paid members: read the unsealed version of this email here 🗝️

I have the greatest job in the world.

Even the music is secondary to it.

My job is to stay in tune with my emotions.

Intercept them as they arrive, mould them, then present them to you.

Sounds pretty simple, but there is a caveat:

I’m never able to choose which emotions arrive.

(Or whether they’ll be pleasant or not).

To be honest, more often than not, the emotions lean more toward unpleasant.

Feelings I’d much rather bury & ignore.

However, emotions are a form of currency when you’re an artist,

& sometimes, the worse you feel, the more beautiful the art.

My song Tragic Comedy touches on this.

“The cuts turn to scars, & the scars turn to art”

& now, with the introduction of AI music, I wonder how important this “scarring” will prove to be…

Are we finally going to be able to identify the human soul, due to how we feel when consuming art created by something without one?

Because every time an AI-generated song crosses my feed, my body recoils.

It feels unnatural that something without a heart is getting so good at pretending to have one.

It’s very uncanny valley…

Even after decades in music, I’m often duped by it.

& half of these AI songs are getting more streams than I am.

Isn’t it frightening how quickly we willingly sprint to our demise.

Especially when the lure is productivity & convenience.

A couple more years & eventually we’ll have outsourced absolutely everything.

Even being human.

& yet - in this small corner of the internet, you won’t find artificial intelligence.

AI remains exclusively out of my writing,

& especially out of my music…

I never signed up to present you filtered thoughts.

Unfiltered shall these thoughts remain.

Raw & candid, as promised from the start.

I just posted a video to Instagram on this topic.

Click here to watch it.

I’d love for you to leave a comment & share your take.

Or, just leave a couple 🥀🥀 so I know you came from here.

&, as always, for those with access to my private journals - continue reading below.

You’ll learn about the time I actually did experiment with AI in my music.

JL 🥀