HearMe
The album was made with the help of HearMe – a new web and mobile application built on ethical and responsible AI practices to support human-centered songwriting. The app encourages and teaches users to play instruments, sing, write lyrics, and develop their musicianship and artistry. It also provides musical visualization and learning activities aimed at explaining and teaching musical skills and concepts. The motivation behind HearMe is to address gaps in current musical AI generation, which separates humans from active and meaningful engagement with music making. Instead, HearMe aims to support and enhance the cognitive, emotional, and social benefits of physical and active musical engagement. The app does not allow for text prompting, only musical input. The final musical product is all played and sang by humans as well.
Q&A
01
Why the name HearMe?
The name reflects the human need to be heard in a world that seems to move towards AI driven automation. It also refers to a proposal I wrote to fund the project titled “Human Ethics for Advancing Robotic Musical Intelligence” (HEAR MI).
02
What is the genre and mood of the album?
The album has a mix of indie rock and alternative electronic tracks. The mood is somber, driven by anxieties about generative AI replacing meaningful human agency and preventing explainability in music making. There is also an unwavering thread of hope throughout the album, I hope.
03
What are the songs about?
The album has an overlying theme that addresses a wide variety of worries, from as mental illness (“Crown of Stars”) and aging (“When 60 Comes”) through political turmoil (“Storm”, “We’re Done”) and climate change (“Autumn Wind”), to the obvious concerns about AI (“HearMe)”.
04
How was the app HearMe used in making the album?
When working on a song, I would come up with lyrics and a few musical ideas often played on a piano, guitar, bass, or drums into HearMe. I would then listen to how the app puts these ideas together and will use ideas from the AI generated composition to write my own song. Here is a short demo of an interaction with an early version of the app.
05
Can you describe specific song examples for how HearMe was used?
One example is the song "One More Things," where I left the original piano improvisation that was played into HearMe at the beginning of the song, before transitioning into a beat driven section that was composed based on ideas suggested by the app. Another example is the song “Everybody’s Talkin(g),” where I uploaded an audio sample of a failed effort to generate human speech into the app along with real-time MIDI piano and synth phrases that I played. The app provided variations on these ideas that were then put together to make the song.
06
How is making music with HearMe different from how have made music in the past?
I am a jazz musician by training. Most of my music so far has been in that genre. During the pandemic, my students and I developed a generative AI app to write lyrics to some of my jazz tunes, which lead to the album "Better Late." In HearMe I reversed the process: it is the first time my research has inspired me to write my own lyrics, and to collaborate with AI in composing music for them.
07
How long did it take to make the album?
The first couple of songs in the album were written late 2024 / early 2025 when I was working with my band Haafarsekim. Back then, HearMe was just an idea, and for these first couple of songs, I used older AI tools developed in my group for inspiration. When starting to design HearMe in 2025, I specified its features based on needs and gaps I identified in my previous research. The last song in the album “One More Thing” was composed in July 2026.
08
Who are the musicians on the album?
I played :
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Gil Weinberg: piano, keys, guitar, bass, drums and voice in all songs except:
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Sharon Solly-Weinberg: voice on "Storm", "We're Done", and "Autumn Wind."
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Guy Tesler: bass on "We're Done."
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