Jaguar Jonze "capturing the moment" with new single - Cahill

Music journalists Mikey Cahill and Sosefina Fuamoli talk with Parkway Drive's Winston McCall about the impact of Jaguar Jonze's new single on the music industry

In light of the recent furore surrounding Denis Handlin’s departure from Sony Music, Aussie artist Jaguar Jonze has come out with a single addressing the high-ups of the music industry.

Titled ‘Who died and made you king?’, the track samples statements from Handlin to overtly criticise the way he ran Sony Music before leaving the group this month.

The track received glowing praise from Hit Different’s Mikey Cahill, who labelled the release “beautiful”.

“The track is overtly about Handlin and we can make it much wider at the moment because the music industry is going through a ‘Me Too’ cleaning out phase, getting rid of the jerks,” Cahill said on this week’s episode.

“I feel like Jaguar Jonze is really owning the moment by pulling this judo move and throwing all that negative energy back out and turning it into something positive.”

Hit Different guest Winston McCall, who is the lead singer of Parkway Drive, sonically enjoyed the way Jonze managed to weave deep messages into a pop hit.

“Stripping the context away it’s a really great piece of music if you took it at face value,” McCall said.

“This sampling in the middle of the bridge is so cutting, it’s absolutely incredible.”

As a fellow artist, McCall could also sympathise with Jonze’s comments about the music industry and how it treats different musicians.

“To be honest, with the entire hierarchical structure of the music industry, the artist is literally the bottom, the person that creates the art is at the bottom,” he said.

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We covered it on Hit Different, a weekly podcast that puts music culture in context.

The song has come out at the right time, with this week’s ABC Four Corners episode investigating the departure of Handlin from Sony Music and uncovers his inappropriate behaviour. Fellow co-host and music journalist Sosefina Fuamoli echoed Cahill’s sentiments, believing Jaguar Jonze’s song and accompanying music video create a great and pertinent impact on the current controversies.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a banger, but it’s definitely something that could be put into a set and people could still dance to despite the lyricism being quite pointed and thinly veiled in terms of who and what she’s talking about,” Fuamoli said.

But Fuamoli is interested in what cost this movement piece has on Jonze’s career, with the artist saying herself in interviews how she has sacrificed her own fun creative license to pursue making music on deep issues in the Australian music industry. She may be combining the two, but Fuamoli wonders what impact this is having on Jonze.

“We’ve seen all these big industry heads being ousted from their roles, and she’s played a big part in publicy advocating for change in the industry,” Fuamoli said.

“She sacrificed a lot of her artistry in the process to become a bit more of a champion and an activist, but this is a way of her reclaiming that sense of artistry.”

“It’s a balancing act when it comes to creating art that’s reflective of what’s happening because then you have to consider what your music legacy is then going to be defined for.”

Despite the implications of Jaguar Jonze’s new single, both Fuamoli and Cahill agreed that it is “the perfect song” for the music scene, especially with the controversies currently occurring.

“The response to it I still very early days, but I feel like people are here for it,” Fuamoli said

Hear the full story on Hit Different, a free weekly podcast that puts music culture in context.