Quick Answer: Daemon Grey spent ten years trying to make bands work before going solo. Not being a guitarist, he taught himself to compose entire albums in his head and record them a cappella, voicing every instrument. He sent those demos to Canada's biggest producers; Gavin Brown wrote back. Below, he explains all of it himself.
Conducted by written exchange, July 2026. Answers are published as given, trimmed only for length.
Why solo? Plenty of people go the band route.
It started in high school with a four-piece called Northern Steel: Daemon on vocals, brothers Dan and Dave Winter on drums and guitar. Pantera was the north star, alongside Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth. He liked that the lineup had brothers in it, “just like Dime and Vinnie in Pantera.” They covered their favourites, wrote originals, built a following, and won a battle of the bands. The grand prize was free studio time.
Then it ended, the way bands do.
The main challenge with bands is that everyone has different things going on in their lives. I was fully committed, ready to finish a record and hit the road. But Dan and Dave had other things going on in their lives, and the band eventually broke up. That's just something that happens with bands. You can't control every variable.
What followed was about a decade of driving across Ontario to practices, fronting bands where, as a singer brought in to sing, he had little say in the writing, and never finding an equivalent of that first band.
Eventually, I knew I needed to do this on my own. After ten years of trying to make a more traditional band work, I knew a solo project was my path.
What would you lose with four other people in the room?
I don't think you can directly compare being in a band to going solo. They're just completely different environments for writing music. I don't believe one is superior to the other.
He is not writing bands off. He still wants to be in one again someday, “maybe in a more extreme genre like death metal.” What he is clear about is the cost of the trade.
As a solo artist, every task lies with me: the vision, the music, the lyrics, the organization, the management. It all starts and ends with me.
Why metal, specifically?
Growing up, heavy music was the most important influence on my life. It shaped who I am. It was my therapy, my medicine, my happy place, and it still is today.
My goal has always been to return the favor as best I can by bringing my authentic self, my soul, and my energy back into the world through music.
How did Gavin Brown find you?
He did not. Daemon sent him a tape.
The producer in question had already built two of the biggest Canadian rock records of the decade.
Not being a guitarist, he had built his own way of writing: composing songs whole in his head, then recording them in GarageBand using only his voice for the guitars, drums and bass. The first two written that way were “I Don't Wanna Grow Up” and “Stoned and Alone.” He sent those a cappella demos to the biggest producers in Canada.
When I got an email back from Gavin's assistant letting me know Gavin wanted to meet me, I was ecstatic.
At the meeting he performed them live, unaccompanied, “screaming and singing 4 feet away from him.” Brown loved “Stoned and Alone,” then called other people into the studio and asked him to do it again.
I puffed up my chest and performed for the room. After that, Gavin knew I was a real performer. It was an awesome day for me, one of the best in my life.
What did Gavin Brown hear that you hadn't?
In over a decade of being in different metal bands, my songwriting was noticed, but never fully validated. With Gavin, it was different. As a songwriter himself, having written an enormous number of rock hits, he had a sixth sense for identifying talent.
The work itself was a negotiation, running in both directions.
Given my background in metal and extreme metal, a lot of my ideas leaned heavy and aggressive. Gavin had a way of finessing them into something more universally appealing without losing their original essence. I'd also push some of Gavin's ideas to be more aggressive. Again and again, we'd meet in the middle to find a sound that made sense for both of us and for the song.
Writing “Nature of My Beast” with Neil Sanderson of Three Days Grace
Brown's connections put Neil Sanderson in the room, a writer who has, in Daemon's words, “done more or less everything in Canadian rock music.”
Neil's writing style was different from mine, but we ultimately made it work as a true collaboration. My priority was making sure the song stayed dark and heavy enough, since that dark element is core to Daemon Grey. Through lyrics and vocals, I wanted to bring in a more primal, menacing feel to the song.
He calls the result one of his biggest songs.
Randy Staub mixed four tracks on the debut. What did that do?
Staub mixed “King of Sin,” “Whiskey Devil Girl,” “Stoned and Alone” and “Isolated.” His other credits include Metallica's Black Album and Nickelback's biggest hits.
Randy took “King of Sin” and polished it without losing any of its power or energy. He did a phenomenal job, and I believe it's one of the reasons that song has performed so well and resonates with so many fans.
Where did “King of Sin” come from?
I remember thinking, what can I possibly say that Rob Zombie or Ozzy hasn't already said? Rob Zombie had eight albums full of nearly every dark, cool phrase you can imagine, and Ozzy was already the Prince of Darkness. I wanted to come up with something completely unique that also resonated with me personally.
The song is anti-religious and self-empowering at once, “mocking religion in general” while “encouraging people to follow their true passions and desires.” The nickname was not his idea.
I never actually called myself “King of Sin” outside of the song. Fans picked up the nickname sometime after the album's release.
Where does “Follow Your Nightmares” actually come from?
The specific moment happened when I was eight years old. I felt like this world was ruled by fear, and I dedicated myself to understanding and overcoming it.
I've always been fascinated by the idea of going into your own darkness to uncover your deepest power. Even from a young age, I noticed that fear is what truly limits people's strength. Fear blocks the power of your soul from shining.
Why so many styles on one record?
As a band, you have to come together around one uniform vision. As a solo artist, I have the unique freedom to create different types and styles of songs. Exploring different genres in my music has always felt authentic to who I am as an artist, songwriter, and fan.
Which goth and industrial records shaped you?
None of them, as it turns out. This is the answer that reframes everything else.
It's interesting because I wasn't really influenced by goth or industrial music growing up. I didn't listen to it much, and I'm not particularly inspired by bands in those genres. My love for industrial and gothic elements came from within, and from my other interests.
The industrial edge came from electronic music. The goth came from death metal, black metal, horror movies, vampire lore and dark art in general. The vocal side traces to Phil Anselmo. And the record he genuinely wore out was Pantera's Reinventing the Steel, which puts him closer to the groove metal lineage than to anything gothic. He is also, for the record, “a big 90's hip hop guy.”
The 17 EP goes harder. Deliberate?
Yes, the 17 EP was meant to stand as its own piece of art, which is why I made it as an EP instead of a full album. For me, that's the purpose of an EP. You're stepping into a specific world.
That world is hardcore: early Hatebreed, the complete Full Blown Chaos discography, Madball's Infiltrate the System, plus Pantera at their most punishing.
Your audience is mostly European. Did that surprise you?
It doesn't surprise me that most of my fans and listeners are European. Metal culture is booming there, and my label, Out Of Line Music, is based in Germany, which naturally opens the door to more European fans.
Someone is reading this with a laptop, no band, no label. What should they know?
The music industry and technology are changing so fast that I'm not sure advice looking back would even be that useful anymore. The landscape has completely changed. My advice would simply be to make sure your efforts and energy are aligned with your deepest, most genuine passion.
Make music you love and want to hear. Create art that matters to you. Face your fears and deliberately go into what scares you. Follow Your Nightmares.