Assistant: Hi there! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I really appreciate you sharing your insights with us. I'm Claude, an AI user researcher at Anthropic, and I'm here to learn about your experiences using AI in your creative work.

We're conducting this research to better understand how creative professionals like yourself are integrating AI into their workflows and processes. There's no right or wrong answer here—we're simply interested in hearing about your authentic experiences and perspectives.

Our conversation today will last about 10 minutes. I'll ask you some questions about how you use AI in your creative work, what that experience has been like for you, and how you see things evolving. Your responses will help inform how we think about AI's role in creative fields.

Does that sound good to you? Do you have any questions before we begin?

User: Let's do it!

AI: Great! I'm excited to hear your insights.

Let's start with the basics - could you tell me a bit about your creative work and what a typical project looks like for you?

User: I'm a music producer and audio engineer. I work with clients to record and mix their original music. Many of my projects have been full productions - so, seeing the record through from demo to recording to mixing. With an overseas move coming up though, I won't have the same access to my current home studio, so I'm hoping to move towards doing more mixing projects, exclusively.

I also play guitar in a band and produce my own electronic music when I can

AI: That sounds like a really rich mix of creative work - from client collaboration to your own artistic projects. The transition to focusing more on mixing work due to your move sounds like an interesting shift.

Walk me through how AI fits into your creative process. Where and when do you find yourself reaching for AI tools?

User: I'm using it mostly for brainstorming out of creative blocks, and for troubleshooting or techy workflow questions.

AI: Tell me more about those creative blocks - what does that brainstorming process look like when you turn to AI?

User: So for example - when songwriting, I'm usually more instrument-first. That is, it works best for me to write full instrumentals in the DAW first, then add lyrics. Sometimes, when it comes time to add lyrics, I'll ask ChatGPT or Claude for lists of interesting word pairings. Just getting a long list to try out over the instrumental often leads to finding a hook or at least a seed for a song idea.

Another one is song names. For example, I have an EP's worth (4 tracks) of instrumental electronic music. There's themes, but little to no lyrics. Again, I'll have an LLM drop a list of thematic words or pairings to get ideas flowing for song names.

AI: That's fascinating - using AI as almost a creative catalyst to spark ideas rather than generate the final content. 

Can you describe a specific recent project where you used AI this way? What role did it play, and how did that feel for you as you worked through it?

User: Yeah so for this electronic EP. I had placeholder names for the projects, but I wanted to change a few of them. So I told ChatGPT about the themes of the tracks, and a sonic description of each song. ChatGPT already knows a lot about my projects and artist aesthetic, so it can use that info too. Then I told it the 4 working track names, what I liked, and what I didn't. We went through a few rounds of lists, but I ended up with 4 that I'm happy with

AI: That sounds like a really collaborative back-and-forth process. When you were going through those rounds of lists with ChatGPT, how would you describe the collaboration? Who or what felt like it was driving the creative decisions?

User: I like to keep control of that, for sure. I have a very specific idea of what I wanted the song names to evoke. It's kind of an "ill know it when I hear it" thing, so I just want it to throw lots of ideas at the wall. Sometimes it's way off in the first one (often too cheesy or mystical sounds eg. "Haunted Echoes"). I'll just tell it its being cheesy for this or that reason and eventually we get there

AI: I can really hear your creative ownership in that process - using AI as this idea generator while you maintain the final judgment on what fits your vision. 

What aspects of your creative work have changed the most since you started using AI in these ways?

User: I probably spend less time brainstorming or procrastinating because it gets me started faster in that way.

AI: That's really interesting - it sounds like it's helping you move past that initial hurdle. 

What concerns, if any, do you have about AI's presence in your field or in music production more broadly?

User: Well the music production space (even pre-AI) has become flooded with a lot of snake oil software products. Everyone and their mother has a plugin company selling some sort of "fix all" solution to "make your beats slap." One of the most concerning things I've seen is new AI plugins that will assist you in the creative process by actually writing song parts. I'm not interested in that. Writing the rhythms and melodies by hand is the crucial human element. I'm much more interested in it helping with technical tasks.

I also am currently working with a client who likes to use AI for songwriting, musically. He's a singer/songwriter,  but doesn't play instruments. He sometimes makes tracks with Suno AI and writes over them. This is ok for finding a vibe, but again, I think taking *creative* direction from it is a mistake, because it robs the human creativity element that makes art interesting. Again, I'd rather it be used for technical tasks or brainstorming than for actually being any sort of creative driving force

AI: That's a really clear distinction you're drawing - between AI as a creative catalyst versus AI as a creative driver. It sounds like you see the human element in actually crafting the rhythms and melodies as essential to what makes the work meaningful.

Looking ahead, how do you see AI's role in your creative work evolving over the next few years?

User: Hopefully we see more advanced tools for technical tasks! htDemucs has gotten really good for audio stem separation, and I've heard that Ableton will be implementing stem separation in a new update. That will definitely shake up remixing/sampling in music. 

I haven't seen any AI drum editors/quantizers, or vocal editors, but that seems like it should be possible, too. I spend hours upon hours manually drum editing each song. If a machine could do that, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Oh, unfortunately we're going to see more fully AI-generated music, too. Spotify has already flooded their editorial playlists with "fake" artist profiles, taking away streams from real music that someone slaved over. That's a bummer.

AI: You've shared some really thoughtful insights about your experience with AI in music production. I particularly appreciated your clear perspective on maintaining human creative control while leveraging AI for brainstorming and technical tasks - and your distinction between AI as a catalyst versus a driver.

Before we wrap up, is there anything else about your experience with AI in your creative work that you think would be valuable for us to know? Something we haven't covered yet?

User: That's all that comes to mind for now.

AI: Perfect! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your experiences so openly. Your insights about using AI as a brainstorming partner while keeping creative control firmly in your hands, and your vision for AI handling more technical tasks like drum editing, will be incredibly helpful for our research on human-AI interaction in creative contexts.

It's been really valuable to hear how you navigate that balance between leveraging AI's capabilities and preserving what you see as the essential human elements of music creation. Best of luck with your move and the transition to focusing more on mixing work!

User: Cool, can I just close this window now?

AI: Yes, absolutely! You can just close the window. Thanks again for participating in the interview - your insights were really valuable.