KNIGHTTIME; A.I. FURORE; VISUAL ALBUM

My invaluable Eggies. How are you all keeping? I'm in the throes of quite intense show preparations, but I wanted to send you all some love and updates. And also, to vaingloriously summarise my musings on an intriguing month so I don’t forget them.

KNIGHT TIME

This new live show has been at the forefront of my mind for quite some time, more than 6 months now, as we have been preparing it, doing it, fixing it, rinse and repeat. I’m honestly potently happy that it is nearing its final form. It’s easily the most ambitious thing I’ve attempted creatively so far, with more moving parts than any show with a get-in of 30 minute should reasonably be attempting. However, the knowledge has always been that if we pull it off it’ll feel a bit like an hour long magic trick. I have been building some gizmos in my bedroom (the gramophone monstrosity featured above), and I have commissioned some very talented friends and colleagues to build things (the robot and knight helmet, above). And the band are prepped for a show with three brand new songs, as well as some classics. All that must happen now is Inevitable Success (?). 

I’m attaching also the sketch I drew for the gizmo station. I wanted some kind of “Control Centre” to add some colour and sparkle to the narrative goings-on in the show, and I think this is going to be just the ticket. It’s got a functional USB camera disguised in an old Victorian camera I got off eBay. As well as several horribly glue-gunned-on Tesla globes. I’m embarrassingly proud of it.

In terms of the future of the show, we have some exciting progress. A UK TOUR to be announced officially in a few weeks, which will happen early next year. If that works, and we sell well enough to push it further - more shows ACROSS THE GLOBE. I’m feeling intrigued and tentatively hopeful of the potential to grow this show big enough to get a really juicily big tour going with it, eventually.

A.I. FURORE

I suppose I should also address Jazz Emu’s first instance of sparking internet outrage - mainly as I a journal entry to myself so I can remember how it felt, down the line: the moral quandary of A.I.

It was an interesting experience for me, generally being a generator of (let’s admit it) aggressively uncontroversial, barely-above-PG-rating content. Obviously Hunter and I are highly aware of the ethical debate around AI - we have been not been living under a proverbial boulder - and we have previously discussed its inevitable angering of some people with certain opinions. In the end, we actively decided to use a proverbial fuck-tonne of AI in that video because:

1. We both agree that the “slop” looks funny (personal taste)

2. It’s a great way of not having to spend literally hours photoshop/draw loads of stuff (neither of our creative skillset passion). Leaving us time to do other stuff

3. Whilst, like anything technology-based, it’s obviously ethically complex, I truly believe it’s not nearly as simple as the “discussion” in the Youtube comments would have you believe. Here were my thoughts posted at the time on Discord:

“Have enjoyed all these bivalent discussions about A.I!. Some interesting questions raised! Some fascistic stances taken on both sides! If anyone is interested in the Emu Incorporated stance… we would never pay anyone to create visuals for these miniscule flash in pan jokes, so no artist is losing out on a fee. We are obviously saving a lot of time (we are talking a day of photoshop editing realistically for that video). Yes, we are using a tool that has scraped information from images all over the web. And I do believe that big corporations with lots of money should try to avoid using these, and should pay artists where possible. And I take that our use of them is contributing a drop in the ocean of the movement of this inexorable technological beast. But, it should be noted that if I edited photoshop images together, by screenshotting off Google, as I always do, I would literally be stealing from the sole owner of that specific photo (as I have done on every instance in the past) to tell a joke. As with all these things, it would be totally in their right for the owner to come to me, lawyered up, and claim their 15% or whatever amount is decided arbitrarily in a court of law, for their ownership to a vertical video that has earnt me possibly £100 over a year if I’m lucky.  And if so, power to them! I stole from them! My point being, I regrettably would have stolen in the eyes of the law, irregardless to make these silly jokes for your entertainment and mine. And people are extremely welcome to stand against that, on principle! But, I feel that the act of creating is ALWAYS theft, to some degree, on some level. Ideas. Images. Shapes. What have you. I personally have relinquished my own art to this raging online river and had it copied, uncredited, misused, and have had to make peace with it. So! My gut feeling is, you can try to wade upstream in the torrent and get exhausted in the process. OR you can have fun as you are white-water-rafted inexorably down the ocean!”

Anyway, I didn’t really want to “defend myself” with a big explanation in public just to satisfy the gnashings of the Very Loud Few. Fascinatingly - as an insight into how online furore can warp perspective, to divide and radicalise - the video in question received less than 1% fewer likes than our channel's average. You would have no idea of this from the comments section, which gives the impression that the AI has offended half of the globe’s population.

The main argument levelled at me was “you’ll be sorry when A.I. starts making Jazz Emu songs!”. And fundamentally in my core, I don’t think I will. I think that would be absolutely INCREDIBLE - technologically, culturally, narcissistically, etc. And if it eventually steals my job, I’ll retrain as a geoscientist. In the meantime, I'll keep using money made on here my amazingly talented creative colleagues fair wages to do insanely complex video editing; and build robots; and craft massive knight helmets out of cardboard - and cut corners elsewhere. Arrest me! Good grief.

It was of course very tempting to make these teasing jokes in response, and stir the nuanceless fundamentalists further. But I truly value my audience’s support - it has sustained me thus far - and as much as I enjoy the concept of the algorithmic boost from all the rage, it’s not the sort of community spirit I want to nurture. And so from now on all of our uses of A.I. will be covert and conniving and slip past the attention of People Whom It Angers. If that’s anyone you on here - I love you so much, and I am grateful enough for your support to admit that my stance won’t be changing much until I receive stronger evidence of the Nuanceless Unethics of it all. So, if that means you must leave this place to placate your own ethical position - I of course will understand, and will miss you greatly!

VISUAL ALBUM

So listen. I’ve written a whole new album. 10 songs. 27 and a half minutes. It’s fully produced. Some vocals need recording, and it definitely needs mixing. It will be called Ego Death. It’s a profound exposé of the practice of creating art. It’s a powerful fragmentation of the illusion of the Persona. And, underneath that, it’s a bunch of songs about my life over the last 4-5 years, and in particular the last year, I think. Mainly, it's about love in all its forms. I'm trying out sincerité. It’s the most coherent album I’ve written, because I wrote it all in the space of about 2 months. I CANNOT WAIT to put it out.

However, it must wait, because Hunter and I are planning to film not ONE or TWO but ALL SONGS as a coherent visual album, that can be watched in full, and which we will probably sell on here for a fiver (with some freebies on Youtube). We’ll be filming a couple before I go to Edinburgh in August. And then the rest in Autumn. I want to keep you all abreast of how it’s all going. SO, here’s the sneakiest teaser, of Track 04 from the album, without vocals. What do you think it’s about?

Also, what would you most like to see from its creation? I'm hoping to use its creation to advertise some more support on here (so we can afford to make it more amazing. It would be really useful to get your feedback on what you'd actually like to see of the process.

I love you all lots. Creation is joy!

JE xxx