Damon Alborn comments on ‘Now and Then’ and The Beatles use of AI
It was surreal when people played ‘Now and Then’ for the first time. John Lennon’s vocals rang with never-before-heard lyrics as if he were still with us today, and even those who weren’t alive to see the rise of The Beatles were given a bizarre sense of computer-generated nostalgia.
That being said, it’s a song that doesn’t come without controversy. The idea of posthumous work is a touchy subject anyway, let alone posthumous work that uses AI to extrapolate and essentially recreate the vocals of the deceased.
Overall, the song was incredibly popular, as the ‘last single’ from the Fab Four quickly went on to top the charts, only a mere six decades after their first number-one single.
The track comes from a demo tape recorded by bandmate John Lennon. The recordings were given to McCartney by Yoko Ono, and the band have since used AI to isolate Lennon’s vocals so that they can be used on ‘Now and Then’, which was finalised by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
No stranger to technology, Blur frontman Damon Albarn has recently given his thoughts on the new single, as he highlights how nice it is to hear the voice of singers you miss whilst commenting on the fact the song was never supposed to exist in the first place.
“Initially, it was John Lennon alone in his flat singing a song,” he said, “I don’t think it was meant to reach that level of exposure. But you know, it’s a good opportunity for everyone. I heard some compilations are going to be reissued. So, it may not be the last one.”
Never afraid to compare himself to legends, Albarn discussed the implications this could have for him. “It’s a question of scale: if enough people are interested, there could be hundreds of my songs released after my death, including songs that I would never have wanted to release. But you know, it’s nice to hear John’s voice.”
The Beatles are not strangers to the AI technology used for ‘Now and Then’ as it is the same that was used to isolate conversations when making the Get Back docu-series. It’s not a question of whether the technology works but where it stops and whether artists can ever be safe from work that was never supposed to be consumed getting released.
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