Hi, I’m not using my artist name (I even hesitated to use that word). My name is Williams, I’m French and from the Normandy region of France. I’m 48 years old, and I’ve been involved in music since I was 14. I’ve “handled fairly well” the challenges (which I’ll list) related to the acceptance of electronic music and my first passion: dancing (cf Billy Elliot). I found refuge in artistic expression thanks to the sensitivity that came from illness—very early on, too early.
My growth problems, caused by a condition called osteochondritis (I was only 1m10 in middle school), made me the target of mockery for my height, violence, and bullying because I was an easy target. My response was to become the class clown, the troublemaker who would do anything to make people laugh—something that led to academic failure. Strangely enough, dancing gave me the ability to attract girls I never imagined I could impress at the time.
It forced me to learn martial arts to protect myself.
A little later, because of the way I dressed, I was subjected to homophobia—even though I wasn’t gay or even bi… It was the beginning of house music. I was in high school at the time, and when I’d take off my headphones, punk, rock, funk, or whatever guys/girls would make jokes like “that’s crap,” “it’s not music,” “you press one key on a computer and you’ve got your shitty music.” And yes, it was really only the gay community that embraced it at that time, want to live this music you have to get into that community, oh by the way a super dope community, smart, funny, sure with a very strange sense of humor with straight people but non of the less, I always defend them - at any cost because I have so many great memories, yeah.
It was exactly the time where I woke up and I definitely go crazy with school and study, avoided the worst when it came to my future, and in the end, I pursued the studies of my dreams—except for 3D for cinema, because I couldn’t afford it. (Anyway, I could have been a garbage collector, a baker—it didn’t matter what the job was, as long as you can eat.)
Later on, I got teased by band musicians when I started DJing and playing in bars and clubs, replacing them because I was solo—and therefore cheaper. (Even though I never ask, neither devaluated the music, the musician, the instrument, quite the opposite in fact - this is sacred for me)
As I got older, I began to assert myself more, especially regarding my sexuality, and I’ve always loved house and techno equally—50/50, i rediscovered those music genre initially thanks to a friend, dj as well. At one point, I needed to distance myself from him because people accused me of copying him (mostly his/her fiends older than me). But I was younger—he was, in a way, my mentor. We used to go shopping music together.
And yes, when he played a record I thought was amazing, of course I wanted it too, and yes, I wanted to promote it as well, and so play it on decks in the same town. so then I changed my name from Willy (by the way never do that or you lost a big part of your real followers) to William Wild because I feel willy was my young era and I needed to grow as an artist and lead my own artistic voice and started playing more techno. I got insulted on the street, called a drug addict—even in the media. (btw. I took it 3/4 times to try maybe so anecdotic really)
No transition.
Then I got sick. The illness took 15 years of my life—right when I was adding the cornerstone to my career, which was becoming a label manager. With some recognition in the scene that I’d describe as pretty cool for a guy from Normandy. (Even if this label was actually a kind of passing of the torch from a well-known Parisian to two lesser-known guys from Normandy.)
So I can really relate to that thread. I feel bad on the shitstorm you get @chu and that why I made this little image for you. I think you done well to create a new pseudonym for this kind of stuff…
Anyway, I were in the same boat like you, recently, although a bit differently.
In the sense that I’ve faced a lot of challenges in a project that’s very dear to me (financial issues, lack of time, criticism, software update problems, etc…), it led me to reflect. Should I use artificial intelligence in my project — not for the part that matters most to me, which is the music — but for the visual part projected behind me? After all, what mattered to me was that these projected animations would somehow reflect the lyrics in music. My electronic music doesn’t convey a message, and I wanted to say something.
I had intended to talk about it with all of you on an old thread I had created on this forum, but in the end, I gave up on the idea (thank you to the one who will recognize themselves here to advise me not to do so 
).
I’m not the kind of person who gives up easily or is easily influenced. However, I do listen to good arguments, and I’m capable of changing my mind. In my case, though, the subject of my original message was clearly in complete contradiction with the use of artificial intelligence (and I won’t go much further here, because I honestly don’t trust in the goodwill of everyone — though of course, I’m not lumping everyone together in the same bag).
That said, I want to acknowledge that I understand the urgency of the situation. As someone who’s passionate about art, music, books, cinema, etc., it’s visceral — and the threat is real: it must be regulated, controlled, the law must evolve, and rules must be written to protect human beings, authors, and their creations. Otherwise, the consequences will be hard to swallow for all of us.
But still, some things need to be pointed out. Where were we when Taylorism and robotics killed our factories? Where were we when photographers replaced portrait painters and hyperrealist artists? Where were we when graphic designers replaced illustrators? When motion capture replaced entire teams of animators? When sample packs, presets, and templates allowed some to speed up the process of making a track? Where were we when dematerialization devastated possible incomes in the music industry? Aren’t we still going to see films built with barely any script, shot mostly on green screens with actors not even sharing scenes together?
I agree — we’re not dealing with the same scale here, and in this specific case, the number of threatened professions is so vast that we will indeed have to fight. But if we do nothing… don’t forget: governments, in order to stay in the race, support and invest in AI startups. Of course, that will allow them to be more effective in detecting irregularities, monitoring us, etc…
But all of this is part of a long journey that started long ago.
It’s our own reckless race — humanity’s — that’s accelerating. Do we really control anything? I don’t think so. People don’t seem to be rising up — maybe they will (I hope they will…)
Today, it’s a different world, that’s for sure.
So yes, @Chu, I hope you understood that this whole outpouring wasn’t personal. I myself tried Audimee because I just can’t find a woman or man who sings in their native African language and whose voice I really like — or who doesn’t ask me for 500 to 700 euros just for one track… (and honestly, it blew me away to be able to sing myself and get something actually usable for a demo).
But still — Williams featuring Audimee? No, that’s not going to work. In the end, I’ll have no choice but to find a real singer. And if I can’t find one, then there just won’t be any lyrics. Maybe as I move forward on my path, someone will offer me the chance to remix a track with proper vocal parts, and I’ll have the honor of contributing something real to it.
There is straight away too much stuff that have devaluated my passions, technology, people, moment in time - I was a tech person 2 decade ago, I think electronic music was the future, but it was just another set of music genre on top of extremely valid and valuable other music genre that I just like to listen as well as I like to produce electronic music. I feel bad for people who ever need to be violent when something fear them. But I feel this is the point where we have to change our mind about it. We probably can’t stop the train … but this is really the point where I feel like I will be one of the many Tomorrow John Connor.
have a nice day @chu continu to do your music with the biggest part of it, is you like 70/80% at least. and don’t have faith in the project : A.I Explorations as I guess people seem to not want it by the feedback they give here. But, maybe soon AI Robots will listen to it and you will rock as they totally will be mind blowing by the project as an early adopter, precursor … and they will buy your AI generated music and make you rich in crypto money, who knows tomorrow will made of.
Little note :
No need to bash me for that text if you feel offended (and I’m not talking about chu here, I think I made my point). I no longer have the same motivation to help others as I did 10-15 years ago. I feel like I’ve been here for too Long. This hectic era (money centric, covid, politics, ai… infinite list) we’re living in has taken a toll on my mental well-being.
Right now, I just want to focus on making music—that’s where my heart is. I’ll be doing one final update to my ‘definitive list’ posts, and after that, I think it will be time for me to step away from here.
I wish all of you to keep following your dreams, to be as happy as possible, and to bring happiness to the people around you who deserve it.
more than 30 years of my life this debate. Boring.
already sum up my feeling’s better than I could.