Southland award winning singer/song writer, Jenny Michell has signed a record deal with a Melbourne-based music company Cooking Vinyl Australia.

Founded in 2013 by Leigh Gruppetta and Stu Harvey, Cooking Vinyl Australia is the home of artists including Grammy Award Winning Lucinda Williams and ARIA Award Winner Fanny Lumsden. With a variety of international and domestic label partners, joining Cooking Vinyl is a pivotal career step for Mitchell.  

“I’ve been looking for a label for a while. I wanted to work with a team who could work with the vision I had, rather than imposing their version of me,” Mitchell said.

The 22-year-old from Gore, winner of many music awards, including twice taking the Southland Entertainer of the year (2017 and 2019), has last week released a music video with her new single, titled “Somehow”. The video recorded in Dunedin features Mitchell’s dancer friend Natalie Exeter.

“The song is about mental health. Someone close to me was having a hard time and I didn’t recognise the signs. Often there’s no easy solution for mental health, and sometimes all a person needs is to know there’s someone nearby to lean on,” she said.

Jenny Mitchell has been singing all her life. Her first public performance, at the age of four was with her father, country singer Ron Mitchell, at the Gore Country Music Club, that she is still a member of to this day. Her sisters, twins Nicola and Maegan Mitchell are also singers who often perform with their big sister and their dad.

Asked about the impact of Covid on her work, Mitchell said that entertainers all over the world have been hard hit, with travel restrictions and many events cancelled. Through these challenging times, she’s grateful to have recently joined The Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award team as a Digital Marketing Advisor.

Before Covid, Mitchel recorded many songs and toured extensively in Australia, along with past tours through Ireland and Sweden. For now, her main focus is on New Zealand and Australia.

She sees the partnership with Cooking Vinyl Australia as “a foot in the door to the Australian and international music scene, and a good opportunity to take her art to the next level.

“A lot of it [being a performer] is business planning, marketing and admin, with the end goal of playing live and connecting with people. Working alongside Cooking Vinyl means I have access to the resources of a label, while still keeping all creative control in my court. It’s an amazing feeling to know there’s a team of people working to reach my goals, rather than just me,” she said.

Visit jennymitchell.co.nz to learn more.