In a recent chat with Metal Journal, Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt shared his thoughts on using artificial intelligence as a musician and how it affects the music industry. He then predicted the future of the tool: That it can only try to make everything perfect while rock is all about ‘imperfections’:
“Rock and roll, to me, is, is always there because it’s broken. It’s not artificial. It’s not perfect. It’s all the imperfections, is what makes us shine. It’s the danger of it. A.I. can do all you want — to write lyrics, to write song, to do whatever, even record, to do whatever — but it’s always gonna sound sterilized, even when they try…”
He then gave an example from Led Zeppelin, saying even they didn’t sound like themselves every show:
“Because even if they tried to sound like, let’s say, I don’t know, Led Zeppelin… Led Zeppelin didn’t even sound like Led Zeppelin every night. Sometimes they were great, sometimes they were sloppy, sometimes it was amazing, and that’s the danger, and that’s the thing of rock and roll that you will never be able to capture with A.I. I don’t give a f*ck how much they’re gonna try.
Bettencourt Isn’t Afraid Of AI
Though the guitarist is aware of the ‘perfectionism’ AI is trying to achieve, he is not afraid of using the tool. Earlier in the same interview, he talked about how everybody was scared AI would change the lives of musicians. However, he doesn’t seem to understand the worry:
“Everybody’s worried and everybody’s scared, and how it’s gonna change anything. I love it, man. You know why I love it? I’m, like, bring it on. Do more of it. Because what that does, the people who do that and use it and think they can emulate emotion, the bigger, to me, rock and roll is gonna get. Because rock and roll, if you notice — look at all the technology that’s happened since the 1930s, everything from telephones to television, to cell phones, to computers to synthesize everything else, what has changed in the guitar? Nothing. Zero. What has changed in a drum set? Nothing. What has changed in a bass guitar? Nothing. A microphone.”
You can see the interview below.