In the summer of 2013, multi-millionaires Tim and Chris Vanderhook set about rebooting MySpace for a new generation. Alongside king of cool Justin Timberlake, the brothers were aiming to bring the focus of the site back to the artist, to tap into the creative class – to, as JT would say, bring the sexy back to the business. This all happened over seven months ago of course, and thus far there have been no clear signs to suggest that the Vanderhook’s $35 million investment has been justified. With the slick new design though, the musical gadgetry in full flow and the original content now taking on a whole new importance, it does seem on the surface that there is a lot to love about MySpace. Even so, something is clearly lacking.

There has been no mass influx back to the once heavyweight social networking site, no sign that it will be launching a rampage to rival Facebook and Twitter, and generally, not too much heard from the former time-stealer at all. In short, the ‘strategic vision’ of Futuresex and Lovesounds brought on by Timberlake did not seem to get the blood pumping last June.

If there is a place to begin inspecting the reasoning behind this slow start then, it is almost certainly in some of the basic account details now running on MySpace.

Although old account log in details still work on the site, the connection count of all previous profiles has been catapulted back to scratch. This means that if you once had a profile with a massive audience, you can’t simply pick up where you left off, you are expected to start all over again.

This may not be such an issue for the non-musical punters, but for the musicians and artists that the Vanderhooks are targeting, it is quite the problem. Certainly, even pre-revamp, MySpace still had a mass of web traffic arriving at its page thanks to the fact that a simple band Google search would more often than not throw up an old artist account. Google Biffy Clyro for instance and you’ll find their MySpace is the third top hit.

This is a factor that kept the hits and connections rolling in, but now it’s all gone, and it’s not easy to get back, something wonderfully shown in the profile of Justin Timberlake himself; previously the artist had 1.5 million connections, now he has just over 50,000.

The alternative to this questionable call would have simply been to leave the connections in place, allowing a load of former MySpacers to log back in and become once again hooked. I’m willing to bet that many artists who spent years in the past building up a MySpace audience for their music will not be so willing to go through the debacle again.

It’s really a shame too, because there are plenty of features to love on the site. The original material is a major bonus – the features section boasts interesting interviews, new media and the likes of a lifetime profile of Pharrell Williams, something definitely worth checking out if you have a few spare minutes. The analytical data on offer to artists offers up some pretty useful numbers too.

Certainly, the social network will continue to grow in the next year or so. They’ve got an iOS app out now and will surely have an android sibling to follow, and after racking up 31 million users just two weeks after the website’s beta period had ended, the early summer love shown to the site will be more than enough to give the team appropriate time to boost their ratings.

Yet, it’s all too easy to feel that the Vanderhooks missed a big trick by failing to capitalise on the previous communities formed on MySpace. They’ve torn down a city, given those remaining the materials to rebuild it, and expected them to get on with it without a complaint.

Well, cry me a river if it doesn’t work out Justin, because that call by the Vanderhooks was almost as awful as the sentence just typed.

Still, as Timberlake once remarked: ‘what goes around comes back around’, and if MySpace continues to reel out such fresh content, the site will undoubtedly continue to grow – not to Facebook standard, not to Twitter standard, and certainly not into the dominative force that it once was, but just maybe, it could blossom into the regular tool of the everyday musician that the Vanderhooks wished it to be.


First published at www.brignewspaper.com


Stuart Kenny

After spending a whole generation as the front man of pop-punk slash ska-rock group The King Blues, vocalist iTCH has now established himself as a prominent and successful solo artist. The versatile musician will release his debut album The Deep End on 24 March via Red Bull Records. Brig Music caught up with the charismatic performer before the Edinburgh date of his UK tour with Scroobius Pip and Dan le Sac.

How have you found the transition from a long term band member of The King Blues to a solo artist then?

“It’s been amazing really and not all that different. When I tour I normally tour with a band so there is normally a big crew of us. This is the first tour I’ve done with just one other – but you know I’ve still got my crew with me. I think a lot of people imagine me going around on my own. There’s still that camaraderie and I’m having a great time. Logistically it’s so much easier than having to sound check twenty drums and whatever else.”

Is it strange playing to a different type of audience now then?

