Creative Shifts: An Update
Vanauthor Is Back – Better Tuned Than Ever Before
Well, apparently the word “focus“ is yet to make its way into my dictionary.
I set out to make this newsletter all about my upcoming collection, “Written by a Poem“, but I guess Steinbeck was right in saying:
“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”
Because every time I sit down to write about one thing, I’m suddenly knee-deep in something else entirely.
Poetry 👉 Music
Lately, poetry has been pulling me in a new direction, and that’s music. Maybe it was inevitable. Music, after all, is the greatest form of poetry!
It has been a longstanding dream of mine, but I just couldn’t see how I could get into it without having the background. Until now.
In the past couple of months, I’ve been experimenting, playing around with some AI songwriting tools to see what happens when my writing skills meet the latest tech.
And though I’m against the use of AI in creative fields, I can see that it will be part of our future nevertheless.
So, rather than resist it, I figured – why not learn how to work with it and use it to my advantage, while the opportunity is out there.
Turns out, getting it to work properly is tougher than you'd think. Each song takes at least 300-400 generated versions, before I get to the sound I’m after.
And I think having at least some degree of creative input, feedback, and well, taste, makes me feel a little bit less bad about sharing creative AI work.
Of course, the lyrics remain 100% my own work.
The Future of Vanauthor
So, I guess this newsletter is evolving. It will no longer be just about a poetry collection, but about whatever I feel like creating – poems, lyrics, songs, creative rabbit holes I tumble into.
Which leaves me with a question – what do I call myself now? Poet & Lyricist? Or, if I stay true to my love for wordplay – Poët & Chanson.
Either way, my songs are already out there. You can find them on Spotify & YouTube.
Of course I’ll also share them here, one by one, and as always accompanied by my “Behind The Lines“ rubric.
Until then, why not give the already uploaded songs a listen. Maybe even a follow 🙂:
*Bet you cracked a smile at the nickname. Well, considering I use AI, there was no way I’d upload the songs with my real one, so I had to come up with something creative. And to make it clear, if it isn’t already – this one comes from a wordplay with my surname (Vangelov) & the nightingale bird.
Guess this time I’ll have to replace my trademark sign-off “See you on the next page ✍️“ with something else, because it doesn’t quite fit here.
What would that be? “Stay tuned”? Too dull. Oh, wait, I’ve got one!