Chatting with The American Saikoro: An Interview with DEMONDICE

DEMONDICE is an all-around content creator that is most well-known for her rap, music video production, and animations. She initially gained popularity creating MVs for other artists, but quickly gained attention through her own music. Her unique brand of alternative rap can be heard in her many releases, the most recent of which is her EP "Shut Up, Get Happy", and her song "Sedai no SCREAM", which is a collaborative track with music producer/DJ Teddyloid. We were lucky enough to interview her at Anime Weekend Atlanta recently and discuss her early inspirations, the evolution of her sound, the themes behind her music, and a lot of other topics that fans are going to want to check out! If you're already a fan, or if you're just learning about her for the first time, read on and be sure to check out her music along the way too!

A-to-J: Thank you again for the interview, we super appreciate it! Can you please give us an introduction and tell us a little about yourself?
DEMONDICE: Sure thing. My name is DEMONDICE, and I am an all-around content creator. I’ve been active on the internet for about fifteen years now, but only really active as a job for the past five to seven years. Initially I mostly did comic work and animated music videos, and because I got into making animated music videos, I gained an interest in making my own music. I primarily focus on alternative music that has influences from Japanese hip hop and Japanese rap. I’m kind of a bit of an all-rounder: I stream, I make music, and I’ve been starting to produce my own tracks as well. I’m working on clothing as well, doing merch designs. I do a bunch of different things. I consider myself a jack of all trades.  
I love my fans; I love getting to meet people that like what I do. I don’t like the word "influencer", it makes me cringe really hard. I consider myself a content creator that loves interacting with my fans and my community - I love the DEMONDICE community. That’s basically me. I guess I’m a net personality if you could call it that.

A-to-J: Like you said, you’re big into music and have an interesting career, can you tell us how you got started with it all?
DEMONDICE: Basically, when I was in college, I was studying to become a comic artist and I also had an interest in animation. I was majoring in Sequential Art which basically means “communication through art”. In fact, I went to school in Georgia. I went to the Savannah College of Art and Design, and it was there that I learned a bunch about communicating through art. At that time, I was doing freelance music videos. I had bands that I liked a lot that I would make fan music videos for. Through one of the fan music videos that I made as a project for school, I actually got work for the band that I made the music video for, and that kind of catapulted my career into making animated music videos. It was because of that interest that I started getting into making my own music as well. It’s kind of where it all got started, I would say, after getting really inspired by the Japanese internet rap scene.

A-to-J: What is the origin behind the name "DEMONDICE"?
DEMONDICE: A lot of people ask this question and it’s kind of a tough one because I hardly remember what it was. Basically, it was my DeviantArt tag a long time ago. Yeah, that brings back some memories. The reason that I changed it was because my previous DeviantArt name was a little too doxing, as it was a little too close to my real name. I don’t really care so much anymore as an adult, but at the time I was a kid, and I was worried about that kind of stuff. I was writing a comic about internet demons, and hackers killing internet demons, some kind of crazy concept like that and I liked it a lot. So, I decided that I would go for a demon theme. In terms of "dice", I was just thinking of a word that sounded cool coming after "demon".
You know, a lot of times, I kinda wish I could change it but at this point it’s too established for me to go back and change it. I know a lot of other artists are the same way, like TOPHAMHAT-KYO from FAKE TYPE. He wishes he could change his name, but he really can’t at this point because he’s established a reputation with it so you’ve just kinda gotta go with it.