“I am used to a pop-punk crowd where everyone is jumping around and hitting each other but this was a very different sort of crowd. But it was awesome. It went down very well.

“I think it’s kind of different, because when you do something like Warped Tour there are a lot of bands of the same genre. A lot of bands come from a similar scene. When you come with something different it’s kind of a blessing and a weakness – a lot of people have heard ten scream bands that day and they want something different and other people obviously aren’t that open minded.

“If you go through music in my day though it was sort of like you picked your tribe and genre and stuck to that and it defined you as a person, whereas nowadays if you go through people’s iPods they will have all sorts of music on there. They are a lot more open minded now to new music.”

Has the transition to a more hip-hop style sound been one you’ve been looking to make for a while?

“If you look at the transition of The King Blues over time we got progressively more into that scene. I definitely enjoy playing the stuff live a lot more now. By the third or fourth record I was pretty much exclusively rapping over the different kinds of music.

“For me to do this now is really just where I have wanted to be. We started the band ten years ago and I’ve changed a lot over ten years. I much happier doing this.”

Homeless Romantic with Taking Back Sunday’s Adam Lazzara has been a bit hit for you. How did that come about?

“I wrote the song originally in LA with John Feldman and Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy and we were looking for someone to sing the hook. A lot of names were thrown about and then Adam Lazzara from Taking Back Sunday was brought up. Someone put on one of his songs and although I think there are a lot of rock bands around these days that scream and shout really good they aren’t actually that angry – but when I heard Adam sing though I felt the pain in his voice and I believed he was genuine and real.

“So we sent the song off to him not expecting to hear anything back and then a week later we had flown into the studio and were recording.”

Obviously that element of honesty in your music is a significant factor. How does that impact how you listen to and write music?

“I would rather hear someone sing badly from the heart than sing technically brilliantly and put no feeling into it.”

How excited are you to see your upcoming album The Deep End drop on 24 March then?

“Yeah, I mean It’s been two years in the making, and most bands only get maybe two weeks in the studio if they are lucky but I’ve had like six months in the studio to put it together. That was a real privilege and a real honour.

“I’ve been sitting on it for a long time then so to finally have a release date and to finally get it out is very exciting.

“I really just wanted to write the best songs possible. When I sat down with John Feldman in the studio we wrote close to 100 songs before recording. We worked really hard day and night – didn’t sleep and didn’t go out – just worked solidly, and the songs that made it are the best ones of all of those.”


First published at www.brignewspaper.com


Stuart Kenny

s“What I really like about playing live is that while it’s lovely to go and play headline shows and be loved from the off, it’s amazing to do support shows where you go on stage and people aren’t too sure of you, but by the end you have won them over. “To me that satisfaction is a real buzz.”

The words of ex-King Blues frontman iTCH an hour before taking to the stage in Edinburgh in support of Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. And if the opinionated artist is able to talk the talk, he can certainly walk the walk too.

What started as a subdued showing where the sell-out audience seemed reluctant to get involved would end as a shaking spectacle that saw attendees hanging on the every word of the performer.

The main turning point? That would have to be when the hip-hop artist jumped down from the stage, created a circle in the middle of the crowd and completed a couple of setlist entries from ground level.

A surprised, and more importantly impressed, audience began from then on out to appreciate the charismatic, passionate performance that iTCH had been displaying throughout, and if he so much as shot a hand in the air subsequent to this crowd-winning gesture, a packed out venue in front of him would be quick to do the same.

On the setlist, Adam Lazzara feature and latest single Homeless Romantic was a highlight, tying the political nature of iTCH’s work to an irresistible beat that highlights the lyrics and therefore the depth that is at the heart of the artist’s work.

Children of Revolution did similarly to highlight the musician’s position at the forefront of political engagement in the UK music scene, while Best Shot, another effort from the artist’s upcoming album The Deep End, brought out some banging bass and a sing-along vibe.

There would be well received numbers from iTCH’s Manifesto EP also; True slowing things down to bring a criticism of the media culture, Like I’m Drugs speeding it back up with dubstep and EDM tones to keep the audience moving.

An excellent performance overall from the engaging artist, whose passion, honesty and concern for modern issues is refreshingly clear to see on stage.

First published at www.brignewspaper.com

Stuart Kenny