“People deplore AI, but it helps sampling become so much clearer and crisper”: Tourist on how AI tech helped shape his new album, Memory Morning

The potential uses of AI are one of the most widely-discussed and hotly debated subjects in music technology. For British electronic artist William Phillips – aka Tourist – it’s worth focusing on the potential benefits it brings for music makers.

Speaking to Future Music following the release of new album Memory Morning, Phillips relates how AI tech helped him to make his most sample-heavy album to date. 

“There are some amazing AI tools out there now that allow you to extract vocals, as well as other elements,” he explains. “As much as people kind of deplore AI, I think one of the great things about it is that it allows you to use it as a tool. It allows you to extract audio and helps sampling become so much clearer and crisper.”

In the video, Phillips explains how he based his track Ithaca around a vocal extracted from the classic mid-’90s track Underwater Love by Smoke City. It’s just one of many samples on the record though, which also draws upon cult Spanish synth pop and ambient recordings.

“This album is just so sample heavy. And I loved that,” he tells us. “I think that this was the first time I really revelled in sampling things. Sampling for me is the one thing that never gets boring, because there are sounds you just cannot make unless you sample them. And you can view your entire musical universe around you – the sound of birds, sound of nature, the people – and that becomes material for your music. And that, for me, is so inspiring.”

Elsewhere in the interview, which you can watch in the video above, Phillips discusses his ‘Holy Trinity’ of synths, why his modular rig doesn’t get used, and why he has no one set way to start a track.