Participants 2024
About the TEAM
Seva M is a Hip–Hop and cinematic music producer hailing from Budapest, Hungary. From an early age, his passion for music inspired him to create beats and tunes that reflected his own individual tastes.
Seva‘s distinctive style and orchestral arrangements make his music the perfect accompaniment for any occasion. Seva‘s professional career started in college, when he wrote original scores for theatre plays and toured Bulgaria as a sound engineer for multiple musicals. Later on, Seva launched dubstepradio.ru – a platform to help hundreds of other producers get their music heard.
Today, Seva remains dedicated to supporting independent music platforms, especially in the Web3 space.
About the SONG
My phone rang very late on a Saturday night. It was Henry David Thoreau, he just said “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them” and he hung up. The mood for scrolling YouTube shorts evaporated in a moment, and I started writing the lyrics for my submission to AI Song Contest 2024.
It is true what Henry said - I’m a husband and a father of 2 beautiful daughters and I have a good career, but family duties and a full-time job leave me with zero time and zero energy level to sing or produce music. It is my most favorite thing in the world, but I literally have to defy the odds in order to create something worthy.
I called Henry back very early on Wednesday morning to tell him my song was ready, and I wanted to give him some credit for the inspiration. He said he was confident that this year my song will make it to the Top 10 of AI Song Contest. Such a flatterer 😀
About the HUMAN-AI PROCESS
1. Inspiration, Concept, and Lyrics
Inspired by a quote from Henry David Thoreau in Walden (1854) “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” ChatGPT 3.5 was used as a co-writer, however, I politely declined every idea it proposed. Quite nice to have a companion that doesn’t get mad at you for that. Conversing with it helped me move forward with my ideas though.
2. Instrumental
I was listening to Jamiroquai earlier that day, and was inspired by the acid funk sound. I tried a number of music composition tools listed on FairlyTrained.org selecting the right tool for this song. When I reached Soundful.com and prompted it with the closest genre option I found, and the key in which I’m comfortable singing. The output hit the sweet spot. Genre: RnB Subgenre: Disco E major, 100 BPM
Vocals
I recorded at home (credits for the productive silence go to my wife for taking the 5-year old for long walks outside). Initially, both verses were meant to be sung, second verse was re-recorded as a rap.
Kits.ai was used to:
Convert my voice to selected models (took a while to experiment with a lot of them). AI accent was set quite high ( to prevail over my voice at the risk of mispronunciation. For female voices my recording was brought up by an octave (12 semitones).
Smoothen the volume and noise removal.
Mixing/Mastering
I mixed the track myself, inspired by Chaka Khan sound and Moloko. When it comes to mastering, I trust Bandlab Mastering tool to expedite the process.
Lyrics
Verse 1:
Most men lead lives of
quiet desperation
And admitting
It's a problem
Brings about a devastation
Chorus (x2):
You don't have
to mind the past
to defy the odds again
Verse 2:
Just never settle for less
than what you know is good.
Just get your ass up
And do what you know you should.
Just keep your head up
Get ready for a 10-hour flight
Over equator
And make it a life-changing night.