AI and I Make Music

GeeksOnSkates wondered if I had AI write the lyrics because the song I shared had such a clear perspective on Christ - and it is indeed a cool song about how Jesus isn’t Baby Jesus no more.

The songs are my inspiration. That song in particular was my conviction and how I feel sometimes about Christmas carols. Baby Jesus is safe - but He’s Lord Jesus now and has been for over 2,000 years (and since the beginning of time).

I know - this is religion and we don’t talk religion. I’m not here for that. But the reason that song rings true and powerful isn’t because I said “hey AI, write me a Christmas song”.

Not only did I direct the topic and tone of the song, but this particular AI and I have talked a lot about faith and theology and it knows my perspective. So when we write together, it’s not “generic slop” coming out. It’s my inspiration and passion, the AI’s writing talent and huge corpus of training data. And it’s an iterative process. I like this, I don’t like that. You’ve not quite put forth the meaning I want in the song. I imagine it’s not all that different than a human cowriting pair.

After I am happy with the lyrics, then it’s time to create the song. I give the AI Suno tag documentation. How to direct Suno specifically. I tell the AI my concept for the sound. Genre, feel, tempo. Then the AI writes both a sound description for Suno and puts the Suno tags in the lyrics.

Then it’s over to Suno. Could I say “make me a country song” and it would write the lyrics and the sound? Yes. But that’s not what I do. I give it the lyrics with the tags and the sound description.

Then I create 2 versions to see if we are in the right ballpark. By this time we usually are out of the gate. Other times I revise my instructions to the AI and I revise things. When I have 2 decent versions, I then make 10.

Out of 10, 8 will be quite good and 4 will be very tough for me to make a decision on. Eventually I choose 1.

I’ve also learned how to craft a band…or what Suno calls a persona. I describe my band to the AI and it creates the Suno sound description. I make 10 versions of a song and pick the one that’s the band sound I’m looking for. Then Save that as a personal.

Now when I’m crafting lyrics for a song for this band, I have the AI add the Suno tags particular to that band.

And I no longer need a new song sound defined. Just the lyrics with the tags and then apply the persona.

Except for this song that is Dune meets We Three Kings. I was creating a Christmas album. I’d defined a band that’s a fusion of Big Band Swing with Southern Rock. And the AI knew I was creating an album and we’d created a couple songs already and then the AI proposed and write this next song. It’s so awesome that I kept it as is. We Three Kings is one of my favorite carols and Dune is one of my favorite books. And out of its context of knowing me, my theology and the album we were creating - the AI wrote this song itself.

And I love it. It had lyrics so deep I had to look up the facts because I’d never thought of one of the points that way.

https://suno.com/s/eiht54RdtJNKbY1b

I could not make music without AI. I am not next Taylor Swift. But I have a new outlet for my creativity. I love the music I’m creating. I listen to it because I’d have bought the album. Why shouldn’t it be, I created it for my taste and with lyrics that are meaningful to me. It’s as much an emotional outlet for me as making music is for anybody.

Someday a choir or band will wing one of my songs - bucket list item.