'I sound mega': Liam Gallagher responds to 'new Oasis album' made with AI
By Elaine McCallig, ITV News Digital Content Producer
Liam Gallagher has shared his verdict on a "new" Oasis album generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
The "lost" Oasis album - bridging the gap between the band's 1997 album Be Here Now and their 2000 release Standing on the Shoulder of Giants - was created by indie band Breezer under the name "AIsis".
The 33-minute album features a backing track from Breezer, but the singer's vocals were replaced with an AI-generated version of Liam Gallagher's distinctive voice.
When asked for his thoughts on the project on Twitter, the former Oasis frontman responded that it's "mad as f*** I sound mega".
Responding to another Twitter user, he said he didn't listen to the full album, but "it's better than all the other snizzle out there".
The eight-track "alternative reality concept album" imagines the tunes the 1995 to 1997 lineup of the band would have created if they continued to write music, or "perhaps all got together years later to write a record akin to the first three albums".
The creators were "bored of waiting for Oasis to reform", they wrote on YouTube, so they instead employed the help of an AI-modelled Liam Gallagher to voice some of the tunes Breezer wrote during lockdown.
Breezer frontman Bobby Geraghty told The Guardian that to re-create Liam's distinctive voice, he trained the AI "singer" using clips of the real Mancunian's voice.
“Obviously, our band sounded exactly like Oasis. So then all I had to do was replace my vocals with Liam’s," he said.
Asked if AI could one day recreate Oasis-like music on its own, Geraghty said he doesn't feel the technology is at the point where it could write a song without a little help from humans.
“AI is still very much controlled by the user. You need to feed it exactly what it needs to replicate.... although, having said that, a lot of people have asked if the music was AI generated, which it’s not.”
Breezer guitarist and lyricist Chris Woodgates said that he thinks a more interesting lens to view AI in art through is how synthetic media can digitally resurrect artists we once knew and loved.
"I think what’s more interesting is the idea of humans collaborating with AI, resurrecting artists who are dead," he told the newspaper.
The use of AI in the arts is something that has divided musicians and audiophiles alike.
Nick Cave of Bad Seeds fame previously criticised a song written in his style using AI service ChatGPT, remarking it "sucks" and that it is a "grotesque mockery of what it is to be human".
The Into My Arms singer said "songs arise out of suffering", and said he believes AI technology cannot create a genuine song as "algorithms don't feel".
Gorillaz co-founder Jamie Hewlett echoed this in a recent interview with ITV News, remarking that music generated through AI lacks "the soul of the artist".
In a recent interview with ITV News, co-founder of virtual band Gorillaz Jamie Hewlett said AI cannot yet compete with the creativity of a musician
'It is a computer attempting to mimic what we tell it,' he said
But other musicians believe the technology is more akin to an instrument, with French producer David Guetta remarking that "the future of music is in AI".
Guetta, who previously topped the UK charts with When Love Takes Over featuring former Destiny's Child singer Kelly Rowland, toyed with an AI-generated version of rapper Eminem's vocals during a live show.
Despite the emerging debate over AI's use in the arts, the response to the AIsis album does however appear to be overwhelmingly positive.
Since the album was posted on YouTube last week, it has garnered almost 200,000 views.
One listener commented: "It’s like Oasis were 30 years younger and just starting now."
"This is actually quite phenomenal and scary in equal measure," another wrote.
Referencing the infamous rift between Liam and his brother Noel, another listener quipped: "I think you guys have discovered a version of Liam that Noel can work with."
Listen to the ITV News entertainment podcast, Unscripted