About The Use Of AI In The Beatles Song, Damon Albarn: This May Not Be The Last

Damon Albarn (Instagram @damonalbarn)

JAKARTA - Damon Albarn gave his opinion on the use of AI (artificial intelligence) by The Beatles in their new single Now And Then.

The Frontman of the Blur band said he could imagine it would happen to his own material one day.

The Beatles released their 'last' song early last month, a song featuring all the original members of Fab Four. The song topped the charts six decades after their first single Number One.

Now And Then comes from a tape demo recorded by his late bandmate, John Lennon. With the help of AI, the songwriter's vocals were removed from the initial recording and allowed Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to complete the song.

Blur vocalist Albarn has now opened his mind about the process with French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. He said the same technology could even be applied to his voice one day.

"Initially, John Lennon was alone on his flat singing a song," he said of Now And Then, based on an English translation from Damon Albarn Unofficial Archive.

"I don't think it's meant to reach such an level of exposure. But you know, this is a good opportunity for everyone. I heard some compilation will be republished. So, this may not be the last one," he continued.

It's a matter of scale: if quite a lot of people are interested, there may be hundreds of my songs released after my death, including songs I don't want to release. But you know, I love hearing John's voice.

NME visited the Apple Corps headquarters in London ahead of the release of Now And Then to find out more about the AI process which initially divided social media.

A mini-documentary about the song revealed that Yoko Ono handed over Lennon's demo tapes in 1994, before McCartney, Starr and George Harrison took him to the studio to recover what they could and resolve them.

Although Starr recalls that Lennon's voice was 'hidden' at some point of the song, they were able to save the sound and sound Lennon's piano using AI.

This technology is also used by Jackson to create a Get Back document series, which sharpens individual conversations in archive footage.