Dead Can Dance’s Brendan Perry can’t dance around his puzzling generative AI stance

In the space of ten days, Dead Can Dance has sent a fair portion of their fans, myself included, into a bit of a headscratching “NANI?!” moment. It started with an announcement that all Dead Can Dance music will be removed from streaming platforms, to be hosted on Bandcamp for the foreseeable future. The reason given was that Dead Can Dance is against the use of generative AI music. At the same time, the band released their new single “Our Day Will Come”. It is the first in a series of singles releasing throughout 2026, and will be donating half its profits to MAP, who provide medical aid for Palestinian people.

However, almost immediately, fans noticed the cover art was not human art… it was gen-AI art. The liner notes state “original artwork by Brendan Perry.”

After some back and forth on the band’s Facebook group, Brendan has released a statement that attempts to explain that he is and will continue to use Midjourney to create digital art for this single series, a gen-AI tool. He has backtracked his stance on gen-AI, saying the only AI he finds troubling are those that impersonate other human artists. He also explains how getting artwork for previous releases has been tricky because he can’t ask others to create exactly what he wants, implying that AI can.

I find this all a bit confusing and sad.

If generative AI is bad for musicians, as it impersonates and learns from human existence with no ability to create new interpretations, the same argument applies to photographs and visual art. By using generative AI, it denies someone a paid opportunity to give human artistic expression to the world. The equivalent here would be using a generative AI song that generates a song that sings a specific lyric because I can’t get Brendan to sing them. It competes by design. You cannot argue for your own art form and throw other art forms under the bus for your own personal convenience. Pick a lane and commit to it. Straddling your views per art form feels disingenuous and disparaging to visual artists in particular.

It’s a shame because receiving new Dead Can Dance music is always a joyous day. The single ‘Our Day Will Come’ is specifically about a hopeful ending for Palestinians, where they can live in their land freely. It sounds like it’d fit into the ‘Anastasis’ era perfectly. Lisa Gerrard is noticeably absent from the song, unless she lent her hammered dulcimer skills to the track, but both Lisa and Brendan have historically shared vocals, so we may find her taking vocal leads in future singles. It’s a strong track, and I hope it raises money for medical aid. I hope the generative AI mess gets cleared up, too. I’d have expected artists who take their work so seriously to have stayed artist-first.

I do not and have no intention of using generative AI. Creating art, even if mine might be crap, is fundamentally human. I hate that I have to question whether something was human-created now. Where do you stand on the generative AI debate? Let me know. I’m always open to hearing from all sides of a debate, even if I don’t agree with certain stances.

You can buy ‘Our Day Will Come’ and support MAP on Dead Can Dance’s Bandcamp page.

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