Have you ever had a passion project?

Something that burns in your very core day in and day out? An idea which you will see through come hell or high water? Well, I’d like to introduce you to mine. An album of my poetry turned int songs.

Yes, I used a program called Suno to make the music parts of my entire album. Yes, it is an AI program. No, it wasn’t simply a “click button, make music” endeavor.

I’m not here to debate anyone on generative AI. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and feelings on the matter. I feel generative AI can be a useful tool. I both love and loathe AI. It’s a very cognitive dissonance–y subject for me.

I wasn’t always like that. I literally thought somebody made a “make art button” and I was mad. I even tried a few of the first versions of those brand name generators. I found them lacking and laughed at them.

It wasn’t until 2025 that I started looking at AI generators and if they could benefit me any since they pretty much stole all my character art business. I needed help with setting up some fantasy character posing sheets. What I had in my head wasn’t available anywhere because these creatures did not exist. I joined multiple clubs in 2024 and spent countless hours on tutorials. Yet, nothing clicked. Most of the tutorials were based on “humanoid” figures. Those can help, but not a whole lot when you want claws, wings, scales and such that don’t really exist in nature in any shape or form. I also have a very hard time with spatial awareness. Sometimes no matter what I do, I just can’t rotate something in my brain well enough. That limitation is REALLY annoying when you are trying to create things.

Since I couldn’t just buy reference photos, nor could I copy someone else’s work, I took a few of the “free” generators out for a stroll. And, much to my dismay, I was a bit impressed. The stuff wasn’t perfect, but it helped me with figuring out ideas on how something might look. The sheets helped me where my spatial awareness failed me. (Thanks ADHD!)

Generative art was OK to me but didn’t hold my attention for long since the outputs weren’t really anything I would use as is. I was just meh over the programs. However, things changed for me after my friend started using Suno. They had so many credits they asked if they could make a song for anyone. I had heard about Suno and had seen AI bands already popping up on the internet. Suno songs were all over with the #madewithSuno tags. As someone who tried for over 30 years to find a musician to help make my dream of “poem songs” come true, I was intrigued if this program could do anything cool and volunteered. What he sent back to me made me cry.

I sent him an old poem I wrote as a song with some pointers on what I wanted the piece to sound like. The words, they had a melody built in and I could hear it in my head. The music part was something I couldn’t get out of my brain, though. It’s like the spatial awareness thing, there is a disconnect. I’ve studied music over the years, there are musicians on BOTH sides of my family, my daughter is great at music, but I just didn’t get that ability. I love music, but I just can’t figure out how to get it out of my brain and into the world. Yet, somehow this program picked up on how I thought the song sounded. That’s what blew me away.

And that’s it. From there, I went into ADHD mode doing crash courses in song writing and learning how to play certain melodies, mixing, mastering, and adjusting music. Dusted off my iPad and the garage band program, spent hours surfing the web on tutorials, and hours researching how to do things. I promise, none of the songs I made are simple “click click song” works. I wrote the words. I listened to hours of renders. I tweaked, and studied, and learned.

Crumble has a synthesized version of my voice singing on the track I added in later as well as some arrangement tweaks. I did extensive remixing. Like cut and move sections. That was tedious for me.

Ink & Static was arranged by me.

Wreckage has added in tracks to the overall song and my vocals again. I also did extensive remixing and arranging on that song.

All of the songs were hand tweaked by me to develop the sound I wanted…which was exhaustive. I thought reading my books over and over to perfect them was tiring. Making a music track is just as hard, especially when you aren’t a musician. And much like the time I made a comic book/graphic novel, I’ve decided never again will I try to make an album!

The actual process taught me a lot. I also understand how passionate people use AI as a tool and why they are so proud of their end work. Why it feels like the “gatekeepers” have been removed. Did I mention I cried when I heard that first version of my song? THIRTY years I’ve tried to find a human to help me make this dream a reality. It never worked out. But Suno gave me the ability to breathe life into a dream I thought was dead.

People will always complain about “AI Slop”, but you know who makes that? People who create with the intention to make quick money. If your intention is to study the craft needed to get the AI to give you what you want, then you will strive to make something good because you are treating the AI generators as a tool. Your intention is to make art and express feelings or achieve an end goal of completing a passion project. Therefore, in my opinion, the output of those intending to make art, even if they use the evil AI, it has a soul. It’s not this “soulless slop” everyone tries to lump in all together as.

Those just wanting a quick buck? They make the slop…and it’s not just with AI. The sloppy ones are those who will find any shortcut they can just to make a buck. Those people have always been around and after all the hubbub about AI calms down, there will be some new scummy slop maker pulling some new con distracting the world from artists who are trying to share true works. When greed is your driving force, you make ugly, cheap things.

I only put one of my songs on Spotify. That process was also nerve wracking and another reason why I would not want to do this ever again LOL!

I’m not here to proclaim I am now a musician nor am I out here trying to sell entire albums. I could have made about 1500 songs in the last 7 months if I wanted to, but that was never my intention. I wanted to make this dream a reality. I wanted others to hear the sounds I hear when I write my poems.

I’m not sure when the new poetry book or the album will be out. I’m having a really hard time this year with motivation to create; so, I’m just taking it day by day.

PS: The album cover and the song thumbnail feature AI stock photos I made. But that’s where the AI stops. I used my hard earned Photoshop/photomanipulation/digital painting skills to make the actual final images.

PPS: Did you know that if you don’t have like 1K streamers on Spotify that they don’t pay you for your streams?! Please go support your favorite independent/small artist by streaming some of their music. I couldn’t imagine having to rely on stream income alone. That’s crazy. How do people make any money??

PPPS: I made two videos…the old fashioned way with stock videos and such….again, I’m not making money on this channel, Spotify, or even my blog…so you can stream it without feeling bad for paying for AI…I’m not taking stream money from any of the actual musicians out there. I’m just over here having a bit of fun.