We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daemon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Daemon, appreciate you joining us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

My biggest problem as an artist these days is cutting through the noise. I love writing songs. I love recording them. I’ve even grown to love the process of mixing and mastering (a good song can become a great song during said process). Performing a song? Yup, that’s a great time too. You know what is really really really starting to suck right now?

Releasing a song. Marketing and promoting a song. It’s hard out there. Blame it on the algorithm. Blame it on the apathy. Blame it on an oversaturated marketplace. They say every two minutes, a new rapper is born. In the past, it was all about gatekeepers. Tastemakers. Labels. Investment capital. Folks with power had to pluck you from relative obscurity and put you onto a platform. Now, we all have the same platform. Unless you’re made of money or connected to someone who is, it’s near impossible to cut through the clutter and make any kind of resounding impact.

So now the challenge isn’t simply a matter of making something with real value—creating something authentic and powerful. It’s figuring out how to get that special something to enough of the right people so that it has an impact—if a tree falls in the woods and all that jazz.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was born by the river. In a little tent. Or was it a van down by the river? That’s me in a nutshell. A bit of Sam Cooke (a soulful, tragic, beautiful man) and an old SNL skit…you know, back when it was still funny. Are we still hating on SNL? I can’t remember. River water is bad for the brain.

It sounds like I’m being a bit ridiculous, and in a way, I am, but in another respect, I am not. I feel like I’m at my best when I’m able to combine the absurd with the raw. The weird with the real. At my core I’ve always been a writer, hip hop music is simply the medium I took to the best. Now I find myself focused on songwriting as a career, and as a creative I couldn’t be more fulfilled unless of course you want to give me a couple million dollars, a gold record (or two), and a handful of Grammy’s. I will happy, and humbly, accept.

I know it’s going to take a lot of luck because that’s how I landed my publishing deal with Third Side Music. Somehow, a song I made from a sample ended up in a catalog of songs by the artist I sampled, and when Third Side Music heard it, they searched for me. But I also know it’s going to take a lot of hard work. When Third Side found me, they asked me to send them some more music, and because I was spending every waking hour writing and taking every dime I had and investing it in recording, mixing, and mastering those songs, I was ready. Luck is when hard work meets opportunity. Ohhhh, let’s see if I can end each question with a painfully obvious cliche. So far, we are two for two.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Destroy all AI (not named Iverson), figure out how the music business can start a meaningful union, give me $100K so I can release my first album – EUPHONIC is finished we just need the money for marketing/promo/video – and find at least three local artists you genuinely love and support the hell out of them.

Truthfully, I think people are doing their best, but we don’t have enough time, money, and energy to do everything. It’s not easy to sift through all of the music and art available online and in the world to find an artist who doesn’t have a major machine backing them. Instead of trying to pressure or guilt people into support, we have to be empathetic in our approach. That’s on the artists. But maybe that empathy can work both ways. Maybe instead of just listening through your regularly scheduled Spotify playlist, a person can try to comb through their Instagram or TikTok in search of a creator with less than 10K followers. Give a few of them a listen. There’s an assumption that anyone who isn’t already popular isn’t any good. And while I get the idea, it’s just not true. Nobody wants to go to the party until everybody is there. And we need to change that – okay, I made that last cliche up, but it still counts.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

When you get it RIGHT, there’s nothing like it. When you have a feeling, a thought, a pain in your chest, a song in your heart, an idea that just won’t go away. And you’re able to translate that thing into something tangible. Something that can be shared with the rest of the world. I believe David Bowe said art is how an artist communicates with the world. Please forgive me if I’m misquoting him. It’s the river water, I swear. The Lethe is a problematic thing to drink from, but I digress.

I probably sound like a broken record, but I can’t help myself. THIS is why I want to connect with millions of people. I want to experience the ultimate joy of being a creative – the ability to communicate something intrinsic about myself – with the rest of the world. I want, even if it’s just for a moment, to shout out into the void and to hear a response. I want, even if only for a moment, to feel like I matter. To feel like I’m not alone. Cuz don’t nobody wanna grow old alone.

Okay…that last one was just a lyric from Outkast’s Love Hater. Not sure if that counts, but I’m going with it anyway.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://breakfastmusicgroup.com/daemon
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/songsbydae
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/songsbydae
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@songsbydae
• Other: https://linktr.ee/songsbydae

Image Credits

Photos by – Gerard Shaughnessy, Chris Bauer, and Maddi Manheimer