Alan Cullivan, the manager of The Thrills, has rubbished suggestions in the Sunday Times that his latest proteges Humanzi have been the beneficiaries of a million dollar deal with the music biz giant, Universal.

“It’s amazing that people can write stuff like that,” he tells Hot Press. “It’s unfair. The article is incorrect. The amount of money that’s mentioned is inaccurate. It’s way off the mark. I gave the guy the facts and he still went ahead. These are young people you’re writing about. Something like that can affect a band very badly.”

However, on the bright side, Cullivan confirmed that Humanzi have signed to Universal, in a deal that will see the full might of the multi-national behind them.

“People don’t do those million dollar deals anymore,” he continues. “The business has changed. I can’t specify what the deal is but it’s for a lot less money than was mentioned. But there’ll be a single out over the next couple of months, and if everything goes well with the recording, we should have the album ready by the end of the summer. If we’re not ready to go with it early in the autumn, we’ll wait till the new year .”

Along with its UK and Irish release, the record is likely to be picked up in America in Interscope.

"It’ll go out in a lot of territories, there’s no doubt about that,” he confirms.

The Humanzi signing is part of a label deal that finds Cullivan setting up his own label affiliated to Universal

“We have some ideas about possible signings,” he concludes. “We’re looking for the truly creative stuff. We’re likely to be looking at the ones that aren’t in the gang, the outsiders – which The Thrills were and Humanzi are.”