Native Tongue signs Jen Cloher ahead of her fourth full-length release

Native Tongue has signed Melbourne singer-songwriter, artist rights activist and Milk! Records co-founder Jen Cloher. 

It will represent Cloher’s catalogue in Australia and New Zealand, including her fourth album due on August 11. 

"I’m excited to be working with an independent Australian publisher,” she says. “The team at Native Tongue are kickass, many of whom I’ve met out in the community supporting local music.”

"It’s with great pleasure that we begin working with Jen and her music locally," adds Native Tongue MD Jaime Gough.

“Jen’s forthcoming self-titled album is a stunning collection of songs that aren’t afraid to address issues others would usually side-step, yet with an undertone of nonchalant coolness only Jen Cloher can deliver.” 

Cloher self-titled the album to indicate how personal the songs were as they address themes of love, music and Australia.

The album was made with Greg Walker in the rolling hills of Gippsland in country Victoria.

The band that played on it – Courtney Barnett on lead guitar and the rhythm section of Bones Sloane and Jen Sholakis – was the same as worked on the Australian Music Prize-nominated In Blood Memory four years earlier.

The record was completed in March 2017 with Tom Schick at Jeff Tweedy’s famous ‘Loft’ Studios in Chicago during the North American winter.

Cloher has been a force in Melbourne’s DIY movement, presenting workshops on how self-managed artists could remain independent, and by setting up Milk! to accommodate acts as Barnett, Loose Tooth, Fraser A. Gorman, Jade Imagine and East Brunswick All Girls Choir who wanted to do things on their own terms. 

Throughout her career she has steadfastly made a distinction between “success” and “fame.”

She explains, “Success is being able to continually create your best work, to be able to look at the weak bits and the best assets and say, ’Yes, I want that to go out.’

“Fame is what someone else applies to you and is just a matter of people’s opinions.”

Jen Cloher is hitting the road next month:

August 24 - The Foundry, Brisbane

August 25 - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

September 3 - Mojo’s, Fremantle

September 8 - Howler, Melbourne

September 9 - Jive Bar, Adelaide