This past weekend our own Andy Synn was invited to take part in the latest episode of the Hate Meditations podcast in order to talk about our attitude towards AI in music, our policy regarding AI here at NCS (hint, we don’t support it), and a whole host of other, related topics in the ongoing struggle of art vs algorithm.
Alongside co-hosts Chris Shelley and Joseph Aprill, Andy was also joined by Josh from Mystification Zine for what turned into just under two hours of chat, banter, and the occasional salient point, about how important it is to continue to support human artistry and expression in a time where numerous malign outside actors are hell-bent on reducing an artform they don’t even understand to a joyless, automated process bereft of any deeper meaning (or feeling).
Of course, there are lots of different reasons why you might be against the use of AI (hell, even the term itself is a purposeful piece of misdirection disseminated by those whose business depends on convincing people that these predictive models are actually “intelligent” when they’re not) and we don’t have time or space to list them all here (though we do go into at least some of them in the episode).
But one of our main reasons for not supporting bands who use so-called “AI” here at NCS… is because we just don’t want to.
What we want to do is support real bands making real music, music that they’ve put their heart and soul, their blood, sweat, and tears into. That’s why we all started writing here and that’s what keeps us writing, and fighting the good fight, year after year.
Let’s face it, one of the reasons we got into Metal in the first place (and I’m going to guess a lot of you did too) was because we wanted to experience something that felt more raw, more visceral, and… yes… more real than what the mainstream had to offer, and removing that aspect, shifting the focus from organic creation to artificial reproduction, just isn’t something we’re interested in.
So please enjoy the following podcast, featuring four real people sharing their real thoughts and opinions, in the hope that some insight might be found.