Chet Faker Rebrands Back to Nick Murphy

As someone who works in marketing, I’ve always found artist branding to be fascinating. Picking a name is really hard (ask the folks formerly known as Millennial Falcon) and you don’t necessarily get it on the first try.

The Goo Goo Dolls got their name from a True Detective magazine ad after a promoter refused to book them as the Sex Maggots. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony used to be the Band-Aid Boys. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were once Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. Pink Floyd was Sigma 6. Nickelback were the Village Idiots. One could argue they still are…

For all these successful rebrands (say what you will about Creed but it’s a helluva lot better than Naked Toddler), depending on how well known you are under a certain moniker there’s a lot of risk to changing your name. Just ask Nick Murphy.

Don’t know who Nick Murphy is? Neither do a lot of his fans. But I bet you’ve heard his music.

I give Nick a lot of credit here, it’s hard to abandon a name that has literally become synonymous with your brand (and by extension, your livelihood).

What I find particularly cool about this example is the effort he’s putting into the rebrand, making sure that all references to Nick Murphy also leverage the associations with his former persona, from Spotify streams to tour dates.