VIOLET LEA
Updated: Oct 5
Singer-Songwriter, member of MADAM RADAR
"AI has changed nothing about my views about being an artist. Learn how to do this yourself, practice your craft!"
Violet Lea
Alex Arrezola Photography
Let's start with you.
Tell me a little about yourself and your relationship with music. What do you do, and what does making music mean to you personally?
My name is Violet Lea (pronounced "Lee-uh" you'd be surprised how hard it is for people to get that right!) and I am a singer-songwriter and currently play bass and share lead vocals in Madam Radar and a few other projects. Most of my adult life, music has been a means to an end for me but also a creative outlet that has been feeding me for years!
When did AI first become something you actually started thinking about in relation to music? Was there a particular tool, song, experience or moment that made you realize: this could really change things?
A buddy of mine used it to isolate a track for a meme and not only did it isolate it, it added a few seconds to the end of the phrase and it kinda blew my mind.
Do you currently use AI tools in your own work?
If yes, which ones and what do you use them for? This could be anything from songwriting, production and mixing to artwork, video, marketing or administration. If you deliberately don't use AI, I'd be equally interested in why.
As far as I know I do not actively use AI in any of my personal musical projects.
Where do you personally draw the line?
Are there things you are happy to let AI assist you with — and things you would never want to hand over to a machine?
I think AI is great for utilitarian purposes (calculating, narrowing down information, helping me identify what's wrong with my plants) but I don't think it should be used for nor can it replace human artistic choices like songwriting, etc.
What does “making music” actually mean to you in the age of generative AI? If someone enters a prompt and an AI generates the composition, instruments, vocals and production, do you consider the result a piece of art in the same sense as a song written and performed by people? Why or why not?
Absolutely not. It's as simple as - one was written by a real human being and one was not.
What excites you about AI — and what worries you?
I really don't know, I guess there may be things about AI that could be helpful in speeding up the process of music production but we seem to be doing just fine without it. What worries me is just how dependent people might become on using it for more than just basic operations and continuing to oversaturate the already drowning market with their AI created soulless garbage.
What do you think AI will do to the music business itself?
I personally see zero benefit in AI in the music business. I've only witnessed the greed in monopolizing it to make fake artists that drum up views and clicks, awful lazy posters that could've been made by real artists, and honestly just more annoying white noise in my general feed. I try to avoid it.
There is a huge debate around copyright, consent and AI training. Where do you stand?
No, No, No, No, and I know that my songs have already been "studied" or whatever it is by the "machine" and I'd rather it just be destroyed or banned than agree to being compensated for it.
Imagine someone is 16 years old today and dreams of becoming a musician.
AI has changed nothing about my views about being an artist. Learn how to do this yourself, practice your craft! Would you trust a surgeon that has access to all knowledge in the world about how to fix your brain tumor but knows nothing about how to hold a scalpel???
Fast-forward five years.
What do you think the music world will look like? Will audiences care whether a song was made by humans or AI? And do you think we'll even be able to tell the difference?
I think the music world has bigger problems right now (predatory ticket companies, political and ethical choices interfering with putting on a show, social media demands to balance, global economic crisis, etc) I truly don't know if I can say with confidence that most audiences will still care, but I know that the ones that do will be at my show and not one that was created by AI. As far as if we will be able to tell the difference? Gosh I sure hope so.
Finally: The Human Frequency.
What is the one thing about human-made music that you believe AI can never replace?
It was made by a human. Period.
Violet Lea is a full-time musician and singer-songwriter who plays bass, guitar and piano. She is the bass player and one of four lead voices in MADAM RADAR, an Americana rock band from Austin, Texas, built around family: all four members sing, and the lead vocals rotate between songwriters from song to song. The band started out as The Texas KGB and has released five records since 2016, most recently MOTEL (2025), produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos. They have shared stages with Bon Jovi, Lukas Nelson, Candlebox and Hayes Carll, received two Sonic Guild grants, and were the first Austin-based band to play the Moody Center.
Stan Martin photography
Upcoming projects:
We are about to release a documentary, live album from our sold out show at Antone's, about to celebrate ten years as a band with a large NYE celebration at the 04 Center here in Austin, Tx.
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