Ghosted by Record Label Dirty Hit – And Then Hit Up for Weed

Massey University Music graduate Mieke was offered a contract by record label Dirty Hit, ghosted, and then asked to buy weed for The 1975 frontman and a former Dirty Hit director, Matty Healy.

Maisie Arnold-Barron investigates.  

Upper Hutt-based bedroom artist, Mieke, dreamed of taking her music beyond her home. So, in 2020, she reached out to Dirty Hit, a UK based record electronic/indie label founded by The 1975’s manager Jamie Osborne. The label has signed notable artists like The 1975, Beabadoobee, No Rome, Rina Sawayama and Wolf Alice.   

To her surprise, Mieke received a message back from the label, telling her not to sign with another label before they talked.  

Mieke says, “I went out to the deck at my house and screamed and cried. It wasn't anything, but I was like ‘holy shit they replied’.”   

She claims a representative for the Australian New Zealand branch of Dirty Hit verbally promised to introduce her to big names, “She said you and Beabadoobee are going to be such good friends”.  

Mieke was offered a contract and given a lawyer. But a week later, she was completely ghosted. After reaching out and seeking a reply from the label, it was radio silence.  

She recalls the devastation of having to tell her family and friends that she wasn't going to get signed. A promise of collaborations and a signed contract turned to dust.  

“It caused such an insane wave of self-doubt that I don't know if I will ever recover from.” 

Two years later, when The 1975 came to Wellington in April 2023, Mieke received a message from a Dirty Hit representative.    

The message, obtained by Massive, reads: “Reckon you could help get matty some weed in Wellington lol” 

Ten days before this message, singer Matt Healy was terminated from his role as Dirty Hit director. Healy, along with his bandmates, are now shareholders.  

In the messages that followed, the representative said they needed “Enough for like 4 spliffs lol. I can make sure their tour manager gets you cash.” 

Mieke says she was fuming, however, she followed through. But she made sure put a note in the baggie about her mistreatment by the label, she says.

Mieke got no reply from the singer. But she got a free ticket and barricade at The 1975 concert.

“I don't even like The 1975. I think that Matty is kind of a cunt”.  

While Mieke looks back at this incident in laughter now, she says that it was humiliating and a reminder of a failed future.  

Massive reached out to Dirty Hit's PR firm, Huxley, for a response. Representative Anna Meacham says, “the proposed claims in your email are inaccurate, and as such should not be published”.

Dirty Hit has been under fire previously, with singer Rina Sawayama calling out labelmate Matty Healy at a 2023 Glastonbury set. She spoke out against Healy's widely criticised comments he made on an American podcast that February.  

On the podcast, Healy joined in with mockery of the rapper Ice Spice, which poked fun at her imagined accent and heritage, wrongly identified as Chinese, Hawaiian and Inuit. 

On that same episode, Healy said he watched the racially charged pornography series Ghetto Gaggers, referring to a scene that “brutalised” women. 

As Sawayama introduced her song ‘STFU!’, she said: “I wrote this next song because I was sick and tired of microaggressions. So, tonight, this song goes out to a white man who watches [pornography series] Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters. I’ve had enough.” 

Dirty Hit wasn't the first record label to dismiss singer Mieke. Before Dirty Hit, Mieke started communications with another label in 2020 about signing with them.  

A representative flew down from Auckland and met her for coffee. Over cappuccinos in a crowded coffee house, Mieke alleged the rep told her that she was going to be the next Billie Eilish. She says he told her that she should be making TikToks to promote her music and get good at “marketing her sadness".  

The whole interaction left Mieke feeling uncomfortable and confused. “It was all about the concept of me as a product and how I can shape my product to be marketable to sad young women as if I'm not already that.” 

But throughout it all, Mieke has been developing her album frau eva. She plans to release the album independently in July. 

Mieke says she has gotten pretty far doing everything independently and having full creative control. From guitar to vocals, song writing and production, she has done almost everything herself.   

The album frua eva is deeply intricate, feminine and personal. “I hone in on really niche feelings that I don’t know how to put into words, but I can feel them.” 

The album tells the story of a woman’s experience being assaulted, taking her life, and going to heaven — only to realise it's a man’s heaven. The album is inspired by passages in the Bible that promote and justify sexual assault, and even in heaven, the world welcomes a man’s sick fantasy.    

“It’s kind of a horrific story or an expression of how I feel being a woman and how I fear it will always be.”   

Making the album over the last five year, Mieke says she received pressure to release it. However, she says her music felt like a child that needed to be slowly nurtured and matured.  

“But I'm ready now.” 

She is ultimately proud with how her album turned out and her journey to get there.  

“Songs that I love to and connect to so dearly wouldn’t have happened without every small instance that has happened along the way. So, I’m glad things happened like they did otherwise I wouldn't have this little piece of expression.”