Download the CoalescE Demos

Listen to full versions of CoalescE demos.

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Download the CoalescE Demos (mp3): http://bit.ly/HIC_demo

Demos are at the heart of the songwriting process. They are the pages of the sketchpad where you can begin to hear ideas come to life. They can take many forms, from a quick iPhone voice memo recording to capture an idea before it’s lost to a full studio production. The songs in this collection are the demos that we used to development the current Here Inside sound and to build what eventually became CoalescE. While have a many other demos for these songs, I wanted to share a variety of recordings from different phases of the process and the different eras we looked to for inspiration.

CoalescE brings together music that I wrote during the mid-1990s with music that Anne and I wrote together during the summer of 2016. We used the older material as a starting point to find our sound, and then used that sound to write several brand new songs.

– Jason Mundok

Bits (Demo ’98)

“Bits” is the oldest song in our catalog. It was written in September 1995 in a small apartment in Nashville, TN. Back in those days I played bass in a variety of bands, but continued to write, record, and perform my own songs any time I could. This song evolved over the years through different bands and sounds, but remains one of my all time favorite songs and one that I always felt captured the essence of what I like in a pop song. This demo was recorded by Greg Layne in a small production studio in Smyrna, TN with Susanne Mundok (keyboard) and Kevin Crowley (drums). We had hoped to develop this song for a follow-up to an album called Artichoke, but this version didn’t make it past the original session.

Acoustic Session

“Pressure”, “Misunderstanding”, and “Still Point” were all written during the summer of 2016 as the new Here Inside sound was emerging. We sometimes record acoustic versions of new songs, or rehearse with just an acoustic guitar to work out vocal parts or just get to know the songs a little better. These three songs worked particularly well in the acoustic format. We liked the demos enough to also record performance videos of these tracks.

Artichoke

Admittedly, these versions of “A Long Day”, “The Money Man’s Unfair”, and “Evening In July” have a production value that is somewhat higher than a typical demo. In 1998 I self-released an album called Artichoke. It was recorded by Greg Layne at a studio in Nashville, TN with Susanne Mundok assisting on keyboard. During the winter of 2016, I gave Anne a copy of Artichoke to select any songs that she thought we could try with Here Inside. These were the three songs that made the cut and were eventually reworked for CoalescE.

Beautiful Noise (Demo)

This version of “Beautiful Noise” is a great example of a working demo. This was the second version of the song, and the first version with Anne after she was presented with a much rougher version with me singing (or attempting to sing) the lead vocal parts in her range. After we piece together a working demo, we begin to understand what works, what doesn’t, and what feels incomplete. These demos are critical for us to get to know the songs at a much deeper level and begin to understand where they want to take us.

CoalescE (Song E Demo)

“CoalescE” started out as “Song E”. This was my first writing demo for the idea. It’s a great example of an idea that includes parts that eventually go away and doesn’t include parts that eventually become critical to the song. It’s also a good example of how lyrics are sometimes born out of the melody.