GT Or Not GT?

A peek inside how Nine Lives Lost uses AI to prototype real human stories through music.

Let’s get one thing straight: the heart of our music has always been human.

At Nine Lives Lost, every lyric we write, every story we tell, and every chord we strum starts in the real world — with lived experiences, personal moments, and that undeniable need to say something that matters. But getting those stories from a half-sung demo into a full track that people can hear? That takes time, money, space, and a full band’s worth of gear we don’t always have lying around.

That’s where GT — generative technology — comes in.

We don’t use AI to write our songs. We don’t ask it to guess what we’re feeling. What we do is take our raw material — hand-written lyrics, simple guitar or keyboard demos — and use AI production tools to shape them into working prototypes. These aren’t final tracks. They’re sketches. Test runs. Early blueprints. A way for us to hear what a full arrangement might sound like without booking a studio or wrangling five players.

The Process

Our process is simple but intentional:

• We write all the lyrics ourselves — always. This project is about the things we want to say. The focus, emotion and tone are 100% human and based on our experience or thoughts on a subject.
• We produce a rough demo or record light acoustic or keyboard demos to lock in rhythm and pace.
• Then we feed those bones into AI tools that help shape instrumental production and basic arrangement.
• We maintain tight control over the tone, rhythm, pace, and emotional atmosphere.
• The vocal melodies are guided by us, but often nudged by AI — it sometimes surprises us in good ways.
• We sometimes add real instruments or vocals to the prototypes.
• If a prototype resonates, we will aim to re-record it ourselves or with live musicians at some point in the future.

The end result? A collection of demo-level tracks that sound far more polished than they have any right to — giving us the space to test ideas, try alternate moods, and build our sound without burning out.

Why We Do It

We’re not trying to trick anyone. The tracks we release using AI are labeled as such and will never be the final version if they end up meaning something to us — or to you. They are a means to stay creative, not a replacement for real musicianship.

In a world where most independent artists are juggling full-time jobs, families, and rent, AI is a compromise — not a shortcut. It helps small teams like ours get further down the track (pun intended) without giving up what matters: the story, the soul, the honesty.

And that’s the thing — we let AI assist, but never lead. Every Nine Lives Lost song is born from truth. Every lyric is real. Every melody starts with a moment we lived. What GT gives us is the ability to keep moving forward even when the resources aren’t there. And sometimes, if we’re lucky, it even surprises us with something we didn’t expect — and wouldn’t have tried on our own.

So… GT or not GT?
We say: GT, but only with heart. Only when it serves the story. Only when it helps humans be more human.

That’s the Nine Lives Lost way.