"Startup culture wars on an empty battlefield fighting for empty ideas with misdirected drones."

This is the world's first AI augmented pop punk record! Yeah!

The songs were generated with an AI system so they're all a little bit similar. This is still, (in 2019), the most fun sounding AI record ever made! Boom! Enjoy!

“We wanted to do this to show that AI is not only about generative techno, electro or avant-garde classical music. The most visceral music with a human touch can also be fun to do with this tech. We wanted to prove that it’s possible to create songs that can touch you and move you with this new technology.”

Josh from the band explains “There have been other attempts to create musical AI projects over the years like Skygge who had elements of the instruments generated automatically and manually composed the rest or Dadabots who take only the best few minutes from days of generated audio. For our project, we wanted every single unique song generation that the computer spits out to be totally listenable with real lyrics and vocals, A world first!”

“It can seem a bit of a gimmick for the casual listener because the songs the computer generates are a little too similar to each other sometimes but having an an automatic, intelligent music arranger/producer can literally save days of work for someone who wants music to fit perfectly with their videos, this is the true power of the system. You can go to the Muzeek website and generate infinite pop-punk to whatever length you want.”

“Writing this song was a challenge but it felt natural to us as computer literate musicians. It’s like creating a sculpture compared with a two dimensional painting. Every musical decision that takes place has to take into account the project as a whole as we never knew what the finished songs would be until the computer started generating them! Other artists should try this as it pushes the creative envelope and we came up with some melodies we never would have thought of normally.”

“One important thing to note is that we recorded this song in our rehearsal studio with minimal equipment, in our spare time. The advances we’ve made in AI music are mostly to do with the fact that we come from Paris at a time when AI based technology is becoming a widespread phenomenon here. In the future, I can already imagine that artists all over the world will have to include at least one AI augmented project with every major release so fans can have the perfect, unique song for them and their needs. We could be heading for crazy times!"

You can generate your own songs at Muzeek’s website. Ah, no, you can't. The startup's "temporarily" out of business.

