We were lucky to catch up with Atom DeMarco recently and have shared our conversation below.

Atom, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

The past few years have been hard for me. Not just in a creative sense, personally as well. Between family issues & a pretty intense health scare last summer, I felt lower than ever before. This lead to a complete halt on putting myself out there as a creative. I dissociated from friends, family, even myself. I’m extremely grateful for my girlfriend being the one who kept me going during this time. Recently, I received an opportunity. One where I felt it could be my way back into the game, so to speak. The circumstances put a lot of weight on the situation. It was my goal to be the “perfect” version of myself by then. Unfortunately, Things didn’t end up working out. There was no communication, reasoning, nothing. I don’t hold anything against anybody though. The only reason it was such a big deal was because of the parameters I placed within my own mind. My perspective is mine alone. I can’t project those feelings onto others. it ended up being a blessing in disguise anyway. The fire was burning the brightest it had been in years. I kept telling myself “The only real opportunities are the one’s you create yourself.” It made me think of all the things I’ve done creatively. Then, I came to a realization . I’ve never put on my own show. I’ve performed since I was a little kid. However, I’ve never been a part of planning one. Which is ironic due to my family having extensive roots in performing & planning shows. Actually, one of my main inspirations for pursuing this was my sister. Who has been putting on a successful DIY Folk Punk festival called ‘Slugfest’ for a couple years now. The upcoming one is May 30th. It’s two days & has 20+ artists! I’m super proud of them. It made me feel like I could do something like that too (on a smaller scale haha).

The wheels started turning from there. I knew I could’t do it myself so I assembled my team. I’ve been a part of a small group of creatives called ‘The Antisocial Collective’ since 2019. We’ve always prided ourselves on doing a lot even though there’s few of us (hence the name). It’s a 3 member team including myself, my long time collaborator Vae (@vaepalas), and my talented girlfriend Nicole (@nicollaassaa). We’re a great team because we uplift each other’s strengths & make up for our weaknesses. We put our minds together & conceptualized ‘Carolina Clouds’. An independent Hip-Hop/Rap festival with the sole purpose of giving a platform to creatives within our community. There’s so much talent in North Carolina that goes unnoticed. We want to build a platform that can properly put that talent on full display.. Vae & I worked together on recruiting artists. At first., we weren’t sure how to go about making selections. It eventually became so obvious. We’ve come across so much talent in our daily lives. One’s we believe could truly impact the industry. We assembled a list of 8 artists (including ourselves) & moved forward. The immediate response was nothing but love & appreciation for the opportunity. It made the event feel bigger than we had originally thought. It inspired us to go harder for the artists! We planned to set ourselves apart with our artist spotlight posts. Rather than a picture with a brief bio, We conducted interviews for each artist. We even created an animated character to resemble a radio talkshow host to be the interviewer. This allows us to not have to rely on our own image to represent our brand. Which I feel will be beneficial in the long term. Nicole Designed & animated him. Vae tackled the interview editing. I did my best to help creative direct the whole process. Nicole & I really wanted to put together some merchandise for the event. We designed a small run of shirts, shorts, hats, & bracelets. Nicole handmade each bracelet by hand. She even pressed the vinyl on the shorts & shirts herself! Shoutout our homie Jerald for helping us execute these pieces!

I’d say the event went really well. There were definitely some bumps in the road. However, there always are. An endeavor will truly never go according perfectly to plan. Regardless, We hit within our target range of ticket sales! The audience was impressed with the entire line-up, merch pretty much sold out, & the artists found new collaborators. A small step towards our goal of building our community. I came out of the event feeling especially motivated. That being said, we’re already planning the next one. Stay tuned! Lastly, a huge thanks to everybody who helped bring my vision to life!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Howdy readers! My name’s Atom. My stage name is Atom’s Dead (pretty edgy right?). I’m an artist, producer, engineer, & event planner based in Raleigh, NC. I predominantly work within the hip-hop/rap genre. However, I work within a variety of others! Music has always been a major part of my life. Both of my parents are musicians. I grew up being right there for so many shows & practice’s. I even played percussion on some as young as 5 years old. Honestly, I feel like music found me. I know that sounds cliche. My families deep roots in music made me stay away from pursuing it at first. I always felt a little different from my immediate family. Finding other interests was my way of setting myself apart. On top of that, I was really shy growing up constantly avoiding any type of spotlight. . I credit my dad for always pushing me to give music a shot. He even helped me get my first pieces of recording equipment to dabble with. My life-long friend Troy showed me rap music for the first time. I don’t think he understands how much this meant. I was instantly hooked. I gravitated towards the lyricism & hard hitting beats. I don’t know exactly why the genre in particular inspired me to create within it. My guess is that it was so vastly different from what I had heard before. My family exposed me to a lot of rock & punk. This was something way different. I guess that plays into my yearning to set myself apart from my family as well. Which is hilarious in retrospect. My Uncle was a rap artist for over a decade by that point. I was unaware at the time though. He would end up helping me create my first track when I was 12. The rest is history from there.

