Why (Make) Music?
Clever AI summary (No copy, paste; No time to waste):
Mike Mills didn’t ease into music—he was dragged in by the wail of Hendrix’s guitar and the ache of The Wall at nine years old. It never let go.
It won't.
Now, as machines inch closer to pantomiming the human condition, he’s joining the line. Reduction in Force is more than a band name—it’s an act of human creation before the gates close. A seismic RiF(t) in the making.
No shortcuts. No filters. Just one human’s full-body attempt to make something real while it still matters.
A Second Act - because humans matter in the Age of Impersonation (AI).
Why love music? Music has always been my first love. I was born to Woodstock on the TV in a military hospital (so they say - 'battle born and ready to rock'). My first emblematic memory was also from Woodstock - I heard these horribly terrifying and beautiful mechanical shrieks and moans of something vaguely 'familiar' emanating from the living room. The distorted sonic tractor beam summoned me. It was Jimi Hendrix absolutely eviscerating The Star Spangled Banner. And then, the full weight of what was possible with music when, at nine (yes nine, please don't call child protective services on my dad -- I'm fine), I mind melded with The Wall by Pink Floyd. There are no words for that experience - It's still inside me today as powerful as it was when, yes, I was nine. I could add a thousand more vignettes just like those, but you get the picture.
Why make music? My Christmas present around 8 or 9 was an electric guitar - grace of Jimi's Hendrix's Woodstock performance. My dad also loves music - he aches to have those around him love it as much as he does. Perhaps there's an expectation that the love will be on his terms (check yourself, we all expect the same) but buried beneath he understands that all love of music is a good thing. This guitar was a Christmas present directly from the heart. I, being a kid and particularly me, realized nothing and fizzled out before I even learned my first bar chord.
Fast forward to senior year of college - the most fun freaking year in existence. I said screw it - just lean in to the guilt and add a dash of inner desire -- buy a damn guitar. I did. Outside of the wife and kids, best decision I ever made. I see you wanting to call BS just a little bit - don't do it; it's true. I got a two-fer - reconciliation with the past and a lifelong companion that never stops giving. My dad got his original wish - his son solidifying a lifelong love affair with music.
Why make music now? This is my analogy - In the mid to late 1800s, the Wild West was closing its doors. People ventured out to either take in the beauty, strike gold, or sell shovels to those doing both. It was now or never stakes. Today, music is at a crossroads and the doors are almost shut. The landscape is changing. I felt it - in the music I heard, in the YouTube videos I streamed, in the stories I read and in the ads I was force fed. AI is not just a tool, it can, and will, be used as a replacement mechanism. For ALL of it.
Music is by definition a human endeavor. Why? Because the point of music (and effectively all art) is to convey emotion, not provide an emotional proxy of an 'even better' emotional state that ‘could be’ if we only allowed AI to guide us there. Make no mistake- music will survive, but humans may/will no longer be at the helm of creation. I am taking my turn at the wheel before it's lost.
A quick word to those "we've had technological achievements before, music already is a wasteland of hacks using cheats to produce their music" - yes, we've had tools. Tools are golden. Outright replacement is the death knell. It's not hard to see the evolution of music and music technology from early man to today. Those tools expanded the human creator's ability to express. AI or any other pseudonym for the concept of replacing any and all action by the creator is exactly that -- a wholesale gutting of the human condition as expressed in music. So we understand something - this is happening NOW. People today are feeding in prompts for AI to generate music that is then made available on services like Spotify. Yippee!
That is why I started Reduction in Force: to experience the entire music-making process—songwriting, arranging, performance, production and promotion/marketing— so I could understand what it means to create and release something, start to finish. That's why I put my heart and soul into making a "radio ready" anthemic alternative rock song (lyrics, arrangement, guitar, singing, etc.). That's why I surrounded myself with another amazingly talented human Producer named Alex Aldi to extract the best of what I had in me. That's why I listened to my not-so-amazing voice for two years and worked my ass off instead of buying a rocker AI singing pack named "Johnny" to present a fake voice to you all. Be clear, I am not claiming that I didn't use tools. What I am saying is that I assure you a very real human was absolutely behind every aspect of this production.
Okay, that got intense. Breath taken.
What I've done is neither amazing nor noble. I had no choice. This is what I have to do and this is what I love to do. What is new is that I am sharing it with you all. Why (Share) Music is a VERY different and MORE complicated question. I will, however, give you a hint - the answer starts with 'connect' and ends with 'ion'. It is the most human thing you can do.
A Quick Heartfelt Aside
What’s Next? (and each other RiF song coming down the pike - there will be more) —was always going to exist. It just took the time it needed to get here. Now that it’s in the world, my hope is that it makes you feel. Maybe it pulls you in, maybe it pushes you away. Either way, it says something (everything) about me and gives you a compass to find me on my path.
My bigger hope? That it cuts through the noise and hits you somewhere on yours. As they say, once released out into the wild, this song isn’t mine anymore - it’s ours . . . well the IP is 100% mine.
What’s Next? – Out Now - Links in the Comments
