Nick Cave has released video for the 40th anniversary of ‘Tupelo’, the theme that opened his 1985 album, ‘The Firstborn Is Dead’, and the news is that it has been designed with artificial intelligence, a tool that cave abhorred not long ago.
In 2023, Cave strongly criticized the use of AI in art. In a letter, he said that the possibility of writing a letter “in the style of Nick Cave” in Chatgpt seemed “a apocalypse omen.” Then, he pointed out that every lyricist who used artificial intelligence was “participating in the erosion of the soul of the world and the spirit of humanity itself.”
Who has convinced Cave otherwise has been director Andrew Dominik, who has directed a new video for ‘tuper’ in which old photographs of Elvis Presley come alive. Dominik is not anyone fond of artificial intelligence, but is director of films such as ‘Blonde’ (2022) and, in addition, he has been a friend and collaborator of Cave for decades.
Dominik created the video behind Cave’s back and, when he showed it to the Australian, Cave was captivated. It seemed to Cave that the representation of Presley had “a disturbing quality, as if she had resurrected among the dead”, and that the video was “a moving reinterpretation, with soul and absolutely original ‘tupetlo’, rich in mythology and an emotional tribute to the great Elvis Presley.”
Cave acknowledges that the video of ‘tuplo’ “changed its perspective” around the AI and that now it seems “a tool like any other.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xndm9w2f3KE
