Everything You Wanted to Know About Sodapop

“Sodapop is an indie pop-rock band formed by real people and fictional characters.” It was with this curious phrase that we introduced Sodapop here back in 2024. Since then, we’ve released nine songs across major platforms and shared 19 posts detailing the stories behind the myth, sparking quite a bit of curiosity. This text addresses the questions we’ve been receiving, most of which revolve around a common theme: Is Sodapop real or a hoax? Let’s dive in.

Who is behind it all?

Who are the people behind Sodapop, the Maxie website, and Demian Productions? We are a creative collective that has been making films, writing fiction, and composing music since the ’90s. Sodapop is the identity that houses our musical adventures, which began long before this current iteration. Our music is even featured in our 2012 feature film, Day of Black (which you can watch at this link).

In our creations, we do it all: we produce, write, edit, mix, and brew the coffee. We like to imagine that all our works exist within the same universe. It’s our own imaginary world. Because of this, the Sodapop musical project has many faces; one of them is being a fictional band comprised of characters from our stories, including the book “Where the Story Ends” (available here).

Fact vs. Fiction

If you read the stories we write for each song, you’ll find a blend of reality and fiction. The reality is that we’ve been composing and playing these songs with friends and partners since the ’90s. The fiction lies in how these songs play a role within a creative universe where mystery is a fundamental ingredient. We don’t want to spoil the magic by revealing too many details, much like a magician never shows his tricks. However, we also don’t want to be mistaken for the 100% artificial bands that are currently populating the internet.

The Question of AI

Some have asked if Sodapop is AI-generated music. The answer is: No.

We are old-school artists who have poured love and creative effort into everything we’ve done over the last 30 years, long before generative AI existed. As a collective, we’ve sought input from various collaborators over the decades. Our songs have been recorded with many different voices: our own, those of friends, and even family.

Giving Voice to Characters

A certain point, we asked ourselves: how can we give a voice to the fictional characters who have always been part of Sodapop? Characters like Marcelo from “Where the Story Ends” or the mysterious singer from the text “Boiúna Über Alles or How I Met Sodapop.”

Over the years, we’ve answered this in different ways. Some songs feature male vocals, while others feature guest female vocalists like Luiza Carmo (whose solo work you can [hear here]), who lent her beautiful voice to tracks like Sim ou Não, Justify My Time, Stray, Anna, Storm in the End, and The Other.

Our Creative Process

Currently, we are having a lot of fun experimenting with the limits of voice processing. Today, we have access to technologies we once only dreamed of, allowing us to “create” voices for Sodapop’s fictional members. These tools even allow us to transform male voices into female ones and vice-versa, creating complex backing vocals and harmonies limited only by our imagination.

This process is handcrafted. It starts with our own compositions and vocal recordings; we then treat different takes to find the exact tone we want. It is, therefore, the work of artists, not a machine.

Technology as a Tool

The internet today is flooded with AI-generated music where human composition, arrangement, and recording are absent. That use of AI does not interest or please us. Our use of tools that include AI features is limited to processing sounds we recorded to modify timbre, pitch, and feeling according to our creativity, just as we’ve always done with previous technologies like Autotune.

New technologies always emerge with the potential to threaten human primacy in art, but they also give independent artists the means to produce at a high level without needing expensive studios. Our philosophy is simple: the technology is here. We can either be victims of it or use it for the benefit of the work and offer the public art that lives up to our dreams.

So, relax, step into the real and imaginary world of Sodapop, and enjoy the ride!