Nick Cave shares new AI video for ‘Tupelo’ but maintains he still has “serious reservations about AI”
Despite being one of the most vocal critics of artificial intelligence in the music industry, Nick Cave has shared a new video for ‘Tupelo’ which uses AI.
The visuals, created by filmmaker Andrew Dominik, have been released to coincide with the track’s 40th anniversary. The song, originally released in 1985, has been a mainstay of Bad Seeds’ setlists and is about the birth of Elvis Presley in Tupelo, Mississippi.
In the latest edition of his The Red Hand Files newsletter, Cave announced news of the video to fans in response to a fan named Foley, who asked, “Is changing your mind about things a sign of weakness?”
Cave began by sharing his reverence for the track, which he says is “a song built on a distinctive Bad Seeds bass line, predatory and relentless, and on this simple structure, an epic story unfolds.” Despite turning 40, Cave believes ‘Tupelo’ “still feels as fresh, timely, and vital as ever”.
He then explained how Dominik “rang me to say he had sent me a gift to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of ‘Tupelo’”. The surprise video features a series of archival images that Dominik used AI to bring “to life”.
Cave then clarified his stance on AI: “For anyone reading these files, it will be clear that I have serious reservations about AI, particularly regarding writers using ChatGPT and other language models to do their creative work. I also have concerns about song-generating platforms that reduce music to a mere commodity, by eliminating the artistic process and its attendant struggles entirely.”
While he is still sceptical about AI, he described the new video as “an extraordinarily profound interpretation of the song” which Cave finds to be a “soulful, moving, and entirely original retelling of ‘Tupelo’.”
Cave continued: “The AI-animated photographs of Elvis 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. Susie and I were blown away. 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.”
It comes after last year, Cave said of artificial intelligence technology, “I find it all unbelievably disturbing. I’m not worried about my own job or something like that about being replaced or something. Just what it’s saying about us as human beings.”
The AI video for ‘Tupelo’ is available to watch below.
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