Paul McCartney performs on The Pyramid Stage during day four of the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 25, 2022 in Glastonbury, England. The Beatles star told the BBC he completed a new song using artificial intelligence to recreate John Lennon’s voice.
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LONDON – Beatles singer-songwriter Paul McCartney has told the BBC that artificial intelligence was used to “extract” and clean former bandmate John Lennon’s vocals from an old recording, allowing them to perform on an upcoming track.
“It’s a very interesting thing, you know. It’s something that we’re all kind of dealing with at the moment and trying to deal with,” McCartney told the BBC. “Today” program. to a question about AI.
McCartney said “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson – who will release an eight-hour documentary called “The Beatles: Get Back” in 2021, featuring colorized and cleaned-up archival footage of the band – was able to “free” Lennon’s voice. from a ropey little piece of tape.”
Artificial intelligence was used to identify Lennon’s vocals as distinct from instrumentals and background noise.
“So when we came to do what would be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had that we were working on and we just finished it. It’s coming out this year,” McCartney said.
“We were able to take John’s voice and get it clean through this AI, so then we can mix the record like you normally would. It gives you some space.”
The BBC said it was expected to be Lennon’s 1978 song “Now And Then”, which McCartney had previously expressed a desire to “finish”. Lennon was murdered in 1980.
On his recent tour, which included a headline slot at Glastonbury Festival, McCartney performed songs with Lennon’s vocal track cleaned up, as well as a video of the artist on stage with him.
They were experts in the field thinking about the potential for the latest technological advancements in the music industry, along with the ethics of posthumously reinventing artists.
ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, whose “ABBA Voyage” show uses motion capture and advanced real-time graphics to make the band appear as aged digital avatars, previously told CNBC he was concerned about creating “deep fakes.”
“There’s a good side and then a scary side and we just have to see where it goes,” McCartney told the BBC.