HOLLY HERNDON
The US musician on why an AI bandmate trumps the human kind
It’s not really doing down other computerbased musicians to suggest that Berlinbased, Tennessee-born Holly Herndon is a computer musician par excellence. With a CV to make you weep, this respected Stanford academic of all things musical probably didn’t need to bother topping it off by making one of the most critically lauded, technically complex – and somehow deeply human – albums of the past few years. But she went ahead and did it anyway.
Herndon is quick to point out that her most recent album, Proto, is actually the work of a ragtag cast of characters akin to something out of a sci-fi novel: chiefly herself, collaborators Mat Dryhurst, AI expert Jules LaPlace… and a personified AI programme named Spawn, aka a DIY, neural network-based piece of software housed in a “souped-up gaming PC”.
In fact Proto’s background is so rich – and endlessly fascinating – that we concur that it fully deserved its own podcast. We caught up with Herndon mid-lockdown to hear more…
: Firstly, given the circumstances, how are you doing?
HH: “Well, I’m used to working from home, in
Berlin, but of course our entire concert season has been obliterated which is very sad.”
: Has it affected other plans too? HH: “It’s been majorly disruptive. Any plans to go anywhere and do site-specific work. But like I say, I’m fortunate enough to be able to accomplish a lot from my studio. My partner and I have actually been wanting to start a podcast for a long time [the first few episodes, out now,
are available on Patreon]. Because so much of what we do is research-based, the album is just one piece of a much bigger project – the music industry-facing side. Conversations are sometimes the best way. We were always travelling too much to put it together. This has forced us into doing something we’ve been wanting to do a long time. So it’s a silver lining!”
There is definitely so much extra to be said about what you do behind the scenes!
HH: “It’s really hard with music because it’s an abstract language. It’s not writing an essay. There is so much we want to share. There are so many smart and interesting researchers who we come across. We feel like a musical audience may not be familiar with them. I don’t see the ideation as something that happens in isolation. It’s not about a lone genius on a mountain top. I don’t buy into that a lot.”
: How does one of your projects get started? They are so vast in scope, so we appreciate that that’s a big question!
HH: “There’s a lot of stumbling in the dark. It’s a process of whittling away at it. I always return to a community of thinkers for different takes. It’s a matter of trying not to accept the surface argument. When it came to machine learning it was about creating a counter narrative. How is our way of thinking about technology framed by our history? It’s a matter of researching and whittling away. It’s often a cloud of references and thought processes that becomes a piece of art. It can be very frustrating. Almost like hell at times actually! [laughs]”
: Coming from an academic background, is it a bit like doing a PhD?
HH: “Yes, it’s about trying to contribute something to a conversation, rather than doing something that’s already been done. And hopefully coming up with some original thoughts. Making our own tools has been a big