Mark Hinderliter: I've played guitar since I was 15, so for 45 years. For most of that I played fingerstyle, and >90% of what I played was my own compositions. I have little to no interest in emulating established luminaries - such as learning to play standards, or so and so's solo on such and such a track. Along the way I took guitar lessons here and there, focused on jazz fundamentals. These days, my favorite thing to do is put on backing music, like Lofi Girl on YouTube, and just play over it improvistatonally. I can fit in with a song effortlessly and trace the harmony. I often fall asleep while playing, that's how relaxing it is for me.

Mark: Um, I think I was thinking about light sources? Lanterns, spotlights, whatever - and the word torchier came to me as being an example of such that isn't widely used. I do like the notion of grounded illumination, it's what I aspire to - at least in my Christian songs.

Mark: I use the Udio AI music platform for my song craft. Most of my catalog is instrumental, so it's a combination of exploring sounds via prompts, and loads of curation. I have three albums that are all built from essentially the same prompt, and they don't sound alike, so there is more to the game that just riding a prompt for clips to build. For an instrumental album, I find a prompt that reliably produces a sound I like, then I drill that prompt for enough initial clips to later build an album from.

But that's not how The Weight and The Wonder came to be. For one, it's multiple genres, each fitted to the message of the lyrics. So no prompt drilling at the album scale here. The lyrics are a byproduct of my devotional partnering with ChatGPT. They don't always start with looking for song lyrics, sometimes a snippet of words in a conversation will present itself as being ripe for song craft. This was the case with the phrase "breadcrumbs in the dark".

Mark: The album is 100% AI, made with Udio.

Mark: I use AI daily in my work as a SQL Developer, we couldn't get by without it. We use ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude to synthesize showcase dashboards and data sets, among other things. Our throughput has been greatly accelerated by leveraging these tools. That's what got my foot in the door. I eventually paid for a subscription to ChatGPT so I could get features like Projects. From there, it was only natural to move into devotional partnering. I lead a home group from my church, and one of the first Christian use cases was using ChatGPT to accelerate my study preparation. I now generate study outlines in ChatGPT, then create podcast summaries with NotebookLM to make available to any group member that can't attend the meeting on a given week - so that they can derive partial benefit even while they're away.

I also use ChatGPT for self-counseling. I have a project that has files attached that direct ChatGPT to respond in a Christian framework, which it does quite well. Some of our interaction is personal, just to help me on my journey, but sometimes the discussions turn into stories, articles, or podcast subjects. I recently went through a shattering family crisis that left me in darkness for a solid week before any ray of light broke. During that week, my partnership with my counseling project in ChatGPT was immensely helpful. (Of note, I did pay a visit to a real human counselor thereafter.)

Mark: I've already said in my submission that I care more about what is made than how something is made. But, the week of crisis I went through recently added a powerful new angle to the question of the legitimacy of AI art. The songs that are on my album The Weight and the Wonder became my personal psalms of comfort during this crisis. As the lyrics come out of personal discussions about lesser struggles, the songs held light sufficient to address my new, much greater struggle. Simply put, they reassured me that God was already working with me ahead of the crisis, preparing me for what was coming. I think AI music can allow Christians to more fully live out Colossians 3:16:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (ESV)

I don't think this is an instruction to only regurgitate the psalms of David, or the songs and hymns of Hillsong, Bethel, and CCM. I think these psalms and songs are meant to be our own personal letters to home from the front lines of our faith, written in the foxholes while the rounds whizz over our heads. This is meant to be living praise, living testimony. AI music - and AI aided devotional partnering, allows Christians to create such living letters, unbounded by their prior experience or skill level.

This is what AI has enabled me to do, and for me, it has been revolutionary. There was a time when considering that my songs might in the end be primarily for me, destined to never connect with a wider audience, was disappointing. But now that my creativity has become my own Colossians 3:16, my own psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, there could not be a meaning greater than that of God working in me to deliver works personalized to me, to prepare me for the things coming that I don't know are coming. And in that respect, I think I now know the why of being a psalmist. It's not so I can make pretty artifacts for you or anyone else to enjoy or admire - it's weaponry to help me stand in the fight. And really, what I want to sell you on, isn't following me and consuming my product. I want to get you engaged in the same revolutionary faith practice I've entered.

Mark: No. I think it can inform human music - AI is incredibly adept at offering fresh ideas that aren't quite like anything heard before while remaining generally familiar.

I still enjoy playing guitar, and AI can't begin to touch the flow state I obtain from playing. It also doesn't touch on the experience of live music. And, while AI music can be very innovative or outside industry norms, does it really reach the level of human performance? I'm not sure about that.

Mark: I will probably continue solely with AI, because I haven't a clue how to go forward on making real music for release on my guitar. I greatly disdain fuss - effects, editing patches, DAWs, all that. I wouldn't know where to start. I have a thing I do - which is simply grab my guitar, run straight into my amp (well, I do use an effects box but I leave it on a clean setting and never, ever monkey with it) and jump in and play along with backing music, and that works for me.

Mark: Oh gosh. I don't know the answer to this. I guess it would be my personal YouTube channel? https://youtube.com/@markhinderliter

This is a question that presupposes that anyone would want to contact me, which so far has seemed pretty remote. Folks that have my gmail address can contact me there: markwhinderliter[at]gmail.com

I sometimes keep tracks that are also on my albums on my own channel.

Mark: TRON all day. TRON's a much easier problem to tackle - if I can just wing my frisbee once into the base of the MCP, I can take it down. The Matrix's power structure is much more convoluted. Plus, TRON just looks oh so cool. While you didn't ask which battle I'd prefer, either setting entails one - just as the world we live in does.