Thoughts on AI, On Cloud Hill

The final videos without lyrics to The Dusty Mirror were uploaded yesterday.

I took a look at some AI video tools and I suddenly felt that doing anything at all with AI would be toxic, as toxic as an association with Jeffrey Epstein or Jimmy Savile or Gary Glitter, or anything else in the sphere of the 'cancelled'. AI has elements of a drug. Song generation AI has huge appeal to those who have no musical ability, and video generation AI has appeal to those with no video capability, but perhaps one day those who use it will gain ability, and on that day they'll declare 'But guys! I can do it myself now!' but it will be too late. The 'fans' who prefer AI wouldn't want the 'real creations' and those who disliked them would not touch someone tainted by AI. The toxicity will always be there, it's like a drug in this respect, a stigma, not with respect to addiction.

I became an artist partly as a rebellion against my computer background, to avoid the digital and its falseness, fake-ness and rigidity. I've not, to date, used AI (in music, video, chat or anything else, though yes, I'd happily take credit for my 2014 album by Oldfield 1 Art By Machine as being an 'AI creation', composed using random means and a program of my own design; but this is not what most people consider AI today, that is ChatGPT-style generative AI). As AI becomes popular I'm increasingly interested in that which is not-AI, the hand made, the ersatz, and human. This is a sort of digital 'arts and crafts' movement, the arts movement from the late 19th century which emerged as a reaction to the industrial revolution. A key part of my philosophy as an artist is to do what others don't, or won't, or can't.

Art is about expressing yourself, our human selves. AI can help, but tools of any sort can get in the way of this expression. 2025 AI is more than a tool, it's more like a collaborator, and there's a difference between what we as artists want and what a (more able) collaborator suggests and we later accept. In 20th century music such things happened often, when a young star was guided (or misguided) by record companies, producers, peers, to create their sort of sound. Those artists ended up lost, rejected, dumped. I remember the Milli Vanilli controversy, where the artist didn't sing on their track, or the similar reaction to The Monkees, when accused of not playing their instruments. The taint of AI to artist will, I suspect, be the same.

This commentary already feels old. AI will rapidly change, and perhaps become a brilliant and able collaborator, but like collaborating with any genius artist, the art he/she/it makes will be his/hers/its own. If Mozart were a slave to the exact requirements ('prompts') of his patron, would Mozart or the patron be the artist? Artists have faced this exact problem for centuries, and the artists who have proven to be the best are those who damn their patrons and do as they will.

Today is the day of the winter solstice, and we've determined to visit some ancient standing stones, The Bridestones. These stones as a monument, once tomb, are over 4000 years old, though achingly sadly wrecked in the 19th century. They sit on Cloud Hill, Congleton, and I wrote this poem for the occasion which I'll read there today.

On Cloud Hill

On Cloud Hill to the sky I reach
With eyes of glassy youth and bright
I sigh for that which bones can't teach
For broken here these bones alight

We here at winter's lowest stroke
Make prayers with fleeting voice and tone
These gods are dead, yet speak their joke
From corpses of eternal stone

The season's arc is sliced in amber
Afire for souls of shiv'ring awe
The copper on this skin of sand
Will reach this mark ten thousand more

These things will look up, cold and still
Long after we turn cloud to hill

Videos Part 2, First BBC Radio Play, Snowflake Premiere

Another full day of video conversion, recompiling all of my Violet Night and Dusty Mirror videos and removing the subtitle layer. The Violet Night ones were completed by the afternoon; Dusty is half complete. This requires a lot of tedious and exacting text work, and lots of waiting around for the computer to convert.

In between I've listened to Freddie Mercury's My Bad Guy, a great album, at least half of it is brilliant, and half not so. I love that he dedicated it to his cat, something I've done with some of my music!

I forgot to mention that I've had a royalty for my first ever play on BBC Radio. BBC Radio 6 played 'Pandora' from Bites Of Greatness at some point last year, but I've only just noticed. I've no idea in what context. Of course now, I consider my vocal music my best, even if my voice is still growing month by month. Everything recorded so far sounds inferior to anything I could do today. I've come a long way, but I have a long way yet to go in this regard. My many remasters are important for this reason. The 2026 Modern Game remaster is twice as good as the last version, and that was merely 2022.

Tonight is the premiere of the new video to 'Will You Be My Snowflake?'. I'll online on my YouTube Music Channel for it at 7pm.

Videos Without Subtitles Part 1

A frustrating day in many ways, but I managed to set up most of a new game bundle, and re-compiled updated all of the Tree Of Keys and The Modern Game videos for YouTube, adding with subtitle and without subtitle versions. Ultimately, each version has merits, so adding both allows the user to choose. I have to do this for Another Violet Night and The Dusty Mirror.

Congleton Live, Lyric Videos

A nice performance day at the day centre in Congleton. Mike kindly suggested we perform two of my songs, 'Will You Be My Snowflake?' and 'Christmas Smells'. He really likes Snowflake and keeps pushing me to send it to influential people, but who and where?

At home, exhausted from lack of sleep if nothing else, I completed and uploaded the new Snowflake videos. I've decided to create two versions of each video for the first time; one with subtitles ('Official Video With Lyrics'), and one without ('Official Video'). For me, seeing the lyrics always enhances a video, and my lyric subtitles appear before the line is sung as a forewarning, then jump into place at the right moment, which is really useful if singing along.

