Living Music Lab: How AI Helped Me Make Music Again

What if music didn’t need to be finished to be felt?

I’ve written songs since I was a teenager.

Some made it to the stage.

Some stayed in notebooks.

I never chased it, but I never lost it either.

This week, I made music again.

Quickly. Intuitively.

Using the tools now available to all of us.

Some of the songs were written and recorded in under an hour.

Some were built on foundations I’ve carried for years.

One was written by my dad in the 80s. I gave it a voice.

One revived from a band I was in with the talented Phil Crew.

I didn’t do it alone.

I used Mureka, a tool that lets you blend real vocals with generated instrumentation, whether it’s your voice, or one you create.

I used my own voice where I could, and a voice model when I couldn’t.

This isn’t new. It’s already happening.

Artists everywhere are reclaiming the act of making.

Music that doesn’t require permission.

Music that doesn’t need to be polished to be real.

Mobi gets it, check out his free catalogue: https://mobygratis.com/

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The Living Music Lab

This is the idea I’m exploring now.

A working title.

A living system.

A space where music doesn’t have to be static.

Where it doesn’t have to be final.

Where the line between listener and creator becomes porous.

Where you can say:Play me a lullaby in the style of Artist X.Use the name Jane.Help her sleep.

And it does.

In this space, artists can use real instruments.

Or invented ones.

Their own voice.

Or a model of someone else’s.

The song doesn’t need to be perfect.

As long as you enjoy making it.

It doesn't matter if nobody listens.

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I produced a few songs, why not?

They won’t win awards. They weren’t made for that.

They were made because they wanted to be made.

Here’s what I recorded this week under an album named Resonance:

Child in the City - written by my dad, Peter Forster

Keep Moving Fast - Music by Phil Crew and Lyrics by me, a long time ago

I See in Patterns - Written by me, today

I Don’t Love Me Like You Do - Written by me, today

And for fun, I put them into a little EP on Spotify (awaiting approval).

Not because they’re finished.

But to see how to do it, and what is possible.

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What’s possible now

This isn’t about AI music.

It’s about emotional presence.

Creative agency.

The kind of expression that doesn’t wait for the rules to be written.

The Living Music Lab isn’t a product.

It’s an opening.

Thanks to Mureka.

Thanks to Moby.

Thanks to everyone making music right now, quietly or boldly.

You’re not alone.

And your work doesn’t need to be finished to be true.

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-Layla

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