"My Demons" is a single by American rock band Starset, the first off of their debut studio album Transmissions. Initially released in 2013, it peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart in 2014.
| "My Demons" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Starset | ||||
| from the album Transmissions | ||||
| Released | October 24, 2013 | |||
| Recorded | 2013 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:48 | |||
| Label | Razor & Tie | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
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| Producer(s) | ||||
| Starset singles chronology | ||||
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Composition and themes edit
The song has been described as an edgy, hard rock song with "boisterous" guitar and bass and a "catchy chorus".[1] AllMusic described the song as having "dramatic style...electronic elements, strings, heavy alternative rock, and more mysterious samples than an entire season of X-Files."[2] Converse to its layered and complicated studio composition, the band sometimes plays a stripped down acoustic version of the song live as well.[3]
Frontman Dustin Bates described the song's lyrical premise as "downtrodden protagonist superhero gains power from love interest", similar to something seen as in the 2008 and onward Iron Man films between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts.[4] Conversely, the song's music video was inspired and influenced by an account Bates had read on Nikola Tesla, in which Tesla states he encountered an extraterrestrial signal in 1901.[5] It was directed by Denver Cavins.[6]
Reception edit
Commercially, the song peaked at number 5 on the Billboard US Mainstream Rock Songs chart in 2014.[7] The song also spent 41 weeks on the chart, more than any other song on the chart that year,[7] or in the chart's history, dating back to its beginning in 1981.[8] The song had accumulated over 73,000 downloads as of September 2014.[9] Outside of the traditional music charts, Billboard magazine also specifically noted its strong performance on music streaming websites. The song was an especially successful song on YouTube, with the track receiving 285.4 million views between September 2014 and November 2016.[7] For context, Billboard noted that the most viewed videos of two other extremely popular modern rock bands, "Uprising" by Muse and "The Pretender" by the Foo Fighters, only had 81 million and 143 million views, respectively.[7] The song's performance on Spotify was also noted, with it receiving over 30 million streams as of April 2017.[10]
Personnel edit
- Dustin Bates – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
- Brock Richards – lead guitar
- Ron DeChant – bass
- Adam Gilbert – drums
Charts edit
Weekly charts edit
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Year-end charts edit
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Certifications edit
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[14] | Gold | 40,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[15] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
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‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
References edit
- ^ "Starset: Band name bears vague scientific message".
- ^ "Transmissions - Starset - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic.
- ^ "Starset Rock Acoustic Versions of 'My Demons' + 'Space Oddity' at the Banana [VIDEO]". Flint's Rock Radio.
- ^ "Starset Names Movies To Play With Each Track On Their New Album - New Noise Magazine". 18 November 2014.
- ^ "Starset's Dustin Bates Talks 'Transmissions' Album + More". Loudwire.
- ^ "Starset | My Demons (Official Music Video) | Music Video | CMT". Archived from the original on 2017-04-10. Retrieved 2017-05-26.
- ^ a b c d "How Independent Rock Band Starset Found Major Success on YouTube, Without Even Trying". Billboard.
- ^ Hodak, Brittany (19 June 2015). "Starset to Deliver Out-of-This-World Performance at Long Island Planetarium". HuffPost.
- ^ "Motionless in White Roars Onto Top Rock Albums at No. 1". Billboard.
- ^ "Dustin Bates of Starset thinks WAV could become the record player's replacement". 7 April 2017.
- ^ "Starset Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
- ^ "Starset Chart History (Rock Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
- ^ "Hot Rock Songs – Year-End 2014". Billboard. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
- ^ "Canadian single certifications – Starset – My Demons". Music Canada. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- ^ "American single certifications – Starset – My Demons". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved November 15, 2021.