Primary Wave Music has entered a partnership with Brian Vander Ark, frontman of the United States alternative rock band The Verve Pipe, covering his publishing and recorded music catalogs. The deal was announced Tuesday, October 13.
The agreement includes songs Vander Ark wrote for The Verve Pipe and gives the band access to Primary Wave’s marketing team and publishing infrastructure, spanning digital strategy, licensing, sync, and film and television production.
Catalog highlights#
The catalog spans more than three decades of Vander Ark’s work with the band and includes Colorful, Photograph, and the group’s highest-charting single, The Freshmen.
- The Freshmen: released in January 1997 as the third single from Villains, the band’s 1996 debut album for RCA; reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks and Triple A charts; won an ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Pop Award.
- Colorful: from the 2001 album Underneath, featured in the film Rock Star.
- Photograph: included in the catalog.
Band background#
The Verve Pipe formed in the US state of Michigan in the early 1990s and released two independent albums, I’ve Suffered A Head Injury and Pop Smear, before signing to RCA.
Villains reached No. 24 on the Billboard 200, and the band later appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Show with David Letterman.
The 2001 album Underneath produced Colorful, which was featured in Rock Star, a film starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston that also included Vander Ark in an acting role.
The band has moved between rock and children’s music, releasing the family albums A Family Album and Are We There Yet?, and returning to rock with Overboard and the live record Villains: Live & Acoustic.
Its latest album, Reconciled, was released in the summer of 2025, and the band continues to perform rock and children’s shows across the United States. A recent live review described the band’s set as high-energy and noted the depth of its catalog and musicianship.
Primary Wave’s recent catalog deals#
The partnership is the latest in a series of catalog deals for the New York-headquartered publisher.
- In May, Primary Wave partnered with The Who‘s Pete Townshend on his name, image, and likeness and future creative projects.
- In July, it struck a deal with Foreigner co-founder Mick Jones covering his publishing and recording catalogs, the band’s name, image, and likeness, and its touring.
- In September, it partnered with the estate of Robert Palmer and Wilson Pickett on their publishing and recording catalogs and name, image, and likeness rights.
Primary Wave’s acquisition of Kobalt closed in July 2026 in a transaction worth around $1.5 billion. The company closed its fourth flagship music fund at $2.225 billion in April 2026.
