Is it OK if it isn't AI?

Some people might know I once had a hit record in the ’90s with Thunderbirds Are Go! Fewer will know I was also part of the Oscar-winning VFX team behind the 2007 movie The Golden Compass.

My childhood obsession building electronic synthesisers was equally matched by my curiosity for computer-generated imagery. Over a 30-year career in the entertainment industry, I’ve drifted between these two seemingly disparate worlds of VFX production and electronic music production which, to me at least, feel fundamentally the same (shout out to the VFX & modular synth crowd, you know who you are!). Learning the C++ programming language for high-end graphics became the hinge point. When I stepped away from VFX, it left me oddly well-positioned for the Knobula journey, a rare opportunity to fuse together all these scattered skills.

In a way, it was also a return to something familiar. My late father had done it before me, starting an electronic manufacturing company. Only this time, the machines would instead make music.

But this year in particular, while finessing my launch video for Drum Farm, it occurred to me that this exclusive skillset has been undermined by the advent of AI. The advantage of being able to produce my own standout graphics and eye-catching launch videos was now worthless since the videos were being perceived as cheap AI slop, when in fact it was made using good old fashioned CGI with Blender, Nuke and Mark's cows. Mark, a childhood friend of mine, keeps rare-breed cattle in the outskirts of London and kindly lent me his herd.

Then it occurred to me, despite the emotional backstory and declaration of artistic provenance, this is nothing new. My early days of synth playing unfolded in a similarly cynical climate, one where bands proudly declared their records free of any (analogue) synthesisers. Later, in film, VFX-heavy productions began marketing themselves as “VFX-free” (they weren’t), catering to audiences whose emotional response had been dulled by overexposure to CGI.

So it isn’t so much that the technology unsettles us, it’s the loss of distinction, the inevitable democratisation that follows lowering the bar to entry. The tools get easier to use, the scepticism follows and next it is the new normal.

Life changes, we adapt and culture moves on.

So please enjoy my launch videos as "AI Free" and of course "No Cow's Were Harmed In The Making of This Film".