- “I think when we first started this project, we naively thought we could just kind of hand our back catalog to some algorithm, and the algorithm would analyze that and spit out new songs that would be new YACHT songs. And the project, the art, would be about committing to that, whatever it was. As soon as we started working on this, we realized that we're not there yet, thank God. Algorithms can't just spit out pop songs. If they could, the airwaves would be full of them.”
- “If you listen to the record it sounds like an interesting experimental rock or pop record. It doesn't sound like generative, you know, plausible nonsense. It sounds like songs, and that's because there was very much a human in the loop. We used the machine learning model to facilitate the process of generating source material, and then from that source material we built songs the way that we would always build songs as humans in a studio playing music.”
- “I was projecting my own meaning onto words that I didn't write. And trying to sort of cobble together some kind of meaning to the songs that made it possible for me to sort of perform and convey them with my voice. And so, it's oddly democratizing, because now the fans, the listeners, and the band, are all trying to figure out what it all means at the same time. And we were going to have as many interpretations of what it means as there are people to listen to it.”
Season 03 Episode 12
AI & The Art of Music
Featuring Claire Evans
AI is being used by music groups, such as our guest this episode Claire Evans, a member of the band YACHT. Their latest album, Chain Tripping, leveraged machine learning solutions for the music, lyrics, and more.
Artists are making the most of machine learning, using the technology both in the creation of their art and as a cultural touchpoint for expression, exploration, and commentary. While the Internet and more modern emerging technologies have long had a negative impact on musicians and others who create using audio, Claire Evans and her band YACHT – Young Americans Challenging High Technology – are at the vanguard of discovering how these technologies will impact art and music in the future.
