Emerging artist Uncommon Frequency (ft Stephen Alexander lead vocals) has a new album out ‘Who Would Wanna Be Me’ read our interview with him below.
What sparked the decision to start making and releasing your own music now?
I’ve been writing songs since the early 1990s, but for various reasons, music was something that always took a back seat in my life. I guess that might be because I’ve always been a bit of a loner. I’ve fronted three different indie groups and written a stack of songs. Song 3 – While Others Sleep was actually written when I was at university in 1992 and Song 5 – Teacher in Suburbia was written in my flat in 1996 after I started out as an English teacher in west London. I’ve spent much of my adult life teaching and then later having a family. A lot of songs, stories and ideas accumulated over the years without ever really seeing the light of day.
The arrival of accessible AI music technology, and the fact that I’d fallen on hard times in terms of not currently having a job, changed all that. Suddenly, I found the time and the means to take the songs in my head, the lyrics and melodies I’d been carrying around for years, and turn them into something tangible. It gave me the opportunity to explore musical ideas that previously would have been beyond my technical or financial reach.
I started off playing around with Suno Premium and Pro accounts. I put songs I’d written for my bands in the 1990s into the software, and the AI sang them back at me. It sounded good at first, but then you eventually realise that AI is quite restrictive and the generic voices got on my nerves. At that point I was just playing around. It was just a bit of fun.
But, as I’ve become better at using the software, I’ve also invested in home studio equipment including professional microphones and a DJ controller. I’ve separated the music stems from the AI vocal then recorded and produced my own songs with my own voice.
I’m not the handsome spring chicken I once was, but I can still hold a note.
Are you treating this as a personal passion project, a major career shift, or something in between?
It’s probably somewhere between the two. I’m not approaching it with any great expectations, but I take it fairly seriously. Uncommon Frequency is a creative project for which I use music and video production as therapy. In March 2024, after multiple burnouts at work, I eventually got diagnosed with ASD (Asperger’s in old money). After such a discovery late in my adult life, I started driving myself bananas, soul searching and reframing all of my life’s past experiences through this new lens of understanding. It has not been easy, but through music and writing, I’m finding a space where I can happily exist.
Now, as I’ve released a full album and two singles with me singing my own songs, I hope that some other people out there who’ve experienced loss or feelings of being out of step with the rest of society through no fault of their own might take something positive from my lyrics and often self-deprecating dark comical approach.
How would you describe the genre, style, or vibe of the music you are making?
It’s difficult to put Uncommon Frequency into one particular genre. There’s indie pop, electronic pop, synth-pop and alternative influences, alongside more acoustic, singer-songwriter material.
I enjoy experimenting and moving between styles. One release might be quite electronic and dance-oriented, while another might be much more personal and stripped back.
Ultimately, I want the music to be melodic, interesting and emotionally engaging. I’m not particularly interested in fitting neatly into a musical category. Although, having said that, I am someone who tends to listen to a lot of music through noise-cancelling headphones on my own, and I love a driving bass line. A lot of the songs on this album have a strong bass.
Who are your biggest artistic influences for this new project?
Some of my earlier music was heavily influenced by American groups like Jefferson Airplane and The Doors. In the mid to late 1990s, a lot of my songs were originally penned as observational, lyrical poems influenced by the likes of The Divine Comedy and Jarvis Cocker. More recently, I’ve been enjoying LCD Soundsystem, Fontaines D.C. and Raye. Some of my more electronic and synth-led tracks have been influenced by the likes of New Order and The Pet Shop Boys in a musical sense. The lyrics are always more pointed. I like creating what on the surface come across as very danceable pop songs such as Song 2 – Artificial and Song 4 – Doomscroll Distraction Paradise, whereas, when you actually pay attention to the lyrics, I’m kind of cheekily poking fun at the way society is going generally these days.
What does your writing and recording process look like?
The starting point is always my own writing. I write the lyrics, and then I develop the melodies from there. I always have a fairly clear idea of the atmosphere, mood and the direction I want a song to take.
I work independently, using AI-assisted music production tools to help bring those ideas to life. It’s a collaborative relationship between human creativity and technology, although the songwriting and creative direction remain 100% mine.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into music?
If you’re a Billy No Mates like me, I’d say “don’t wait for permission, the perfect equipment or the perfect moment. Just start creating and see where it takes you.”
For younger people with friends, I’d say a similar thing… “Practise makes perfect. Get with some mates. Get out there and perform. There’s nothing stopping anyone from achieving great things, except ourselves.”
As for recording your work, the technology has never been so good. Everything that’s available these days for very little investment has made it possible for people to explore music in ways that simply weren’t available to previous generations. You don’t need an expensive studio or a record deal to get started.
Most importantly, don’t spend too much time worrying about what other people think. Just enjoy the process. And you’re never too old to start. My fourteen year old goes to a drumming lesson every Wednesday. One of his fellow students is apparently 63.
Do you have anything else you’d like to talk about?
I’d probably like to talk about the relationship between creativity and technology, particularly the place of AI in music.
I think there’s a massive tendency to view AI and human creativity as opposing forces, with AI always cast as some sort of profit-thieving villain. I recently read a very divisive article by French House DJ Louis La Roche. He raised numerous points against the use of AI in music production. But I thought he sounded a wee bit hypocritical. You only have to look at his Wikipedia page to see that he came to fame in the late noughties by sampling Michael Jackson in the style of Daft Punk. On the other side of the coin, Dr Dre recently said that the only people who need to be afraid of AI are the talentless. I’m not entirely sure what he meant by that, but I’d say that AI has helped a lot of talented people who would otherwise never have had the opportunity.
I think it’s very important not to get dragged into these kinds of social media debates. They’re very divisive, not to mention often ignorant and toxic in the commentaries. I say this because there is a huge difference between the kind of people the industry is cracking down on – those who fill streaming services with 100% AI-generated slop as background noise and seek to make money off that – and genuine writers, musicians and hobbyists who create their own songs on Pro and Premium AI plans and see the technology as just another instrument or creative tool. Just as sampler software and decks are tools for Louis La Roche, which were similarly being talked down by the purists in the early 1990s.
AI production does not replace good ideas, stories, human life experiences, or emotions that inspire a song in the first place.
I’d also like to mention that I’m hoping to take Uncommon Frequency out on the road, with live performances in France from June 2027 and hopefully some dates in the UK too next summer.
Watch this space for more music from Uncommon Frequency. You can have a listen to the latest album below !
