Smash The Machines or Give Up

AI Accusations and What They Mean

A message I received a week ago:

“Your single cover is AI? Really? Can’t believe you guys would do this. Sorry, but that really makes me sad.”

Let’s back up and start with a little context. It’s one hundred years ago. Playing and listening to music, even mass-produced popular music, is one of the most popular activities in the world. Music draws people together, inspires them, creates communities and plays a major role in every human endeavor, creative and destructive. As it always has.

Then, the 20th century saw the mass proliferation of visual and screen media. Soon, inevitably, popular musical artists had to have associated imagery. They couldn’t just release music, they had to employ graphic design. Posters and billets followed, complex, artistic album design soon after, and then the music video. And now, in our screen-soaked era, the very idea of releasing a song without some associated video and visual content is completely incomprehensible to people in the music industry.

Let me state, for the record, my absolute unequivocal opinion about this development:

It is really, really, really fucking stupid.

Yes, it may also be fun and interesting at times. Some music videos are transcendent: Madonna’s Like a Prayer, in context, is an astonishing work of art. Pink Floyd album covers are iconic. Yes, yes, yes. But may I just remind everyone of a several key, basic facts, which I will compile for you in a handy list:

1. your ears and your eyeballs are different sensory organs

So why, in God’s name, do we require people who make music to also have associated imagery, fonts, logos and music videos?

I fucking hated making the music video for “Problem”, the last music video I will ever make. Instead of spending precious time with my far-away family in Vancouver, I sat around in a house with a bunch of very nice weirdos making a completely forgettable music video, all because well you just have to.

Now, a few days ago, we released the self-titled single for the album: Polka Pit. Because I wanted to send a message about art and imagery, I had spent ages coordinating with designer and embroidery artist Helene Kardos making sure the cover really communicated just how much we care about folk art, having her hand-embroider this incredible thing:

But because it’s 2025, all the platforms and people encourage you to upload a particular piece of art for your singles. A couple of fans had sent a concept of a traditional German-looking lady crowdsurfing in a mosh pit, and so the label ran with this concept and contracted a tattoo artist, Quil Seawright, to render it. We actually screwed up huge and forgot to credit those amazing fans, and obviously will do so (sorry again guys!). But here was the result:

And I uploaded it to all the sites, not thinking too much more about it, because the less I think about stupid fucking graphic design, the saner I am.

Unfortunately, as soon as we released the other day, people started accusing us of using an AI image. Now, I want to be clear, this is not an AI generated image, and I have the layered design files to prove it, but I get that it has certain features which can easily make someone think it is, particularly the similar-ish smiling faces. And everyone is talking about AI nowadays, and so they’re all primed to think it is AI. Seriously: Fair enough, I’m not blaming anyone. But I’ve seen the design templates, it really isn’t.

Making the music for Polka Pit has been an absolutely insane amount of work, involving long stages of songwriting, contracting of musicians all over the country, recording, producing, mixing, mastering and digitally releasing a song that is long, complex and totally bizarre. I have at all times struggled to make it completely clear that we love and respect folk traditions, that we want to write and record shanties, polkas and waltzes that genuinely belong to those folk traditions. My guess is that this album in total has sucked 300 hours out of my life over two years. And this two years culminates in a final day where I, again, instead of spending time with my family, am sitting in front of a screen trying to make sure that the release day goes as well as possible.

And an hour after I click “Send” on each of the 681 goddamned platforms you have to use these days, the comments start arriving: “Is this AI?” “Unfortunately this is totally AI.” “Makes me not even want to listen to the music anymore.” And a few choice private messages, expressing anger, disappointment, sadness. “Can’t believe you guys would do this.” Can you imagine how that felt?

There’s something that everyone needs to realize. So long as you remain addicted to your screen, which you are, you are already staring at many AI images per day, some even deployed or unwittingly use by your favorite artists. Very soon (maybe now?) there will be no way to “spot” graphic AI. There will be no “signs”, nothing for clever people to “catch”.

And so, there is no “solution” to the problem of AI imagery other than the one the Luddites came up with over two centuries ago: smash the machines. Until we can actually smash the machines (literally or semi-literally), the AI will just get better and better until no-one can tell. This day is fast coming. So, I think we should either start figuring out how to smash the machines or accept our fate. There is no middle way. And so, with all due respect for those honorable people who just hate AI and want real art to prevail, calling out artists because you think you can “tell” is just another one of those doomed middle ways.