After criticising AI multiple times, Nick Cave has released a video using the technology to mark the 40th anniversary of The Bad Seeds‘ ‘Tupelo’.
- READ MORE: Nick Cave: “There’s no metric that says virtuousness makes good art”
The musician has been a vocal critic of AI, calling it “unbelievably disturbing” and saying that he believes it will have a “humiliating effect” on the creative industries.
He’s also previously shared his thoughts on the AI-based platform, ChatGPT, and said that it should “fuck off and leave songwriting alone” and that he feels “sad” and “disppointed” that “there are smart people out there that actually think the artistic act is so mundane that it can be replicated by a machine.”
Before that, he revealed on his blog The Red Hand Files that he’s received numerous submissions from his fans, of song lyrics written “in the style of Nick Cave” on ChatGPT. The singer wasn’t inspired by the results, calling iy “bullshit” and “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”.
Now, though, it appears his attitude towards the software has softened, as it features in a new video for the 1985 single ‘Tupelo’, made as a gift by filmmaker Andrew Dominik.
The track, which Cave notes he has performed “at nearly every Bad Seeds concert since it was first written”, describes the birth of Elvis Presley during a heavy storm in Tupelo, Mississippi.
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Writing on The Red Hand Files earlier today (July 29), Cave responded to a fan asking if changing your mind is a sign of weakness, explaining the use of AI in the video.
He said that Dominik made the film, which uses AI to bring still archival images “to life”, without his knowledge, and that he was initially sceptical towards it. Cave then wrote that Dominik responded to his hesitations, saying: “Suspend your fucking prejudices and take a look!”
The two have previously worked together on Cave’s 2016 documentary One More Time With Feeling and the 2022 film This Much I Know To Be True which explored the creative relationship between Cave and Warren Ellis.
Upon watching the video, he “found it to be an extraordinarily profound interpretation of the song – a soulful, moving, and entirely original retelling of ‘Tupelo’, rich in mythos and a touching tribute to the great Elvis Presley, as well as to the song itself.”
He added that the AI-animated photographs of Presley “had an uncanny quality, as if he had been raised from the dead, and the crucifixion-resurrection images at the end were both shocking and deeply affecting.”
“As I watched Andrew’s surreal little film, I felt my view of AI as an artistic device soften. To some extent, my mind was changed,” he wrote.
Watch the video above.
Elsewhere, Cave recently looked back at the 10 years since his son Arthur died, and shared what he has learned from his experience of grief.
In other Nick Cave news, the artist has recently shared his pre-show ritual and his own advice for finishing songs, and also revealed that he turned down an opportunity to collaborate with Morrissey, despite considering him one of “the best lyricists of his generation”.
Before then, Cave spoke to NME in 2023 Cave and opened up about how he believes some of the most powerful music often comes from the most divisive personalities.
“I don’t particularly care where my art comes from. It doesn’t bother me if someone wears a For Britain badge [Morrissey] or is an anti-semite or whatever and they’re making extraordinary music,” he explained. “It’s not that I agree with their politics, which I don’t, I just think that what they’re putting into the world [with music] is essentially good so it should be encouraged.”
“It’s no accident that the really great stuff is often made by the most problematic people,” he continued. “I don’t quite understand it, but there’s certainly no metric that says that virtuousness makes good art.”
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