“This is a high-energy punk rock song with a driving tempo of 160 BPM in the key of E minor. The instrumentation features a distorted electric guitar playing power chords and melodic riffs, a prominent bass guitar providing a strong rhythmic foundation, and a drum kit with a consistent, driving beat. The song structure includes verses, a chorus, and an instrumental bridge. The male vocalist delivers a raw, energetic performance with a slightly raspy tone, emphasizing the punk aesthetic. The production is straightforward, with a clear mix that highlights the guitar and vocals. The guitar features a wah pedal effect during the instrumental sections, adding a dynamic texture. The chord progression in the verse is primarily E minor, A major, and G major, while the chorus introduces C major. The overall feel is rebellious and anthemic.”

ACE AI Ltd analysis of ‘Speak’ by Copter

“Rebellious and anthemic”! I quite like that! Almost 28 years ago my band Copter released a single called ‘Speak’. We made a pop video for the song with some final year students at Gloscat college, Cheltenham (now the University of Gloucestershire). It was a lot of fun! We dressed up in pyjamas and mimed the song at various locations around our home town of Bristol.

Recently Andy Stafford, the lead guitarist in Copter, played a prank on the rest of us former band members. He shared an unnamed audio file in our group chat, announcing “I feel a law suit coming on.” I played the audio and was shocked to hear a very convincing and commercial-sounding pop-punk cover version of ‘Speak’ by an American band. It sounded contemporary, plausible, and surprisingly good! I was gobsmacked and wondered what I should do..

After some probing questions from myself and the other band members it soon came to light that this cover version was in fact generated by A.I. technology. I wish I could tell you what ‘input’ Andy gave ACE AI Ltd to create the pop-punk version of ‘Speak’ but he can no longer remember the specific instructions he gave the software to create the mix. Further A.I. versions of ‘Speak’ then emerged from Andy including a ‘prog’ version, a ‘reggae’ version, and one I thought sounded like ’80s pop-rock.

To celebrate the 28th anniversary of the release of ‘Speak’ this June, Copter plan to release an online EP called ‘Speak vs A.I.’ containing the original song and the A.I. versions of it that Andy ‘commissioned’. Why bother, you may ask? Well, in this age of anxious debate about A.I. technology and creativity in the music industry – and indeed across the creative industries – I thought Andy’s prank offered some insight into the A.I. process and was worth sharing outside the Copter circle.

What did I learn from Andy’s experiments with A.I.? First and foremost, I was reminded of what a great song ‘Speak’ is! Hearing it all these years later, in a range of genres, the song still sounds fresh and the chorus ‘hits hard’, as they say!

However, it was amusing to hear a number of erroneous lyrics created by the A.I. tools. At times, the A.I. interpretation of the original lyric is nonsensical, as this example from the chorus illustrates:

“Love is said and you’re dancing the same thing too” (where the original is “Mother said and your daddy’s saying the same thing too”). There are numerous other examples of ‘mis-heard’ lyrics in the two versions of the lyric that ACE AI came up with. As I never posted the lyric of ‘Speak’ online I guess the A.I. tools didn’t have that information available to work with?

The A.I. interpretations of the ‘middle 8’ section of the song (where Copter pose in ‘jazz’ evening suits at Bristol’s Boston Tea Party cafe in the original pop video) are also very surprising – across all genres – with some instrumental playing that Copter would never have conceived of, let alone played. It seems the software collaged various musical passages from similar rock-related genres on the internet to create a bridge section that would meet commercial expectations for pop, reggae, and prog genres.

In this brief post, I have not addressed the ethical or economic implications of using A.I. technology to create music. Clearly this is a huge topic which is having a big impact on a lot of creators. I hope you look forward to hearing Andy Stafford’s playful exploration of A.I. technology this summer whilst recognising that without the humans making music together in a rehearsal room in Bristol during the late 1990s none of this ‘new music’ would’ve come to light.

The ‘Speak vs AI’ EP will be available to stream and download online on June 8th. To hear the original single version of ‘Speak’ from 1998 click on the pop video link above or click here for audio only (the same archive audio release is also available on all the usual streaming services).

Enjoy!