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

Demuir, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

The simple answer here is, “I wish I would have started my professional creative career sooner…” because the more I mature in business and life, I recognize the value of time. It’s the one currency you can never replace.

I have no regrets about pursuing my passion for music in my mid-30s as I gained a lot of knowledge in business acumen in working a 9 to 5 job in a series of corporate roles. However, I’ve found that betting on yourself and doing it early will get you to where you want to land. The time and effort given to 9 to 5 jobs mainly benefitted those who were in pursuit of their own goals.

When you think about it and look around you, everything that exists is a result of someone’s dream/passion.

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 am a DJ/Producer/Educator in Underground Electronic Music based in Toronto, Canada but my music is enjoyed worldwide on ALL music platforms. I’ve been doing this professionally for the last 7 years with over 20 years of experience in the field and have performed at a number of sought-after clubs and music festivals in North America and Europe. Both of these have led to being featured in popular publications like DJ Mag, Mix Mag, and Future Music along with the creation of 5 star rated sample packs for Loopmasters / Loopcloud. I produce in a range of genres including Jacking House, House music, Soulful House, and Tech House.

I also have my own record labels, Purveyor Underground (which is our Digital imprint) and Purveyor Underground Limited which specializes in releasing music on vinyl. The creation of these labels has allowed me to have creative freedom and expression while offering the same benefit to others who don’t feel that they fit into the aesthetic of what is being promoted in electronic music today. I’m very proud of this accomplishment and its’ impact on others.

With the onset of the pandemic, I was able to pursue the creation of production and career-based masterclass offerings through my Patreon channel to help coach people in their pursuit of turning their passion into a professional career.

I’ve overcome the challenges that are typical in running your own business from cash flow and finding the right people to help attain the necessary goals. I think discipline is the ultimate freedom and when coupled with consistency, all the right opportunities make themselves available to you.

In these last couple of years, I’ve been lucky to be in a position to start the investment angle of my career to help complete a healthy lifecycle in my experience with entrepreneurship.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think non-creatives struggle with 2 main themes when looking at a creative’s life.

The first is the concept of stability not having an expected paycheck every 2 weeks vs. the value of being able to express yourself and live in your purpose. As creatives, we quickly understand the ebb and flow of ideas, opportunities, and the corresponding financial impact – positive or negative. All are what I define as living in our truth and knowing it’s like breathing for us, which comes at a cost because you’re not living in the traditional expectations of society that include – going to school, getting a job, getting married, buying a house, and die. A creative life, albeit financially difficult when you start, has a deeper value in being able to do what your life expects of you and seeing it impact others well beyond your intended scope vs. living under someone else’s dogma at the price of “stability” and societal expectations.

The second is a consequence of the first – not knowing exactly how things will play out in the long run when working for yourself.

I find this part a bit humorous because there is nothing more uncertain than working in a job where you are not the owner. Think about it. Corporations effectively build plans with 5 to 20-year outlooks, which may or may not include you. And if you are lucky enough to have a “C” title attached to your name to have your opinion heard, that also is no real guarantee that the job/shareholders will keep you around. So given these things ring true, why not pursue what your life wants from inside you?

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I’ve built my audience on social media by surrendering to the truth demanded in my music, record labels, education materials, and the relationships I enter.

What is for you will be on the other side of your efforts and change (where required). People can surely pay to have 1M followers, but people are not so stupid when they see less than 5% engagement response. So it’s best to just focus on knowing who your audience is and keep giving them the honest content/brand that they see themselves attached to.

Contact Info:

• Website: patreon.com/DemuirOfficial
• Instagram: demuir
• Facebook: facebook.com/DemuirBeats
• Twitter: @djdemuir
• Youtube: youtube.com/Demuir
• Other: purveyorunderground.com