Dermestid is a musical project under development by Josh Leisenring. Currently a solo project, Dermestid as an entity will be producing music inspired by contemporary metal and hard rock, as well as sounds from various genres from the past four decades of modern rock history. Hair Metal, 90s Alternative, Thrash Metal, Punk, Industrial Metal, Synth-pop, and more will all be explored through the lifespan of this project. Points of reference include artists and bands such as Rob Zombie, Nirvana, Metallica, Coheed and Cambria, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Skywynd, Strung Out, Billy Talent, AC-DC, Rage Against the Machine, Lamb of God, and AFI, among many others.
Switching to the first-person, Dermestid began as a whim a few years ago when I, having never played an instrument of any kind in my well over 30 years on this earth, decided to pick up a guitar and take weekly lessons. I have always been keenly interested in music, but had never, up to that point, made a commitment to learning to perform it myself, preferring to spend what reserves of free time and energy I had on various graphic design projects and breeding poison dart frogs. I have hobbies. Living in Baltimore at the time, I managed to connect with a member of the indie band Sunbathers for guitar lessons as well as digital music production. From there, I found myself diving into music with much the same enthusiasm as I have for the other interests I pursue.
What started as a spontaneous minor self-improvement effort has quickly grown into one of the primary aspects of my personal identity, and I have spent the past few years essentially playing catchup with regard to my mastery of playing the guitar and producing music. I still have a long way to go before I would feel comfortable calling myself a proficient or even competent guitar player, however my goals for learning the instrument have evolved somewhat since I first picked it up. I am not so much concerned with my ability to perform live as I am with having the ability to play for recorded production. I’m certain many would argue that, as a guitarist, you really cannot have one without the other, but I have found that modern music production is much more forgiving of one’s abilities once the performance has been recorded. I have definitely grown to enjoy and appreciate the process of recording music and producing songs at the digital workstation, which has given me the ability to transform my admittedly limited performance abilities into something resembling professional sounding music. I still have a long way to go in terms of mastery of not only my instrument but also digital production and overall songwriting, but I feel that I have already come a long way. Just a few years ago, I never would have imagined that I would be playing and creating music of my own, and now I invite you to join me in this journey.
The majority of what I am currently working on musically is still in very early and rough stages of development, and none of it is complete. However, I hope to showcase this project through its various stages of development, and give you the opportunity to watch it grow and evolve over time, particularly as my skills in both musical performance, songwriting, and production improve. It is my goal with this site to ultimately document the progress of Dermestid, and serve as a record of its production.
