Angela Mona Opens the Vault on Her Most Unfiltered Work With Moshi’s Demos

Alt-pop artist and creative director Angela Mona is pulling listeners directly into her creative process with Moshi’s Demos, an upcoming seven-song collection arriving exclusively through SoundCloud and YouTube ahead of her debut LP. Instead of waiting until every detail is polished, Mona is sharing the earliest versions of the music, complete with rough vocals, initial arrangements, and ideas captured before anyone had the chance to clean them up.

The project centers around Moshi, an alter ego within Mona’s larger mixed-media universe, iAM. Both superhero and villain, Moshi embodies rage, healing, confrontation, and the process of protecting the parts of yourself that are often pressured into silence.

Across seven demos, Mona documents that character at different emotional pressure points. The unfinished nature of the recordings becomes part of their appeal. Listeners are not simply hearing songs before an album; they are getting access to the foundation of the world Mona is constructing.

That world extends far beyond music. A first-generation Armenian-American, Mona blends cinematic pop, alternative R&B, soul, dance, and protest-driven songwriting with character development, visual direction, and performance. Moshi’s Demos continues that multidisciplinary approach with a visual identity drawing from glitchy Y2K zines, VHS nostalgia, dreamcore imagery, dark whimsy, and crimson against black.

Mona has previously released music through HRDRV Records and Venice Music Collective, while tracks including “Relax Bro, I Win,” “Fellas,” and “DramaBomb” have helped establish her increasingly genre-resistant catalog.

With Moshi’s Demos, however, perfection is deliberately removed from the equation. Angela Mona is inviting listeners into the messy beginning, presenting the sketches before the final portrait and making the creative process itself part of the story.

You’re intentionally releasing Moshi’s Demos in an unfinished state. What do these early versions reveal about you as an artist that a fully produced record might hide? This demo project is just a rollout towards my debut LP and plays as an experiment to see which songs actually hit. They’re all fully produced, mixed, and mastered. As I continue pushing out the songs and sharing them wherever, ultimately I’ll pick 3 or 4 songs to release on the LP. Also half of the songs I recorded contain licensed music which haven’t been purchased yet, hence why it’s safe to release as ‘non-profit’ crediting the original producers while I just co-produced, wrote, and arranged everything. I’m not rushing to release anything on Spotify anyways- once the Spotify team removes every AI-generated piece of slop and quits investing in ICE ads, then I’ll reconsider.

Moshi exists as both a superhero and a villain within the iAM universe. What parts of yourself were you able to explore through her that felt harder to confront as Angela Mona? My god, everything. It was all hard, and what made it all harder was the unfamiliarity. ‘Moshi’ is a side of me that would’ve protected and nurtured my younger self as she needed, like an intelligent older sister figure. Coming up with characters really helps me navigate through life and keep the imagination alive cause what’s life without imagination? What’s the purpose without that whimsical wonder and creativity? Since COVID, I learned to appreciate myself more, build inner confidence, forgive myself, and practice going where I’m respected. Maintaining friendships has been on and off because of this; it’s not easy, although I wish it were- not many can meet you at your level and frequency, which I also had to pick up along the way. Reciprocation is an underappreciated form of real love. Shamelessly basking in my sensuality and androgyny is a huge thing as well, which took years. The ‘Moshi’and ‘Mona’ in me bring it out. Honestly, I’m getting into it more through my 20s, and it’s so liberating. I love it. I love this version of me, so let me enjoy every moment. The women before me would be hella proud. My 13-year-old self. My grandmother Shushan, whom I never met, sadly, is with me in spirit, telling me to give them fire, give them love and pain.

The project moves through rage, healing, confrontation, and self-protection. Was there one demo that fundamentally changed meaning for you between the moment you wrote it and where you are now? These for sure: “Afraid”, “None of Ur Biz”, “Why So Envy”, and “Angela’s Theme”. Yup, I wrote a theme song for myself cause why not? I always talk about my Moshi, but not the original creator. “Afraid” and “None of Ur Biz” took 2 years to produce, record the vocal layers, and arrange everything. When I started recording them, they felt so average- I wanted something different. I’d play around and experiment with various styles and sounds until something hit, so whatever came out is the ultimate product of my growth. I wouldn’t say it’s my best work, but definitely way better than “Fellas’ lmao. The energy is cinematic. I’ve cried, screamed, laughed, complained, vented- a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Your work combines music with character development, film, fashion, and visual world-building. When you create, does the song come first, or are you already seeing the character and visual world before the music is finished? It’s always a melody with weird visuals happening in my head. You ever imagine literal film shots or choreography, anything animated when listening to certain music? That’s what’s going on, along with a bunch of colors and patterns. Rarely, I may even get hit with a scent depending on the song; I remember dancing to “Afraid” and suddenly a whiff of apple cinnamon and red velvet hit me; I was like, whoa, wtf. I didn’t have a scented candle lit or any fragrance on me. Same with my cheesy self-produced pop track “Fellas”, at some point during production the smell of pink bubblegum came to me, then pink-glazed doughnuts. It was so random, but I embrace it and find it fascinating. I let everything else flow; I can’t force it. I tell the same thing to my music students who practice songwriting and composition- let the music create itself; you’re just the vessel.

You’re letting listeners experience the demos before your debut LP arrives. When they eventually hear the finished record, what do you hope they understand differently because they heard where these songs began? It’s all just a fun, well-needed experiment. Nothing serious. Just a project I’m creating as a rollout to an official debut, so that I’m more consistent with releasing projects, and then more people discover my work and become maddies. I’m doing the best I can with what I got. I don’t have a team; I’m not signed; it’s just me. Out of pocket, out of sight, out of mind. Of course, I want to give a shoutout to the talented musicians and creatives on Musiversal. I book musicians from that platform whenever I need violin, guitar, bass, etc. Even for mixing and mastering, when I need a great mixing engineer to help, I book a slot and get to work. That site is growing, and I’m all in for it; for people like me, it’s so worthwhile. In the LP, there will be 2-3 new songs that aren’t from Moshi’s Demos. Nonetheless, I’m sooooo hyped for what’s to come, and hopefully my bank account can manage lmao. Here’s to breaking cycles like a mad badass.