GAVIN MAC SHARES NEW SINGLE + VIDEO ‘MAKE YOU FEEL’ + DEBUT ALBUM ‘MAKE YOU FEEL’ DUE OUT SEPTEMBER 5
Combining glistening modern alt-country with sentimental hues, the upbeat new single Make You Feel out today with an accompanying music video from Sydney country sensation Gavin Mac is an utterly effervescent glimpse into Mac’s impending debut full-length of the same name, with the album Make You Feel officially set for release on Thursday September 5.
A buoyant outing anchored by infectious melodics, lustrous instrumentation, and lashings of country charm, Gavin Mac’s new track Make You Feel saw the talented artist team up with Ben Butler on lead guitar, Melinda Jackson on backing vocals, and Josh Schuberth on drums, along with mastering courtesy of William Bowden. Simultaneously nostalgic and joyful, Make You Feel ultimately also reflects Mac’s driving musical mission statement threading throughout his debut studio release, as he reveals, “Make You Feel was, first and foremost, my mantra when I was thinking about song selection and production. I felt that success, for me, was eliciting an emotion, taking the listener to a time or place, and opening them up to some kind of reflection. In today’s fast paced life, we’re always ‘more’ and ‘what’s next’. I’m as guilty of this as anyone.”
Make You Feel also arrives today with a charming accompanying music video that seamlessly expands the underlying lyrical content. With its 1980s setting, empowering storyline and sentimental cues, Make You Feel is equally relatable and aspirational, with Mac choosing to not take centre stage in the visual setting. “I wanted to tell the song’s story, through the experience of my intended audience,” shares Mac. “I’m a terrible actor, which doesn’t help either. Funny given my younger brother Blair McDonough, forged a pretty successful career as an Aussie actor on Neighbours. Based in the 80s, a decade synonymous with excess, the story revolves around an uber-successful businesswoman, who, having reached burn-out, flees the city to reunite with her childhood bestie. En route, she breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and with no means of modern communication, she is forced to walk until she finds help. As she clambers through the countryside in high-heels and a white power suit, our hero’s exacerbation with work and life in the city melts away, and the sights and sounds around her reignite her nostalgia for simpler times. She is reminded of a similar car breakdown with her best friend, and their journey to find help. From despair comes a journey of re-discovery, which results in the two reuniting with a warm embrace. “
Serving as the title track for Gavin Mac’s forthcoming new album Make You Feel, Mac’s latest single opens proceedings into the 10 tracks lying in wait across his maiden full-length, flowing between sharp and driving empowerment (Live Your Life), swooning contemporary twangs (Getaway and How Much Better), airy countrified love songs (Angel In A Black T-Shirt), and poignant, heart-rending odes (Bushfire and Forever Changing You). Spanning influences ranging from John Mayer through to Chris Stapleton, Eric Clapton and Midland, Make Them Feel also boasts Mac’s time-travelling single Sideswiped, with the crisp tune first penned and demoed by Mac as a teenager before catching the attention of Sony Music Australia earlier in his career. “Although this collection of songs was written over a long time span,” shares Mac, “I tried to unite them by singing them, cleanly. By that I mean, not leaning into any style, just singing them straight. I also chose to work with a renowned country music producer to unite the songs through honest, earthy production techniques and instrumentation. My goal was to present a polished set of modern contemporary songs, that each incorporate a nostalgic cue, be it the narrative, instrumentation, or driven. In absence of these recordings being easily boxed into a popular genre or genre subset, my hope was to ‘make you feel’ something.”
Discovered at the age of 16 by Sony Music’s Denis Handlin and John Watson, Gavin Mac quickly gained the title of being Sony Music Australia’s youngest-ever Australian recording artist at the time. Evolving his music industry skills and knowledge in the years to follow, Mac worked alongside both international and iconic Australian artists, including previous work with Nickelback, Queens of the Stone Age, Linda & Vika Bull, and Alex Lloyd. And from managing A&R duties for Roadrunner Records to stepping back from the industry to raise his family, Mac still kept his creative fires alive, co-founding the award-winning brand experience agency Urban, conceiving and delivering marketing campaigns for Electronic Arts, Airbnb, and Netflix.
