Starry Nights is the realisation of a long time desire to produce songs that were both strong enough musically, but also technically good enough for public listening. I have been writing music and lyrics probably since the age of 15. The dreams of ‘making it’ in the music industry were always there, but life kind of gets in the way, and sometimes aspirations get pushed aside. So I have written mainly for my own enjoyment and satisfaction over that time, with the occasional live performance or DJ set. As technology improved I found myself able to produce better and more professional demos, until I reached the point of having a product that actually felt right, appropriate, and ready to share more widely than just with my close friends. The innovation that really made the latter possible was a website called suno.com. I was looking for a way of generating backing tracks that I could use for my demos, so I (ironically) asked Chat GPT how I could do this?
The response came back with a list of AI music generators, including Suno. I signed up to a free trial, and very quickly became amazed at what suddenly seemed possible. However, this is the issue with AI generated music (or one of a number of issues).
With Suno, you can produce a decent enough pop song in seconds, that would fit into the majority of radio stations’ playlists, without raising an eyebrow! It’s not going to be Bohemian Rhapsody or Hey Jude – but it would sit comfortably alongside most mainstream pop of the last 20 years. This can be achieved in seconds, literally, without a musical bone in your body.
But what on earth is the point of that – unless you have an army of bots in ‘listening farms’ wracking up your 0.3 pence for each play?
To me this is utterly meaningless and probably (hopefully) a short lived fad. It is a novelty – great when friends are round, or for your niece’s birthday when you want to have a laugh with a comedy song.
What this software, and presumably all the others also do though, is allow you to upload your own demo material for it to be given a professional polish. It enables you to hear your songs in different styles, featuring different vocalists with their voices overlaid onto my original vocal. So it is me singing, but not my voice! To me, it becomes part of the creative process – my demo of voice, guitar, drums, and piano can now be reimagined in a multitude of ways; one, or maybe two, of those suddenly feels the natural home for that melody and lyrics. For someone with a passable but uninteresting voice with reasonable piano and guitar skills, it is a revelation to hear my material ‘performed’ for the first time with strong and varied vocals. This for me has been a liberation allowing me to finally produce the professional quality I desire.
I liken the process to what would happen in the professional world, when an artist hands their material to a producer. If you wondered what the producer’s role is, then have a listen to the demo versions of Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass‘ or Frankie’s ‘Relax‘. What you know and love has travelled a long way to get to there.
So Starry Nights was born. It is a collection of old and new songs. Some elements date back to 1986 and my first band, some are brand new, and some are from all those various recording sessions over the years, that existed on home burnt CDs sitting on a bookcase – never listened to by anyone. These now have a new life and hopefully can be enjoyed. I wanted to showcase a range of styles; after all these years I have experimented with many different genre; and I like to switch between them. Later releases are planned which will explore more genre-specific material.
Lyrically all the songs are my own work, and musically probably 90%. AI can, and does, suggest a middle 8, or an outro that just fits with the original composition. It may tweak the vocal line – and you might think, yes thats better, or no, I prefer my original. A couple of the songs (in the name of transparency) have musically a lot larger AI component; you decide which these are – and then decide (controversially) if this impacts on your enjoyment?
Where do I want this to go? The album is a shop window, hopefully portraying my talents as a song creator rather than performer, so firstly, I would like people to listen to my music, and hopefully enjoy and get something from it. Secondly, as a songwriter, I would dearly love other artists to want to record my material. This version of Starry Nights is purely a studio construction. I will never perform it live, but maybe someone with a full band of skilled and talented musicians and singers will?
This debate about AI in music is only just beginning. I don’t want to add to a growing musical pool of humanless, soulless, and mindless pap; for me AI and the Suno platform has unleashed and liberated a creative process which, even two years ago would have been unimaginable. The creative process and work is my own, the tech is a tool to shape and refine.
So, ultimately I hope there are maybe one or two tracks here (all 12 would be wonderful) that you enjoy and want to come back to and share. I hope you will join us on our journey and see where the Farlane Collective travels next.
Andrew
The Farlane Collective 