Ivory: Musical Inspiration in the Valley
Matt Wisniewski

The sweltering July heat draped the hilly Oshkosh campground playing home to Lifest. Under an enormous roof with no walls, four teenagers dressed in full suits sauntered onto a stage covered in couches, chairs, instruments and amplifiers. Shaggy haired 19-year-old Nathaniel Swokowski sat in front of a piano. He sang into roses taped to a microphone. Flowers, paintings and collages covered the empty areas of the stage.

The graceful resonance Swokowski drew out of 88 keys filled the air, intoxicating the small audience. His sincere falsettos soared and mingled with piano, drum, bass and guitar. It felt familiar, a kaleidoscope of color and harmonious notes.

During a 35-minute set in early July 2005, I caught a glimpse that rekindled my hope for the future of musical creativity. Ivory, a small town band hoping to make a big-scene debut, awoke a vision of the originality and innovation of music.

But while I felt this awakening live, Ivory’s future more likely rests in the digital realm–a space far more crowded than the Oshkosh campground. One of tens of thousands of acts using MySpace to promote themselves, Ivory is trying to catch fire online. MySpace has expanded music online since it launched on Aug. 15, 2003, creating something never seen before in the music industry: the ability to distribute music in seconds to as many people as artists want.

This ease of distribution leads new bands to MySpace daily, forging a musical catch-22. While allowing small-town bands never-before-known access to a national stage, it has simultaneously oversaturated the music industry with new–and sometimes lacking–acts.

“MySpace does a lot of good when it comes to making your music available to a vast audience, but it acts as a double-edged sword in the sense that everyone else and their grandmother is allowed the same privilege,” said Nick Junkunc of The Box Social. “MySpace, while making it incredibly easy to expose yourself, has resulted in the complete flooding of bands, making it harder and harder to make your voice heard within the constraints of the opportunity given through things like MySpace and Purevolume.”

Before social networking, a band had little chance of being noticed in Wisconsin’s Fox River Valley. Record labels couldn’t afford to send scouts to a part of a state not known for its up-and-coming artists. To take a dream seriously, a band would have to move to Chicago, New York or Los Angeles to get the exposure needed to break through the ceiling between small-time and the charts.

MySpace changed that immediately and forever. Swokowski saw this and used it from the beginning.

“It's now so much easier for us to advertise, market and connect to our fans and create a wider fan base,” said Thomas Bishop, Ivory’s drummer. “Social networking tools help new bands connect more than anything.”

Waiting For Understanding was the first undertaking of the design that would one day become Ivory. Swokowski created it after drumming in a different band and wanting to try his own songs on the piano.

“It seems that Waiting For Understanding was a good name to start out with, seeing as I had no understanding or even the slightest idea about what kind of journey I was starting,” Swokowski said.

He met record executives while on tour with fellow Appleton band Number One Fan. They were impressed with the 19-year-old’s songwriting ability and personality and stayed in close contact over the next year. The band changed their name and their direction after adding Bishop in early 2005 and becoming Ivory.

Their musical maturation in the following months brought them recognition and popularity around Wisconsin. They recorded six songs at Madison’s Smart Studios in the summer and released a CD that fall.

Their popularity quickly led to a record deal with Carbon Copy Media, a subsidiary of Victory Records. After recording a full album and touring throughout the summer fo 2006, a legal dispute between the label and Victory Records led to Ivory dropping out of the contract. Ivory went from being a few weeks away from releasing their first full-length album to having no way to distribute their music. A bleak future tested the band.

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.

“We came a long way very quickly,” Voruda said. “Since January we've written songs and recorded demos and have toured parts of the country. As a band we've come a long way in a shorter period of time than it would take most bands.”

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 picture,” De Vinney said.

As the increase of new bands leisurely suffocates the creativity of new music, Ivory has worked to rekindle it.

“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.

“I think my biggest inspiration in the new direction is just to be myself,” Swokowski said. “I love the music we’re writing and we’re having a good time.”

Swokowski is the ideal front man. He’s never lost sight of his goal since day one. His presence is invigorating. He hasn’t lost faith in his musical vision. He won’t settle for failure.

Bishop puts everything he has into the beats. His dedication to Ivory is clear in the way he talks about their future. He has never given up on his dream of becoming a professional musician.

“The guy was always about playing and has never once been about anything but committed to music,” Swokowski said.

When Voruda was asked to replace Fuerst as Ivory’s bassist, he was a drummer. A few weeks later he knew every Ivory song to perfection. His confidence is contagious. He puts energy into learning about the technical aspects of music. He’ll diagnose why a pedal is broken or why an amp is buzzing. And his knowledge as a drummer has only added to his talent as a bassist.

“He’s a drummer that’s playing bass and that’s why he’s so good,” Swokowski said. “He knows how to fill the pocket.”

Dengel fills out the foursome as the lead guitarist. Swokowski and Dengel blend their creativities into a tangible harmony of guitar and piano. He helps maintain Ivory’s new optimistic outlook, and rarely stresses about anything.

“He’s so smart at writing hooks on the guitar … he’s damn good and very diverse,” Swokowski said. “Ivory wouldn’t be what it is without him.”

Ivory lost two members and added two replacements since that sultry day in July. They’ve had and lost a record deal and multiple full-length albums. But every time they’ve started over, it’s been for the best.

After three years of trying to fit into a mold, Ivory realized where their creative development has to come from: being themselves.

“The music we play now is Nathan, Tommy, Adam and myself just being completely ourselves and writing exactly what we want,” Swokowski said.