Demuir steps out in 2023 with a gorgeous & dynamic new album, Visions.
The last time we checked in on Demuir, he was outing a thief that stole his tracks and making the guy’s life a living hell for trying to get away with it. He put on a clinic for what an independent artist should do when confronted with plagiarism in the digital age, with such thoroughness that we wrote a cover story about it a year ago.
You might not have known it watching him blast this guy into little pieces, but Demuir is actually one of the nicest guys in the scene — constantly releasing homespun tutorials and advice for artists just getting started out. And all of that has weight behind it because of the talent of the man himself, which is on full display on Visions, his new album out this month on his own Purveyor Underground Limited.
Made over the course of about five months in late 2021 to early 2022, Visions shows the breadth of Demuir’s abilities, ranging from funky, clubby bangers to the spiritually uplifting “Skylar” and the celestial deep house of “Dream (Part II),” his collaboration with the legendary Fred P.
“I was lucky to attract a number of talented DJs, producers, and vocalists who were able to help me raise the vibrations,” Demuir says. “To work with Fred P on a deep house track the way I know deep house to be was such a great experience. The track came together in a matter of a few email exchanges over a weekend.”
The album also features vocalists Aaron Gray and TUSH on “Home Sweet Home (The Journey)” and the aforementioned “Skylar,” respectively. “I’ve had the pleasure of playing their music in my sets,” Demuir says, “so I knew their gifts were a perfect match for this project. They took my beats and wrote what they were feeling in alignment with the album’s concept and didn’t need any intervention from me. It came together in complete flow.”
Looking toward the future, the album also features Farouki, who Demuir calls an “up and coming tech house talent who also resides in Toronto and I knew I just had to work with him.”
Unlike his 2016 LP TruSkool, the tracks on Visions don’t exactly fit inside the tight guardrails of specific genres. “I use to play the game of trying to fit into certain genres,” he says, “but around the time I made, ‘From Black to Technicolor”‘, I stopped caring about what retailers consider to be the right construct for a particular genre and leaned heavily on the fact that people will connect to music that is honest in its creation and provides meaningful connection to the listener.
“I would describe my sound as soulful and unbounded from the restrictions of what genres I can release in, sounds I want to explore, and having no fear to put my interpretation of what I’m feeling, or a situation, and whatever inspiration I have in the moment.”
Control over where that music appears played at least a part in deciding to release Visions on his own label rather than shopping it around. “I considered a couple of labels to release this album with,” he says, “but quickly ran into an internal conflict of whether I wanted my music on Spotify — a service that, in my opinion, truly doesn’t respect the content creators that give it life because most labels give them their content regardless.” Releasing it on Purveyor Underground (digital) and Purveyor Underground Limited (vinyl) gives him full ownership but also enables him to “stay true to my values of not giving my music to platforms that don’t respect artists.”
Demuir says he wants people to hear the “authenticity” in the music on Visions, “especially those who are intimate with electronic music to know that it can be soulful and mean something without a fake and prescribed approach that permeates our industry. As creators, we sometimes need to be reminded that the ability to create is a higher gift given to us. And for listeners, it’s important to know what seems popular and polished ‘just ain’t it.'”
Previous Coverage:
Deep Dish Dank – Intr0beatz debuts on Toronto’s Selections (2022)
Jacked: How Demuir Beat the Beat Thieves (2022)
Detroit Swindle & Demuir & Everyone Else Mixes Everyone Else on Heist’s The Round Up VI (2020)
Cassy Launches New Label with Demuir & Their Please Me EP (2017)
Demuir featuring Cynthia Amoah: Discover (2017)
Demuir Does Chicago: The 5 Magazine Interview (2016)