A-to-J: Rap is a pretty varied genre. Do you have any favorites you’d be willing to list?
DEMONDICE: I have a bunch of different ones. I feel like everyone knows Eminem is a big influence for me, but on the flip side I’ve actually been listening to a lot of Lauryn Hill recently. She’s like the greatest female rapper alive. I’ve been learning a lot from listening to her because I realized I want to listen to more female rappers and hear what they do, and how they sound, so I can try and improve. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Cypress Hill too. No, I am not interested in the Devil’s Cabbage, but I think they have a really cool dynamic; my stepfather showed them to me. Their music is so chill, great for car rides, and I just love their vibe altogether.
As for Japanese rap, I would say FAKE TYPE, which is electro swing hip hop, I’m a big fan of theirs. They kickstarted my interest in music completely. Some of the more mainstream Japanese rappers I would say would be JP THE WAVY, who is a really big deal in Japan, he's made some crazy bangers. Creepy Nuts is also super big, and I recommend them as well. If you want to go with internet rap classics, I would say Rapbit is a name that most Japanese people who know anything about internet culture will all know. He used to do a lot of anime rap mixes, he did one for Higurashi​. He also did one for Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei that blew up super big on Nico Nico Douga and he is kind of known as the "Father of Net Rap" for Nico Nico. Once he released those and started his career, a bunch of other Japanese internet rappers who loved anime and wanted to make anime-inspired rap music followed afterward. I would recommend him as well.

A-to-J: That was a super in-depth answer! Can you let us in on your songwriting process?
DEMONDICE: Sure. I have to be somewhere super comfortable. I have a really hard time writing in cafes, coffee houses, restaurants, etc. because there’s really too much going on around me. I know some people like that kind of place but I’m most comfortable when I’m in bed and I’m winding down after the day letting all the thoughts from the day accumulate in my brain. That’s when I write my best, I think. I need to be in a place that’s completely silent and I need to really want to do it, which is completely hit or miss depending on my mood. It fluctuates a lot, I’m only human. There are days where I don’t want to write, and there’s a deadline the next day, so I have to say: “Dang it. I have to sleep and hope that when I wake up, I’m ready to write a song,” which can be tough. 
Usually, I receive the beat first and I keep listening to it over and over again, and I wait until my brain inserts its own interesting catchy phrases and I piggyback off of those and continue chaining something together based on whatever I think sounds good and whatever theme I have in mind. Once I’ve got all that, I record usually in one day, arrange my data so that my best takes are present, and send it to the mixer. My part is mostly done at the point except for any critiques I want to give to the mix. That’s basically the process.

A-to-J: Your music draws from a lot of styles and different media. One of your songs even starts with part of the famous monologue from the film "Network". What’s your process for turning all these disparate inspirations into music?
DEMONDICE: So, essentially there are a lot of different things in this world that make me feel a certain way. I know that is probably the obvious answer but it’s intense emotions. Anything that gives me an intense emotion is really inspiring to me.
That particular song that you mentioned [“Dice of a Generation”], I actually wrote after an incredibly traumatic event in my life where a young member of my family passed away, and I mentioned a lot of lines about things like the younger generation being addicted to iPads and parents just giving their kids medication and just ignoring them when they’re having troubles on their mind which relates very closely to how I began to feel about the younger generation. So, there are always those really personal things that I connect to.  I have to try and be very eloquent with it, which does not always happen, but I try my best.  
It depends on what it was that inspired me or makes me want to write. I feel like unfortunately most of the time it’s negative things but instead of going on Twitter and ranting about it, I decide to turn it into art.  I feel like that’s a more organic way for me to vent my emotions but also not take the easy way out and just throw my words out into the aether where no one cares. I can make something that will make people care with my music.  It takes time to turn into a song, but I’m motivated to do it every time, so I try not to skip out on the quality or anything and do my best.

"Dice of A Generation" MV

A-to-J: For those that might be new to your music, what would be the song you would suggest people listen to first?
DEMONDICE: It really depends on what you like. I think that if you’re into more mainstream hip hop, which I really don’t dabble too much in, I did end up working with the producer Musicality who is much more on the mainstream hip-hop side of things. He came up with four tracks for me to write my newest EP "Shut Up, Get Happy". I think that some of the songs on that EP are my best work so far. It’s not that I want to write off my older songs, but I’ve come a long way producing music since then with some of my other jobs that I’ve been working in creatively. I feel like those are a good reflection of how far I’ve come, so I always recommend that.
I also recommend my brand-new song with Teddyloid, “Sedai no SCREAM”, which is another such song very motivated by the way I feel about the current generation and how I’ve been dealing with some of the hatred from the youth. It’s been pretty intense, and I feel like that song is very much as the title goes, a scream of my emotions that is also extremely palatable thanks to Teddyloid’s incredible track making skills. He just knows how to make good sounding music, so I think it is a good sounding song with a powerful punch. I recommend that one as well.

