Blanco Brown Reclaims His Sound From AI By Releasing His Own Version of “Walk My Walk”

8 hours ago

After an AI-generated song featuring Blanco Brown’s voice likeness went viral, the country singer decided to release his own version of 'Walk My Walk.' He discusses why he chose to release his version of the song, who he believes is behind the artist and the creation of the AI-generated song, where he draws the ethical line when it comes to AI, and more!

Transcript

00:00How are you, sir? I'm coming along. How about yourself? I'm very, very good. I want to jump

00:04in with what did you think the first time you heard Walk My Walk? Did you feel it sounded like

00:11your style? First heard it, I said, man, this right here has a lot of grit and it reminds me of

00:17my tone, but he doesn't sound like me. I can just tell that I inspired him. But it's like putting

00:25the two pieces together, knowing that somebody I mentored actually created him, then it all

00:31started making sense because people will actually hit me in my inbox and say, hey, man, there's

00:35this song that's going up the charts. And it seems like it could be number one soon. It

00:41has a little reminiscent feel of like how you approach songs. And, you know, that's how

00:47it all started. Did you think it was a good song? It was decent. It's certain things in

00:53it that I would have changed. And I felt like it didn't have a real human hand in it, like

00:58no real instrumentation. It was one big old loop. Just one, you know, one thing like somebody

01:08just, it didn't grow or anything. You kind of said earlier that it was created by someone

01:17that you had worked with. We don't know that for sure. Do you know that for sure? It seems

01:21like there's a path from Walk My Walk to Abraham Abushmay, who you worked with on your first

01:28album in 2019. But we're not 100% sure on the Connect the Dots. Are you? Have you heard

01:35from people that it's 100% his creation? I mean, I've heard that he actually has a hand

01:42in the app that created the AI artist. And he told me that he was working on something

01:50that was in the tech field. So I mean, two and two, allegedly, maybe, maybe not. But

01:57definitely, I've heard so many people say he was a part of like... Have you reached out

02:05to him? Yep. But I can't get in touch with him. His number didn't change. But we haven't

02:10talked in like maybe three years. Okay. So you haven't been able to have any kind of

02:14conversation with him about, about this. If you could reach him, what would you say to

02:19him? I would say dope. You did what you said you were going to do. It ain't no hard feelings.

02:25Yeah. I mean, I don't feel a way about it. I think people choose the path of success that

02:30they want to take. But you did tell the associate press, if someone is going to sing

02:34like me, it should be me. Definitely. If somebody going to sing close to me, it should definitely

02:42be me. And that's why I did a derivative and a cover of Walk My Walk. The derivative came

02:51out today. So it's a whole nother rewrite. I did my own trailer trap approach to it.

02:59Let's talk about the first version that you cut, which is an AI generated version.

03:06Did you, did you use, why did you decide to do that? And did you just go and take the stems

03:13and then, you know, sing over that? Or what made you decide to create your own version based

03:19on the AI technology? I use nothing from the original. I actually produced it all the way

03:26out, had about nine people hands in it. After I got done with it, my partner, Ray C mixed

03:33it. My, my, my good friend also, Kenny mixed, mastered it. So it was all hands on in that

03:41version. I just covered the lyrics word for word.

03:44And then with this new version that came out December 5th, you went in and you, you're

03:51calling it a derivative work. Can you talk about how that is different?

03:55This trailer trapped out 808 drums, the whole nine. It feels different. It makes you feel

04:04different. And I had my brother come in and write the verse with me and we put it all together

04:11and put the song together. So it's a whole nother melody, a whole nother breakdown, a whole nother

04:16arrangement. I played all the instruments that's on that. And I programmed the rest of the instruments

04:21on that. So I produced it also.

04:23So it's all human except for, I'm curious, who are you crediting as the songwriters? The original

04:32is credited with, uh, Aubier, Riviotto, Rivaldo, Taylor. Who are you crediting as the songwriters

04:40on your two versions? The first version is just a cover. So, I mean, that stands to what it is.

04:46The derivative is me and my brother will be claiming what we put into the song.

04:53AI has the rest of it. It's a very interesting thing.

04:57It is. It is. And you also did an AI generated video for the version that came out

05:05on December 5th. Why did you decide to go that route? And had you ever done an AI generated video

05:11before? I didn't feel like I wanted to put too much time into going to shoot a visual and, and

05:19putting so much energy into something that I'm just recreating and making my own derivative of it. So

05:26I didn't want to take my human counterparts and do a real photo shoot, do a real video, spend a real

05:33budget. It was easier and easier and much simpler to just use an AI generated program. That's why

05:41people are going to be creating all these AI songs because it's so simple to do. It doesn't take a gift

05:47to do it. No, it's, it's, uh, you know, some of these companies like Suno are saying they're releasing

05:55what 50 million versions, you know, songs, uh, AI created songs a week. I mean, it's really staggering.

06:03What it's crazy. Yeah. What do you think is the right mix for, uh, for an artist to use?

