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.

image

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.



Bachelorette BIOGRAPHY

Bachelorette is tinkering space-pop chanteuse Annabel Alpers. Starting out in Christchurch venting teen frustration in a "crappy" band called Mouse fortunately things soon got better. Playing keys, guitars and vocals in the much underrated Hawaii Five-O (popular for their psychedelic surf sounds & country tinged old school rock'n'roll) they supported Stereolab at the Lumiere Theatre and performed memorable shows in Auckland & Dunedin. An unreleased album called We Came From Coal was recorded, winning an award for best unreleased single at the '99 b-net awards. While in Hawaii Five-O, Annabel also played organ & guitar in underground noise specialists Space Dust & the Hiss Explosion respectively.

 

Following travels around Asia, Annabel pursued music studies at the University of Auckland. Accessing the University's, Marcus & Nik from the Undercurrents', and her own studios, she pieced together her unique and — until now — private sound. Bachelorette features a collection of vintage synthesisers, drum machines, real drums, bass, guitars and whatever's lying around the bedroom floor that day. Vocal layered electro synth pop with a hint of country thrown in for good measure; if you like krautrock, Stereolab, or Dunedin's Cloudboy, then it's likely you will like Bachelorette.

 

These days Bachelorette is out of the bedroom, playing live. Annabel says "that's what Bachelorette's all about — playing with yourself". Bachelorette’s heralded international debut LP My Electric Family enhanced electronic pulses, synthesizers and gorgeous vocal harmonies with extensive live drumming, brass, guitar, bass and pedal steel, seamlessly flowing from psychedelic pop to dance grooves to entrancing sci-folk lullaby. Chosen as one of ten artists to watch, Chicago-based Dusted Magazine jump-started international buzz. After a bang 2009 closing tour with Animal Collective, 2010 sees European tours, a US tour supporting Beach House, and tours with Joanna Newsom & The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

DISCOGRAPHY & CREDITS

  • My Electric Family (2009, Drag City)
    My Electric Family (2009, Drag City)

    "Annabel Alpers (is) a uniquely engaging oddity who captures NZ's sense of space and seclusion. Her debut, Isolation Loops, was just that, recorded in the company of vintage machinery over winter in a remote cottage, and though My Electric Family ropes in fellow musicians and feeds off warmer pop currents, it still sounds utterly removed. Alpers' flighty vocal is the female equivalent of Syd Barrett and the multitracked harmonies a Spectorish touch, but there's as much '60s Joe Meek, '70s post-punk (Mindwarp recalls Girls At Our Best's jaunty exuberance, Long Time Gone the fragile mantras of Young Marble Giants) and '80s/'90s too (Her Rotating Head occupies the giddy space between Yazoo and Stereolab). A real treasure." 4/5 stars — Reviewed by Martin Aston. MOJO

     

    "Annabel Alpers, the songwriter from New Zealand who's behind the studio concoctions of Bachelorette, is fascinated by the way things work: cities, androids, relationships, life and death, "the neural pathways in my brain." Her fascination with systems and mechanisms dovetails with her music, which loops and layers her voice and instruments into lofty pop edifices, pulsating and chiming in radiant major chords. The songs on her new Bachelorette album, "My Electric Family" (Drag City), aren't as entirely self-made as her previous work; they incorporate other musicians on guitars and drums, only enriching her reveries. The songs hint at girl groups, the Beatles, electro, Abba and Minimalism; they often start simply and spiral outward like cotton candy in the making. While her lyrics worry about technology - "It might make things seem easier for now, but where will it end?" - her music overcomes her misgivings every time she moves into another blissful chorale of airy la-las and da-da-das."
    New York Times 'Playlist' — Jon Pareles

     

    Buy Physical CD Buy on iTunes
  • Isolation Loops (2007)
    Isolation Loops (2007)

    "...In these lonely and primitive surroundings, Alpers has made my favourite New Zealand record of the year so far, an intensely personal album about love, loss, atomic particles and planets. She records under the suitably solitary name of Bachelorette, playing all the instruments, endlessly layering her cool clear voice with sounds from electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, bass, drums and an impressive array of el cheapo junk shop ...Tender, tentative, open-hearted and frequently gorgeous, Isolation Loops sounds unlike any other album made in this country."

    Sunday Star Times — Grant Smithies

    Buy Physical CD
  • The End Of Things EP (Particle Tracks Limited, 2005)
    The End Of Things EP (Particle Tracks Limited, 2005)
    "...This is cunning stuff - carefully thought out and beautifully executed. Alpers is a great singer, too, and has had a lot of fun layering countless tracks of her own voice to create lush and spine-tingling harmonies. Titled "The End of Things", Bachelorette's debut is really an EP - just seven tracks - but there's more sustained imagination here than you'll find in most full-length albums. I just hope there's more Bachelorette to come..."
    National Radio — Nick Bollinger
    Buy Physical CD