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We Looked Back at Those Demos We Gave Out Sophomore Year and They Are Even More Embarrassing Than We Remember

It was the summer between Freshman and Sophomore year. I demoed 3 new songs and gave them out to anyone that would take one on the last day of school. And now that I’m listening again? Oof. Way more embarrassing than I remembered. Like, WAY more.

I knew they weren’t perfect. I was a bratty little emo kid at the time and it showed on those songs. I figured it would be listenable at least. But I was wrong. So wrong.

Whenever we played live we were tight but for some reason in the recordings, the drums are just a little off from the guitar and bass. Wait, were we out of sync live too but just never noticed? Oh God, I wonder how many of my bands actually sucked this whole time.

This sounds awful. How is there so much tinny reverb? Where did that even come from?

Then the real source of shame: The vocals. These were some of the cringiest, pseudo-poetic Conor Oberst knock-off lyrics, dripping with Melodyne artifacts on every word. The harmonies sound like a robot!

Every song was about this girl Julie from my bio class, despite my assuring everyone they definitely were in no way about her. It’s totally a coincidence her name is in the lyrics and that the girl I’m singing about is described as looking exactly like her wearing that green hoodie she wears literally every day. Everyone had to have known, right? How could they not?!

Wow, I’m embarrassed for younger me just thinking about this now. Brutal. It’s crazy to think how dumb and weird and not-self-aware I was back then. Anyway, check out my latest record which I assure you is not about the barista at the Starbucks next to my apartment and is totally meant to be microtonal.