Former New Order and Joy Division bassist Peter Hook blasted the use of AI in songwriting in a new interview. Speaking with the XS Noize podcast, Hook cited David Bowie as an example of the heights AI will never reach. “When you look at someone as good as David Bowie at writing songs and marvel,” Hook said. “‘Drive-in Saturday,’ ‘The Prettiest Star.’ The guy was a genius. Songwriting is an art you cannot teach. AI is proof… Every AI song that has ever been written is shit.”
“They’re crap because there’s something intangible that human beings have that a song captures,” Hook added.
Hook joins artists like Nick Cave who have taken a stance against AI-generated music. Cave, who previously said he’d like ChatGPT to “just fuck off and leave songwriting alone,” more recently told The Australian he thinks AI will have a “humiliating effect” on the creative industries. “Its intent is to completely sidestep the sort of inconvenience of the artistic struggle, going straight to the commodity, which reflects on us, what we are, as human beings, which is just things that consume stuff,” he said. “We don’t make things anymore. We just consume stuff. It’s frightening.”
“I’m an enormously optimistic person about the world in general, but I think the demoralising effect or the humiliating effect that AI will have on us as a species, it will stop us caring about something like the artistic struggle that we will just accept what is fed to us through these things,” Nick told The Australian., adding, “I find it all unbelievably disturbing. I’m not worried about my own job or something like that about being replaced or something. Just what it’s saying about us as human beings.”
Hook, meanwhile, will be on a North American tour in the fall, playing both the New Order Substance and Joy Division Substance singles compilations in full, and including an NYC show at Brooklyn Steel on September 6. See all dates below.
PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT: 2024 TOUR DATES
AUG 18 – Rewind Festival South, Henley, UK.
AUG 22 – Solfest, Cumbria, UK.
AUG 27 – Audio, São Paulo, Brazil.
AUG 29 – Pabellon Oeste, Mexico City, Mexico.
AUG 31 – History, Toronto, ON, Canada.
SEP 01 – 9:30 Club, Washington, DC, USA.
SEP 03 – Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA, USA.
SEP 04 – Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
SEP 06 – Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
SEP 07 – Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL, USA.
SEP 10 – Royal Oak Music Theatre, Detroit, MI, USA.
SEP 11 – Far Out Lounge & Stage, Austin, TX, USA.
SEP 13 – House of Blues, Houston, TX, USA.
SEP 14 – House of Blues, Dallas, TX, USA.
SEP 16 – Humphrey’s Concerts By The Bay, San Diego, CA, USA.
SEP 17 – The Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
SEP 20 – Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
SEP 21 – The Warfield, San Francisco, CA, USA.
SEP 23 – Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
SEP 25 – The Showbox, Seattle, WA, USA.
SEP 26 – Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR, USA.
SEP 28 – The Ogden Theatre, Denver, CO, USA.
OCT 10 – Barbican, York, UK.
OCT 11 – O2 Academy, Glasgow, UK.
OCT 12 – The Fire Station, Sunderland, UK.
OCT 17 – Parr Hall, Warrington, UK.
OCT 18 – Rock City, Nottingham, UK.
OCT 19 – O2 Academy, Oxford, UK.
OCT 24 – Dreamland, Margate, UK.
OCT 25 – O2 Institute, Birmingham, UK.
OCT 26 – The LCR, Norwich, UK.
OCT 31 – King George’s Hall, Blackburn, UK.
NOV 01 – Saint George’s Hall, Bradford, UK.
NOV 02 – Tomorrow’s Ghosts Festival, Whitby, UK.
NOV 07 – Cheese & Grain, Frome, UK.
NOV 08 – Tramshed, Cardiff, UK.
NOV 09 – De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK.
NOV 14 – Telegraph Building, Belfast, UK.
NOV 15 – 3Olympia, Dublin, Ireland.
NOV 16 – Leisureland, Galway, Ireland.