I'm writing a book about Louis Lingg and the Bombs. Each chapter is based around one of our records.
Chapter 13
We held auditions for a new drummer. That’s something that we’d never done before. People were just in the band. I never second guessed my choices before. All the band members were 100% part of the band before even playing with them. I don’t even remember how Axel and Arno started playing in the band. They were just there and my brain accepted it as normal and deleted all memories of how they got there!
Some american dude contacted me. He wanted to move to France to join the band. That sounded like it was a bit too extreme but I was flattered. We auditioned Mathieu from Effello et les Extraterrestres and Charbel from The Dirty Widows. They weren’t right for us but I did go on to produce a cracking album for The Dirty Widows... so that’s nice! Replacing Greg wasn’t that easy…Despair was eating away at the edges of my mind. Is this how the band ends?
I had agreed to be a judge on a few different talent shows. I’m dead against participating in talent shows myself but I like judging them and helping young artists progress in their art and their career. It’s the duty of the older generation to help the youth! That’s not just a glib saying, it’s really true. The skills I’ve acquired really are in danger of disappearing if I don’t pass them on. I wouldn’t encourage bands to play in talent shows but I’m happy to help out the ones who are already in them. One of the bands on The Springboard Show was a band called Nothing To Tell. They rocked, I voted for them, they won. I awarded them with a free day in my studio as part of the prize. We recorded 2 songs in a day. Phew! That was a busy day!
It turns out that they knew the band Toybloid already because Lou, the singer, had taught them in a musical summer camp type thing when they were children. They also started to listen to Louis Lingg and the Bombs and they liked what they heard. As I recorded them, I got to see that even though they were very young, they were very talented. I realised that the drummer, Octave was exceptionally talented, open minded and charismatic. He seemed to be infinitely literate and knowledgeable about music theory and styles which is a very rare quality in drummers! Octave seemed so great that it was obvious that he’d be our first choice to become our drummer. The old adage, a band is only as good as it’s drummer is still as true as it ever was! The rest of the band agreed, Octave was in! We were back on track!
We already had a gig booked at the Supersonic with our friends from Canada, the pop punk band, We Outspoken. They’re signed to Cybertrack, El Hefe from NOFX’s label. We’ve played with We Outspoken quite a few times over the years. The best concert with them had been at the Miroiterie and that gig really was an unbeatable memory. Still, they always look us up every time they do a european tour and we always try to find a concert for them in Paris. Something that’s more and more difficult to do as venues close or stop putting on rock concerts in order to get less hassle from the police. A couple of years previously we’d had to have a private concert with them at our rehearsal room because we hadn’t managed to find anything for them. I was determined to do better so I asked Toybloid, who were famous enough to have influence over promoters, if they’d headline the show. The Supersonic agreed! This led to the idea of changing drummers mid-concert in the middle of a song! I think they decided to change over in the middle of Sheena Is Too Old. They didn’t miss a beat and it was pretty cool showmanship. Well done guys! The changeover was complete!
We got word that our British friends Vienna Ditto were throwing in the towel and splitting up. They had planned a farewell concert in London on halloween and invited us to play with them. Cool! I made plans to play gigs in Liverpool and Brighton to make it a nice mini tour but they fell through so I had to find another gig or two in London at the last minute.
We rented a big red van and took Octave’s brother, Archie along to help out and hit the road. I really enjoyed going across the channel in a ferry. It was a relic from the 90s with formica, chips and beans and the smell of stale tobacco smoke. Nothing had been changed, redecorated or even cleaned since the Eurostar had opened. The only people on the ferry were lorry drivers and really really REALLY fucking old people who obviously didn’t know about the existence of the Eurostar. Some of them might have been on there because it’s cheaper than an old people’s home. Or maybe they were too slow to get off it before it left again so they never ever manage to disembark… where was I? What the fuck’s happening? Oh yeah, I’m on tour! Sorry about that.
When we arrived in Britain, we got pulled over by the customs agents. They directed us into an empty warehouse and closed the doors. I swear that I saw a couple of guys with machine guns. They asked us to open the back doors. They took one glance at the fifty or so bags, flight cases, instruments, cables, sleeping bags, Sprite bottles, shit like that and said “You know what, you guys can go.” Too much fucking work!
Anyway, we made it to London at the Bird’s Nest in Deptford. It turned out that the flute player from Ozric Tentacles was the sound engineer. Ozric Tentacles were a pretty bonkers space rock/prog band that became pretty legendary in Britain. He understood our sound straight away and got our sound to where it needed to be.
The first band was an instrumental band covering film music from old horror movies REALLY FUCKING LOUDLY!!!! Interesting idea. The second band was a young british punk band. They were all about clean guitars and youthful, raw energy. They didn’t seem to have any good songs though.
I got my face painted Kiss style and then we hit the stage. It was pretty cool. The crowd was a mix between young and old and all styles and things were going well. Arno had broken a few of his ribs a couple of weeks earlier. He was still in great pain. He was also quite drunk by this time so he obviously stood up on one of the stage monitors and threw himself into the audience. The stage monitor slid on the ground so Arno didn’t jump that far. Newton’s laws of motion mother fucker! The Ozric Tentacles guy was furious and said he’d stop the concert if we so much as breathed on the stage monitors again. I thought that was a little harsh but I assured him we’d be careful and apologised profusely. We’re pretty sure Arno had dislodged or rebroken the healing ribs with that fall. Ouch!
The gig ended well and there was a big cheer and lots of enthusiasm from the Londoners present. That’s actually a pretty big deal ‘cos Londoners can be pretty blasé about concerts.
Vienna Ditto were up next and it was fantastic to see them play again. What amazed me was the ease and musicality of their improvisations and experimentations within their songs. It’s very difficult to do that kind of thing with drum machines, loopers and synths and things like that. Nigel had the cheeky grin of “what’ll happen if I try this” all the way through the concert and 9 out of 10 times they pulled it off with a stunning assurance of one of the best british bands. A band that had played big festivals like Glastonbury etc. but hadn’t managed to pierce the public’s conscious thoughts and become a household name like they deserved to be. They ended the concert (and their band) with waves of noise and emotion.