Music videos on television, however, never have visible subtitles, these are optional via the television's system, so if I ever want my videos to appear with classical pop from the 20th century (yes! I've described 20th century chart music as classical - it truly is a world away from today's music), I'll need two versions; one with and one without subtitles.

I also have some videos described as an 'Official Lyric Video', such as Christmas Smells. This is used for simple animated videos where the words are the most important element, but even here I suppose I could keep the version without words as a sort of looping animation, something better than a still image of the album cover, which is the default for YouTube. I'll think about this.

All of this all opens up a possibility of remaking older videos for a second time and relisting those, which is lots of time consuming and tedious administration work. I've already made a start by renaming the current videos to match the new name convention. Most of my videos don't have lyrics, and about half are for instrumental tracks, so that's something. The albums which do have subtitles are the newest ones: Another Violet Night, The Modern Game, Tree Of Keys, The Dusty Mirror, and their singles.

Snowflake Videos, Oats, AVN Music Pack

A full power day. Started by working on the 'Will You Be My Snowflake?' video. I experimented with adding a soft-focus glow to the scenes, and changing the size a little, but after an hour or so, it didn't look particularly better, so I reverted to the old version.

Then, something of a panic moment when I realised I was out of Mornflake Oats! I dashed out in a vain attempt to find some locally, then came back, and decided to film the vocal parts for the 'Candy Cane' video first. I quickly did this, completed the basic editing of those clips, then galloped the 1.3 miles to Morrisons to grab a few kilos of oats. I managed there and back in 40 mins.

My father wanted a stamp album ordering, and my mother a calendar, so I did both. Much of the day so far had been distractions.

Then, editing together the 'Candy Cane' video, and compiling the rest. There were several little changes, so I made these, and added some phone rings to 'Candy Cane' and a slightly different sequence for the 'on phone' part of the song.

Then, a short break to prepare for tomorrow's performance at the adult day centre in Congleton. The words and chords to 'Christmas Smells' was created and printed, and the equipment packed and Christmas outfit prepared.

Finally, created the Spotify Canvas edits of these videos, and uploaded them ready for Friday's single release.

In the evening, the new Another Violet Night Music Pack for Flatspace was confirmed, so I set that live and made an announcement on social media. Lots done, but there always seems to be so much more to do. I haven't sent Christmas cards yet, and feel behind in many areas. Still, a full day like this feels satisfying.

Onwards we push.

Birthday, Will You Be My Snowflake Video

A busy birthday yesterday, always made special by Deborah and her attention to and celebration of all special occasions. Before her, birthdays and Christmas Days were ordinary days, perhaps with the annoying closure of shops. We went for a quiet wander to the Dagfields antique centre. It's very cluttered. Much of the items I'd leave there even if everything were free.

One thing I did buy was a CD, Revenge by Eurythmics, an original 1986 version. I also ordered a 1985 original Mr Bad Guy, and was gifted A Kind Of Magic by Queen, which I'd been thinking of getting for years. I have all of Queen's albums up to The Game, but none beyond that. I preferred the classic rock albums.

In the evening we watched 'Blood Tea and Red String', a visually arresting animation with a similar look to 'Bagpuss' or other Smallfilms animations.

Have spent today working on the 'Will You Be My Snowflake?' video, with perhaps a memory of 'The Clangers' and yesterday's film inspiring me. I simply set up Snowy in a few interesting posed and make him jump to the music, with a few simple scene changes for different song sections. It works surprisingly well.

All three videos are now complete in draft, but there's probably more polish I can add.

Another Violet Night Music Pack, Snowflake Videos

Started the day by finalising the Flatspace Another Violet Night Music Pack, then work on the three 'Snowflake' videos. 'You're My Candy Cane' and 'Heaven's Day' are largely done, though my original plan calls for some video on Candy Cane. 'Heaven's Day' is surprisingly evocative despite being little more than fog and camera movements. I originally added some images but they tended to spoil the mental imagery of the song; of course they'd never match that. I've made a quick start on Snowflake, a new intro, but am still musing on the best way to do it.

My mouth aches aches, and I feel tired tired. Tired and weary, but I must do my best each day. I sang well yesterday and managed by 52 sit-ups today. I keep feeling like Logan in the film, healing more slowly with each passing day, month, year. Harder and harder to maintain and grow. Heal I must. Grow I must. Onwards we roll our heavy rock.

Making Snowy

Spent much of today creating this fellow for the forthcoming video for 'Will You Be My Snowflake?'. I had a plan for a much simpler digital video, but the idea of a snowman came to be a seemed to be ideal.

My original idea was to photograph the different parts; body, head, hat, and background, and animate each separately in Argus. This worked, but looked rather digital and artificial, slightly less cute, not helped by the dark outer edges.

It has the advantage, however, of gliding and dancing exactly to the music, but only with this viewpoint, I'd have to rephotograph each part for different parts of the song. I'm thinking that a series of full scene photos may work better, like the old 'Jarre's Party' video. While musing on this I finalised the music for a new Flatspace Music Pack, for Another Violet Night

In the evening I sang to Queen songs, and managed the notes of songs like 'Breakthrough' and 'The Show Must Go On'. I can imagine doing this often and growing stronger, but growing stronger seems to be much harder, to take longer and be much harder to maintain, after 50. Yet, this is possible.