Grimes has teased her new album ‘Psy Opera’, confirming that she didn’t use any generative AI when working on the project while speaking more broadly about the tech’s impact.
The Canadian artist (real name Claire Boucher) released her fifth and latest full-length effort, ‘Miss Anthropocene’, in early 2020.
She has since shared a string of standalone singles, however – the most being last year’s ‘Artificial Angels’. The song was written from the perspective of AI, though Boucher clarified at the time that she was generally against artificial intelligence being used to make music.
“It’s only useful to me for novel/ experimental sound design were they to allow that aspect back,” she said. “Or possibly for more efficient advanced things like bg noise removal etc… Or for jokes. Otherwise I fear it is a bit slop oriented at the moment which seems like the opposite of innovation to me. It def has the capacity to innovate tho.”
During a new conversation with Interview, Grimes shared details about her long-awaited new album ‘Psy Opera’ – but said she did not rely on any use of generative AI to create it. She also revealed that the LP was “not quite done” currently.
Boucher explained that she had “totally quit music a couple of years ago”, and had intended to be a “stay-at-home mom”. She continued: “I couldn’t listen to music without getting PTSD. I was only interested in writing and reading.
“I started writing poetry, and then someone was like, ‘Can you write a rap for this K-pop artist?’ I started writing the rap and I was like, ‘This is too good. I’m keeping this because it’s crazy’. But then we had a problem for eight months where I was just a white rapper.”
She added: “Luckily we moved past that, but it was this really cathartic thing. I actually took most of the stuff off the record because it was violently aggressive.”
Grimes explained that this “aggressive” material had followed her “going through various stages of nihilism and vengefulness”. She recalled: “I would not play it for the public, but I could send you some of the lyrics. For most people, it’s better to talk it out in therapy or whatever, but for me, I just have to burn it off.
“I think that’s the huge privilege of an artist. Nothing can hurt you because every bit of pain you’ve lived allows you to make great things.”
Remembering how her approach had since changed recently, Grimes shared: “Then the last three months or so, I started being like, ‘Do I feel emotions for music again?’ And then I was like, ‘Hey guys, we’ve got to crank out some pop songs. We can’t just have an experimental spoken word album with biblical screeds’.”
When asked if she used generative AI in her music, Grimes replied: “I actually don’t use it in my music. People have really misunderstood me here.” However, she did admit that she used the Chinese AI model DeepSeek for help writing lyrics to a new track of the same name.
But it appears that AI will still be a central theme of the forthcoming ‘Psy Opera’. Boucher said of her process: “I was thinking about how everyone is like, ‘We’re building gods’. I’m like, ‘Why do you automatically assume you’re so much lesser? You’re literally responsible for creating AI. You’re abdicating so much self-esteem and pride and responsibility and agency when you act like whatever AI is, no one has a hand in it’.
“And I was getting emotional because we might really go extinct, for a number of reasons. Human life is very frail and time is very long. But I’d hope, if we had good relations with AI, they would take our DNA and make more of us when things get more hospitable.”
Grimes also addressed her previously condoning “open sourcing all art and killing copyright” and asking fans to use her voice to create new music using AI.
“I was like, ‘Whatever, use my voice, you can be Grimes’,” she explained, adding that she personally wasn’t concerned about people using generative AI. “‘I’ll do a revenue share and all publishing splits can go 50-50 with fans on blockchain’. We did it more as an economic experiment.”
Grimes did clairfy that she “think[s] copyright is important, but I also think there’s ways in which it can totally change”, saying: “And you can definitely be paying people for things like fan fiction. So we’re publishing a white paper on that now, because it’s a pretty good business model.”
However, Boucher said she was in favour of using AI for military safety purposes: “We need to support companies like Anthropic. We need to be aware of what’s going on, and why it’s dangerous. For the last six years, everyone’s been like, ‘Stop talking about this AI nonsense’. And I’ve been like, ‘Guys, we’re going to end up in a military disaster. Will anyone listen to me?’
“Not to be on my high horse, but this is the most dangerous thing that is ever going to happen. This is a bigger deal than Jesus. It’s the same as monotheism taking over the Western world, if not much, much more impactful.”
Earlier this year, Grimes hit out at labels for “now investing in AI” and using the technology to “use [an artists’] IP to literally recreate” them.
In 2024, Grimes said the use of AI in music “will probably shape all minds going forward for the rest of time”. She explained: “When everyone has the same tools that can make professional quality stuff, then you get to see the actual talent really rise to the top.”
Boucher and CreateSafe previously teamed up with Slipstream to make 200+ Grimes AI songs available for content creators to use on any platform, “opening up new horizons for artistic expression”.