The Curiosity+Courage Podcast

Sometimes you just have to talk it out.Welcome to something new. I want to engage in longer format conversations with creative people within this newsletter—I want to illuminate how artists and idea people think about their process and work, and how they’re navigating AI. But where to begin? Hard to imagine anyone better than a former band and room mate.Peter DuCharme and I met in a Boston recording studio around 1995. I was at National Studios on assignment, producing audio for a client of agency Heater/Easdon. Turned out the engineer, Ken Michaels, played bass in a band. And the lead singer / guitarist just happened to swing by. And wouldn’t you know it, their band didn’t have a drummer. The marvelous Evelyn Pope joined us on keyboards and vocals soon after. The New Prime Numbers played around Boston and Cambridge in that wonderful era just before the smoking ban took effect. Many fond memories of gigs at T.T. the Bear’s Place, The Middle East, the Lizard Lounge, the Paradise.Peter, and my first wife and I shared a second floor apartment on Beacon Street, not far from Cleveland Circle in Brookline around 1998—the same year Volkswagen debuted the New Beetle. Mine was yellow, which I parked out front until someone knocked off the driver’s side rearview mirror. For several years Peter and I got to collaborate on all kinds of diverse music and technology projects at Arnold Worldwide as Volkswagen first engaged in the Internet. Peter composed and produced this infamous music track. And he helped us imagine RadioVW, a branded Internet radio station born years before platforms like Spotify existed.For this inaugural chat, Peter and I talked about the responsibility of creating, the role of technology in art, those “lawsuit-infused” text-to-music platforms and where AI might be headed. Alas, we did not discuss Fuzzy Slippers.Peter currently serves as Senior Music Automation Engineer at Boomy, where he helped develop LoopMagic, the AI beat and sample creation platform predicated on, and with the collaboration with producer and songwriter Illmind. Listen via the podcast above (subscribe via Apple and Spotify), or watch our conversation below. 🤖🎶 Worth noting: In a related interview, Semafor’s Reed Albergotti writes, “Will.i.am has been playing with AI models like instruments, experimenting with how to get them to behave the way he wants.” The artist believes the evolution of music via AI is still very formative, “We’re at Pacman and we haven’t even gotten to Halo yet.”Subscriptions are free, but your commitment is invaluable This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com