Nick Cave has not kept his light-empt secret to AI in the past.
In other words, he called it “incredibly unsettling,” describing its output as “bulk,” and was labelled with an attempt to recreate his voice as “the grotesque ock ha ha of being human.” So it's surprising that Cave celebrates the 40th anniversary of Bad Seeds' track “Tupelo” with a new video that utilizes AI animation. When I heard about it, it actually felt frankly and frankly a bit hypocritical.
Created by longtime collaborator Andrew Dominique, the video uses artificial intelligence to animate stills from the archives of Elvis Presley, the theme of the 1985 song. Cave says the film was made without his knowledge and admits that his initial response is skeptical. That changed as Dominic was pushed back, reportedly telling the cave to “stop and take a look at your fucking prejudice.”
The cave did that. And by his own explanation, it changed his perspective.
Writing in today's red hand file, Cave said he discovered that the video was “a soulful, moving, completely original “Tupelo” narrator,” describing it as “mythical,” “a moving homage to the great Elvis Presley, and the song itself.” He noted the eerie realism of Ai-Animated images, comparing them to resurrections, calling the final cross-themed visuals “shocking and deeply influential.”
This was a notable turn from musicians who previously told ChatGpt to “leave fuck-off and songwriting alone,” criticised the idea that creativity can be mimicked by machines. The Caves maintain a critical criticism of the broader meaning of AI, but he now admits that when used with care, it can provide something that resonates emotionally.
This shift may surprise fans, but he is not a person familiar with the cave's willingness to question his own beliefs. In the same post, he answered a fan's question about whether changing your mind is a sign of weakness. In short, his answer was no.
AI-assisted videos arrive as the cave continues to publicly reflect on art, sadness and creative integrity. And while it's unlikely he'll start supplying lyrics to the machine any time soon, the video suggests that his ideas about AI are no longer locked in stone. That's good, I think and set an important precedent for changing your mind