06:12Like, had you been using AI for any kind of song generation before? And if so, I've never used AI

06:20for a single thing, not even chat GPT. I haven't used them for anything, writing, anything, everything

06:25I do have been out of the, my own hands, my own mouth. Um, I just, I know that with those companies,

06:37they study artists like me and several other artists. So I feel like

06:43something has to be done. If anybody's getting paid on it, the artist should definitely get a cut of

06:48everything. Um, especially if you can prove it. Do you think you should get a cut of the original

06:54Walk My Walk? I have no clue. You know, that's, that's divine God's appointment. Whether he said,

07:02or whether, you know, somebody else said, um, for me, a program created that song,

07:09a program created that track, a program created those melodies. There was a human behind it. Um,

07:21but I've seen people work on those programs and it literally takes no gift to create something.

07:28Somebody came to me and say, I wrote this song using AI. And I instantly said, Hey,

07:33it could be nice all day, but I'm not taking an AI song. It, it just doesn't do it for me. Like,

07:42I like being in the studio with real conversations, conversing about what I've been through and seeing

07:47the gift come to life and unwrapping it, not voice generating. Hey, today I walked down the street,

07:53I kicked the can. It fell over. I saw a mice jump out of nowhere. And then Santa Claus came. And then all

08:00of a sudden he got a song. I just can't, I don't, I don't, it ain't my thing, but I'm not knocking

08:06people that it gives, uh, you know, some type of liberation to some people. It could be life

08:16changing for them. And I can't tell you how happy some people may be that never had an opportunity to

08:23create a song that actually have a gift. And they're going to use the tool to bring that gift alive. But I

08:30mean, again, it's still tricky territory. Do you have your own ethical value of where you draw the

08:38line? Like you said, you haven't used it. It doesn't other than in creating walk my walk. It

08:43doesn't sound like you're going to, do you have an ethical point of view? I feel like a lot of people

08:49are mad about the AI, especially the real creatives, but that's so many artists that I know don't even

08:55create. And then they call themselves mad at it when they've never spit a lyric out their mouth,

09:01but they get credit on songs and they don't even have a gift. They just could deliver it.

09:05Like, who are you to speak on any creative process? You are only the face. Um, so when I speak to people,

09:12when I speak, I'm speaking about real creatives, the people who actually like go in and do the grit work,

09:19come up with the melodies, come up with the production, come up with the sound, package it,

09:23put it all together. Um, it's a feel that I feel like it's just starting and it's going to get

09:32worse, but it's going to get better, but it's going to get worse for creators. Um,

09:39yeah. Again, talk about that. Yeah. Like, you know, producers, think about it. Think about how

09:45producers felt before this came when they used to actually go in and direct their music and write

09:53it on sound charts and write out the lyrics and write out the music and have it played, give the

09:59tempo. And when NPCs came about and you had to hit the buttons yourself, then all of a sudden you had

10:09other production tools come out where you could just go to splice and just get a sample and say you

10:16created some when you really didn't create it, you just picked up a loop and you were smart enough to

10:21make it into a record that became something. Um, that's the difference between the AI and that

10:30you don't need nothing to create some, at least with the sampling, you had to still hear something to

10:35bring it to life. You don't have to hear anything to use AI. All you got to do is plug in for words.

10:41Um, but I will say for me, I could care less how people create music. When I create music,

10:51it's because I got to get it out of my soul, off of my chest. For other people, it's about money.

10:58It's about making a dime, just like the industry. The industry is all about money,

11:03all about making a dime. They could care less about the artist. I've seen it. I've seen it come.

11:09I've seen it go. With Walk My Walk, you mentioned this in the Associated Press story. The static image

11:15used for breaking rust on the video is a white man with a bowed head and a cowboy hat and praying hands.

11:23kind of every country stereotype. How do you think that played into its success?

11:30Genius. And I'm not even saying

11:34genius. I really don't know how he was created. I'm just saying the programming is genius. Um,

11:40a white face and a soulful black sounding voice. Let's be clear. Um,

11:51definitely sold the record. If I was white, I would be way more successful. I've been told by

11:58high up people. I've never named it or named them, but I've been told that the only reason

12:04I haven't moved forward in my career with the gift that I have and the impact that my gift have on

12:09people is because I'm black and this came from white people. So you kind of do the numbers. Um,

12:17you do the math and it, it all, it all makes sense. If you think about it, the three biggest songs

12:24and the three most viral and most impactful songs that have come out of Nashville, out of country music

12:29outside of Nashville, period, have been all three black men. Think about that.

12:36Myself, Shabuza and Lil Nas X, we have not been out streamed, particularly with each of our biggest

12:42breakthrough songs. It hasn't been done. Certified, worldwide, global. It's been three black men that

12:48have led all of that fan driven music. So it should be that country music is saying, hey, there's an

12:57appetite for this. Let's definitely make this a part of our program, but we, we're not getting that.

13:02So I can't not to knock anything Shabuza is doing, but until you break that wall, there's really no

13:10change. It's just somebody black that's new and successful and being great. I feel like we all great,

13:16but, um, can we get past to the next point? Thanks, Wonko. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Happy holiday. Bye.

Blanco Brown Reclaims His Sound From AI By Releasing His Own Version of “Walk My Walk” | Billboard News

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