Ian from Damaged Goods had showed up for the gig along with some veteran fanzine writers (I think we got good reviews!). Ian was as affable and as jovial as I remember him all those years ago and was full of great stories. My cousin Jane, was there too which was cool because she was letting us stay at her house. One of Octave’s friends was putting the three remaining people up.
We loaded up the van and embarked on an epic journey across London at 2 in the morning with Jane and her fiance, Jamie directing us. Juliette was driving. She was calm and determined. She took deep breaths and kept her cool. Driving across London in a big van is surprisingly difficult. Cars come at you from all directions and roads double back and turn into weird, experimental traffic controlling systems. Jamie was a trooper and got us through it all with a calm and jovial attitude. He could be a tour manager if he ever loses his job as a lawyer! At one point we had to reverse out of a road that was just too small for the van. Pushing the line of cars back with us. When we finally made it across London 2 hours later, Juliette’s knuckles were white with the stress. It wasn’t over yet! We had to park! Oh my fucking god! Jamie was great and rose to the occasion! We found a good spot close to Jane’s place. There was just a scooter that was taking up too much space for us to squeeze in. I suggested that me and Axel simply lift it up and move a metre. Alarms went off. “Shit! Back in the van! Let’s get the fuck out of here!” My cousin’s nerves were starting to fray and she left us and went into her house to put the kettle on! She wasn’t used to EBIC (extreme band induced chaos) at 4 o’clock in the morning! We found a great spot eventually and then transported some of the most expensive items out of the van with the very last ounce of strength that we had. We had endless discussions about logistics and transport during our three days in London. So that was annoying. It’s actually a very complicated city to navigate.
Arno forgot his glasses at the Bird’s Nest so he had to cross London one extra time but that’s another story!
The next night we did was an acoustic set at an open mic night organise by a cool brazilian guy. I chose it because the performers get free pizza! There’s six of us so, at London prices, this was the most lucrative gig we did on the tour. Pizza is fucking expensive in London and we had a hungry group to feed. The bar staff was cool and gave all 6 of us unlimited pizza. That was worth exactly 3459 pounds! Only joking! But we did eat a fuck load of pizza! Before the gig, Juliette and I had found a small japanese cafe and had some sencha tea. It’s one of my favourite memories of the tour. A haven of peace in the storm.
That morning I had woken up to find Axel awake and wide eyed in the living room in Jane’s house. “What’s up dude?” I asked.
“I’ve been keeping myself awake all night,” He replied.
“Why would you do such a thing?” I pressed.
He was reluctant to answer but eventually explained that he’d been woken up by my cousin Jane kicking him and saying something like: “for god’s sake stop snoring! I’ve got to go to work in the morning!”
Hmmm… it seems that she had snapped from EBIE (extreme band induced exhaustion) after only a few days! I’ll put that problem on hold for now, I thought to myself.
We walked up the canal with Janie and Jamie as a way to do a bit of tourism. It was really nice. We got peckish and popped into a really great pub that they knew. British pubs can be very warm and welcoming places even in big cities like London. There were all kinds of people and nationalities milling around. Nice place. I went to the bar to order some food and drinks and ran straight into.... My old friend Marion (a.k.a. Pam from Underground Railroad! Remember them from an earlier chapter? I had produced their debut record and they had gone on to get signed to One Little Indian Records and tour with amazing artists like Dinosaur Junior and Nada Surf. They had moved to London ten years ago and had split up three or four years ago.) What are the chances of running into one of the only people you know in a city of god-knows how many millions of people? We caught up a little and then I asked her if we could stay at her place. Problem solved. She offered to show me round New River Studios, a rehearsal studio that she ran. It also had a great venue in it where artists like Thurston Moore played, a recording studio and a bar in which she employed Raph, the drummer from Underground Railroad... and her ex-boyfriend! That sounded so cool! We absolutely had to see this place! The next night, we went out with Raph and JB (the bassist of Underground Railroad) at about 2 in the morning and they took me to a bar that was still open. JB told us that he was single again after being in a serious relationship for 5 or 6 years. He’d started online Scrabble games and his girlfriend had found his messages with a female Scrabble player and dumped him. He travelled to France to meet the girl he’d been messaging to see what was going on. It turns out that nothing was going on and it was just Scrabble to her. Poor JB!
Raph spoke about his relationship with Marion. He spoke about their break up and the band breaking up. He explained how he was happy to be back in Marion’s life even if it was just as an employee. He enjoyed being around someone so cool and he was filled with admiration for the amazing and magnetic woman that she had become. He explained how she had grown and continued growing and growing as a person and she was constantly impressing him and surprising him even after all those years together.
I hope my friends in Underground Railroad don’t mind me talking about their personal shit in this book. All three of them are absolutely lovely people that I’d do anything for! My point of writing that last paragraph is to say that music really does change people’s lives for the better. In the case of Marion, she had gone from a slightly shy 18 year old singer/guitarist/front woman into an amazing and confident artist that played drums in an all female rock band, bass for a math-rock band, synths and everything under the sun in her own projects… and as well as all that, she ran one of the coolest businesses in London. She shone with charisma and is one of the most rounded and successful people that I know. I hope that I had something to do with Marion’s amazing personal journey. I hope that when I produced her first album, I listened to her ideas and contributed in some small way to her current confidence as a successful artist.
