DEEDUMP: HUMAN OR AI PERSONA

Because of the influx of AI derived music, videos, and artworks, it has become a qualifier game to try and determine if this is real or AI.  First of all, it is real because you can hear it and/or see it. Whether generated by AI or completely human created. Though I am very open and honest in regard to using AI as a tool to help me develop my vision and art, it is still my art and it is very much real. 

I asked Google Gemini to explain the difference between a human artist and an AI persona. The answer given was: “a human artist creates work driven by personal emotion and lived experience, while an AI persona is an algorithmic simulation that generates content based on patterns and data without true consciousness or feelings.”

Perfect! As I already knew I was human, how do I show, or for the extremely narrow-minded skeptics out there, prove that I am?

WHAT IS DEEDUMP?

Even the artist’s name I chose to release my songs under was created with human emotion. I lost my mother April 9, 2021 to breast cancer. To this day, I think about her all the time. I see her in myself, and in my children with some of the attitudes and little personality traits they sometimes project. I always knew that one day I would have a business or a project that I would dedicate or pay homage to her through the use of her old AOL screen name DeeDump.

WHO IS DEEDUMP?

My name is Beaux Ishee.  I was born in Mississippi, but have been a Louisiana native since second grade. You might would have guessed this, with a name like mine. I am a songwriter and musician, a devoted husband, father, and grandfather that loves music, fishing, and family (not necessarily in that order). I do have a regular job, so music is a hobby and passion of mine. I have a band called Knucklestone.  We are a cover band that have been playing together since 1999. For 10 years we were a Budweiser True Music Band. The reason I am going into all of this is so that you see, I have the experience in music and showmanship, which I rely on greatly when creating my songs.

WHY DO I USE AI TO HELP CREATE MY MUSIC?

If you are a musician and songwriter, then you should understand this already, but for those of you who are not, let me explain something to you about writing music.  A song never comes out in the end the way a songwriter originally wrote it. What I mean by this is, no matter whether a solo artist or a band, the songwriter will rely on other musicians or producers to assist with the creation and completion of the artist’s vision.

I would take songs that I sat and wrote all the music parts out on my guitar to my band.  I can’t play the guitar, bass, and drums all at the same time, so I would have to rely on them to play their parts. If you know a musician very well, then I am sure you have noticed, we are very passionate about our music and very moody.  I can show my band mates the song, but they are eventually going to write their parts the way they want to fit my song with their playing and writing styles.

As I stated above, I play in a cover band.  We are older and have long since given up on the dream of “making it big.” Though I am always writing songs, I don’t have an outlet to complete and produce them.  One day, I saw an ad for an AI music generator. I thought to myself, about how cool it would be to hear one of my full songs completely produced the way I hear it in my head. Since, I don’t have a band that wants to write music, I figured, what could it hurt to try?  I approached the software in the same way I would my band mates back in the day.  I bought the lyrics, the concept, genre, tempo, and mood to the table and presented it to the software to help me bring it to reality.  The first thing, I realized is that if I wanted it to turn out generally the way I was envisioning it, then this was not going to be as easy as the ad made it out to be.  Like writing with other musicians, it had its own interpretations of my idea that it was wanting to play. I also found the software to be quite moody to my directive and suggestions to change.  If you have ever used AI to create anything, then you know exactly what I mean by this.

At the date of writing this blog, I have been creating AI assisted music for a little over four months.  I currently have two fully completed and mastered songs and about 13 others that are in the works. Like all relationships, I am learning to better communicate with the AI the more I work with it, however, I still feel the only way to truly get the song to finally where I want it is to bring it into my digital audio workstation and rework some of the arrangement, redo the effects, and master the songs myself.  Mind you, all of this is fairly new to me and I have had little experience in the past with these aspects of creating music, so hang in there with me and let’s go on this journey of growth together.

WHERE DO THE SONGS COME FROM?

There are TV shows and bars that are centered around the question.  “How did you come up with that song?” I have a dedicated blog section called The Stories. You can find the link at the top of the website or in the mobile navigation drop down. Here you will find the story behind each song I have written and published under the DeeDump artist name. This is the meat and potatoes answer to the question, but to answer in a condensed version; my songs come from inside my head and heart.  They are from life experiences, and emotions I felt during those moments. There are some that are based on a life concept and written in the mindset of living through that moment. The lyrics are 100% generated by me.  They are written in a manner that dictates the basic melody and phrasing for the songs.  This sets the foundation for me to begin communicating with the AI on the direction I want to go.

THE DEEDUMP VISION

Where I am in my life, I ask myself, “What do you want to come out of this?”  Well, simple truth is that I want to be heard.  No musician ever picked up a guitar or drumsticks without the dream of being a rock star.  At my age though, I know that in all likelihood this will never come to pass.  So instead of giving up on my dream, I figure, why not just change my dream.  My dream is to leave a legacy.  To be remembered. To be understood and misunderstood.  I want to share myself, my experiences, and my emotions. I believe that I have a talent to do just that.  I guess the ultimate goal, would be to have someone like my song enough to want to record it, or use it in their movie or video game, but if that goal is never reached, I will have made my dream still come true..

THE CONNECTION

I really hope you like my music, but if you don’t that is okay too.  I don’t like all music, but I do respect it.  I will also respect your opinion where you do or don’t like it and would appreciate the feedback from you whether good or bad, so feel free to connect with me.  I have social media platforms on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.  Find me @deedumpmusic.  I also have my website www.deedump.com and will be on all major streaming platforms for music as DeeDump. Please feel free to connect with me.  Thanks, in advance.