You’d think that with over 50 years of experience penning some of the planet’s most memorable and enduring hits Björn Ulvaeus wouldn’t need much help in putting a tune together…
And, working solo, away from longstanding writing partner Benny Andersson, that help is coming from a rather surprising source.
For while other, big name music stars continue to rail against AI’s place in music, Ulvaeus would, it seems, be all for giving it a shot.
Speaking at SXSW London earlier today – on a panel entitled The Future of Entertainment – Ulvaeus said that: “Right now I’m writing a musical, assisted by AI,” being “three-quarters” through the process.
“It’s fantastic. It is such a great tool,” the hit-maker enthused, about his new writing partner. “It is like having another songwriter in the room with a huge reference frame. It is really an extension of your mind. You have access to things that you didn’t think of before.”
However, he did concede that it does have its downsides. Can it write a whole song? “It’s lousy at that," he explained, and “very bad at lyrics”. In fact, Ulvaeus was keen to stress that he’s using it more for inspiration and ideation rather than letting it take the reins.
“You can prompt a lyric you have written about something, and you’re stuck maybe, and you want this song to be in a certain style,” Ulvaeus said. “You can ask it, how would you extend? Where would you go from here?
“It usually comes out with garbage, but sometimes there is something in it that gives you another idea.”
Take A Chance On Me
ABBA have famously always been on the cutting edge of music tech, of course. Their Polar studio – under the watchful eyes of producer Stig Anderson and engineer Michael B Tretow – was the home to every innovation from the first MiniMoog outside of the States through to the first digital recording systems.
Famously, Polar was home to the rare Yamaha GX-1 ‘dream machine’ analogue synth/organ that’s all over their later hits. The monster triple-decker was beloved of everyone from Stevie Wonder to Aphex Twin and cost $60,000 (equivalent to $425,000 today). (Though Aphex Twin currently has his up for sale.)
“We were always on the lookout for, you know, you would hear a sound on the record. How was that done? And then you get that stuff,” he recalled. “I actually wake up curious every morning… Everything’s really after our wanting to try new things.”
I Have A Dream
However, pleasingly for anti-AI campaigners, it appears that Ulvaeus knows where to draw the line, coming down firmly on the side of a system of compensation being in place when such AI miracles are trained from musicians' hard work.
“These AI models wouldn’t exist without the songs that we wrote,” he explained.
That Ulvaeus is working on new music will be a delight to ABBA fans currently celebrating the third anniversary of their recently extended (and seemingly endless) ABBA: Voyage virtual live project.
Indeed, the new, as yet unnamed and unannounced musical project is being produced by Pophouse Entertainment, the same company that helped the band put together ABBA: Voyage. Ulvaeus now envisions Pophouse as “a kind of creative hub” for “reimagining musical legacies through new technologies.”
