In 2010, Erix entered into a deal with Universal Music Group in Germany but his album release was held up for years when the record company began restructuring and his former A&R and manager, Nik Hafemann, left the label to become a judge on a German reality TV series. During this time, Erix continued to cultivate his presence online and released demo versions of new songs he had been working on such as "Squeaky Clean", a pop-punk satire of Disney Channel stars, as well as "So Scene, So See Through (A Song For Mutts)" which ultimately inspired the name of Erix's fandom and social justice movement, the "Mutt Army". Amidst it's online popularity, Ian was invited to perform the song on MTV UK in a special live session that was recorded for the network in their London studio. Another single from that period, "The Human Race" was featured in Season 3 Episode 19 of the popular TV show 90210 on The CW network in the USA and worldwide on Netflix.