Elvis Costello has a simple message for anyone who might seek to use AI to replicate and exploit his songwriting style: “There’s no money in it!”
While a number of prominent musicians - Nick Cave, Sting, John Lydon and Brian May among them - have expressed grave concerns about what the relentless march of AI technology might mean for the arts, creatives, and humanity as a whole, Costello is cheerfully unconcerned about the possibility of his songs being plagiarised by nefarious forces in the future.
“Nobody wants to be me anyway,” he tells The Telegraph in a new [paywalled] interview, “so I don’t see them conceiving of an algorithm that’s specifically trying to track me down. That ain’t gonna happen. There’s no money in it! Trust me on that. I live in a different universe to AI. So they can get on with that whole fantasy – get on your rocket ship and don’t fucking come back!”
The 70-year-old singer/songwriter might have fistfuls of classic songs to his name, and a loyal, adoring fanbase, but he insists that he's no longer competing in the mainstream music industry.
“I’ve been out of the pop music business for 40 years,” he maintains. “A lot of people think there’s nothing past [1979 single] Oliver’s Army, or they just didn’t hear it. I’m not sentimental, and I’m the least nostalgic person you’ll ever meet. I don’t want to go back. I lived it once, that was quite enough, thank you.”
Asked by The Telegraph's Chief Music Critic Neil McCormick what kind of musician he might become if he was starting his career in 2024, Costellu replies, “Strictly speaking, I don’t think I’m a musician now, after all these years.”
“That’s not false modesty,” he continues. “I wouldn’t get hired to be in anybody else’s band, put it that way. I’m a writer who uses music as the carriage to get the things over. If I was starting now, perhaps I would be less encouraged.”