DEMONDICE x Teddyloid - "Sedai no SCREAM" MV

A-to-J: Are there any other artists you’d like to collaborate with?
DEMONDICE: Definitely FAKE TYPE would be a dream collab, but we’ve already been in talks about some things in the future. I think that’s very likely. Aside from that, I have a hard time deciding who I want to collaborate with because what I create is so very out there and it’s hard to find others to mesh with that vibe with me. Not necessarily because I’m like better or anything, but because it’s so out there and different that I think collaborating with other hip-hop artists is going to be hit or miss. Either way we’re going to make something very interesting sounding and it’s still going to be different from the mainstream hip-hop vibe.  
I’ve been wanting to do alternative rock and that kind of thing, so if there are any alternative rock artists that I suddenly get interested in I might want to reach out to them and do some rock rap stuff. It’s also a big dream of mine to collaborate with Gorillaz someday. They’re probably my favorite mainstream band. 
A-to-J: That would be so cool.
DEMONDICE: They’re like the original virtual band. I think that since they are also very genre-less that there’s a higher possibility that if they ever did want to collab with me that it would stylistically make something that would mesh well together.

A-to-J: Like you mentioned earlier, you went to school in Georgia. What’s it like to be back here now as a guest at one of the largest anime conventions in the US?
DEMONDICE: I didn’t spend too much time in Atlanta, especially not this part of Atlanta but there lots of things I remember. For example, the roads.  
A-to-J: Sorry.
DEMONDICE: Nothing can be done about it, but it reminds me a lot of my time in California as well with the roads, and that’s not a great thing. It’s okay because there are a lot of other things that I love about Georgia. The food here is fantastic, you can just tell that it’s made with a lot of soul. People care about their food, especially when they have smaller shops. I went to a place called Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, it was so good. It was just a little restaurant off the side of the road, and you could tell it was completely an independent kind of thing. It was just delicious. They were friendly and that just reminded me of the Southern hospitality I missed so much.  
It's really great to be back. I don’t think I’ll have time to visit my old college town, but I’m happy to be here and see some old friends as well. Getting to link up with my old college friends has been super nice.  

A-to-J: Absolutely. You also create art and animations for your music and others. Can you tell us a bit about your style?
DEMONDICE: I really struggled a lot in my life because I was one of those kids that was drawing from "How to Draw Anime" books written by people who are American. It was interesting because it looked a little bit off and it got to a certain point where my interest in anime dipped, and my style became more Western influenced mixed with anime. Then my interest in anime went back up again. It’s always been fluctuating. I’ve never been able to choose one side: Western style, Eastern style, it’s always been a bit of a mix. A lot of it is motivated by popular anime I’ve been interested in in the past. Gurren Lagann and Studio Trigger’s craziness factor has always been a big motivation for my art. I kind of just go with the flow to be honest. I feel like my style has become more simplistic over time because of my work in animated music videos. You need to create simpler designs and have a simpler style that still looks good to be able to animate effectively in a short period of time.

