Craig Shipman’s collaboration with Dud “The Demons” is a Harrowing Depiction of the Dark Places Your Mind Goes When You Grow Up With an Addict

The reverse swells that bring us into Craig Shipman’s collaboration with Dud “The Demons” is symbolic of the song’s retrospective vibe into the roots of one’s own current dysfunctional psychology. The unflinching words about how dad cared more about alcohol than his kids and being left with no parental anchor with mom not able to be around as much hit hard. The turn of the vocals into unexpected bends in tone hinting at the weight of the words and the memory and how these experiences sit in your mind like an experience you’d rather forget the way the dad in the song used alcohol to numb his own pain. Who can’t relate to the piercing words about feeling like an accident in a dysfunctional family unless you’re fortunate enough to not come from one? Then the song goes into how that background colors your outlook on the world and warps your sense of self and makes it more challenging to get to a place where you can feel like you’re not holding yourself back. And yet the song is ultimately about facing these harrowing personal truths and in that is a way to express that pain rather than repress it the way you’re taught to when someone in your early life is an addict and you have no real emotional bedrock from which to uplift yourself except for one you make for yourself. Listen to “The Demons” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of The Demons EP.