The Atlanta music scene has been buzzing for years now and it doesn’t look like it will be stopping anytime soon. Not to0 long ago, we were introduced to another new artist coming from the city. He goes by the name of Demo Taped and is only 18 years old. I was very impressed by his music and wanted to find out more about the artist. Read our exclusive interview below.
Alberto Marquez (AM): Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us.
Demo Taped (DT): Yea of course.
AM: Earlier this year, you performed at SXSW. What was that experience like?
DT: Yea the No Ceilings show. That was really fun. I had a great time at that show. It was really amazing.
AM: Who else was on that line up?
DT: Yea it was Autre Ne Veut. He was really dope. We had a good time talking music and life.
AM: Did you have any other sets that week in Austin?
DT: I was only in Austin for that show and then left.
AM: Cool. So these last few years, many artists have been making a name for themselves coming out of Chicago (Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, Saba, Mick Jenkins). Most if not all draw inspiration from hometown legends like Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco. Do you draw any inspiration from Atlanta artists?
DT: I’d say that its more of a respect for them. I don’t think that they’ve really inspired my music, just because its totally different. But yea, I definitely respect artists that come out of here like Gucci Mane, T.I., Outkast and others that really helped shape and got Atlanta on the map. But I wouldn’t say they inspired my music.
AM: Who are some artists that did inspire your music?
DT: I was really inspired by Toro y Moi, the Paul brothers (Jai and A.K.), they’re really, really amazing. Just a lot of different people. Neon Indian. Just a lot of people that are kind of spread out all over the globe but create really interesting, thought-provoking music.
AM: What was your first attempt to make music?
DT: I would say it was 5th grade. 4th or 5th grade. I had just gotten a Mac computer from my parents and just started to mess around with Garage Band. We’d get heavily into creating and tracking. My style, genre totally changed throughout the years. I was really into rock, mostly like psychedelia kind of rock that was going on then. It was really inspiring to me at that time and still inspiring. I was trying to create a sort of rock like that. But then it switched to folk music for a good bit. I was doing like a singer-songwriter thing. After that, electronic music caught my ear and it’s what I’ve been with for a while.
AM: How long ago did you come up with the name Demo Taped?
DT: I came up with Demo Taped when I was in 11th Grade. I was having a record breaking shit year (laughs). I was really depressed and was suffering from a lot of really horrible stuff mentally. I was going by a different name on Soundcloud but one day I went home and while I was supposed to be doing homework, I was brainstorming on what I wanted and really trying to figure out a concrete thing. I then came up with Demo Taped. At the time, I called my then girlfriend and asked her about it. I also talked to a lot of friends and then that night, I went online and claimed all the social media handles (laughs). Once I claimed them, I was like “I gotta go with it now.”
AM: Yea you had to stick with the name after that (laughs).
DT: Yea, exactly (laughs).
AM: I thought it was a pretty cool name too. Something different.
DT: Yea, thank you.
AM: So we still have a few months in the year, do you have anything planned or will you wait until 2017 to release new material?
DT: I have a release planned. For pretty soon, actually. I’m really excited about that. But I’m still building my album. After I get off this tour with Wet, I’m going to go really deep into it and intensely focus on what I want it to be and what I want the sound to be.
AM: We’ll definitely be looking out for that.
DT: Oh man, thanks.
AM: We’ll send someone out to the show this Wednesday at Lincoln Hall and hopefully get some cool shots.
DT: Yea that sounds great. Thank you.