A-to-J: I definitely see the Trigger inspiration. You have a weird connection with the character Uta from the new "One Piece Film Red". Could you tell us more about that?
DEMONDICE: I do. It’s quite an interesting story. I mentioned before that I created a fan music video for my favorite band FAKE TYPE. TOPHAMHAT-KYO was doing his solo career at the time, and he asked me for an animated music video. Basically, he came up with the concept for this character called "Princess♂" who is sort of a singing princess who has the power to enchant her listener into falling in love with her, and she creates this world that she sucks them into.  
About three months after that song and music video got released, we saw an issue of Shonen Jump that Eiichiro Oda [The creator of One Piece] had listed TOPHAMHAT-KYO’s Princess♂ as his #1 thing he was obsessed with at the time. I created the character of Princess♂ in terms of the design, and I made the animated music video with TOPHAMHAT-KYO coming up with the concept. He also ended up doing music for the One Piece movie because Oda specifically requested him.  
In an interview with Oda, he mentioned Princess♂ inspired the creation of Uta in the new movie which was just an incredible honor to read about and receive those props from him. It was just a dream come true for both of us that I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams. I really love the character very much and I’ve seen the movie like four times already. I’m just very happy. It’s like one of those things where you watch the movie, and you just silently smile to yourself like you know something. 

TOPHAMHAT-KYO - "Princess♂" MV

A-to-J: That is incredibly cool. You’ve recently expressed an interest in getting into voice acting. Do you have any dream roles/shows/games you’d love to be a part of?
DEMONDICE: There’s this manga that I’m super obsessed with called "Gachiakuta". It’s written by Kei Urana. It only has three volumes out right now in Japan. It has not yet been localized in English. They are working on a localization, but it already has quite a big English fanbase. I just know it’s going to be big someday, and I know it’s going to get an anime. My dream is to voice act in that anime. The main girl character is named Riyou and I’m in love with her. She’s my wife. I want to maybe take a crack at voice acting as her someday. I’m trying my best. I try not to get too attached to these kinds of things but I’m going to train up because I still have time before the anime comes out.
A-to-J: Training arc time.
DEMONDICE: Yeah, it’s training time.
A-to-J: We believe in you.
DEMONDICE: Thanks a lot. As for anything else, games, etc., I love the Persona series. I love the Guilty Gear series. If I could ever be involved with those someday, that would be a dream come true.  

A-to-J: Besides music you've also streamed gameplay on your twitch and YouTube channel, what are some of your favorite video games or genres?
DEMONDICE: That’s interesting because I stopped playing games for a while in my life to focus on streaming other content but, as a result of streaming, I got back into video games. It’s been really interesting playing some of my old favorites. I’ve been playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on my channel. I went back and played all the Metal Gear Solid games recently. Just such classic fun games. I mentioned I love the Persona series. I love the Guilty Gear franchise. I’ve been obsessed with those for years, but those are kind of just things that I play on my off time.  
In terms of genres, I really love JRPGs. I love pixel art themed games whether they be farming ones like Stardew Valley, or JRPGs like Live A Live for the Switch. I’ve been waiting to play Live A Live for years and years and finally it came out on the Switch. Really exciting stuff.
I’m pretty open to most things, but the things that I play the most these days interestingly enough are farming simulators. I love those because my life is chaotic.
A-to-J: Brain off. Chill. Farm. I got it.
DEMONDICE: Exactly. When I just want to sit down and chill.

A-to-J: This is an anime convention; it would feel wrong not to ask: What are some of your favorite anime?
DEMONDICE: It’s definitely Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. That anime changed my life. I was in a terrible place, and it changed how I feel about the world and how I approach work and following my dreams. It’s just very important to me.

A-to-J: Do you happen to have any funny stories that you can share with us that have occurred at an anime convention?
DEMONDICE: That’s a great question. I’m trying to remember because there are many interesting things that I’ve had happen, but they all fade in and out of my memories. Back in the day I used to be very into creating original characters. Me and my friends would go around and get commissions of our characters to be sketched out.  
When I met all of my internet friends for the first time at Anime Expo many, many years ago we had this one friend who was a budding comic artist who wanted to meet this one guy. We convinced her to go up and talk to him and get her character drawn by him. It was just a dream come true for her. I remember seeing how happy she was.  
Then I got into a situation where I wanted to meet someone who I was really looking up to, so I went and met that artist. They were more interested in my friends than me because I wasn’t exactly the best artist in our group. I followed them on Twitter, and I said: “It was really nice to meet you.” And they said: “Yeah. I don’t really know you, but your friends really seem cool,” and followed me back. I remember that tore me apart, so not exactly a funny story. I remember that always ate at me and I was like: “Really? Is this how I’m always going to be? Like the least popular in my friend group?”
A-to-J: Nah. That lit the fire that drove you.
DEMONDICE: Exactly! So that was an interesting con experience. I guess that’s why they say never meet your heroes. So, I try and be kind to all of my fans and never say stuff like that as a result. 

