markets in our home territory.
Native Tongue is closely associated with Mana Music, which is the major music supervisor for feature films, television series, and documentaries in Australia and New Zealand. As a result Native Tongue is in a strong position to place its writer's songs in the wide range of projects.

A similar situation applies in respect to television commercials where once again Mana Music is the major provider of licensing services to the advertising agencies.

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AUSTRALIA

Ph +61 3 9445 0500

PO Box 1570
Collingwood, VIC 3066
Australia

Chris Gough - Managing Director
chris@nativetongue.com.au

Jaime Gough - International Manager
jaime@nativetongue.com.au

Matt Tanner - A&R / Creative Manager
matt@nativetongue.com.au

David Nash - Copyright & Royalties Manager
david@nativetongue.com.au

Kate Mills - Licensing & Admin Assistant
kate@nativetongue.com.au

NEW ZEALAND

Ph +64 9 378 9667

PO Box 8926
Symonds Street, Auckland 1150
New Zealand

Jan Hellriegel - General Manager
jan@nativetongue.co.nz

Contact Form

Native Tongue does not give feedback on unsolicited demos or unsolicited material.



Family Cactus BIOGRAPHY

While some might consider Family Cactus as spiky a musical proposition as the group's name suggests, such an obvious interpretation doesn't even skim the surface of the evocative music made by this New Zealand group. Led by multi-instrumentalist/composer/singer Adam Ladley, Family Cactus comprises seven members of differing musical pedigrees all united by musical purpose on debut LP, Come Howling. "We're attempting to make music that means something", says Ladley. "With seven members we end up creating music that we wouldn't ordinarily make. We want to make music that we can play and sing as loud as we want to, but at the same time play music that is dynamically interesting."

 

It isn't simply the tower of sound evoking widescreen vistas engaging the imagination: the co-lead vocals of Adam Ladley and Nina Siegler propel songs away from vague descriptions like ‘cinematic' into story-driven mind-movies. Ladley populates his songwriting characters and perspectives: from miners facing tragedy in crumbling coal towns, to bored suburban teenage punks bent on petty destruction. And as ‘New Zealand Gothic' is not exclusively a literary motif, far from couching these tales in the time-honoured, uniformly-downcast troubadour style, Family Cactus sculpt a multi-textured, hook-laden, vividly-imagined musical kaleidoscope where the subjects of Ladley's observational songs burst into life.

 

But neither the songs nor the group are the domain of chin-strokers. Generating the sort of underground-on-the-brink-of-crossover buzz that their spiritual kin Arcade Fire & Wilco had, Family Cactus have clocked up an alternative radio hit with the exuberant ‘Kingmaker' and developed a reputation for ecstatic live performances on the indie circuit & beyond. In two years of existence, while playing NZ's peculiar festival circuit (and opening for like-minded souls such as Okkervil River), Family Cactus have set a course to redefine a kind of New Zealand expression: one which will resonate acoss the globe.

DISCOGRAPHY & CREDITS

  • Come Howling (2009, Sony Music NZ)
    Come Howling (2009, Sony Music NZ)
    "Dramatic, crafted, seductive or simply lapel-grabbing... Make the effort for this one, you won't be disappointed" Amplifier
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