The Midas Touch: Global PR Pool
At the forefront of the Australian dance music industry since its fledgling days, Anthony Colombi is the man behind many a success story, from chart to finish. From humble beginnings as a vinyl promo packer in the early 90s, he stumbled upon his chosen industry somewhat by mistake through his sister and long term business partner Gabby. Fast forward to the present day over a steady double decade of success and their brainchild Global PR Pool still commands centre stage as Australia's leading club/dance music PR company, proudly fast tracking the right music to the right DJs and media worldwide. With their fingers firmly on the pulse, Anthony and Gabby multi task as A&R scouts and management consultants with cross genre strategies to get cut through to the charts, speakers and headphones that matter. Life in the fast lane is sounding pretty sweet.
Going global
‘We’re usually working on about 30 records across a variety of genres,’ says Anthony Colombi about what he does best. ‘Each project is very different. We treat each client and project as a unique experience. It’s our mission to push as far as we can to get records exposed and played. Some clients want club PR, for others, it’s about getting airplay on dance radio. We work to get the tracks we promote at the top of Spotify playlist editions; we pitch records to local curators in Australia at the Spotify office in Sydney, trying to get records into the dance specific playlists they fit into.’
‘It’s much more than just getting tracks to DJs. Part of what we do is A&R and remix consultation. Artists come to us with a record and want to get some club mixes done. We try and connect them with the right people and try and put together the package.’
‘Of course we have to be vigilant. We’re in the very fortunate position that we can pick and choose the projects we work on. Sometimes, we listen to a record and say ok, this is just a house record. To get exposure in the current market, we need to get this remixed. But we don’t try and bash together a remix and hammer a release in a hole that it’s not going to work in. Sometimes you just have to accept when something isn’t going to work. Crucially, we are honest and forthright with our clients. Believe me, we’ve had some interesting conversations. But we want to get the record right at the start of the project not at the end.’
‘We talk to a lot of DJs and media. We are privy to plenty of honest feedback as to what’s working and what isn’t – DJs don’t hold back. It gives us a widespread view of the landscape we are working with. That’s why it’s also important that we keep our ears across all styles of music. Whether we’re into it or not, we can’t pigeon hole ourselves. Dance music is very interesting because it’s not linear. We have to work our way through the different sub genres that make up the sum of its parts.’
Anthony Columbi - Co-founder, Global PR Pool
The early days
It was Colombi’s sister Gabby who got him into the music industry in the first place. ‘She was working for the distributor Colossal Records and got me job in the warehouse packing order. When I first started I wasn’t really a dance head. But then at Colossal, I was exposed to a lot of German techno that they were importing in the early 90s. It hit a chord with me and opened my ears. I started listening to more and more of it. There were crates of it to keep me interested. Suddenly, I was hooked!’
With passion sparked, Gabby and Anthony had big ideas. ‘I finished my degree and progressed with the company,’ says Colombi. ‘Gabby was doing A&R and I started doing some of the import buying. I was getting in lots of US west coast house labels - City of Angels, Moonshine and the smaller labels from California. Plus I was also then hitting up the East Coast, dealing with the guys at Strictly Rhythm. There were some amazing records that we started to bring into Australia. But it got to a point that we just got tired of working for other people.’
It was time for a change. ‘We took what we knew and started our own label and eventually the promo company. We’ve been working together for over twenty years and the relationship is still a harmonious one. We openly express our opinions but don’t really bicker. It’s just about keeping the conversations open and respecting personal space. You need to have that dialogue – if you can’t be honest with your family, you’re in trouble!’
It all really exploded for Colombi in the early 2000s when he first launched Global Recordings, with the label finding early success with Sonic Animation.
‘The record went gold, and we had a lot of people hitting us up to work on their music too. We signed a few other artists and also started a breaks label called Sound Not Scene,’ he remembers with nostalgia. ‘We did the label thing for a few years but in that time we would often get calls from other labels asking for our help.’
One of the first artists Colombi was approached to represent came as a surprise. ‘We got an SOS call out of the blue from metal label Roadrunner. It would have been early 2000s. By some unforeseen chance, they had managed to sign big beat pioneer Junkie XL. They needed our help to promote him. It was a task we enthusiastically inherited. And we did it well. From there, things just went from strength to strength. Many of the majors were hitting us up daily to promo their vinyl. There was a lot of crossover between the pop and underground worlds in those days. It was a really interesting time to build the foundations of a music PR enterprise.’
Digital pioneers
Gabby and Anthony started out in the early days of vinyl distribution, when everything promo was sent out via postage. It was an arduous task to send everything to DJs via snail mail. It took a lot of time and energy, not to mention storage space. There was also a long wait in between posting and receiving, as well as the constant fear of things being lost in the post.
‘There was always the risk that the promo would sit in a post box for weeks,’ says Colombi. ‘So when a record was received, it wasn’t even current anymore. But as technology moved forward, so did we.’
Anthony was an early adapter to digital promo and was instrumental in generating a digital promotion solution for Global PR Pool. They became the first Australian company to set up and promote releases to DJs digitally. Believe it or not, they were met with opposition and resistance at first.
