I’ve been trying to work up the patience to start recording a proper demo and so far, it’s been a little bit of a failure.

A proper demo and setlist (as opposed to the bundle of improvised songs I’ve usually been coming up with) would mean a world of usefulness. Just off the top of my head, the uses for a demo include being able to send stuff to record labels, festivals or contests for evaluation and such, handing out free CDs and the like during gigs, as well as venues taking more than my (or my imaginary manager’s) word for it when I say I can do some decent live sets. Also, a setlist means the show I put on is a little bit planned (I’m not turning around 180 here, there’s still lots of room for improv) and I get to do some tracks and songs that some people can eventually come to recognise. I have absolutely NO fans at the moment, and NO tracks, so talking about the popularity of my future tunes is actually thinking a little bit too far ahead, but hey, I’m yet to hear of an artist that doesn’t want his songs recognised, known, bought (in my situation I’d even settle for “stolen off torrents or downloaded for free”) and listened to.

My problem with recording a proper demo and setlist is the fact that I’m a perfectionist, thanks to being used to recorded music. (as in stuff played on instruments like drums and guitar – rock, jazz, etc – as opposed to sequenced music, which is what I do now – electronica, IDM and digital DJ stuff. As a further sidenote, I’ve read that deadmau5 considers the term “DJ” to be completely outdated and frankly, I agree with him. The term “controllerist” comes to mind as the better candidate for replacing “DJ”, although it doesn’t come a lot closer to suiting what digital music artists are doing these days. I still consider being referred to as a “DJ” a necessary evil, though. While innovative and open-minded artists like deadmau5 understand the need for new terminology to better describe the constantly changing orgy of digital music, most people barely grasp the meaning of “DJ”. So I’m thinking that when I’m asked what I do, I’d prefer saying I’m a DJ and giving the asker some idea of samples and electronic music to start with than saying I’m a controllerist or the like and getting puzzled looks or having to explain the whole thing, like Moldover has to.)

Back to the subject at hand, recording the demo would mean having to sit through it an mix it properly (a lot of work, even for sequenced music), then master it and then having to nag ADNgraphic (who’s one of the busiest people I know) to do the artwork for CDs and promoting the thing. If we don’t attach any visuals, no one’s going to notice (trust me, I speak from experience) and the CD is more likely to end up in a dustbin somewhere. I’m also not capable of settling for some random, completely uninteresting and half-assed demo, so I’d have to spend at least a week on it, getting it to sound right to me. I don’t have a week.

A proper setlist is coming for sure, though.