The raging debate over the use of AI in music has loud voices on both sides. Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan is now weighing in and drawing a hard line in the sand against artificial intelligence.
In an interview with the And The Writer Is… podcast, Corgan offered his stance, which is staunchly opposed. “You didn’t ask me, but I’m gonna make a declaratory statement,” he said. “I refuse, refuse, patently refuse to use AI in my music creation. Because, to me, it’s a deal with the devil. Simple.”
“Whether it’s the Promethean fire myth or whatever, to me, you’re literally leaning into the thing that will destroy you. Period,” Corgan continued. “So that’s why I’m not gonna mess with it, because the pressure, the inspiration, the soul searching, the ‘I’m not sure I got anything else to say’, that’s all part of the journey that a songwriter needs to go to.”
Corgan then offered an interesting example of why it’s important to him to make music with other people.
“Now, if it was the guy in my band or somebody I met through my friend Shooter Jennings or whatever, and we’re writing songs together, that’s a real person with real feelings and real blood coursing through their veins,” he said. “And maybe someday we’re gonna argue about a publishing split. But if we’re arguing, it means there’s something of value that we’re arguing over.”
The Smashing Pumpkins won back-to-back ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’ Grammys in 1997 and 1998
The Grammy-winning rocker went on to provide a different comparison. “If my new buddy, my new running buddy, is… pick your app, or app to still be made… that s***’s never gonna end.”
“I’m saying it’s good that a songwriter has a doubt,” Corgan offered. “It’s good that a songwriter’s not sure they have anything left to say, [and] it’s good that a songwriter has to think of a new chord that they haven’t thought of.”
He concluded, “That’s where the magic comes from, and until that is proven otherwise, I’m sticking with the game I’m in.”
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