Keepers of the Light
Angels & Humans tells a story in four songs. As darkness spreads and the angels begin to fall, humanity looks to the heavens for salvation. Gradually, people discover that their own compassion, courage, and unity can restore the light they thought they had lost.
I use angels as an allegory for something deeply human: our search for hope, our dependence on forces beyond ourselves, and the moment we recognise that we also have a part to play. In a world strained by conflict, division, and the harm we cause our planet, these songs ask what becomes possible when we take responsibility for one another.
Faith runs through the story, including faith in our ability to care, to act, and to shape a shared future. Each song carries that idea further, from the first spark of resistance to the everyday choices that keep hope alive.
Where Hope Hides
When the angels begin to fall, the people below realise that even their protectors can fail. I wanted to capture that feeling of looking at everything going wrong and wondering who is going to do something about it.
The song begins with fear, but a small change happens as people reach out to one another. They discover that they still have something to give. Hope starts there, with someone deciding to help before they know whether it will be enough.
Hope Will Lead The Way
People begin gathering, lighting candles, and finding comfort in one another. They are still afraid. What changes is their sense of being alone.
This song is about recovering faith in what we can do together. The prayers carry that feeling through the story: people who had been waiting for help begin offering hope themselves. They start to see that they can contribute to the future they want, even while they are struggling.
Hold The Line, Hold the Light
Here, the hope people have been sharing becomes strong enough to restore the angels. The ones waiting to be rescued are now helping their rescuers.
That reversal is at the heart of the story. I wanted people of different countries, languages, and beliefs to recognise something of themselves in it. We spend so much time on what separates us. This song imagines what could happen if we put that same energy into caring for one another, and saw how much our actions could change.
We Keep The Light
The battle is over, but people still have to live with one another. It is easy to feel united during a crisis. What happens when ordinary life returns?
The last song brings the story into everyday choices: sharing food, protecting a child, making sure someone is not left behind. This is where the angels become part of us, through what we do. I wanted to end with the understanding that keeping hope alive takes care and attention, long after the moment that brought us together.
Exploring what AI brings to music
Recently, I felt the desire to come back to composing music, and new AI tools offered possibilities I was curious to explore. The album Angels & Humans grew out of that return. It gave me a reason to sit down, make music again.
I wanted to understand how far AI could help me realise my vision. How much control would I have? Could I get what I was hearing in my head?
I found that AI struggled with longer, more complex passages (no surprise there!), so I worked on every verse, bridge, and chorus individually, giving detailed instructions about the musical structure and style I wanted. I kept adjusting and generating new versions until each part fit what I had in mind.
I spent a lot of time on the voices. ACE Studio gave me control over how individual syllables were sung, and I worked carefully on the intonation, breath, and small details that could change the feeling of a phrase.
Altogether, I spent more than four months working on these four songs.
Is AI the future and why I want a real band to play these songs
I think AI is an amazing tool. It helped me bring these songs to life, and working with it has made me excited about what it can offer.
But even after all the time I spent shaping the instruments and voices, I still feel something is missing: the human factor. A singer brings their own interpretation to the words. Their voice might break for a moment, bringing something subtle that is difficult to describe but easy to feel. As much as I like the voices in these recordings, I could never get that feeling.
That is why I would love a real band and singers to play these songs. I want to hear their interpretation, including things I would never have thought to ask for.
I also think having access to these tools comes with a responsibility to put care into what we make. Being able to generate music quickly does not mean we need to release everything we generate. We should also remember that AI music tools learn from human work, from music that people have spent years composing and performing. Without that imagination and effort, these tools would not exist as they do today. That deserves recognition.
AI has helped me make music again, and I value that. But I do not believe it will, or should, ever replace the humanity behind composing and performing. Our lives shape what we write, what we want to say, and the emotion we bring when we share it.