A-to-J: You’re quite the varied artist but do you happen to have any secret talents that most might not know about?
DEMONDICE: I can play the saxophone... kind of. I was a band kid, but only for a year. I still remember how to play it though, I remember lots about playing the sax. That’s one thing that most people don’t know.
I’m insanely good at platforming games, but I think a lot of people know that. Games that require intense focus? I can nail it unless they’re rhythm games; can’t do those. I’m bad at most games unless they’re like “Focus, and try over and over again." type games like the Souls series or Jump King. If they’re games where you just try doing something over and over again repetitively, I get super good at those.
  
A-to-J: What are some of your upcoming plans after AWA?
DEMONDICE: The DEMONDICE 2022 brand is just about over because the end of the year is coming up. My Twitter icon is the black and white "Shut Up, Get Happy" tape over the mouth demon persona. All of the merchandise that I’ve made for the year is based off that theme and branding: the black, white and red.
DEMONDICE does a yearly brand, so next year I’ll be doing something completely different with a different aesthetic, style, and theme for the year. I hope people will look forward to that. There will be a whole new release of merch. We’re going to start phasing out the t-shirts that we sold this year and bring out the 2023 t-shirt and the 2023 line of merch.
I have a single coming up that probably won’t be out until 2023, hopefully before spring that I think everyone is going to love. The music video is going to be animated for that so it may take more time. We shall see. I’m kind of releasing it on my own terms.
I do plan on doing a subathon stream on Twitch early in 2023 to celebrate the rebrand. I hope everyone will come hang out for that because there’s a really crazy sub goal that I think everyone’s gonna wanna reach. So, I hope everyone will come check it out and see what it is because it’s a big deal.   

A-to-J: That’s exciting. Where can fans go to learn more about you?
DEMONDICE: www.demondice.net
Also, you can also check out my Twitter where I pretty much post everything from very occasional random thoughts. I don’t spam everything I think every day, but maybe every two days or so I’ll spit out something about how a guy bumped my hat off and didn’t say sorry and I got pissed. You know, that kind of stuff, and everything related to merchandise news, new song releases, hints about what’s coming up in the future, etc. can be found on the DEMONDICE Twitter (@demondicekaren).

A-to-J: Lastly, can you give a closing message to your fans?
DEMONDICE: Thank you so much everybody for loving what I do and following me on this crazy journey through content creation. I’ll do my best to make you guys smile. I know that it’s a rough road, that it’s not always easy being a DEMONDICE fan, but because of that I really treasure you guys. I want you guys to remember something: Hate begets hate so be kind to everyone even if they aren’t so kind to us. Life is only so long. What I want at the end of the day is for everyone to be kind together and enjoy what we love. So, keep on trucking, keep on smiling and keep on having fun. I love you guys. Thank you for supporting me.

A-to-J: Fantastic! Thank you so much!
DEMONDICE: Thank you for having me.

We'd like to thank DEMONDICE for the interview and we strongly encourage everyone to check out her music and social media via the links below. As always, keep an eye out for more from DEMONDICE in the future! Also, special thanks to Anime Weekend Atlanta for this opportunity!

For More Information On DEMONDICE:
Website: https://demondice.net/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DEMONDICEKaren
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demondicekaren
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK0efN6mG-J8gv9Qq-MHGPA
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4IUqCINWiy7WQ6LrkhBmdt

The above interview was conducted by Sylvia Thach, with assistance and transcription by Jeffery Kelly. Post editing by Manuel Figueroa & Teepu Khan.