Premiere: Fake Dad Take Aim at Industry Pressures with “Demonology”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
Photos By Morganne Boulden, Production & Styling by Sophie Stedman.
LOS ANGELES-BY-WAY-OF-NYC DUO FAKE DAD — Andrea de Varona and Josh Ford—are back with “Demonology,” a distorted, saccharine alt-rock confessional that digs into the emotional spiral of comparison culture, especially as a woman navigating the pressure-cooker of the LA music scene. Frontperson Andrea de Varona channels the insecurity, competitiveness and quiet heartbreak that come from constantly measuring yourself against other artists, especially the ones you’re supposed to be rooting for. Pulling inspiration from 90s icons like Courtney Love and Kathleen Hanna, two women the industry famously pitted against each other, Fake Dad twist those tensions into something empathetic and electrifying.
Instead of leaning into rivalry, “Demonology” gently dismantles it. Built on distorted breakbeats, angelic synths and a sugar-sweet vocal delivery, the track becomes a hand extended toward the other women and non-male artists fighting for space within the same system. It’s chaotic, tender, biting and ultimately unifying: an anthem that argues we’re not each other’s competition: we’re each other’s lifelines.
LUNA: “Demonology” taps into feelings of competition and insecurity within the LA music scene. What moment or experience pushed you to write about that head-on?
FAKE DAD: On the surface, Demonology is certainly influenced by the LA scene in particular, but it was initially inspired by the more ephemeral, virtual space that is the internet. Spending hours doomscrolling and following accounts of artists and creators who are where we’d love to be in our career in terms of attention and recognition, and then having that moment of self-reflection of like wait why am I doing this? Why do I care so much if this person likes me? If this girl knows who I am? If this other band follows us back? Why do I feel like they pretended they didn’t know me when I saw them at the show? Why does she pretend she’s meeting me for the first time every time I see her even though we’ve literally been on the same bill and shared a green room?
And then later asking myself, kind of once I’ve come down from that, but why do I even care so much? Also, what if she’s feeling the exact same way and that’s why she was retreating and choosing not to interact?
Commerce and competition in art have bred this kind of terrifying, heart-shattering world for so many artists, particularly those who are not in positions of power. Those of us who are often the ones with something to say, have for so long been reduced to the subjects, the background players, or the footnotes at the end of the page. And when we are granted the spotlight it often comes with conditions or trade-offs. So we are fed this scarcity mindset that can make you feel like anyone else who looks like you operating in your space is a threat.
“Demonology” is an attempt to acknowledge that and speak to the other women and non-males in my space. It’s saying, I see you, I get you and we’re actually more similar than they want us to think. It’s also a bit of a warning: “I know you want to go for that shiny thing. I get it, I too would like that thing, but we can both acknowledge it’s also kind of scary and bad, right?”
LUNA: The track carries a raw, late-90s alt-rock edge. How did artists like Courtney Love or Kathleen Hanna influence the tone or attitude of this song?
FAKE DAD: The main hook is actually a direct homage to “Celebrity Skin” by Hole, and the song was actually called “Celebrity Skin” for like a whole year until we were getting ready to release it. We realized it may be hard to find the song if it had literally the same title, and also we absolutely adore the OG “Celebrity Skin” so much that we would never want to just rip the title straight on. Also, Courtney Love would probably vastly prefer it if we didn’t LOL — here’s hoping she hears the song one day and doesn’t absolutely hate it or us.
Instead, we chose a very prominent lyric from Hole’s song as our title, as we felt its allusion to 90s Hollywood, selling out, and all the stuff Courtney was writing about was a cool throughline for the themes of our song.
So Courtney Love and Kathleen Hanna are both mother to me in their own way, and when I learned about their legendary rivalry I was so intrigued but also deeply saddened. Two of my favorite 90s rock women icons actually hated each other? So I spent so much time looking into their relationship and realized just how much it seems they were pitted against each other. We can’t know for sure how these two gals truly feel about each other, but something tells me that the world around them was pushing for this animosity way before they even had a chance to truly know each other.
Because these women are two of my biggest inspirations I wanted to write something that felt like a combination of the two of them—chaotic, rough, biting but also sweet, cathartic, and most of all impossible to ignore.
LUNA: Sonically, “Demonology” feels distorted, chaotic, and cathartic. How did you approach translating such vulnerable emotional territory into the production?
FAKE DAD: This song was built around a really interesting breakbeat we found that was totally smashed flat and distorted to hell. It immediately spoke to a certain kind of electronic music from the 90s and 2000s that we find really interesting—things like “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve have this fascinating way of being both rough and sweet, edgy and reverent.
“Demonology” also has an unrelenting rhythmic character, but most of the guitars and synths are angelic and sweet. Vocally, there really was a different path for this song that was angry and energized. We’re really happy we ended up going in the direction of the super saccharine topline—one which gets to explore really ugly and angering topics through an airy, sickly sweet delivery.
It kind of mirrors the absence of space so many women in the industry have to experience any frustration in a loud or threatening way—to ever be anything other than pretty, docile, and unchallenging.
LUNA: This song feels like both a critique of the industry and a love letter to the people trying to survive it. What do you hope listeners—especially other non-male artists—take away from it?
FAKE DAD: I think it is a critique of the industry, of the way people are pitted against each other for these limited spots. But it’s also a bit of an attempt to better understand and empathize with the way that so many women feel like they have to behave in the face of that scarcity. I’ve been learning more and more to hate systems while retaining compassion for the people within them.
I think everyone like me in the entertainment industry has felt hated by another woman just for existing—and, honestly, has felt that anger themselves as well. But where does that leave us at the end of it all? In my heart, I don’t believe that art is a competition, so who do I help by playing into the narrative of this exploitative system?
I hope non-male artists (and people) take from this song a willingness to be tender and compassionate with the only other girl at the show, the only other girl in the studio, the only other girl in a room full of men—even when she treats you like a threat.
LUNA: What does 2026 have in store for Fake Dad?
FAKE DAD: “Demonology,” as well as some other songs coming out before the end of the year, will be part of our 2026 EP, Sci-Fi Fantasy. Keep an eye out for more info on that as we continue into the new year! We’re hoping to tour the project, because we just have such an amazing time on stage together, and there’s really very little we’d rather be doing. Getting to tour the country with your significant other playing music you made together is such a privilege, and we can’t wait to get back out there again!
