The singer turns his anxiety into art, and shines with new EP, Momentary. 

It&rsquo;s hard to believe that anyone would have been involved with the indie music sphere&nbsp;for the past few years and not know of Demo Taped. His single &ldquo;Game On&rdquo; blew up, by&nbsp;blogosphere measures, around the heyday of Hype Machine. His subsequent releases were met with equal if not greater interest, and while his rise hasn&#39;t been atmospheric, it&#39;s steady and strong.&nbsp;

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Real name Adam Alexander, the artist got on the phone to talk to me on the release day of his newest EP, Momentary. It&rsquo;s a synth-filled, harmonious,&nbsp;emotional ride, one that provokes&nbsp;an unpronounceable form of nostalgia. Alexander doesn&rsquo;t use the EP to show off, focusing on creating an ambiance through tight production rather than cheap tricks to grab your attention. It&rsquo;s something you want to listen to all the way through, a singular cohesive mood rather than a set of them. However, the songs still stand individually&mdash;&ldquo;Pack Of Gum&rdquo; in particular, which was written about the artist&rsquo;s tendency to carry a pack of gum due to anxiety.

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&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t even&mdash;well I can now, but for a while after&hellip;I couldn&rsquo;t chew wintergreen gum &lsquo;cause the taste would remind me of that time and just make me feel ill. It&rsquo;s crazy how the mind associates things with other things,&rdquo; he tells me when we get to talking about that particular song. Although he&rsquo;s still 19, he&rsquo;s as composed and eloquent as you would expect someone twice his age to be, even more so. But being beyond his years isn&rsquo;t a new concept to him.

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&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been told by family and friends growing up that I was really mature. I don&rsquo;t know if I believe that,&rdquo; he confesses. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. I can say that I grew up watching and listening to a lot of stuff that was just &ndash; I don&rsquo;t know how I found it.&rdquo;

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Mostly, Alexander turns to his cultural influences to explain his maturity. &ldquo;My dad definitely put me onto a lot of music. I grew up listening to Curtis Mayfield and Jimmy Hendrix and I was listening to Parliament Funkadelic and just all those iconic groups, Zapp &amp; Roger. I just love watching things that are before my time and really appreciating them. When I was really into film I watched a lot of French new wave films and a lot of avant garde films and art house. I watched a lot of dramas and R-rated movies from a really young age; heavy subject matter.&rdquo;

<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" scrolling="no" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/3ZrqXk0ypC0wN4qekiFBzv" width="600"></iframe>

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In explaining the major themes of the EP, he gives a sense of a life of introspection and observation. &ldquo;Family is definitely one. Themes of I guess what you could call &ndash; well just questioning the nature of things and perspective, masculinity, challenging that, whatever that is, that whole mantra thing; whatever. Dealing with cynicism as a symptom of depression or change in world view and how acidic and toxic that is and realizing that; coming to that realization instead of wallowing in it&mdash;that&rsquo;s what &lsquo;Chemical&rsquo; is about.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

As far as changing his world view has gone, Alexander has certainly been in an environment that&rsquo;s conducive to it. He&rsquo;s signed to 300 Entertainment, and currently performing all over SXSW. However, as any person with depression would tell you, environment isn&rsquo;t the only factor that influences the illness&mdash;and Alexander is more public about his struggles than most artists. &ldquo;I would have loved to have seen someone big, famous that&rsquo;s been through mental health issues,&rdquo; he mentions to me. &ldquo;I would have loved to have seen them come out and say that, because I didn&rsquo;t know. For the longest time I felt very, very alone. I thought that it was only going on with me. I really had no idea the scope of mental illness. I now have a platform, so it&rsquo;s just something I have to do. It&rsquo;s not up to me. It&rsquo;s not a matter of choice. I have to do it.&rdquo; An internal-made-external discussion between the artist and his mental health is present as an influence on the EP, but just as present are external influences.

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Rather than&nbsp;closed off to outside ideas, Alexander chooses to learn from his surroundings. &ldquo;When I&rsquo;m not in Atlanta I go to LA and I work with a lot of different producers and writers and really just &ndash; I don&rsquo;t know. It&rsquo;s important to see somebody do something you&rsquo;re not the best at. For example, if there&rsquo;s a producer that&rsquo;s better at drums than I am, and I have a session with them, and I see them doing it, I really get to learn just by looking and being around them.&rdquo;

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The more he talks, the clearer it gets that this is just the beginning for Demo Taped. Although the project has been around for a few years, as Adam Alexander grows and absorbs the world, so will it. In a few years, it may be a different project, under a different name. But right now, we have Demo Taped&rsquo;s Momentary, and that&rsquo;s worth celebrating. What he wants people to gain from the EP?

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&ldquo;I want people to step back more. It&rsquo;s really important to step back and gain perspective and think for yourself. Not getting your information and aligning with someone else&rsquo;s belief, but really just thinking for yourself. It&rsquo;s important. Sitting down, &lsquo;cause that&rsquo;s what this EP was for me was me sitting down, and realizing and thinking, and asking myself questions and coming to the realization that, okay, while I&rsquo;m worrying about this and this and this, this, all of this is all momentary and I might as well make the best of this,&rdquo; he says.

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&ldquo;Not to say, oh, put on a happy face; mask your feelings. No. I might as well try to enjoy it when I can and live it to the fullest and laugh the hardest I can and smile and pass that feeling onto others because it&rsquo;s bigger than us.&nbsp;To look at this world and not think &ndash; I don&rsquo;t know. It&rsquo;s bigger than this. We just have to realize that. I just mean that as I guess seeing people for what they are, which is just other humans, other people with problems and concerns, doubts and fears and love and families. A take away:&nbsp;live a life that&rsquo;s filled with excitement and do what you wanna do as long as it&rsquo;s morally okay. Believe in yourself and follow your dreams. I know that&rsquo;s clich&eacute;, but actually. Actually pursue it. Sit down and think about what you would wanna do most and try it and depending on what you believe. I just believe you only have one life, one shot at this. Other people believe different and that&rsquo;s cool, but I believe I got one shot at this so I&rsquo;m not gonna waste it. That&rsquo;s the take away of this whole EP.&rdquo;

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Check out&nbsp;Momentary, available in most places music is found.

Photo by Savana Ogburn

Atlanta-Based Demo Taped Is a Growing Force

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