Taking Demi Lovato's Comeback Straight To The Rave

Producing Songs I’ve Never Heard: Fast by Demi Lovato [EPISODE 17]

Okay, I’m calling it: Fast is officially one of my top songs of the summer. Demi Lovato is back, y’all, and she’s giving us dance pop. I couldn’t ask for anything more. THANK YOU, DEMI.

Her latest single dropped last week, the first release from an upcoming (and, at least for me, highly anticipated) album slotted for later this year. I couldn’t wait to jump on it immediately for this series.

As soon I saw she was teasing a new single a few weeks ago, I started avoiding all her content, keeping everything on mute so I could listen to this vocal with the freshest ears possible.

Her last couple albums - HOLY FVCK and REVAMPED - took us into alt-rock/punk territory, and by all means I enjoyed that, but pop Demi still holds the key to my heart. Listening to this acapella the first time through, I was tentatively excited to hear that we could potentially be heading back in that direction.

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🎤 Here’s the acapella if you want to play along and hear what I heard first:

Full of vocal chops and hard tuning, I knew right away I could take this electronic (my fave). The verses leaned more emotional, with longer phrases that seemed fitting for a mysterious, dark-pop vibe. When the hook came in though, I knew I wanted that section to hit with urgency and create a switch up in the production there.

As I’ve gotten used to doing lately, I started out with the drums, just to establish that classic four-on-the-floor house groove, and then got to figuring out the bassline straight from there. I was after something that could really drive the track, so I searched for a plucky synth I could run through a tight 16th-note pattern.

Sampling a few presets from the Serum 2 DnB Essentials pack by Test Press, I landed on the perfect sound. Lately, I’ve been loving the built in arpeggiator in Serum 2 for those types of patterns; it's been so useful.

I wanted the whole track to stay on the darker side — moody, minimal, and low-mid heavy. But it still needed something to lift it and create atmosphere.

I found a few eerie sounding pads in the Splice pack and ran them through Soundtoys’ Tremolator (another one of my go-to plugins) to transform them into stutter-y textures I could layer on top of the bassline without overpowering it. With a bit of strategic filtering, I wove those textures into the verses too, keeping the transitions smooth while making each section feel distinct.

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🎧 Haven’t heard the original yet? Check it out here:

From the vocal alone, I had a feeling where this track was headed and I was excited to find I’d read it pretty spot on. Produced by Zhone (who’s worked with Kylie Minogue and Kesha), the original leans into that glossy, club-ready energy. Apparently he’s executive producing the upcoming album and after hearing this first single, I couldn’t be more excited about that.

In terms of how my version compared, I’d say we were definitely at least in the same family. As usual, mine took a much darker approach, with grittier synths and some edge - a bit more rave-leaning perhaps? But all-in-all, both belong in the club, maybe just different parts of the night.

What did you think? Are you as excited for Demi’s comeback as I am?

Let me know in the comments!

🔎 Looking for more?

Find all previous episodes in this series here

And make sure to check out my original music wherever you like to stream: https://spoti.fi/4jFkl9y