Latest / The Scene Projects / Larsette on Songwriting, Music's Evolution, and AI's Role in Creativity

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Larsette on Songwriting, Music's Evolution, and AI's Role in Creativity · The Scene Projects

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  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I am your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is songwriter, Larcette.
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  Larcette, welcome to the show.
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  Hello there.
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  I'm so grateful to have you.
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  We are spending quite a bit of time catching up, preshow because you're gonna be part of our
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  songwriter showcase program, one of our Nashville dates.
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  We're really excited to have you there.
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  That episode, will it whether it's aired or not before this, we'll have to see.
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  Only time will tell.
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  But, we're gonna focus a lot more on the music there, where today we're gonna focus on, the
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  songwriter and the human being behind the song.
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  So, Larcette, I I always like to start off the episodes with a little bit of your backstory,
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  and then we can kinda pick up the conversation from there.
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  So the floor is yours.
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  Well, basically, I am actually going to be 55 years old, so that's kinda crazy in itself.
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  But, essentially, I finally found my passion in my role, in this life.
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  And I unfortunately found this path, through some tragedy, and some heartbreak, that
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  happened within my family.
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  But, again, long story short, because of that path, I found this passion, this passion to be
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  able to share my voice, with the world and hopefully help somebody out there that is in
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  need of, some good, uplifting, music, telling a great story, and hopefully help them out in
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  their future.
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  So there is a huge passion that came out of all of this.
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  So I am just just so grateful to be able to have this opportunity to share my words with
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  everyone because the tragedy that did happen kind of kept me away from speaking anything for
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  a really long time, and, that's not gonna happen anymore.
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  I am going to share everything that I have to say that has been kept from me for so long, and
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  I'm gonna share it in my music.
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  So I am excited.
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  I am so excited to be able to let everyone, listen.
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  And anyone that may have questions about how the song was derived, how it was put together,
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  I'd be more than happy to share that with you because that is, quite frankly, the story of my
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  life, and a lot of my, songs will be written as parts of my story.
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  So it's kind of exciting.
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  I I I love that.
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  And we we talked about it last night on our live show, love noise, and talked about, you
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  know, songwriting often comes from a deeply personal space for all of us.
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  You know?
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  For a a lot of songwriters, you know, writing songs is a form of therapy.
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  Right?
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  It's it's how we, have gotten through the things that have happened to us or, you know,
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  through us or or whatever the whatever the case may be.
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  It's how we process our emotions.
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  It's how we get these things out of ourselves and into the world to hopefully inspire others
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  to either find their own voice or to work through a particular emotion or, you know,
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  situation in their lives.
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  And, I think that whenever you find that, it's just as powerful.
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  For me, I've been writing songs since I was a teenager.
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  But for others, it happens at a much later stage in our lives.
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  And now songwriting has become a lot more accessible to everyone because the the aspect
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  of the musical ability, has kind of been opened up to the world through AI, through things, you
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  know, apps like Suno and others.
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  Right?
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  I I know that you mentioned you use an a different app.
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  Mhmm.
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  But Mhmm.
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  That it it's now given an ability to take the words that mean a lot to you and have them come
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  together, as a true song.
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  And I think that's so incredible.
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  Absolutely.
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  I mean, when I was putting these songs together, Bubba, I can't tell you how locked
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  in, essentially, I was.
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  And then hearing my lyrics, my words through music that I I I love music.
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  I've always loved music.
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  But more importantly, I listened to music because music often tells a story.
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  So, yes, when I was putting it together and listening to the vocals and the music in which
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  I created to, through my lyrics, was absolutely amazing.
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  It was so heartfelt.
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  It actually focused me so much that I got kinda crazy with it, and I just kept pumping out the
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  lyrics.
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  But it is, it's different because a lot of people when you when you talk about AI music,
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  so many people come up with, well, that's AI, Tracy.
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  Come on.
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  There's no way that, you know, you're gonna go anywhere making music on an AI platform.
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  And I'm just like, well, you know, it's not necessarily the music entirely.
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  It's my voice.
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  And if this is a way for me to get my voice out there to be heard, then you know what?
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  I don't care if it's AI or not.
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  I'm doing it.
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  Well, hello.
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  I'm here today.
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  I'm talking to Bubba.
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  Mhmm.
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  So, yes, I'm getting out there, and I'm gonna do something about it.
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  In a lot of my songs, you will hear, frequently, the fist of strength.
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  Now that is used a lot because I often had to tell myself through this journey of the last
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  twenty years or so that I do have strength, and I'm building it.
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  I'm building that fist of strength.
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  So a lot of my songs share that encouragement.
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  Also, I talk a lot about the unspoken word.
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  So and emotions, how important they are to to music and how important they are to those that
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  are actually listening to it.
