Brit Rock might be more than thirty years old, but that hasn’t stopped AI from getting its digital hands all over it. Now a band called Breezer has decided to use the technology to replace their frontman’s voice with that of the legendary Liam Gallagher, the controversial British rocker and founding member of Oasis.
The revolution came as a surprise to many. AI listened to the sound of Liam’s voice and then used that information to adjust that of Breezer’s frontman. The result is surprisingly realistic and sounds like Liam de-aged around 30 years, reported here: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/.
The project was originally just an experiment. Breezer’s band members got fed up with waiting for Oasis to reform, so they decided to jump ahead and create their own version of the band’s music themselves as a comeback. Calling the album “AISIS – The Lost Tapes Vol. 1.,” it really does sound like the band stumbled across old Oasis tunes somewhere and simply included them in a new album.
Interestingly, the only AI element of the music was the voice. Breezer developed the backing and lyrics themselves – a human-generated element. However, that hasn’t stopped the music from being controversial. AI could potentially create an infinite number of songs in the style of Oasis without having to be either Liam or Noel Gallagher, or any other member of the band. This capability has led some to worry that AI might replace other musicians in the industry by potentially churning out endless albums. In fact, something similar is happening already and has forced Apple iTunes to act by banning such music from its platform.
Breezer generally did a good job of making the backing sound similar to Oasis without plagiarizing. If you’re used to listening to the band’s music, you can hear familiar elements from their 1990s albums, particularly What’s The Story Morning Glory. Breezer used a range of modern equipment, such as https://www.singularsound.com/products/aeros-gold-edition to achieve this. However, it also took significant experimentation. The band had to essentially recreate a 1990s sound only really found thirty years ago in Britain, something that required many tweaks.
Oasis broke up in 2009 after a backstage bust-up between Liam and Noel got out of control. Ever since then, Liam and his fans have been pining for the return of the Manchester duo on stage. Both attempted their own music careers since the dissolution of the band. Noel started High Flying Birds while Liam pursued a solo career.
However, fans were not particularly impressed. They want Oasis, a band that combines the voice of Liam and the songwriting prowess of Noel. And that’s why so many are pushing for a reformation.
Interestingly, that might be on the cards. Recently both Noel and Liam have hinted that getting back together might be possible and that reconciliation is on the table. This change of tone is an important shift from before when Noel repeatedly said that was out of the question. Perhaps the events of the last few years have softened their attitudes to the concept.