‘It was time to push the button. We did six months of research asking DJs what internet speed they had. We then spent another six months negotiating with legal and business affairs at the labels trying to convince them that digital promo was a good idea. They were all worried about piracy, but when we finally got EMI involved it was like a domino effect. Everyone wanted to be on board. And the industry hasn’t looked back since.’
‘I still love vinyl, and from time to time we still get to do cool limited edition releases. Slammed with so many digital files, DJs appreciate something tangible every now and then. Receiving something in the post these days really stands out. But I don’t look back at the days of mailing 100s of 12inchers very fondly, especially now we can turn around a promo in 10 mins.’
Colombi knows that this ability to mass produce can have an adverse effect on quality. But there are ways round this.
‘PR is about relationships you build. We try our best to curate our lists and target our markets to a tailored specific. Communication is key and we insist on having a lot of dialogue with our clients. If you don’t listen to what the client wants, all you’re doing is adding to the noise out there. We like to position ourselves as the kind out outlet that provides you the equivalent of walking into a record store, spending an afternoon there and picking out the best twenty records.’
Home and away
‘In the grand scheme of things, Australia has a pretty small dance music scene. This gives us the ability to open it up further. We have an understanding of what each city is championing. And of course, things go in cycles.’
‘Melbourne is having a bit of a resurgence,’ says Colombi of his home town. ‘When I first got into the scene it was the early 90s. There was the same feeling of synergy back then as I feel now. At that time, it was really underground and in the early days, a lot of it was UK driven. Importing the burgeoning club culture to Australia was a collective mission. With no Spotify or Soundcloud, or even the internet, it was no easy task. But Melbourne has always had a healthy and productive underground space. There’s always been a friendly competitiveness. It’s more about driving each other to be better and pushing each other in a positive way rather than going one better than the other. It’s really important to recognise the scene and people around you, it makes for a healthy and creative environment.’
‘Technology has made the world so much smaller. Everyone can discover great artists quickly. We are in the enviable position where we can access music with immediacy, and listen to it there and then. But things become so throw away now that it’s a double edged sword. There’s no mystery anymore. Every man and his dog is a DJ. Anyone can find out a track ID and go buy it themselves. Or go on Be-AT TV and download it instantly. But at the same time, that’s also pretty cool. It takes away the elitism that used to be rife and has shifted the balance of power. It’s a pleasure to see the knowledge of young underground kids who are defining their own form of culture themselves. This also means there’s no room for laziness or complacency among DJs. With the crowd this clued up, the DJ has to own their game.’
The Global PR hotlist
So who’s hot in the Global PR office right now? ‘I’m really loving working with Dom Dolla at the moment, he’s a great producer and a great guy. Avon Stringer’s projects with Jesse Rose have been A1 too. It seems when they work together their production gets better every time.
‘Internationally it’s great to see Camelphat absolutely killing it. Those guys are having a monster year. Likewise Icarus out of the UK. They popped up on radar late last year doing some great remixes and production. ‘King Kong’ is a bit of a throwback to early Basement Jaxx and their latest single Trouble has London summer vibes all over it. They’re lovely guys too daring to do different things on each release.’
So who is Colombi’s all time favourite artist to work with? ‘There are too many to choose from, but Armand van Helden’s got to be up there. I love what he does. He just does his own thing; he doesn’t care. He exudes what can only really be described as a shameless New York vibe. In person it can be intimidating. But if you get to know New York, you know the drill!’
‘I worked on his Ghettoblaster album back in the day. This year we’ve been working on the new remix of ‘Funk Phenomenon’ with ANOTHR. Of course it comes back to the ever important cyclical nature of everything. If you’ve been in the game long enough, things will always come back around.’
‘We did a lot of work on mix compilations in our early days of promo setting up interviews, and through that we’ve met some great DJs and amazing people. We’re still friends with Nick Fancuilli and James Zabiela because of that. It’s great to have that connection with a lot of them and see their journey from beginning to end. Nick and James were so young when they first came out to Australia. It was truly amazing to see how far the both of them could go. We’re so proud to see them still at the top of their game.’
‘I spent 3 weeks on the road with Sasha as his local TM for Big Day Out. That was pretty amazing, the stories he had from back in the day… wow. He is someone that is so into his craft even after thousands of gigs’
‘We’ve been working on Calvin Harris’s stuff since his first album, Martin Solveig for 10 plus years, and Chris Lake. There’s nothing better than seeing the progression of these artists when you are fortunate enough to work with them throughout their whole career. It’s so amazing to work with their music and success. But it also shows that success doesn’t happen overnight, you have to put the hours in and be in it for the long haul. Look at MK, he was killing it 10 years ago, then you didn’t hear from him, but the last three years has marked the biggest career revival ever. I guess the moral of the story is that it takes DJs and producers a long time to get to the place where they want to be. It’s an important journey, and one where ultimately, they learn to be better artists.’
‘If I could give any advice to anyone producing music, it would be to seek constructive criticism. Get perspective. Don’t listen to what your friends are telling you, listen to what they’re not telling you. Friends will always support you but sometimes you need to be torn a-part. Not that many people in the PR game are honest enough but it’s what Global have built our business on and it’s crucial to our success.’
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