Eleven : A Music Company was established at 11.11 am on November 11, 2000.
It’s run by President John Watson and General Manager Melissa Chenery. Like the amplifier in Spinal Tap, the company seeks to always go “the extra distance” in getting its artists’ music heard in Australia and around the world.
John Watson and Melissa Chenery also wear President and GM hats for a separate but related company called John Watson Management. The company’s management clients currently include Birds of Tokyo, Gotye, Midnight Oil, Missy Higgins, Peter Garrett and The Presets. JWM also managed Silverchair 1995-2021 and Paul Mac 1997-2021. The company co-manages Cold Chisel in conjunction with John O’Donnell as well as consulting on projects for Jimmy Barnes.
The Eleven: A Music Company/John Watson Management team also includes long suffering staffer, Accounts Manager Skye Nevin.
Before establishing John Watson Management, John was Director of A&R and international Marketing at Sony Music Australia for five years. He was involved in signing Silverchair to that company and left to manage the band in 1995. Prior to that, in his student days, he worked in record stores, did freelance journalism, played in some indie bands and did just about any other music related activity he could find to avoid getting a real job. He has an honours degree in politics which, along with some legal studies, have come in very handy during the 20 years he’s spent in the music business so far.
Melissa Chenery has spent almost as long in the music business as John Watson but she looks much younger and is far less cynical. She too worked at Sony Music for five years in the early 1990’s firstly in A&R and then as Head of Marketing for Australian Artists. After a year of backpacking in the mid-90’s she got suckered into joining John Watson Management in early 1996 where she has done most of the real work ever since.
Eleven: A Music Company and John Watson Management share the same philosophical approach – developing a very small roster of enduring artists who are committed to building a credible, global career.
If you want to know any more about the label or the management company please listen to our artists’ music or come along to a gig. See you there.