With years away from music, a fortuitous 2019 road trip to the Tamworth Country Music festival provided the very kindling that would ultimately turn Mac’s gaze firmly back to his passions, songwriting and storytelling, with the Melbourne-hailing singer-songwriter emerging from his musical hiatus with gusto in 2023 balancing renewed purpose, perspective and the powerful drive that comes with unfinished business. In 2023, Mac released his debut solo singles Getaway, Live Your Life and Bushfire, amassing over 300K streams and counting, with 2024 also garnering Mac his first industry nod, taking home the Tamworth Music Association’s 2024 New Songwriter of the Year. Now poised to release his long-awaited debut album this September, Make You Feel may be Gavin Mac’s first official full-length release, but it’s been a labour of love many years in the making, with many incredible experiences also along the way. “Make You Feel is a debut album 30 years in the making,” says Mac. “Do I qualify for some kind of Guinness Book of Records nod?! It’s been a long time in making, but hopefully the first of many to come. I’m already well into my follow up album, which I’m planning to release a little quicker than the first. I take a quiet satisfaction in defying convention. It’s when you know you’re being different, brave and beating to your own drum. So bring it on.”
“The album is like an old photo,” Mac concludes. “I’ve extracted my favourite photos and then digitized them for perpetuity. But not to dwell on the past, instead it’s presentation to the market blends old and new, to ensure it is true to its promise of delivering a ‘modern nostalgia’ experience. I feel the same as I’m sure any artist does when releasing a debut album: excited and nervous. Releasing music into the public domain is also cathartic for any artist. Regardless of how it is received, it’s liberating to hang your music in the public domain for people to hear and hopefully, enjoy in perpetuity.”
Make You Feel is out today.
Gavin Mac’s full-length album Make You Feel is due out Thursday September 5.
THE KID LAROI ANNOUNCES NEW SHOW DATES FOR NOVEMBER 2024 WITH SPECIAL GUESTS QUAVO AND ONEFOUR
Australia’s own multi-platinum chart-topping global superstar The Kid LAROI has today shared his re-routed national Australian tour for November 2024, with two additional show dates set for Brisbane and Hobart. Armed with his debut studio album THE FIRST TIME and having just dropped the hit new single Girls, LAROI’s forthcoming national tour will also see the Sydney-hailing superstar’s iconic friends, Quavo and ONEFOUR jump on the tour with him (excluding Gold Coast and Hobart shows).
Presented by TEG Live, this mammoth Aussie run will commence on November 11 at Gold Coast Home of the Arts, before traversing Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart, finishing up in Melbourne with shows at Rod Laver on November 29 and 30.
Tickets to THE FIRST TIME shows will go on sale to the general public on Thursday 8 August at 1pm local from ticketek.com.au, with an exclusive 48 hour artist presale live from Tuesday 6 August at 1pm (password FIRSTTIME).
Thrilled to be bringing his tour back to home turf, LAROI says, “I’m really excited to confirm the November tour dates and bring my show to Australia. It’s going to be incredible to perform back home and share this experience with all of you. I’m also pumped to announce that Quavo will be joining the tour as a special guest. Can’t wait to see you guys and make this tour unforgettable!”
Expanding on the homegrown hero’s first-ever headline Australian tour in 2022, which saw LAROI add multiple extra arena shows due to overwhelming demand, these upcoming 2024 shows will also give his legion of fans a chance to witness some of LAROI’s most iconic hits from his 2021 ARIA Award-winning collab with Justin Bieber, Stay, to his near on 1 billion streamed smash, Without You, to his genre-blurring 2022 track Thousand Miles, his 2023 chart-burner Love Again and of course his latest hit single, Girls. The tour will also showcase LAROI’s most personal and musically complex statement to date in the form of his brand new album THE FIRST TIME, boasting 20 new songs from the revered Aussie export alongside his trademark amalgamation of hip hop, pop, alternative and indie flavours.
Supporting LAROI on the tour will be his pal, American rapper, singer, producer and global icon, Quavo. The Migos frontman has reached celebrity status the world over, with a number of acclaimed Migos and solo album releases under his belt, he has performed alongside Madonna at the Eurovision finale in 2019, and amassed Billboard 100 Top Ten Singles with Post Malone on Congratulations, Justin Bieber’s Intentions, Liam Payne’s Strip That Down, Drake’s Portland, and DJ Khaled’s No Brainer, and only last month releasing Tough with Lana Del Ray.
The pioneers of drill music in Australia, Sydney’s ONEFOUR will also be hitting the road with LAROI, offering a hugely rare opportunity to see drill and rap group live on stage, having only performed live a handful of times over the decade since they formed, including at LAROI’s 2022 Sydney show when he pulled them on stage, and Listen Out Festival last year.
