I work off of my early demos. I'll keep adding on top of that, but I usually gravitate towards whatever that original idea was.
When you're in the moment and not over thinking the song is when things tend to really work. You're not so focused on the minutiae. You're focused on the overall feel, and that's the stuff that I get from the demos.
DUST includes rarities, demos, unreleased songs and instrumentals, live recordings, and more.
I feel like I always describe myself as a late bloomer. My first album, in my mind, was that I had a few songs I needed to take from incomplete demos to working with someone else and finishing them.
I write songs for the same reasons most artists write songs -because I have to, whatever that means. Because I want to talk about myself or have demos that need to be sent off. I like doing it. It's my job and I like doing it. For the most part, it's pretty easy for me.
I wouldn't have wasted a lot of time pursuing music. I was very lucky that my first demos got accepted.
I use a lot of utility apps on my iPad, and I have four kinds of 'Angry Birds' games! I also use GarageBand to create demos.
Most of my early records were not cohesive at all, just collections of demos recorded in different years. 'Odelay' was the first time I actually got to go in the studio and record a piece of music in a continuous linear fashion, although that was written over a year.
Every band I knew or played with had flyers and properly-recorded demos and contacts; I couldn't even get a gig.
I knew I would always be an artist, but when you move to Nashville, this is a writer's town. I moved here to focus on that and started pitching demos and immediately was asked to be an artist.