I was fixated on only being an artist. I’m grateful for my dad always encouraging me to tackle all aspects of music. I was only writing & performing songs for the first couple years. At around 14, I started producing & engineering my tracks as well. Doing all this since I was 14 really allowed me ample time to grow in each lane. Now being 24, I have a decade of experience in these core branches of the craft. That being said, I’m always down for collaboration! If anybody needs a verse, a beat, or a mix. I’m your guy. However, my main focus currently is ‘Carolina Clouds’. An independent hip-hop/rap music festival in NC. We aim to build creatives within our community through this platform. If you’re a fan, come out to experience some of the best up-n-coming artists in your area. If you’re an artist, We encourage you guys to get in contact with our team! We don’t try to pick & choose. We just want talent! It doesn’t matter how big or small an artists following is. We’ve got big plans for this platform & can’t wait to unveil what we have in store.

As you can tell. I’ve got my hands in a variety of different lanes. Currently, I’m most proud of building this ‘Carolina Clouds’ platform. It could’ve died simply as an idea. instead of letting it fade, I immediately went head first into making it a reality. I’m more inspired than I’ve ever been in return. I’ve let the opportunities others present dictate my career for its entirety. It feels really good to take my passion into my own hands. This feels so much bigger than me as well. Music has always been my main form of self-expression. That’s exactly where it starts & ends though, with self. Building this platform feels so much larger than me. I truly believe NC could be one of the biggest hub’s for creatives in the nation, maybe even the world. within the same realm of a New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, etc. Between the Triangle, Triad, Charlotte… Theres a lot going on & so much room to grow. Our Carolina Clouds team aims to build these creative communities statewide. We’re just getting started though. There’s no telling our goals & aspirations in a few years time.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It allows me to truly express myself. I was shy & timid growing up. Even now, It’s hard for me to talk to those closest to me. Honestly, talking things out never really made me feel better anyway. I can take the bad times & turn it into something I’m proud of with the music. Which in turn, makes me grateful for the experience. Truly turns it into a lesson rather than a loss. Even if I wanna express something positive. Music allows me to get whatever energy that’s weighing me down off my chest.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

There’s a variety of things. In particular, We need to support & create platforms that put the creatives first. Small creators are constantly fighting for real opportunities. They do all this just to be undermined by platforms who are in the game for financial purposes only. We strive to put the artists on our Carolina Clouds line-ups first. Even on a smaller scale, we’re still paying our talent, encouraging them to bring & sell merchandise, & even uplifting their other ventures through vending. Another great example is the venue we had our first show at, Panther Lake. The owner Samme & the rest of his team are so giving & willing to work with anybody. If you wanna book any music event, don’t hesitate to hit them up! Canvas Rebel Too! You guys are giving small creators like myself an opportunity to put ourselves out there.

Other than that, It’s the little things that go a long way. I feel like social media has put conformity on full display. It’s like being yourself & chasing your dreams is corny nowadays. Unless of course you’ve managed to gain a larger following. We as a society need to be more encouraging to small creatives. A like, follow, share goes a long way & takes little effort. Small things like this go farther than most people realize.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atomsdead/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@antisocialcollective
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/atomsdead
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3CG2jEX2Bc7Tut6jsyHlRX

Image Credits

Photography & artwork by: Nicole Garcia (@nicollaassaa)