The last gig in London was at Mau Mau bar and was organised pretty haphazardly by an ex-con from Liverpool. Normally that would be a good sign but in this case, it wasn’t. Before the gig, we had an interview in a japanese restaurant with veteran podcaster, Pete Cogle. His podcast reminds me of the John Peel show and has won awards for being the best music podcast in europe. He’s had about a million people listen to his podcasts. He came up to London to see us and it was great to finally meet him and chat about our music. It’s a bit of honour to have such a great guy like Pete support us over so many years!
The gig itself was tricky because the sound engineer clearly didn’t give a shit and was also the bar man so any changes in the sound took a long time to do and we gave up asking. Marion finally got to see us live, so that’s good and I think she understood that the conditions weren’t great. The organiser stiffed us on the money, of course. Par for the course in London, I’m afraid.
We played quite a few other shows in this period. I suppose the most notable is our concert at the CNT (Confédération nationale du travail), an anarchist union that had its roots in the spanish civil war. They have their amazing and legendary headquarters at 33 rue du Vignoles in Paris. It was a benefit for people in Bures which is a town where the french government had decided to hide all its nuclear waste in a big mineshaft, militarise the police there and treat all the environmentalists in the local area as terrorists and make their lives a living hell. Charming. The concert was great and was notable because the electricity cut out in the middle of the gig leaving us with our thumbs up our arses while they fixed it. This happens to us quite a lot. That’s quite fucking unlucky. Anyway, they got the electricity working again but Arno had disappeared. Damn! I learnt later that he was just vomiting in the toilet so he was back on stage in no time! Easy!
So what do you need to put on a successful concert in Paris? You need some great bands. That’s pretty easy because Paris is a big city and it’s full of musicians. There’s little or no musical education in France though so unfortunately there’s also tonnes of bands playing absolute garbage without any idea that what they’re doing is awful and there’s also lots of bands that do really great copies of american or british bands without realising how annoying that can be. When I book bands, I ask around and check their reputation and it’s normally pretty easy to find some rocking bands. You need people to come! A few flyers and messages on the internet are normally enough if the bands already have a few fans. You need a drum kit, some amps and instruments. I try to negotiate so that each band contributes a little to a shared backline of equipment. This reduces transport costs for everyone and encourages all the bands and their fans to stay for the whole gig because they don’t want to leave their equipment. This also makes bands feel like part of a community instead of competitors. Keeping everyone around for the whole gig makes it a fun event for everyone and not just a pitstop in their evening. You also need a sound system with microphone, monitors, mixing desks and all that stuff! It normally costs more to hire that stuff than you can reasonably make in a concert. Buying that stuff is expensive too and even if you did, it’s a pain in the ass to play and do the sound for the gig at the same damn time. This is where the parisian punk scene has really excelled. A few brave souls have filled this niche and basically made the Parisian scene a force to be reckoned with. For between 60 and 150 bucks, you can hire Papi, Pat Dub, Insane Asso or Bobby. These veteran sound engineers would never take more money than a show could earn, they were Ronin of the scene. They enabled local and touring bands to have a good sound and get paid. They maintained a level of honour and solidarity in the punk scene that made the bands want to live up to their example and because they were working 4 nights a week, they could set up equipment and get a pretty good sound fucking quickly. So all of that is my way of paying tribute to the sound engineers of the parisian punk scene. Thanks dudes!
The record we made in this period was called Made Of Fakes and is the first (and only) pop punk record to be composed, arranged, mixed and mastered with the help of artificial intelligence. There’s literally never been a record like it! I mean a group called Dada bots has made a few black metal records by getting the computer to spit out 24 hours of material and then they comb through it for almost listenable sections and stick them together. A few different teams have made pretty good sounding instrumental techno music too. We wanted more than that though. We wanted real songs sung by humans to come out of the computer. We needed every song that the computer generated to be listenable, we wanted the lyrics to be coherent and we wanted them to really sound like a real pop punk song made by a half decent band.
An AI startup company called Muzeek that I did some work for paid us a thousand bucks or so to help out with the project. It was their technology that would spit out the final song generations.
We had to meticulously plan out a structure that the computer could change a bit without the song becoming impossible to follow. Then we had to pick a tempo keeping in mind that the final songs would be stretched or squashed into lots of different tempos. We chose 185bpm and a structure with a big intro and reasonably long middle section.
The work consisted of record Octave playing hundreds of drum loops that would work with 90 different guitar riffs that would also work with 90 or so bass riffs which would also work with 50 or so different solos and ornamental guitars which would also work with the 60 or so verses and choruses that we had written and sung about vague problems with post modern life and living so that any combination of these element would sound coherent. All of that classified by song section and function in the song. Luckily our new drummer, Octave, is a musical genius! Phew! Pretty rad right? You don’t know the half of it! It took me days to cut and edit the loops so that they all worked. Humans inject groove and life into a performance. Editing them to work with perfect loop points wasn’t easy. I also had to set up some kind of dynamic mix template so that every generation that the computer spat out would also be reasonably mixed and mastered. We calculated that there could be millions of possible songs.
In the end, I generated about 60 songs and we chose the ten best ones and that eventually got whittled down to seven in the end ‘cos three of them were pissing us off already. The idea was to get some hype for ourselves and we did get a few reviews, articles and radio plays but people weren’t blown away or anything and the startup went bust soon after anyway so as usual with almost every release we’ve done, it never got promoted. I often see new startups in LA or San Francisco producing music exactly like we did for this record. But I want the universe to know: “We did it first, fuckers!”
We definitely think that this is our worst album. There are fantastic lyrical and melodic moments from time to time but the songs are all a bit laborious to listen to in general.