Matthew Wisniewski/Curb
MySpace allows small-town bands like Ivory to connect with thousands of fan with the click of a button.

Late 2006 came with the bittersweet departure of original bassist Adam Fuerst and original lead guitarist Dan Beck. Fuerst and Beck decided they needed to get out and follow different passions besides music. Swokowski knew it was for the best for his friends, but that didn’t make it any easier.

“Breaking up a band is worse than breaking up with most girlfriends because it's like breaking up with three girlfriends that are brothers too,” Swokowski said.

Swokowski contemplated going solo as Nathaniel le Marin, but ultimately decided to stick with Ivory. In January 2007, Swokowski and Bishop welcomed two new members to the band: Adam Voruda and Nathan Dengel.

Ivory’s poppy, stick-in-the-head music is reaching masses that weren’t reachable by bands five years ago. They’ve had more than 190,000 profile views from all over the world since they set up a MySpace page two years ago.

MySpace’s promotional tools offer immense opportunities for up-and-coming bands. Ivory can easily inform their fans with news on upcoming shows or music with the ability to instantly contact almost 15,000 people who have linked with them. They had fans all over the country before ever going on tour.

But MySpace is not just a ramp for new bands. It’s also become an obstacle. With almost every new band comes an already visited sound and image. With more than 200,000 bands, its over-saturation has potential to smother the creativity of music.

The ease of putting music online has, according to Derek De Vinney of the band Ice Cap Fortune, lowered the quality of music. “People write songs to fit a certain mold and slap those songs on their MySpace with a lot of pretty pictures,” De Vinney said.

Matthew Wisniewski/Curb
Ivory drummer Thomas Bishop

“I think there are definite pluses to the online world, but then that also opened the door to a flood of bad bands,” Voruda said. “That makes it harder for bands to really break through to major label status unless they are that good. We’re trying to break that trend.”

Ivory’s ambition is leading them in a new direction. Swokowski described a distinct departure from their old songs of hopeful love toward what he described as “more soulful and R&B mixed with rock.”

It’s the disappearance of a mold and the emergence of having a good time and not taking themselves too seriously. Where Coldplay, U2 and Copeland used to dominate their iPods, Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, Jamiroquai, The Strokes and Rufus Wainwright rule today.