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  So if you had a little history about where that music was derived from, and what types of
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  listeners you're looking for, then, yeah, I mean, this is the tune for you.
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  So I I'm definitely into it.
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  I'm a little bit more than into it.
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  I don't know.
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  Is this a career change, Bubba?
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  I don't know.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, as someone who found songwriting very early in my life sorry.
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  My cat was literally trying to eat my hand.
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  I had to kick her
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  out of the studio.
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  Not to get distracted with you, but it is addicting.
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  Right?
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  One once you get those kinda juices flowing, it's hard to turn them off sometimes.
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  And, especially, I know what that bug is like to, to write a song.
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  Right?
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  And granted, I'm a guitar player, so I've always written from the guitar and from that
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  space.
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  But then to bring those songs to other people and to have them start to form, and I think
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  it's incredible.
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  I I find myself while, I mean, there's no money in music anyway.
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  So what what does it matter?
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  These artists who are getting
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  It's just an expression.
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  Kinda getting exactly.
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  And people are missing the point of being a songwriter, getting an opportunity to tell your
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  story.
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  And just because you maybe don't have the musical ability of somebody who's spent thirty
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  years plus playing an instrument and learning how to do that, your story is just as important
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  as theirs is.
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  And the Correct.
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  Fact that you now have the ability to share that story regardless of the tools that you're
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  using, to me, it's kind of irregardless.
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  I consider myself much more of a songwriter maybe than a musician.
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  So I I am able to maybe sympathize with that.
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  Now are you going to be able to take these out and to perform them?
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  Right?
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  And that's something that we're talking about featuring you on the songwriter showcase
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  program is, well, how do we share this?
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  What does this look like to be able to do this where you can't just sit down with a guitar on
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  a stage and to physically get those out there?
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  But that's not necessarily what it's about.
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  You know?
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  You are inside there's plenty of people that are living in Nashville that can't play a lick
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  of music, but they fancy themselves songwriters.
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  Right?
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  And they would call themselves songwriters.
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  And there are people that are published and are out there and in the world that are not
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  musicians, but they are songwriters.
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  Their words have impacted the world in that way.
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  So I don't know why using AI to be able to get the thought out of your head and to be able to
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  craft something, I don't know how that makes you any less of a songwriter.
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  And, you know, to be honest, you know, knowing that AI is out there, probably a lot of people
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  are assuming, you know, with writing songs, all you have to do is type in a topic, type type in
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  a a chorus line, and AI prints out this little song for you.
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  Well, it's not that cut and dry, and it's not that easy.
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  It takes a lot of time and effort.
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  You know?
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  You do have to find out what the best chorus is, how to use it, where to use it in your
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  outline.
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  There's there's so much more to just taking AI lyrics that are driven from your, you know,
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  your computer and popping it into an AI generator.
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  There's so much more to it.
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  It takes me a really long time just to just to create one song.
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  So and a lot of my lyrics did not come from AI.
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  They were up here in my heart and all up here.
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  One of my songs in my second album, is called my mind.
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  And, basically, just letting everyone know that everything that's created from Larcette out
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  there to you is created from this mind.
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  So it's it's very inspiring.
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  It's inspiring to me to be able to tell people that and to be so proud about it, but also that
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  someone can take such great lyrics, put them out there, and help somebody share it, make
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  somebody smile, whatever the case may be.
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  I don't care if it's through an AI generator or not.
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  The public is gonna hear me.
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  I know that, Bubba.
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  The public is gonna hear me.
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  Some way, shape, or form, they're gonna hear me.
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  And that's what it's about.
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  It's about the expression, and does that expression affect another human being?
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  And I think that's what's so cool about AI, music and these, you know, these apps and these
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  programs that are out there now to help people express themselves.
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  And I think at the end of the day, that's why I'm passionate about it because I feel like
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  everyone deserves that chance to express themselves.
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  Whether they've spent, you know, a couple of decades learning how to play an instrument and
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  dedicating themselves to that side, I don't know how to create AI music.
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  So to say that just anyone can do it is not true.
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  I use AI all the time, but I've never used it to craft a song and to do these things, and and
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  it would be a whole another learning curve for me to do so.
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  And I don't have any passion to do it.
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  I I don't care.
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  But I also don't care if anyone else does it either, and I'm not going to besmirch your
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  expression because I wouldn't do it that way.
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  Tools that I used.
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  Yeah.
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  It I to me, it doesn't matter.
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  And maybe that's a much different take.
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  I've never made any money in music, so maybe that affects me in that way as well.
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  Right?
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  I mean, I've gotten paid to go out and perform live, but that's the only way I've gotten to
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  perform, right, is live.
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  And I know that that's something necessarily that you will never be able to do.
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  Right?
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  That's not a part of your journey, and that's okay as well.
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  But you know what?
