from seanwaters.substack.com:

I’ve been on Summer Solstice Sabbath — just coming out of a three-week window of sacred down-time. Tree swings, swimming pools, and the songwriter studio, prototyping a PERMA-Cycle for Interpersonal Happiness Studies.  

Beautiful Questions: How could we collaboratively “demo” our creative gifts?  What if we embraced collaborative creativity as a lyric philosophy? 

A demo, to quote wikipedia, is “recorded for limited circulation or for reference use.” Demos are “seldom heard by the public.” Short for “demonstration” — a demo shows what a song might be. In the 80s, you record a demo to cassette in hopes of a record deal. 

Today, you might “sing the news” on TikTok. 

Or you might share a google drive folder with people you respect and see what happens. 

- - - - - - - - - 

To create a demo is to destroy a demo. 

You’re destroying the way it has been to make the room for something new. 

You’re destroying the draft to birth the revision.

You’re destroying what you thought you were making to make way for what wants to be born. 

When you produce a demo, it’s like you’re making a sand-painting. As soon as you’re done, if you’re lucky, you’re going to dump it in the river, and it will be reborn.  

.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Sometimes I can’t let go of what I  love about a demo. We call it “demo-itis”: An attachment to how the song is now that prevents an embrace what it might be. 

This is a dangerous stance not only in music production, but also in long-term relationships with our lovers, our partners, our children, and ourselves. 

The trick, perhaps, is to accept celebrate what was, warts and moments-of-shining-brilliance and all, as a necessary aspect of what will be. Sometimes the demo (what was) makes the cut. But it’s healthy to let it go anyway, and trust that the well will refill. 

I always think of the Rick Rubin / Tom Petty sessions for Wildflowers, one of the all-time great albums: “half the songs they recorded . . . ended up on the cutting room floor.” 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Producer ↔️ Artist  ::  Facilitator ↔️ Friend 

How is the relationship between a producer and an artist like a facilitator and their clients and friends?  How like teacher/student, and coach/coachee?

The producer : 

helps the artist let go of what was

helps the artist see (and hear) what could be

works to bring out the best in the artist

sets the condition to honor the artist, considers set and setting  

attunes to the artist in real time  

listens for where the vision resonates  

makes the creative lifecycle go a bit easier

When you’re the producer and the artist, things can get messy.  

Which is one reason I’m sharing these early demos, warts and all. With any luck, we’ll make a handful of these tunes into something beautiful that I could never make alone. 

This is the essence of creation, education, and wisdom: it's more collaborative than you might think.  

. . . . . . . . . . . 

CREDITS: 
All songs written by Sean Charles Waters except: 
Feel it Swell, January Days, Lemon Memory and Patience written by Ehren Crumpler and Sean Charles Waters 

All vocals by Sean Waters with backing vocals by 
Brian Collins on Birds Like Me 
Anna Poliakon on Come Slowly Undone 
Erica Waters on Vampire 
Amara Waters on Box of Books and Pink Duckie 

All instruments by Sean Waters with 
Tyler Lindgren on Drums and Hammond B3 on Vampire
Zack Scott on Drums on Gifted Guitar, Summer Melts 
Dave Wisbon on Keys on Birds Like Me 
Ehren Crumpler on Electric Guitar on Box of Books, Bungalunga, Favorite Monkey, Seabird and Octopus, Adeline and Vampire 

All Instruments by Ehren Crumpler on Feel it Swell, January Days, Lemon Memory and Patience.

Production, Arrangements, and Engineering by Sean Waters
Production, Arrangements, and Engineering by Ehren Crumpler on Feel it Swell, January Days, Lemon Memory and Patience.

(c)(p) Syncopate Media 2025

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