VA - Big Crown Records presents Demoitis Vol. 1 (2021)

Sometimes the demo recording of a song has a vibe that cannot be duplicated. Whether that first recording is a voice memo on your phone or half haphazardly recorded with one mic in the room, there’s an undeniable charm to these recordings. If you spend some time listening to them, when the “real” recording is made, many times one has a hard time letting go of the demo. The medical term for this is called “Demoitis”. On that note, Big Crown Records is proud to present Demoitis Vol. 1, a release that is easily a decade in the making.

The songwriting process can be cathartic, especially if you're trying to make sense of things in your life through the music. Lady Wray wrote and recorded the demo version of “Guilty” just days after her brother was incarcerated. The rawness of what she was going through will surely send a chill through the listener’s soul.

Some of these demos were recorded to pitch the music to the label or producer. Bobby Oroza’s “This Love” demo (originally called “Breaktru”) is him at home with an MPC, recording music to show to the guys at Timmion in hopes of working together. Brainstory’s version of “Breathe” also falls into this category. There are cases where someone writes a song for an artist and actually sings it as a reference for them to learn the tune. “Will I Get Off Easy” & “Regenerate” were both originally sung by Leon Michels for Lee Fields to learn and record them later. Of course no one can hold a candle to Mr Lee Fields’ vocals, but the El Michels versions of these are killers in their own right. Again, this is what this record is about, not better or worse, but enjoying all the steps in the process.

Paul Schalda from Paul & The Tall Trees sent us the demos to his sophomore album and they blew us away. When he got in the studio to make the record there was a strong sentiment of sticking close to the demos and trying to recapture that intimacy. On the other side of that coin some of these are a testament to the production. Liam Bailey’s “Don’t Blame NY” demo is something of a loose freestyle that comes across as a Jazz number. It is always interesting to see what twists and turns a song takes from inception to the finished version.

We hope you enjoy Demotis Vol. 1 as much as we do. It is a pleasure to share this stuff with the world. It is a great listen and we hope it inspires people to write and record more music with whatever means you have of doing so.