Icehouse's Davies signs major music publishing deal

24 February 2011

by Lars Brandle

Iva Davies has struck a worldwide administration deal with music publisher Kobalt, in what promises to form the cornerstone in a new phase of activity for the iconic artist’s group Icehouse.

TMN can exclusively reveal the new arrangement with Kobalt Music Publishing Australia, which should ignite a wave of sync placements for Icehouse tunes across film and TV, ads and in video games.

“Almost none of my songs have been attached to any kind of advertising, and very little of it in local film and television. This is the sort of area I’m looking at now,” Davies tells TMN.

“It’s not for the fact we haven’t had offers over the years, but until now I’ve been incredibly precious, and precious isn’t too strong a word, about associating my songs or pieces of music with product placement.”

The newly-formed Australian arm of Kobalt will globally represent all new and previously released works including the entire Icehouse catalog and Davies' other compositions written for theatre and film, including the soundtracks for Mary Bryant and Razorback. The exclusive Kobalt arrangement concludes Davies’ long-time association with EMI Music Publishing.

“We’re going through a general restructure,” Davies explains. “This deal with Kobalt is a major part of it, and we’re also looking at a new record company. We’re right on the edge of some exciting things.”

This year marks the 30th anniversary since the release of the classic debut album Icehouse, by what was then known as the group Flowers.

Driven by the hits Can’t Help Myself and We Can Get Together, Icehouse enjoyed nine months in the top 40 and shifted the equivalent of five-times platinum. Davies is planning to mark the occasion with a reissue project. “We’re looking at ways we can re-release this with some sort of value added to it. Within that process we’ve been going through a lot of old live tapes, going back to the late 70s.”

Talks are ongoing record label partners to release a special edition Icehouse package, tentatively planned for May.

Icehouse will also deliver a rare performance for the May 7-14 Arafura Games in Darwin. In recent years, Davies’ group returned to the stage for the 2009 Sydney leg of Sound Relief, and a pair of charity benefit shows last year in Perth.

With album sales topping 28-times platinum in Australasia, Icehouse has produced eight top 10 albums and 20 top 40 singles down under. The band was inducted into the 2006 ARIA Hall of Fame.