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07.09.12 MusicWeek 29


These Words and Single, before co-writing the likes of Fight For This Love for Cheryl Cole, Sweet Dreams for Beyoncé and T-Shirt for Shontelle. Besides his guitar playing, Glass was then also developing as a songwriter. “When he was in the States he would ring me up


and come and play songs and every time I saw him he would take on board what I was saying and every song was turning into something,” says Wilkins. This eventually led to him working with These


Words co-writer Steve Kipner’s son Harry and they came up with a song called She’s So Cold that was so good it prompted Wilkins’ co-manager Danny Dominguez to phone now Warner Music Group A&R president Mike Caren to hear it. Caren – then Atlantic Records A&R president – was himself so blown away by what he heard he thought of Cee Lo Green recording it. While that never ended up happening, the


dialogue developed a relationship between Caren and Glass who then with another UK songwriter and musician, Marcus Killian, came up with what became Whistle. Glass also co-produced the track with DJ Frank E


and to date it has sold around two million downloads in the States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while peaked at two on the Official UK singles chart and been a substantial hit around the world. The success of the song for Glass certainly


delivers on what Wilkins and his management team envisaged when they first started Ego Frenzy. “We decided to set up a company where we


would find young people and we would put them on all the records we’re working on and we were in a place where we could give them proper songwriting and producing credits if they were doing those jobs,” says Wilkins. “To us it made more sense to help build


everybody’s brands in the company because we look at each writer and each producer as their own brand and then let them go. By that I mean they are in a place where they have got their own work and people are coming to them independent of us. “Obviously we are there to help keep


relationships and introduce them to different situations, but essentially we figured out pretty early on the way to build the biggest company and to do the best music was not only to find the most talented people but put themselves in the situations and let them do their thing and in a sense to be free to be whatever they need to do.” As such a proven songwriter himself, Wilkins is


there to lend a hand and make introductions to the cream of the music industry on both sides of the Atlantic. And, by making sure the new songwriters are properly credited on the records they work on, it helps to raise awareness quicker. “I realised really early on was that in some ways


when you are building your career the credit on a record is more important than the money because the credit on the label copy is effectively what your CV is so what happens in some cases is people may be paid a little bit of money but not given the credit they need in order for their careers to progress,” he says. The development of the company has been


helped significantly by Wilkins’ own publishing home of Sony/ATV, which has given both financial and creative support to Ego Frenzy and administers it on a worldwide basis. This has been realised through Sony/ATV’s UK-based international


One key UK label executive is already very


interested, having been played some music during a trip to London Wilkins made at the end of last month. Buzz is also building around other artists signed


to Ego Frenzy, who were initially secured just as songwriters but who, one by one, are also emerging as recording acts in their own right. The plan will be to release their material on the Ego Frenzy label, partnering with appropriate major record companies in each instance. One such name is urban music producer T-Wiz


ABOVE/LEFT Frenzy faces: Ego Frenzy’s first signing T-Wiz (above left) and the hotly tipped Cassie Davis (above) and Josh Sugar (left)


who was Ego Frenzy’s very first signing when he joined as a songwriter under his real name of Antwoine Collins. As a recording artist he goes under a third name of Troy Noka, while Wilkins notes T-Wiz played an important part in the breakthrough of Def Jam artist Frank Ocean. “Frank Ocean was working with Wiz before he


was Frank Ocean – and Wiz would always come in and say, ‘I’ve heard this guy is really great. You should listen to the songs’ and then him and Frank were working on stuff. “Wiz would put up a track, Frank would come in


acquisitions VP Janice Brock who secured the admin deal with Ego Frenzy. “In terms of creative help Janice is really good


strategically,” he says. “She’ll go, ‘These are the acts. These are the ones we all love here and we think this is going to do something and these are the priority acts.’” Brock also made the introduction to Wilkins of


one of Ego Frenzy’s new talents – Sheffield teenage singer-songwriter Tiny Dancer – who has been signed to a record label off-shoot also called Ego Frenzy. Tiny Dancer was the result of what he says had


been a two-and-half year search for him to find a suitable recording artist to develop, only for her to emerge via Brock from Empire Management, a company Wilkins was already very familiar with as Natasha Bedingfield’s one-time management home. His first encounter with Tiny is one he will never forget. “This crazy girl walks in all dressed up in a wig,


facepaint and this crazy outfit and it kind of took me back a bit because I was wondering whether this girl was any good,” he recalls. “I hadn’t heard much music, but thought there was something there. And when she walks on I could tell she was a superstar in terms of her vibe and I hoped she was not one of those people who has got a really good vibe and can’t do much.” However, a trip to LA where he got to know her


both as a writer and recording artist, soon put any doubts to bed and there are now the best part of 10 songs finished for an act he says has elements of Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Gwen Stefani... “but it’s also different to that”.


and do a bit of singing, go away and come back and do a bit more and Wiz would do another track. They would be working next door while I was working on various things and all of a sudden there is this mixtape that goes out. They’ve been friends, I think I’m right in saying, for probably 10 years or not far off that. They’d gone back a long way and there was Miguel, another guy who was part of that same crowd, Andre Merritt and James Fauntleroy. It was quite amazing.” He adds Wiz has since been writing with singer/


songwriter Priscilla Renae, who has credits on songs by Madonna and Rihanna and co-penned Cheryl Cole’s Promise This and The Flood with Wilkins, while Wiz has already attracted the attention of record executives wanting to do a label deal, including one of the US’s most high-profile label bosses. In turn, as his own career continues to blossom, Wiz himself is developing his own artist, a 15-year-old called Sabrina with partner/label manager Peggy Yen and Wilkins. Another Ego Frenzy signing is Cassie Davis who


prior to being signed had already had a lot of recording success in her native Australia, including Top 20 gold album Differently through Sony. However, after an initial introduction, it took Wilkins three years to eventually get her to sign and a band project called Contra is now being developed around her with songs written and produced by her with various labels also expressing an interest in doing a deal. The roster further takes in LA country/pop artist


BELOW Up and coming: Whistle co-writer David Glass (left) and new talent Tiny Dancer who has signed to label offshoot Ego Frenzy


Josh Sugar who was introduced to Wilkins by former Busted member James Bourne. At that time Sugar was still a songwriter by the name of Josh Spano but, while he was initially there to write pop tunes, Wilkins discovered his gift for penning “amazing” country songs. It all resulted in Spano upping sticks to Nashville, re-inventing himself as Josh Sugar and developing his career there. Alongside all this, Wilkins is still busy with his


own songwriting projects, which currently include work on K’naan’s next album, Rome from Sublime, material for A*M*E* who is signed to Gary Barlow’s label Future Records through Universal, a new artist called Jenna Andrews, Cover Drive and Natasha Bedingfield’s fourth album.


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