A maiden full-length album from The Kid LAROI, aka Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard, THE FIRST TIME follows on from the rapper’s debut 2020 mixtape F*ck Love, with LAROI rebranding his sound into a style befitting of his international celebrity status, while also ultimately serving up one of the most anticipated albums of last year. Featuring guest appearances from Jungkook and Central Cee on the single Too Much, Baby Drill and Future on What’s the Move?, Robert Glasper and YoungBoy Never on Call Me Instead, and D4vd on The Line, THE FIRST TIME is a technicolour celebration of collaboration and unwavering creativity, traversing the famed Kamilaroi artist’s professional and creative journey, catapulting to stardom alongside his earlier work with Juice Wrld, the 2021 smash single Stay alongside Justin Bieber, and the mixtape that started it all, F*ck Love in 2020.
THE FIRST TIME album has amassed over 1.2 billion streams globally and debuted at #3 ARIA Album chart (#1 ARIA Australian Album), #7 in New Zealand, Top 20 in Canada/Denmark, and top 30 in the US and UK, while its singles TOO MUCH and LOVE AGAIN both hit the top 10 ARIA singles chart and became radio mainstays. Both singles also cracked the triple j Hottest 100, as did the fan favourite single BLEED (which LAROI says is his favourite song he has ever written). NIGHTS LIKE THIS went viral on Tik Tok earlier this year with streams surpassing 100M million. LOVE AGAIN also saw LAROI nominated for two APRA Awards and two ARIA Awards including ‘Best Solo Artist’ and ‘Song of the Year’, LAROI was the #2 Most Streamed Australian Artist for 2023 on Spotify, and earlier this year, LAROI unveiled his documentary Kids Are Growing Up. Furthermore, The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) just last week announced a new award recognising homegrown success, with LAROI taking out the inaugural Australian Chart #1 Awards with his song Girls.
In a swelteringly short space of time, LAROI has taken the world by storm, with two nominations in 2022 at the Grammy Awards, for Best New Artist and also for his work on Justin Bieber’s sixth full length Justice, three wins and multiple nominations at the ARIA Music Awards, Billboard Award wins, and a National Indigenous Music Award alongside his ever-expanding repertoire, as well as his dominating online and pop culture presence. Currently in command of over 43 million monthly listeners on Spotify, over 2 billion views on YouTube, a single, Forever & Again, featured on the official soundtrack for the defining cinematic moment of 2023, Barbie, and a recent 31 date North American run alongside Lil Baby, LAROI’s effortless talent and raw charisma is only matched by his enamouring onstage presence; a fact which permeates vividly whether LAROI is performing at the likes of Coachella or commanding a crowd for his own sold out headline shows. And with two years now chalked up since his last performances on home soil, 2024 is set to fittingly celebrate THE FIRST TIME for the very first time in a run of unforgettable nights across Australia.
Tickets to THE FIRST TIME Australian tour go on sale Thursday 8 August from 1pm local time.
THE KID LAROI THE FIRST TIME AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2024
*SUPPORTED BY QUAVO AND ONEFOUR
MON 11 NOV | GOLD COAST HOME OF THE ARTS, QLD | ALL AGES
THU 14 NOV | BRISBANE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, QLD | ALL AGES*
SAT 16 NOV | SYDNEY COMMBANK STADIUM, NSW | ALL AGES*
WED 20 NOV | PERTH RAC ARENA, WA | ALL AGES*
SUN 24 NOV | ADELAIDE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, SA | ALL AGES*
WED 27 NOV | HOBART MYSTATE BANK ARENA, TAS | ALL AGES
FRI 29 NOV + SAT 30 NOV | MELBOURNE ROD LAVER ARENA, VIC | ALL AGES*
HOTTER THAN HELL RETURNS TO TURN UP THE HEAT THIS OCTOBER + NOVEMBER ANNOUNCING MASSIVE FESTIVAL RUN FOR WA, VIC, SA + QLD FEATURING REGURGITATOR, LESS THAN JAKE (US), UNWRITTEN LAW (US), JEBEDIAH, LITTLE BIRDY, THE BENNIES, ADALITA & THE KICKONS
Grab a pair of Vans and your best mates, and get set for some classic summer festival vibes like the good old days; this October and November, the hottest ticket in town will be Hotter Than Hell, with the Aussie festival celebrating all things rock returning later this year for a monster 2024 edition with one stage, no clashes and affordable prices with tickets from $85. Bringing the old-school vibes off the beaten track to outdoor venues in Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland, Hotter Than Hell will feature unforgettable performances across five days from familiar and new favourites, including the likes of Regurgitator, American icons Less Than Jake (performing in SA and QLD only) and Unwritten Law(performing in WA and VIC only), along with Jebediah, Little Birdy, The Bennies, Adalita, and The Kickons. Once again bringing a monstrous lineup truly blessed by the rock gods down under, Hotter Than Hell is here to kick off summer festival season with a bang!
