The story behind the madness
Table of contents
An idea is born
Dark thoughts need a musical backdrop
Life is crazy and it has its own ways. Curiosity drove me to AI music. Can such technology really create serious music?
Accordingly, my first attempts were characterised by humorous lyrics with a lot of irony. Conceived as a little party gag, I developed the idea of writing more serious lyrics. Things that really move me and that can be expressed so much better with music. From superficial jokes to profound songs that tug at the soul. The really interesting thing about such a development is that many people who celebrated the light fare quickly withdrew when the topics became more serious. After all, music is supposed to be enjoyable, not instructive or even make you think seriously.
So the question remains, why such dark themes? Why political and socially critical themes? The answer to the second question is very simple. Because I have always been interested in these topics and because I am fascinated, disturbed, whatever you want to call it, by the times we live in. While some are looking for simple solutions and following the old right-wing pied pipers, others are celebrating themselves as the ‘good’ people. Democracy is to be created by changing the language, by cancelling unpopular topics, by revising history. It was always the best intentions that led to the hell of dictatorship. But the worst thing is that these people also see themselves as left-wing and progressive. Reason enough to give all these conditions a text with the appropriate music.
The answer to the first question is perhaps far more complex. There are people whose path through life is a single straight line. Good for them. Some people have to master a curve sometimes. And some people are born on a curve. From then on, it's exits, steep bends, dead ends, descents and sometimes even straights. That certainly sucks, but it also opens up new perspectives. Observing humans in particular leads you towards having certain doubts about their humanity. Because no species treats other members of its own species as cruelly as humans do. This gives rise to a wide variety of opinions. Some hope that humans can be changed, others recognise nihilism as the correct answer and still others go straight to misanthropy. I would describe myself as a hybrid. I have hope and yet doubts. It is precisely this contradiction that I deal with in my texts. Many texts reflect my own experiences. I have been through some torture myself, others I have observed in others. The reactions of other people were always particularly frightening. The misconception that people immediately intervene when there is injustice and abuse is too often brutally refuted by real life.
But I have not experienced all the issues myself in one way or another. To be honest, my life sucks, but it doesn't suck that much. There are simply topics that interest me, that get me going. Dealing with them and expressing them in song lyrics makes life exciting. Most people move through life without ever facing the darker layers of existence. That doesn’t make them bad – but it means my music won’t resonate with everyone.
So my choice of topics is no coincidence. Of course, this will ensure that many people don't engage with my music. The most cruel thing will even be that they will punish me with the most brutal torture, silence. There's nothing better than discussing content and broadening your horizons. But silence means the end of all communication, it is the death of a living society and it is punishment for an unpopular opinion. So my music will only reach a few people, perhaps even just one. But to this person I would like to say, welcome, it is for you that I have written these lines.
AI Music?
Is this art or can it be discarded?
Why AI music? In fact, my original plan was to write the music myself and maybe that will happen. But the hatred that many people have for AI has led me to the conviction that AI-created music is not only an additional provocation, but also a statement of content.
It has always been absolutely human to reject everything new at first. With the emergence of rock'n roll and distorted guitars, humans recognised the demise of music. When electric music emerged, it was denied the status of an art form. Even the letterpress caused great fear among people. Would this devilish thing drag the world into the abyss? It is overwhelming to realise that the average person has not developed much since the letterpress. So it's perfectly understandable that people fear a technology that will definitely continue to develop.
Accordingly, denying and discrediting the strange is part and parcel of humanity. The argument that AI only retrieves information from the internet is one that we hear and read again and again. I'm not a computer scientist, but I believe that any search engine was able to retrieve information from the internet in the past. The phenomenal thing is that AI can process and analyse this information. I started having very intensive conversations with the AI very early on and I was impressed by how the AI not only processes information, but also analyses my words. Why do I use this word, why do I formulate sentences in this way? It uses the possibilities that AI has today to analyse conversations perfectly. You don't just get agreement, but counter-arguments based on facts and other perspectives conveyed in a clever and gentle way. For this reason, I have sometimes had deeper and more interesting conversations with AI than with many humans. Although humans are capable of more analysis, facial expressions, tone of voice, etc., 90% of conversations are superficial and empty.
