Why AI will make music more human
A reflection on what makes music.... music.
I have a student in my music program named Janice.
(Everybody say “hi Janice…”)
Janice had a brother by the name of Tim.
(Everybody say “hi Tim…”)
Tim was a pure eccentric… and a lifelong musician under the band name The Psychoholics - a power-pop band from San Antonio known for their absurdly captivating live performances.
But in 2020, Tim was dying.
Tim had suffered from kidney disease for over 30 years (despite the average life expectancy of ~5-10 years), and now in his late 50’s, his condition was rapidly deteriorating.
Sweet Janice offered to donate her kidney in a last ditch effort to save his life… but Tim kindly declined.
If he accepted the donation, Tim feared that Janice, now left with only one kidney, might suffer from the same fate as he did - a life of worry, dialysis, and countless trips to the hospital.
And for Tim, that was unacceptable.
What Tim did need, however… was a producer.
Though his health was quickly declining, the relentlessly creative Tim had spent the last three years working on new music, and he needed a partner to engineer and produce his magnum opus…. a concept album called 1000 Yard Stare.
So at 60 years old, despite no previous experience…. Janice decided to become an audio engineer.
She promised the ailing Tim that - somehow, someway - she would get his record out to the world.
Janice managed to complete a single song before he passed… playing it for him in his hospital bed as she promised to finish the remainder of the album.
On July 4, 2023….. in classic, larger-than-life fashion…. Tim Mrak passed away from kidney complications at 8pm, just as the holiday fireworks began outside the hospital.
Suddenly, Janice was left alone.
Drowning in a sea of unfinished audio files and bonded to a promise she wasn’t fully sure she could truly keep…. Janice continued work on Tim’s album.
At face value, the album is the story of a soldier who is shipped off to war, ultimately returning home to find that he is changed forever… an all-too-familiar narrative for many of today’s veterans.
But just below the surface, there is a deeper story.
It’s the story of a dying man relentlessly pursuing his creative vision, even as his voice begins to fail him as the album wears on.
It’s the story of a devoted sister fulfilling a promise, endlessly mixing audio files deep into the night motivated purely by love and grief for her late brother.
And on July 4th, 2024, exactly one year after Tim’s passing, 1000 Yard Stare was released independently to the familiar sound of fireworks overhead.
Listening to the album, there are moments in the album where everything comes together perfectly. The vision for the album is clear, and the production fulfills the promise made to its creator.
The result is a wonderfully quirky album about a soldier at war.
But there are also moments during the album where the veil is lifted.
You hear the mistakes - a cracked vocal or a missed edit…. fingerprints of a dying man and his beloved sister.
And in these brief moments during the album, suddenly you no longer hear The Pyschoholics…
You simply hear Tim and Janice.
*dabs my eyes with a Kleenex*
Well that was more emotional than I expected.
I made the mistake of writing this SubStack at a coffee shop and now I’m the weird, misty eyed guy at the bar on his laptop.
Janice shared her beautifully tragic story about Tim several months ago, and I’ve wanted to share it here for a long time… but why now?
Well… unless you live under a rock…. you’ve no doubt seen the recent horror stories about AI taking over the music industry.
The AI takeover of the music industry has begun.
The robots have gone mainstream, and in classic 21st century fashion…. the response has been to simply shake our collective fist at the sky and bemoan the inevitable.
Every time I refresh my feed, there’s a new think piece decrying the “unfairness and injustice” of it all…
And while they’re not wrong… they’re also not useful.
Because there’s a big difference between what should be true and what actually is.
The idea that somehow (through…. legislation or something?) we’re going to fend off the AI and tech overlords from encroaching on the arts should be true….
…. but it simply isn’t.
The AI wave is coming, and there is no stopping it…. despite the (often compelling) arguments.
But whether it was the emergence of virtual instruments, auto-tune, or streaming platforms, every generation has prophesied the “end of music” as new tools become available.
And while this does means the slow death of some really precious art forms….
… it also marks the emergence of new ones.
Artificial intelligence will likely dominate the mass music markets, in the same way a 3D printer can recreate the Statue of David in a matter of hours.
AI will know what we want more than we do, and in that regard, it will certainly replace large parts of the music industry.
But I believe the AI revolution will also reveal a hidden truth about music (and art in general) that many of us have forgotten in the last two decades….
…. that art isn’t about the final product at all, but rather the struggle to create it.
The truly enduring pieces of art aren’t just pleasing to consume, they tell a story of the artist behind it.
The beauty of the Sistine Chapel is partly knowing that Michelangelo spent four years, bent backward, meticulously perfecting each detail.
Da Vinci was never fully satisfied with the Mona Lisa… which is why it was found unfinished in his studio after his death (she’s missing her eyebrows).
The humanity behind the art is what makes it art in the first place.
It’s a record that someone, at some point in time… was actually here.
And as AI gets better at creating “the product”, we simply need to get better at telling the stories.
Beautiful stories like Tim and Janice’s are everywhere… we just haven’t been looking for them because we’re afraid to embrace our flaws, our mistakes, and our humanity.
But in 2025, on the cusp of the AI revolution… we quite literally have no where else to turn.
So I, for one, am looking forward to the next era of music.
One that strips back the filters that the social media age has layered onto every aspect of our life… and shows us for who we really are.
One that seeks out stories like Tim and Janice’s - not for perfection…
…. but for a reminder of the fragile humanity we all share.
Because that is something our immortal AI overlords simply cannot recreate.
The era of truly human music is just beginning, and I can’t wait for it.
- Michael from MAD Records
Stream 1000 Yard Stare by The Psychoholics (produced by Janice McWilliams) here:
Beautiful article, Michael. It also feels fitting and timely as we approach the fourth, which now holds more meaning because I’ve learned my friend’s personal story through your special eulogy for her brother.
I’m ready to believe in the human to human music making scene. May there be stories and meaningful engagement to balance all the elevator mu-sick.
Despite being a musician, myself, I have never quite been concerned with AI music taking away my future income (whatever that may amount to). Sure, AI might one day be able to write credible lyrics (yes, the flowery language and even some metaphors are there, but they take you nowhere), and that vague, comb-filtered sound, that perfect A440 delivery may give way to something truly indistinguishable from perfectly-produced music, but like you specified, the changes will affect mass-produced music. People who like organized background noise, playlists, and vibes will be the target audience, but there will always be people who love music because of the connection it forges between them and the artists making it. The day that an artificial intelligence can make a person feel truly seen and cared for (not artificially, the way some people get attached to their AI assistants) is the day an AI has earned the right to be seen as an artist.