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  At at the same token, Bubba, I was kinda hoping that maybe you might be able to share this with
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  me.
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  I don't know what is out there in the music world today as it applies to, you know, not
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  being an actual vocalist.
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  I do know that there are a lot of artists out there that are not the best singers in the
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  world, but due to their producers and and whatnot, things are, given to those vocalists
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  out there on stage amazing performances without the voice.
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  So I know that there is things out there that can give me the ability to do that.
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  However, is it is it my destiny to be in a spotlight?
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  I don't know that it is.
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  I think it may just be writing those lyrics and having someone else express that for me
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  vocally.
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  Well, and there are thousands of songwriters in Nashville alone that aren't the performers of
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  the songs that they write.
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  There there are people that are out there writing songs for someone else's voice, and
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  there's a whole economy of that.
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  And it's Yes.
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  I'm hoping to reach out to them.
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  Yeah.
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  Well and and you're hanging out in the right place.
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  Right?
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  You're going to Nashville, hanging out in our community because we have plenty of people who
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  are performers that can't write songs or that don't write songs.
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  Like, are there they're more than capable musically of doing that, but they don't have
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  that creative spark to write their own music.
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  And they're brilliant performers, but I realize the more and especially having as many
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  conversations with people as I have now that we all come from a different place.
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  And it's very easy to get locked in and say, well, everybody's like me.
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  Not everyone's like me that sits down with a guitar and writes from the heart.
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  Some people just write songs to get famous.
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  Some people
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  just just write songs perform.
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  Yes.
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  Yes.
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  So we all come from different areas of expression.
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  We all have different motivations for that.
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  It's about respecting each other enough to say, hey.
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  I see your form of expression.
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  I respect that.
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  I appreciate that, and I'm not going to spend any time talking down or talking badly about
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  the way that you created this.
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  To me, it doesn't matter.
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  And maybe that makes that's probably what sets me apart from a lot of other people, but I
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  don't feel threatened by AI.
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  And I don't feel threatened by any other artist, to be perfectly honest.
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  Our journeys are all of our own to walk.
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  So how can your journey, you know, affect mine if only in a positive way?
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  I don't see anyone as competition in the music world, and maybe that's a lot different than, a
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  lot of other people would.
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  I know a lot of people feel threatened by AI right now, feel threatened by that because
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  their livelihoods are being affected, whether it's on the songwriting or recording side.
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  I know that people are probably losing work, but you have to be able to adapt to the world
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  as it is around you because not adapting is certain to, befall certain trouble.
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  Right.
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  And I have the ability right now to to do whatever it takes to get myself out there to to
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  make this happen.
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  So and I don't wanna pass up that opportunity.
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  So just meeting with you, Bubba, and just talking with you and and under your goals, for
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  everyone that's in your community.
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  I think it's inspiring, and I'm looking forward to it.
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  Well, I absolutely can't wait.
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  Do you have any music that's out currently where people can find it and listen to it?
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  Yes.
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  I am published on, just about every app or I don't even know how this all works, but, like,
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  Spotify, Amazon Music, TikTok, YouTube.
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  Just the only place I have not yet to conquer is Apple Music, but everything is out there.
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  My first album, it's called, strength and love.
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  There are 10 tracks to that album.
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  And definitely get out there and listen to it because let me tell you, you are not going to
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  be disappointed.
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  It's great lyrics.
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  It's great music.
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  And, and I hope it is inspiring for you in in any way possible.
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  And all of that can be found under the name Larcette?
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  It can be.
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  Larsette.
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  I'm not that's that's essentially my stage name, at this point.
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  So, because I have, you know, I'm known well in the area because of the work that I do.
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  I'm also just one of those people that just likes to talk to everyone, and I smile all the
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  time, hence the wrinkles.
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  But, yes, I I just love being out there.
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  I love talking.
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  And social media.
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  I I I you'll find me on social media everywhere.
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  I'm trying.
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  Fantastic.
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  Well, I know single handedly how hard it is, and I've I've been here.
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  I've been songwriting for twenty five plus years, and now we've been podcasting for going
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  on two years as well and building up this platform to support expression at the end of
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  the day.
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  It's not just about the artist or the the music that they play.
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  We are a in every way, a genre less show, which may hurt us on, you know, some platforms
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  because they want everybody wants you to be so niche and to be in your lane, and I just
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  refuse.
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  I'm going to be me.
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  And if people are going to accept that, then fantastic.
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  And if not, I probably won't remember you anyway.
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  So Exactly.
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  I really appreciate you, Larcette, for joining us today.
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  I'm really looking forward to meeting you in person down there in Nashville for the
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  songwriter showcase.
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  Mhmm.
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  Thank you for spending some time with me today, and thank you for being part of the scene.
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  Thank you, Bubba.
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  Thank you.
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