Human lyrics, AI music builds bridge to dialogue

Kelowna's Richard Lamoureux has been writing poetry since he was a boy with a collection that now measures over 4,000.

In the lead up to National Day for Truth and Reconciliation recently he'd read some media posts where white people were denying what happened in residential schools.

"Instead of talking about what happened in the past and what impact it has had on people, there seems to be this idea that it was in the past and everyone should just move on," he said. "Denying the truth will only make matters worse."

After speaking with an Indigenous writer from Saskatchewan he put down the words to "One Nation," a song that speaks to the need for dialogue. One of the many profound lines from the lyrics is: "Before we arrived they were a nation."

You can find the song on this SoundCloud link.

Lamoureux said he gained an appreciation for aboriginal people, culture and art because of his mom, who was a collector of pottery and soap stone carvings. She had a deep respect and reverence for aboriginal people and their culture, something he shares.

But here's the thing: while Lamoureux is a lyricist, he admits he's no musician, nor singer. So he used an AI program to create the sounds around his written creation.

Kelowna10 heard about his song and connected with Lamoureux. Fully understanding that his piece could be construed as cultural appropriation, he wrote two versions, told in first-person and third-person, and let us know he'd very much like an Indigenous artist to perform it.

So, Kelowna10 invited local Indigenous artist, beatboxer and throat singer, "Poppa Nuge" Bird, to take a listen and give his thoughts for this article and the video shoot that accompanies it.

Bird likes the song, the beat, and the bass line, saying it sounds a lot like the music he performs. He noted , AI can play a role in music creation where outside help is unavailable or hard to access.

But he also highlighted some of the failings of the AI sound in terms of the artificial singer's voice (it sometimes sounds Country or even African), and the lack of nuance around the backing vocals and throat singing, (some of the backing vocals Nuge felt sounded more Australian Aboriginal). Lamoureux acknowledged there are limitations in the AI software.

Bird also applauded Lamoureux for taking the time to write about Truth and Reconciliation and noted non-Indigenous people "...definitely can and should write about the topic."

As for releasing the song to the public as it's currently produced, Bird said that "...would be harmful to the Indigenous community, but getting the Indigenous community involved [as musicians and performing it], I think would be the workaround."

For the short Kelowna10 video that accompanies this article Bird improvised on the fly to perform part of the song.

He and Lamoureux may yet put their heads together on something more substantial in future.

That's the beauty of dialogue.