"I Leaked The First Draft of My Own Song in the Age of AI"

There’s a strange kind of silence that happens before you share something unfinished. The voice in your head says, wait until it’s perfect. The world tells you that perfection is how people take you seriously.

Welp, I ignored all of that and leaked my own demo instead.

The song is called “More.” It’s a floaty, underwater-sounding piece of cinematic pop — recorded in one late-night take, edited on AirPods at school the next day. It’s raw, emotional, and far from perfect. There are moments where you can hear me breathing too close to the mic, words tumbling out half-formed. And that’s exactly why I released it.

The beauty in rough edges

When I’m making music, there’s a point where the song starts to polish itself. I know how to mix and master, and my boyfriend’s an audio engineer — I could make it sound radio-ready. But “More” felt like a song that wasn’t supposed to shine. It felt like it should live in that fragile, uncertain space before perfection arrives.

I’ve been working on my debut single, “24” (coming November 14), and I knew this wasn’t the same kind of song. “More” was something smaller, more vulnerable — a sketch of emotion that somehow told the truth better than a finished version ever could.

Why imperfection matters

When I listen to the current music landscape, I can’t help noticing how clean everything sounds. AI has made music more efficient, more polished, more seamless. But I don’t want seamless. I want friction. I want the proof that a human was here.

“More” was never meant to compete with that world. It was meant to sound alive. The autotune isn’t there to hide flaws — it exposes them. It bends every cracked note, every uncertain pitch, into something almost tender. The whole thing feels underwater, but it’s breathing.

Leaking as honesty

Leaking your own song sounds dramatic, but for me, it’s just honesty. I didn’t want to wait for a label, a plan, or the perfect rollout. I don’t even have a Spotify page yet — it goes live when “24” does — but I didn’t want to wait for permission to share something real.

There’s a weird pressure as a new artist to debut as a brand rather than a person. I wanted to start with the opposite: something human, flawed, and immediate. “More” is me before the editing, before the structure, before I learned how to package emotion neatly.

The song beneath the song

The lyrics — some of them mumbled, some written — circle around wanting everything at once: love, freedom, peace, success, meaning. It’s about feeling like you’re not enough to reach what you dream of. There’s no clean resolution. That’s what makes it real.

When I listened back, I realized that the demo wasn’t a placeholder. It was the story itself.

Looking ahead

If “More” is the moment before the curtain rises, “24” is the scene that follows. It’s cinematic and deliberate — about time, ambition, and the fear of wasting it. But “More” had to come first, because it’s the part I don’t want to forget: the shaky, uncertain, human beginning.

I don’t know what happens next. Maybe that’s the point.

You can listen to “More (Raw Demo / Unreleased Version)” here

My debut single “24” releases November 14 on all platforms.

Website: www.carmensinata.com

Instagram: @carmensinata