Paul McCartney recording 'final' Beatles song using AI – and Lennon's vocals

Sir Paul McCartney is treating Beatles fans to one ‘final’ song made using artificial intelligence to recreate John Lennon’s voice.

While he hasn’t named the song that will be released, Sir Paul, who was recently spotted at a Beyonce concert, has shared how his late bandmate’s voice will play a key part in the new record.

AI music has been sweeping apps like TikTok with popular artists’ voices recreated in covers of favourite songs but the technology will be pushed as the Beatles reunite, so to speak, for one last record.

Thanks to old demos, AI has been used to ‘extricate’ Lennon’s vocals and finish a new song that will be released ‘this year’, according to the pop icon.

The song is thought to be titled Now and Then, a previously promised love song penned by Lennon before his death in 1980.

It had been abandoned by The Beatles due to missing verses and claims that George Harrison has declared the song ‘rubbish’ when they attempted to record it previously.

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Paul said: ‘We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year.’

Using a ‘ropey’ cassette and AI, the 80-year-old along with Peter Jackson extracted Lennon’s voice for the film Get Back which focused on their Let It Be album.

Sir Paul explained: ‘He could separate them with AI. He’d tell the machine, “That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.”

‘So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had [and] we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI.’

The music icon has also used AI to allow him to sing with Lennon while touring, but he admitted it presents unique issues too.

‘I’m not on the internet that much [but] people will say to me, “Oh, yeah, there’s a track where John’s singing one of my songs”, and it’s just AI, you know?’ he added.

‘It’s kind of scary but exciting because it’s the future. We’ll just have to see where that leads.’

Adding to the nostalgia, Sir Paul is opening an exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery with unseen photographs taken by Sir Paul during the early days of The Beatles titled Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes Of The Storm.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

Source: Read Full Article