PR company Brace Yourself is expanding to the US, with Geoff Rickly (singer with No Devotion, and formerly of Thursday and Collect Records) joining the team as general manager of the New York office.
Since launching in 2013, Brace Yourself has handled press and radio campaigns for the likes of Wolf Alice, The 1975 and Years & Years, with new clients including The Strokes and Dinosaur Jr. Canvas Media’s David Halstead will also be joining the New York office as publicist.
The company also has management and label arms – with the management roster including Big Ups, Meat Wave, Alma Elste and Eat Fast – which will be launching in the US as well.
Co-founder Ivano Maggiulli told Music Week: “Traditionally, people have employed PR services for print, online, radio and TV, and used separate companies in the US. These days, the lines aren’t so definite as to who needs to be doing what.
“We talk to our friends at Vevo, Apple and Spotify, and I recognise that’s as much of my job as traditional PR, getting play at Radio 1 or an article in NME. We’re trying to create something that’s efficient and can tie everything in under one roof, creating as many opportunities for bands as we can.”
Rickly added: “The thing that makes me most excited about this is that Brace Yourself were my favourite company to work with. In the US, I had seven different PR companies for our bands, and in the UK, I had one. It’s exciting for me to have a company that I love this much, and now I get to work with them.
“My last company had a fairly cataclysmic ending; but we’re starting a company that I believe in.”
FOLLOW 
