Performing arts played a significant role for Medford at a young age, helping in her personal discovery to being a well-rounded artist. “I got started in music when I did the school talent show in second grade, and I [played] Annie,” says Medford. “I also love writing poetry, so that is how I got started writing my own music.”

Medford connected with award-winning writer-producers Jonathan George and Anthony Mazza. Together they created a collection of tracks for her album, Crazy ‘Bout You. Her hit single on the record, “Just Me and You,” landed the No. 1 spot on the Tween Pop Radio charts the week of its debut. The song has also been appropriately paired with a music video that personifies its carefree melody.

With Medford’s bubbly personality and high-spirited songs, she surprisingly links her pop tunes with more mature genres. “My music is unique because it has a very jazzy, bluesy sound mixed with pop,” Medford explains. “Etta James, Norah Jones and Michael Buble inspire me in my music because I love their bluesy sounds. They are what made me want to sing jazz music.”

Read the full story and more in the current issue of Variance.

Belgian-Australian artist Gotye's (born Wouter De Backer) single “Somebody That I Used to Know” (off his third album, Making Mirrors) has risen to Top 10 positions on charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and a host of other countries no one knew had a taste for Aussie music.

The irony is that De Backer almost moved on with the record without “Somebody.” Finding the perfect female vocals—eventually provided by New Zealand singer-songwriter, Kimbra--was taking too long, he says. “I had already waited over two years so there were moments where I thought it just wasn’t meant to be. It probably would have been a different story had I not waited,” he adds.

That story may have been less flashy, but as for what would happen if “Somebody” hadn’t made the track list, De Backer is content to think that business as usual would have been okay. “I reckon I probably would have put up a lot of money for the record trying to release it independently,” he speculates.

Despite its universal theme of broken relationships, “the song is perhaps peculiar and coming from a strange place for a pop hit,” De Backer admits.

His four-week stateside tour is totally sold out and several shows have already graduated into larger venues than originally planned. His success is mounting stratospherically and fans the world over are lending him eyes and ears. Following his first television appearance in the States on Jimmy Kimmel in February, the artist will make his debut on Saturday Night Live later this month. “[SNL has] never been broadcast on Australian television so I don’t think [Auss- ies] appreciate the cultural relevance of that show,” he notes. “It’s sort of one of the premier pop culture shows in the United States.” With opportunities like this coming at him left and right— “Somebody” will also be covered on the spring premiere of Glee on April 10—De Backer is getting a rich taste of American culture and music.

“The American music scene allows for artists to create a loyal following and never quite become what might be considered mainstream but still be successful. That’s not really possible in Australia,” he observes. “It’s interesting in America because you have so many types of music and even cities. There are no real hot spots for music [in Australia] like you have here in the States.”

De Backer is experiencing many of these “hot spots” as he rides the proverbial wave of new international music pouring into the United States. He has found tremendous success and seems destined to change the rules about what makes good pop music—very much like Adele.

“You have these interesting times where different sounds start to grab the attention of the powers that be or radio execs decide that this is rock right now or pop right now,” De Backer observes. “I think a large group of people are sick of the highly sexualized, auto-tuned pop or really heavy R&B that has defined the American pop landscape for a while now. Yeah, there have been other artists in different genres but many haven’t poked through because of the pop success formula. I think it’s great, Adele’s success, because labels have been more open to music that is more organic-sounding or doesn’t fit into the current pop mold.”

That mold is changing in large part due to international artists becoming more accessible to American consumers via the Internet. De Backer’s own video of “Somebody” is the perfect example, with more than 131 million views in the eight months since its release. The video’s success, plus a couple of key Twitter endorsements from social media maven, Ashton Kutcher, and Brit-rocker, Lily Allen, have opened America’s arms wide for De Backer and a host of other artists across the pond.

But with the accessibility and “free”dom of the Internet comes the inevitable question: how are artists supposed to get paid? “When you look at royalties based on what artists get paid from services and subscriptions like Spotify, you have to have a really sizable audience streaming your music many, many times before that translates into whatever millions of cents you get and before it results in someone deciding they like the song enough and that they’re prepared to pay a dollar,” De Backer points out. “That kind of model does undercut artists because of what it still costs to make records...but at the same time, I can’t imagine disallowing people the chance to hear what you do, making it more inconvenient for them to discover your music.”

It’s a Catch-22 that every artist is looking square in the eye these days. But on a more nostalgic note, De Backer is joining hundreds of other indie artists in fully embracing the resurgence of an old medium that leaves no question about rights or cost or accessibility: vinyl.

“It’s an important medium for music and it is probably the medium that should continue.” De Backer insists. “I think it sounds better than CDs. Really, all the fodder the music industry put out in the mid-80s about CDs being indestructible and endless; it’s not true. Analog media—like vinyl—will last decades longer than a CD if you take care of them, long after a CD can’t be read anymore. It’s a pure medium.”

De Backer’s enchantment with vinyl began with the extensive collection he received from a neighbor as a teenager, most of which he still owns. “Vinyl has a great sense of romance to it,” he adds. “I think, in the future, music should be released just digitally and on vinyl and CDs will be gotten rid of and we can stop wasting resources on them, those little shiny discs!”

Read the full story and more in the April issue of Variance.

A lot of PR firms tend to specialize in something. Diversity has been important to you since you started your company. Why is that?

MEADE: I think I got that mindset from one of my early boss- es. I started in the music business working in a branch office firm—learning how everything works, from retail to radio and all that good groovy stuff before getting moved to a national office, which is where more of the marketing and publicity took place. Kind of the second tier of things, but I grew up around music and sports. So I would be reading Creem Magazine, surfing magazines, and skate magazines. To me it made sense in my mind that everything tied together. Your hangout spots are about music and culture and lifestyle. Then I moved to New York and I was working mainly with hip-hop music. That was an exciting time for me, being up at the Apollo with Busta Rhymes and doing photo shoots with those guys. So after working at MCA Records and getting my job at Elektra [Records], my boss at the time said, “you can’t just work hip-hop music. We don’t break down bands according to genre. You work everything.” At first I was like, “but I just want to do hip-hop.” And she told me, “you’re not going to do much if that’s the case.” That’s how it’s been for me ever since. For my team now, the surf and skate world works with the Ben Harpers. It’s great.

You’ve kind of evolved with the industry. Where do you see things going?

MEADE: To me, public relations has never been just about what’s in the magazine. It’s about what you’re creating around it. It’s building a lifestyle. You can’t just go to a magazine or media outlet and say, “write about my band or feature my athlete.” You have to read the magazine and know their culture and know how your client fits into it. Not a lot of publicists do that anymore. It’s not fair to the client. Press is getting on the phone with an editor, having conversations, emailing them to discuss their edit calendars and seeing what makes sense for everyone. You can’t just jam things through. I don’t believe in doing things that way. It’s not good business. Artists and entertainers have to realize that good public relations is about the long-term.

What happens when a client wants the short-term fix?

MEADE: I don’t work with them if they do...When I chose to leave Elektra, I opted to work independently and I’ve held that standard since then. Sometimes it’s not a lot of fun when the clients aren’t coming in but you kind of have to hold your ground and know that good things are going to come if you just do the right thing. We actually have a client base that gets along. They all like each other and they work together. So I think it pays off.

Read the entire discussion on in the new issue of VARIANCE, page 56.