AI and Music for Working Musicians: Tool, Threat, or Bandmate?

This week Stu Dias joins Dave from a slightly different corner of Durham, New Hampshire, and after a quick detour through barefoot drumming, sweaty-hand fixes, and oversized triangle guitar picks, the conversation locks onto the question every working musician is wrestling with right now: what does AI mean for music? You’ll hear why Dave reframes it as Assistive Intelligence (and the best procrastination-killer and writer’s-block-buster going) even as you stare down the harder stuff: Suno-generated tracks, Jack Tempchin’s AI-assisted album, and the ouroboros of machines learning from the music we make. Should AI art be labeled? What happens when it conjures someone’s likeness? And does any of it move you the way a human in a room can?

That last question is the heartbeat of the episode. Dave and Stu weigh AI music against the cover-band hustle, remember what COVID lockdowns taught us about humans craving real humans together, and get honest about whose jobs are actually on the line and where AI mixing fits in your workflow. The kicker for every gigging musician: if the machines are going to use your voice and your playing, take a long-term cut of the sales. It’s a sharp, funny, occasionally unsettling look at the line between tool and threat…and a reminder that however the tech shakes out, you Always Be Performing. Hit play for the full conversation.

• 00:00:00 Gig Gab 536 – Monday, June 1st, 2026
  • May 25th: National Barefoot Day
  • Guest co-host: Stu Dias
• 00:00:56 Playing drums barefoot
• 00:02:34 Iontophoresis for sweaty feet and hands
• 00:05:05 We all have our own thing for ourselves
  • Large guitar picks for Stu. Equilateral triangles!
• 00:07:03 AI and Music
• 00:12:40 AI is the best procrastination eliminator
  • It helps with writer’s block
  • AI Based Plugins and Compressors are fantastic
  • For Dave, AI is Assistive Intelligence
• 00:13:59 AI Generated music like Suno
• 00:18:22 Should AI-generated art be labeled as such?
• 00:22:58 What about if AI generates the likeness of someone?
  • De-Feedback on Gig Gab
• 00:24:53 Ouroborotic
• 00:27:31 Using AI to create music
  • Business Brain theme music
  • Jack Tempchin’s AI-assisted album
  • Beck’s Song Reader
  • Creating walk-on music for your band
    • Bowling For Soup’s (non-AI-created) walk-on music for live shows
• 00:40:47 Comparing Human-Created Music vs. AI-Created music
• 00:45:11 AI Music vs. Cover Music
• 00:47:58 COVID Lockdowns taught us that we like to bring humans together
• 00:55:37 What’s AI going to make Dave say?
• 01:03:08 Jobs on the line
  • Elvis impersonators and sax players from rock songs in the 80’s
• 01:05:42 AI Mixing
  • Davis Thurston on Gig Gab
• 01:13:04 Do we have to
  • Take a long-term cut of the sales, folks!
• 01:18:06 Gig Gab 536 Outtro
  • Follow Stu Dias
    • Diaspora-Radio.com
  • Contact Gig Gab!
    • @GigGabPodcast on Instagram
    • feedback@giggabpodcast.com
    • Sign Up for the Gig Gab Mailing List

The post AI and Music for Working Musicians: Tool, Threat, or Bandmate? – Gig Gab 536 appeared first on Gig Gab.