Further Adventures in AI

Artificial Intelligence continues to be a hot topic. I learn something new about it daily, whether it is at my day job or in the writing field.

One of the fun rabbit holes I recently went down was with Suno, an AI music generator.

An upcoming book, The Last Summer, takes place in 1987. A supporting character is a guitarist in a band (Toxic Shock) and has a profound impact on the main character’s future. A scene in the last quarter of the book takes place at a Battle of the Bands competition.

I wrote partial lyrics for three Toxic Shock songs so I could let the reader “hear” the music. I thought those bits came out well. I also enjoyed writing the supporting character and wondered what might happen to him and his band after graduation.

Enter Suno.

When I discovered there was an AI platform for music, I got excited. I completed the lyrics for the songs I mentioned in The Last Summer, then entered them into Suno. I told it how I wanted the songs to sound, then tweaked and re-tweaked the prompts until I got what I wanted. The first couple of tunes were so good (in my opinion), that I started writing songs as a creative outlet at night.

As I played with these songs, I imagined how the band’s sound might change over time. I also imagined what incidents might inspire certain songs—for example, one song is about an ex-girlfriend stalking one of the bandmates.

These songs helped me better understand the band and their experiences. I’m planning to write a follow-up story about the guitarist. It might be a short story, a novella, or even a full-length story; I haven’t decided (obviously). As of right now, it’s just fun to hang out with the guys in my head.

That sounds a bit psychotic, I know, but I think most writers are born this way.

If you’d like to check out a couple of the songs I’m using for research, I put them on YouTube. Toxic Shock has its own channel now.