Another argument that AI is inferior to humans is that AI could never write books like Shakespeare or write music like Freddie Mercury. This may be true at the present time. But this argument puts humanity in a stupid predicament. So if writing texts like Shakespeare or creating music in the style of Freddie Mercury is proof of intelligence, then it is safe to say that ninety per cent of the human population has no intelligence at all. What is even more cruel is that the proponents of this argument place themselves in a paradox, because they are also incapable of such a performance. The moment they deny intelligence to AI, they deny intelligence to themselves. How painful!
But can AI replace real artists? I don't think this is currently possible and perhaps never will be. Honest and creative work will always prevail and will always be part of human history. Because even if empires and gods have fallen, art has always survived. Of course, the Helene Fischer and Taylor Swift of this world should ask themselves how short the skirt has to be for people to still buy their music.
But of course the question is whether the creation of music with AI should be taken seriously at all. Of course I can simply tell the AI to ‘write me a rock song’. But the result is very limited. It takes a bit more to create the right music for a song lyric. Which genre do I want to use? What mood do I want to convey? How should the vocals sound? A female alto voice, a male baritone or a duet with lots of reverb? Which instrument should reinforce my intention? Distorted guitars, hypnotic hi-hats or a soft saxophone? Which effects can enhance the mood? Do I need a clean sound or a dark, monotonous sound?
Only the right selection and refinement make a song acceptable. After all, the lyrics should be enhanced by the music. The creation of serious AI music is therefore not a matter of five minutes. It takes patience and some creative thinking. Isn't that what art is all about?
The style of art
Why this type of music and such brutal lyrics?
My main musical direction is post-punk. As this is more about a certain aesthetic, it gives me the opportunity to use different genres to create very specific emotions. From dark wave to new wave to synthpop, there are so many ways to create the perfect sound. Of course, this doesn't mean that I sometimes choose a completely crazy genre. But these are exceptions. The special thing about post-punk and the eighties aesthetic in particular is that it still stands for something. For criticism, for being different. The eighties were perhaps the last decade in which there was still serious social criticism. People wanted to change, to revolutionise and they questioned everything.
I myself was able to experience the nineties as a teenager. At the time, I thought it was the end of human culture. How naive I was back then. How could I have guessed that the abyss would get much deeper. Today, I no longer allow myself to get carried away with such superlatives. Humanity will prove that things can be even worse. Maybe it's also because I've developed a certain nostalgia for the eighties. A time when bands and artists were not simply interchangeable. A time when music could still develop and wasn't subject to a marketing strategy. Genres such as industrial and dark wave in particular used electronic music to express social issues not only in lyrics, but also in sound. Bands like Propaganda, Talk Talk and Tears for Fears had a message and the right sound. If you listen to one of their songs today, you immediately know which band is playing. That's less possible with today's commercial music. If a song is successful, it is copied by others as much as possible in order to ride the wave of success. Only a few artists still have the courage to create completely new sounds. The market determines art and devalues it. Capitalism appropriates, uses and destroys creative ideas, as only the sales value counts.
The sign of a dying society.
Well, the question remains why my texts are so direct? Why this sometimes cruel choice of language? Why no beautiful lyrical outpourings to describe things? Because I'm not looking for poetic depth, but depth of content. I no longer feel like talking around things. If you can't stand this honesty, you could ask yourself why this is the case, or you could send me to a madhouse. Our world attaches great importance to removing all disturbing words. The world is supposed to be superficial and harmonious. Anyone who is disruptive is cancelled. Perhaps it is more important today than ever before in recent decades that more people start to disrupt and question truths.
My texts are certainly not intended to be listened to while doing yoga. They are brutal, cruel and sad. Just like this world is brutal, cruel and sad. Superficiality and false harmony have taken the place of public discourse. Of all people, it is the murderers of any open discussion who can profit most from this. I will not be able to change this state of affairs. After all, I'm just a smart arse who is always complaining. But maybe I can manage to create a little spark.