We do this for you.
by Matt, founding member
I don’t think there’s anything else in my life that has remained as consistent a presence as Scene Point Blank.
We started this thing back in 2003 – another world. Dial-up internet; no social media; CDs were still a thing and Green Day had yet to “go political”. We used to post on messageboards (for any non-millennials, these forums were like a primitive form of TikTok, except without video… or push notifications, or shadowy state-sponsored ownership structures. Actually, they weren’t very much like TikTok, sorry) and chat on AOL Instant Messenger. I was sixteen years old and had no idea what was going on, but then, neither did anybody else.
We charted controversy during those early years: I gave the Offspring a mostly-positive review and was dragged over the coals by some of the staff writers, unhappy to be associated with a publication praising the latter-day work of Dexter Holland and chums. I wish I could say that time has vindicated me, but my Instagram feed just showed me a clip of the band playing with Ed Sheeran, so I’m afraid I was wrong. Another writer gave Against Me!s Searching For a Former Clarity a rare 10/10 score, which kicked off huge debate. In retrospect, we should’ve gone for radical transparency and published these internal arguments alongside the pieces themselves.
The web changed and we tried to follow it: after a while we closed our messageboard to external users, though it survives today for staff to draft content before launch. We experimented with polls on the website, video content, blogs and podcasts, some of which are still around today. I’m pretty sure we had a Tumblr page at one stage, but I was never cool enough to use it.
We published a book at the 10 year anniversary which remains a highlight for me, despite the steep learning curve this entailed and the complexities of self-publishing. We interviewed big artists, sent people to musical festivals for photography and got hacked by someone trying to promote eastern European casinos. Life’s rich tapestry, all to be found here.
I’ve had two children since starting the site, as well as moving house at least ten times, learning to drive, and buying my first home. I used the site as leverage/experience to take my first steps into professional web development and now I’m a seasoned—or jaded—software engineering manager. I also record music and release my amateur stuff to the big streaming services: another platform that didn’t exist for the first decade or so of SPB. But as much as all these things have changed, the site remains: different from how we started, but still here, still sharing opinions about music, still proudly unpolished and upbeat.
There’s less of an audience for what we do, twenty years on. Alternative music remains pretty much as popular as ever, although perhaps the guitar-band boom of the early 2000s won’t come back again. But if you want to know when your favourite band is on tour, or decide whether or not to spend your money on their new release, you’ll just follow them on Facebook or stream the tracks on Spotify. But that’s okay: that’s not what we’re here for, really.
We’re here for the deep listeners, the people who want to read smart, engaging writers who can pick out the highlights; the diamonds in the rough; the weird, scary death metal ground into ashes at the abandoned cemetery. We’re here—two decades after starting—for the people who are passionate about music, who want to surround themselves with new and exciting sounds, and get personal, charmingly non-algorithmic recommendations for their next aural fix. We’re here for the people who think music is worth paying for and artists worth making time for, not streamed for pennies in between Netflix and Amazon Prime. We’re here for you.
Another 10 years? Who’s to say. When my kids are old enough to read this website and start asking me who the Blood Brothers were, maybe that will be a sign that it’s time for me to hang up the keyboard. But right now, I think we’re happy to continue beavering away and serving anyone who still wants to hear great music. Just don’t expect the 30th anniversary celebration to be on time.
— Matt
PS: I should give the last word to my long-suffering partner Maddy, who I’ve been with for almost as long as this site has existed. Here’s her recollections on Scene Point Blank:
“For over a dozen years, Loren has been like a virtual third person in our relationship – and I’ve had to take it at face value that he’s definitely a man. Matt has got out of many annoying family occasions by saying ‘I’ve just got to do a Scene Point Blank update…’.
From the book, the podcast, multiple redesigns… I’m really proud of what everyone’s achieved with SPB and to continue doing it for all this time. Readers may be shocked to hear that I still think the Spice Girls represent the pinnacle of music, so I haven’t absorbed much from two decades of SPB.
I hope to spill the tea with Loren one day so we can complain about our ‘shared partner’ together.”
