I och med de senaste decenniernas digitalisering och tekniska utveckling inom musikproduktion har det i högre utsträckning blivit möjligt för enskilda utövare att stå för alla led i produktionskedjan - komposition, produktion, ljudteknik, mixning och mastring. Dessa möjligheter har otvivelaktigt satt sin prägel på den moderna musikproduktionen och termer som laptop-producent och engelskans bedroom producer kan idag användas för att beskriva många av vår samtids mest framgångsrika artister och producenter. Jag själv tillhör denna nya generation, för vilken musikproduktion närmast är synonymt med laptop-produktion, och har i min egen praktik upptäckt ett par återkommande problem som jag misstänker har med denna totala kontroll över arbetsflödet att göra. I det här arbetet utforskar jag enkla demos som ett verktyg för att skapa och bibehålla perspektiv på produktionsarbetet av min egenkomponerade musik. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med andra som också ägnar sig åt att producera egenkomponerad musik fördjupar jag dessutom min problembeskrivning ytterligare och visar att den i all väsentlighet delas av andra som arbetar på liknande sätt som jag gör. 

Is temporary loss of perspective an inevitable part of any artistic process? In this project, I explore a strategy to deal with such problems in music production, namely the demo. With the advance of digital audio workstations and the internet, music production has become more accessible than ever before. The term bedroom producer has gone from being slightly derogatory to nowadays aptly describe many of our most influential and popular contemporary artists and producers. Historically, the music production process has been defined by a clear division of labor: artist/songwriter, producer and engineers that record, mix and master. Today, however, artists and producers have the possibility to control most, if not all, of these stages of production on a single computer. The advantages are many to this development, as it increases an individual’s ability to have detailed control of their output. There is, however, a risk that such solitary work becomes unnecessarily frustrating as a consequence of the insistence on doing everything oneself. Put simply, one might overwork and lose perspective on one’s art because so much uninterrupted time is spent with the project at hand. Being of this generation of producers myself, I have lately come to wonder whether my process - writing, producing and mixing my own songs - could become less ridden with temporary loss of perspective by applying a more clear division in my own labor. More precisely, I focus on the earliest part of the production process, the demo. Instead of laboring over longer periods of time with the entire production chain - from inception to final mix - I want to explore a different workflow, which allows me to better sustain a constructive perspective on my songs and productions. In this project, I dedicate time specifically to produce simple demos, the sole purpose of which is to document an idea and guide the potential final production at a later stage. I also interview others who produce their own songs in order to deepen my analysis and strengthen the relevance of my project.