Hellriegel helping musicians take flight

Jan Hellriegel secured the rights to songs for The Brokenwood Mysteries, starring Neill Rea and Fern Sutherland. Photo / Ted Baghurst

Singer-songwriter's new project, Aeroplane Music, secures commercial and promotional airtime for her fellow artists' music.

Forging a career as a musician can be hugely rewarding but it's also fraught with difficulty and disappointment, warns Jan Hellriegel. Best known for her 90s hits The Way I Feel, It's My Sin and "Geraldine" Tremble, she was one of Warner Music's biggest local stars, played support for the likes of The Cure and David Byrne and hung out with Jeff Buckley when they toured together in Sydney and Auckland. But she always maintained part-time jobs, whether it was waitressing or bar work - at one stage she even delivered fish to restaurants.

"That was the most exotic job," she laughs. "I was a terrible waitress."

Now Hellriegel is determined to help other artists through her work as director of Aeroplane Music. Located in a rustic character building in Pitt St, above the Flying Nun and Arch Hill record store, Aeroplane works to secure the rights for music's commercial and promotional use in films, TV shows, documentaries and "lots of other things", she says.

"Internationally, music is covered by copyright law. In New Zealand we don't have to abide by the same laws that exist around the world. So every piece of music has to be licensed. People come to us to find out how get correct permission to use a song."

Last month, for instance, Hellriegel worked on securing the rights to songs to use in a (still under wraps) docu-drama about a New Zealand entertainer. Previously Aeroplane licensed the songs to the Cliff Curtis film, Dark Horse as well as TV shows StepDave, SuperCity, Nothing Trivial and The Brokenwood Mysteries. Although they work predominantly on local productions, Aeroplane has access to a vast international catalogue through Warner Music and international label ADA, plus local label Arch Hill. Hellriegel's business partner is Arch Hill's Ben Howe, also the MD of Dunedin's Flying Nun Records.

Rea and Fern Sutherland. Photo / Supplied

Elsewhere, they do publicity for up-and-coming bands, such as 2012 Taite prize nominee Andrew Keoghan, country singer Tami Neilson and international stars The Veils, plus project management for creative campaigns. Becks Playable Posters was a particularly fun creative project, says Hellriegel. They worked with the beer brand and musicians to commission and license songs for an album. The company has also organised music industry speakers to present at Seafarer's workshops, Spark Lab.

Aeroplane also manage publicity campaigns for artists like Tami Neilson. Photo / Supplied

"When people ring us, we always have an answer for them. Every job has its own quirk. That's what makes it interesting. You never know what you're going to get."

But she's most proud of her new Songbroker initiative, established by Hellriegel under the Aeroplane umbrella to connect companies with music.

The initiative has built up a database of musicians through which companies can access existing songs and those written to order - and you don't have to be signed or have had music published to take part. With the decline of the record industry in recent years, Hellriegel acknowledges the support she received on a major label is not a reality for many musicians, and that it's harder to make a living from music because of streaming services. Even thousands of listens can only amount to a couple of bucks, she says.

I've got a whole bunch of songs that I really love and I've worked really hard over the years on. What I've found is that they never get used on anything. There are many amazing musicians out there with wonderful songs. Songbroker is a way of networking and pulling these people together to look for opportunities.

Jan Hellriegel, Aeroplane Music

"Commercial radio is only playing 10 per cent, so there's hardly any New Zealand music on the radio, which affects our royalties as they're based on radio play. From the musician's perspective it's nice to be paid. But the most important thing, personally, is that my songs are being heard. That is the main motivating principle behind it."

Through Songbroker, car manufacturers Ford found a song by local musician Little Bark for an SUV advertisement.

"It's amazing support for a local artist. And I'm sure people heard it and wondered who it was, so everybody wins in that situation."

While Hellriegel has successfully found a way to incorporate business and music, she says a career in the arts hadn't really occurred to her when she was starting out.

"It wasn't even something I'd thought about. I didn't even have any role models or positions I aspired to be like. The last thing thought I'd be doing was music."

She went to Otago University and discovered music while she was there, soon becoming enamoured of the creative process. Getting Warner's support enabled her to focus on the creative side while they took care of the marketing and promotions.

But it's not all doom and gloom for today's budding stars. She points to Lorde as evidence there's "still room for dreams and success". The trick is not to rely on your talent only, she says.

"I wouldn't say it came naturally. I just worked at it for a long time."

Speaking of success, what was it like hanging out with Jeff Buckley?

"He was amazing. It's interesting because he didn't think he was a great songwriter. He was quite shy. He was fun. We were in Sydney at this big dinner, and he kept on jumping up behind all the record execs and making funny faces. He was a real artist, he didn't really buy into all the stuff that surrounds you."

After a few years out of music to raise her two boys, now 13 and 10, Hellriegel is back in the recording studio - when she can find the time outside of Aeroplane, that is. In March she released a new song, For the Love of Glory. A Greg Churchill remix of Because You is also in the works.

"I'm really proud of it. I'm really lucky I'm still able to put things out and the digital age makes it easier to do that.

"Now it's really good because I mark my own essays. I'm not worried about what people think. If I finish a piece of work, I'll send it out to the universe, but only if I've given it an A. If don't think it's good enough, I won't put it out. I say to people, 'If you really want it, keep going and never give up.' That's all the advice I can give. Success for me is doing things you're really proud of, releasing music you're really proud of. That's all the success I need."