From just $85, tickets for Hotter Than Hell go onsale to the general public on Wednesday July 24 at 12pm local time from hotterthanhelltour.com.au, fans can register for presale tickets now from hotterthanhelltour.com.au, with the presale kicking off Monday 22 July at 12pm local time.
An undisputed and unstoppable force on the Aussie alternative landscape, Hotter Than Hell’s 2024 headliners Regurgitator need very little introduction. Forming in Brisbane in the early 90s, the group have gone on to take home multiple ARIA Awards, tour the globe across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East, playing with Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Prodigy and Silverchair, and obliterate festival stages, from the iconic days of Big Day Out through to their recent appearance as part of 2022’s Good Things Festival. Armed with ten studio albums under the Regurgitator moniker, including their groundbreaking 1996 debut album Tu-Plang, through to their recent 2024 opus Invader, Regurgitator remain a cultural force to be reckoned with. Boundlessly inventive, and armed with everything from rock, rap, funk, and thrash (and even a kid’s album for good measure), Regurgitator’s live show remains to this day as infamous as their genre-defying earworms; and Hotter Than Hell was the perfect lure to get the band back on Aussie stages again, as the band share, “We were pretty set on taking a decent break after the high paced energy of making our latest album INVADER. As we rolled along over this great land and saw how much you poured your hearts into enjoying our Invasive tour performances, the Hotter Than Hell folks reached out wanting us to continue the momentum for another run of their festival dates end of year. We took a deep breath and said what the hell… let’s keep the heat on eleven. Great lineup, and great locations… one more run around the continent this year. So here we go, thick and fast as we rampage into another summer season… and it just gets hotter every year!”
Set to perform at Hotter Than Hell in South Australia and Queensland this year, Florida ska rockers Less Than Jake have unleashed nine studio albums, ticked off performances at Warped Tour, Hellfest, and When We Were Young, and performed with NOFX, Bowling For Soup, MxPx andNew Found Glory. With a legion of global fans and a sweltering streaming presence, including 59+ million individual streams and counting for their smash single All My Best Friends Are Metalheads on Spotify alone, Less Than Jake are also revered for their enigmatic live shows, where you’re guaranteed to head home with their infectious songs ringing in your head and a smile plastered on your face. Recently releasing a new single Broken Words, Less Than Jake will be down under for their headline run kicking off in October alongside their Hotter Than Hell appearance, set to play Hello Rockview in full, and all their hits. “Can’t believe it’s been six years since we’ve partied with our friends down under! Way too long!” shares Less Than Jake’s Matt Yonker. “Australia is one of our favourite places to play. Other than just being a beautiful place to visit, I’m always amazed at how attractive the people are down there, must be the water! We also all appreciate just how on point the coffee game is. No joke, you get an A+ on coffee consistency, I’m not sure I’ve ever had bad coffee there! Aussie audiences easily hang with the rest of the world. I think they may even be a touch crazier. And that’s a compliment, I’m really looking forward to the mayhem.”
Exclusively performing in Western Australia and Victoria this year as part of Hotter Than Hell, punk rock mainstays Unwritten Law emerged onto the scene in the early 90s welding classic punk with melodic hardcore elements. Finding chart and global success via their breakthrough 1998 self-titled record, Unwritten Law have since released seven full-length albums, toured extensively at home and abroad, including as part of Warped Tour, and generated millions of streams and video views along the way. Having only toured one other country more times than Australia (their own), it’s no stretch to declare Unwritten Law as genuine honorary Aussies, with the group hitting our shores repeatedly since 1996. And 2024 certainly won’t be Unwritten Law’s first Hotter Than Hell rodeo, as the band shares, “With the last Hotter Than Hell being the last tour we did before the world shut down, it holds a special place in our hearts. We’re thrilled to come be a part of it again! We’ll be playing the Black album in full and that’s always been a good time. What’s not to love about Australia? Grab some twisties, get a pub feed, down a VB and have a surf! Honestly though, we love the people. It’s no joke that it’s our second home. We even have a full-blooded Aussie in our band now! We just feel so accepted in the culture, it’s a crazy thing to have that kind of connection to someplace that’s so far away from where we’re from. Music is magic.”
