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Beks // Photo credit: Beau Bressington

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Wise Music Australia (part of the Wise Music Group) is thrilled to announce an exclusive worldwide publishing deal with rising queer pop-star Beks, cementing a partnership that has been in the works since before her hit single The Thing About Us was released in 2021 . Beks now joins the Wise Music handpicked roster of incredible local talent including Ngaiire, Donny Benet, Josh Pyke, William Barton and Harts. This deal comes just ahead of her new single Make Believe, a dreamy electronic pop ballad co-written with multi-million streamed artist and influencer Lucy Neville releasing today, March 9.

Based in Brisbane, Beks (Rebecca Callander) was previously the striking front-woman and guitarist of successful all-girl, punk-rock band RACKETT. Over this time, Rebecca toured Australia and Japan, playing hundreds of shows, and also toured Australia with The Darkness, appearing at festivals Groovin The Moo, the Big Pineapple Festival and more, shaping her into a highly engaging, powerful performer and songwriter.

In 2020, Beks emerged as an independent pop artist with her single Stars In My Eyes which charted #1 on the Triple J Unearthed Dance Charts and featured in HYPE Machine, Pop Muzic and more. Her next single The Thing About Us was chosen for a national TV and Radio promotional campaign by the Seven Network for Home and Away and was a finalist in the 2021 International Songwriting Competition. Her work caught the attention of IKEA and was broadcast globally alongside thirty artists who performed in the IKEA Concert Roulette Series.

Her next disco-pop single Devoted peaked at #3 on the global iTunes Dance Charts and received online coverage from NME Australia, Pilerats, Purple Sneakers, Tone Deaf and Thomas Bleach described it as “a glittery affair that immediately transports you to another dimension where you can just let go. It’s an escapism, which is wholeheartedly the power and ultimate premise of pop music”. The Seven Network picked up the single for another Home and Away national TV campaign and Beks celebrated the release with a sold-out headline show in her hometown of Brisbane at La La Land.

As a multi-faceted creative she also produced and starred in her own music video for Devoted, which took references from iconic films, recreating scenes from Titanic, Dirty Dancing, Love Actually, Ghost, Spiderman and The Notebook in the context of the song. The video was chosen as Tone Deaf’s VOTW and also featured on RAGE, and the single was picked up on both commercial and community radio.

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Beks’ sound has been described by Dave Ruby Home from Triple J Unearthed as “instant shimmy material….with plenty of bounce and colour” and she has been described as “someone at the cusp of pop’s next frontier, no matter how you look at it” by Hayden Davies from Pilerats. She has worked alongside a multitude of songwriters and artists including Taka Perry, Jeremy Beamish (Jude York), Benjamin Beamish (benjamin), Clara Fable, Kim Moyes (The Presets), Muki and more.

Beks was recently featured in the SBS telecast of 2022 Eurovision Australia Decides in the segment featuring their favourite TikTok entries, with a special mention of The Thing About Us.

Larry Heath, A&R Manager at Wise Music says of the signing: “We’re thrilled to have such a talented writer and performer join the Wise Music family. With the music she’s already released as a prime example, and an impressive array of collaborations, Beks will be a name on everyone’s lips in the coming years, releasing music sure to stick with you long after you’ve heard it.”

Jane English, Managing Director of Wise Music Australia continues: “Beks has been on our radar as both a showstopping performer and incredibly talented songwriter since her RACKETT days, and it’s just fabulous to have her on the team. We can’t wait to see where she goes from here – with her creativity and incredibly strong work ethic we’re excited to see her career unfold and to support her every step of the way.”

Beks says of joining the Wise Music family: “Joining Wise Music feels like family. Larry Heath, my A&R Manager, has been on my journey throughout all my recording projects, nurturing my craft from experimental into full development. Making our working relationship official is the most exciting thing to happen to me as a self-managed artist.”

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Photo credit: Beau Bressington

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Make Believe is the result of Beks and Lucy Neville co-writing their experiences with losing who they thought were the “love of their lives”. This cathartic, dreamy pop track was produced by Jim Elliott and captures a raw vulnerability in Beks’ artistry.

“There are so many emotions and stages on the way to recovering from a break up, this song is about the first stage; grief. The opening lyrics, ‘you won, but you cheated, covers pulled over me’ is about accepting that the person you loved fooled you into a false reality, a reality you thought was safe and forever. It was really difficult to record the vocals because the lyrics are so confronting and personal. In the second verse ‘so I made you deleted’ is about blocking this person, making them dead to you, to be able to move on”, says Beks of the track.

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Beks and Lucy met at an APRA event in 2018 and became instant friends. Over the years they supported each other through traumatic break-ups and finally in 2020, the pair sat down in Beks’ studio and poured out Make Believe.

Jim produced an ethereal pop landscape to support the heart wrenching lyrics and the final mix by Lee House in the UK and Magnus Murphy in Australia feels reminiscent of Charli XCX Cross You Out and Grimes Delete Forever with it’s vulnerable lyrics and building electronic production.

Beks will be launching the single on the 10th March at Gingers in Darlinghurst, alongside Jamaica Moana and Clara Fable, with Lucy Neville joining Beks to perform the new single for the first time live. Limited tickets are available HERE

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Beks // Photo credit: Beau Bressington

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AMNPLIFY – DB