Montaigne Ditches Label And Management To Go 100% Indie

Australian performer Montaigne (aka Jessica Cerro) has revealed plans to go independent following an impressive year collaborating with musician and comedian Tom Cardy.

Montaigne, who also features on Cardy’s track Red Flags, revealed that they’ve been inspired by Cardy’s independence and called their collaborative efforts and subsequently getting to know each other “life-changing”.

Sharing a series of joyful photos to Instagram, Montaigne detailed chats they’ve had with Cardy about “owning your work completely” and continued, “I’ve spent the whole year trying to decide whether or not I’m going to re-partner with new management and label and I don’t think I will.

“I am excited to be the champion of my work as someone who is definitely the most passionate and visionary about what I want to do (as we all are about our own projects),” the Love Might Be Found (Volcano) singer wrote. “I’ll speak on it more at another time, but it allows me to do whatever I want without having to answer to the interests of capital, which you can probably infer is important to me.”

It’s been a massive time for Montaigne, who worked on Red Flags with Cardy, re-recorded the My Brother, My Brother And Me theme, and, of course, in 2021, represented Australia at Eurovision with their song Technicolour.

In February 2022, Montaigne worked with one of their icons in Talking Heads’ David Bryne on the track Always Be You. On the song, the Aussie singer said, “It’s a dream come true to be able to work with David Byrne (if only remotely)!

“Everything he’s done, from the Talking Heads to solo work and one-off collaborations, has been so influential to me. It’s absolutely buck wild to me that he has assented to singing lyrics and melodies I’ve written, as well as contributing his own fabulous sense of humour and writing voice. Such a treat.”

Earlier this year, Montaigne was speechless after a portrait of them claimed the 2023 Archibald Prize.

Julia Gutman’s Head in the sky, feet on the ground, a work created with oil, found textiles and embroidery on canvas, was awarded the prestigious $100,000 prize. In response to a portrait of them being selected as the winner, Montaigne simply shared, “What the heck…”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by montaigne (@actualmontaigne)