For any Australian of a certain vintage, the name Jebediah likely conjures memories of endless summers and riff-soaked good times in the 90s, stemming from the band’s explosive shift from Perth teenagers to an integral part of the fabric of Australian rock’n’roll. Immediately snatching attention with their 1996 hit Jerks of Attention, the group swiftly cultivated heavy airplay on triple j and ticked off performances at both Homebake and Big Day Out, before solidifying their legendary status with their debut studio album Slightly Odway, boasting the beloved anthem Leaving Home. Appearing at all five Hotter Than Hell events later this year, Jebediah will also arrive armed with their hit new 2024 album OIKS.
Storming onto the Aussie alternative radar back in the early 2000s, Perth rockers Little Birdy packed a punch throughout the decade, including three albums, 2004’s BigBigLove, 2006’s Hollywood, and 2009’s Confetti, five ARIA Award nominations, and tours with R.E.M and onstage at Falls Festival, Big Day Out and Great Escape Festival, while their gutsy pop and rock fare also tickled the alternative airwaves with gusto, particularly via singles Relapse, Beautiful to Me and Tonight’s the Night. Also primed to perform at all five of the Hotter Than Hell editions this October and November, this will mark the Little Birdy’s first return to a festival stage in well over a decade, with BigBigLove set to be performed in its entirety! “It’s been a long time since we played those youthful songs as a band so we are all excited by the idea of revisiting them,” shares Little Birdy vocalist and guitarist Katy Steele. “I also love the concept of us playing the record in its entirety. These shows should be so much fun!”
A psychedelic storm of reggae, ska, and beyond, The Bennies have been brandishing their boisterous wares since the release of their 2011 debut album Party! Party! Party!. A band who certainly knows how to get the party started in any setting, The Bennies kicked off 2024 supporting TISM in Frankston, Victoria, with the group locked and loaded to perform at Hotter Than Hell in Gepps Cross, Townsville and Brisbane this October and November. Renowned for their voracious live energy and an adoration for genre-defiance, there ain’t no party like a The Bennies party; strap in and enjoy the ride.
Founding member of Australian rock royalty Magic Dirt and an all-round Aussie icon, Adalita will be wowing Hotter Than Hell fans in Mt Evelyn, bringing her acclaimed solo work to the stage this October. With her highly respected solo career launching in 2011, Adalita has gone on to support Blondie and The Pretenders and also perform for His Holiness The Dalai Lama, with her most recent 2022 solo album Inland showcasing her enduring songwriting prowess and magnetic delivery.
Hailing from Perth, indie pop rockers The Kickons channel raw authenticity into their sonic creations. Releasing their new single In the Cold earlier this year, the group wield a formidable social media following, with 3.2 million likes on their TikTok channel alone, and their live shows also proving to be nothing short of a cathartic experience. The Kickons will appear at Hotter Than Hell this year in Dunsborough. “This is our first big festival, and to be on the Hotter Than Hell lineup is just unreal,” shares The Kickons. “We can’t wait to get out there and show everyone what we’ve got.”
Taking place in areas often not tread by touring routes or destination festivals, Hotter Than Hell is ultimately flying the flag for glory days of Homebake and Livid, summer fun and best mates once again with a truly scorching lineup in 2024.
Tickets for Hotter Than Hell go onsale to the general public on Wednesday July 24 at 12pm local time from hotterthanhelltour.com.au.
HOTTER THAN HELL 2024
Tickets available from hotterthanhelltour.com.au
SAT 12 OCT | DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN, DUNSBOROUGH WA | TICKETS
Featuring: Regurgitator, Unwritten Law (US), Jebediah, Little Birdy, The Kickons
SAT 19 OCT | YORK ON LILYDALE, MT EVELYN VIC | TICKETS
Featuring: Regurgitator, Unwritten Law (US), Jebediah, Little Birdy, Adalita
SAT 26 OCT | COOPERS ALEHOUSE, GEPPS CROSS SA |TICKETS
Featuring: Regurgitator, Less Than Jake (US), Jebediah, Little Birdy, The Bennies
SAT 2 NOV | KIRWAN TAVERN, TOWNSVILLE QLD | TICKETS
Featuring: Regurgitator, Less Than Jake (US), Jebediah, Little Birdy, The Bennies
SUN 03 NOV | CHARDONS CORNER HOTEL, BRISBANE QLD| TICKETS
Featuring: Regurgitator, Less Than Jake (US), Jebediah, Little Birdy, The Bennies