Sir Paul McCartney Uses AI to Bring John Lennon's Voice Back for 'Final Beatles Record'

"Sir Paul McCartney Harnesses AI to Complete 'Final Beatles Record'"

Sir Paul McCartney revealed that he has utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in the creation of what he calls "the final Beatles record." During an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today program, McCartney explained that the technology was used to extract John Lennon's voice from an old demo, enabling him to complete the song. He mentioned that the song will be released later this year, although he did not disclose its title. The track in question is likely a Lennon composition from 1978 called "Now And Then," which was previously considered for a Beatles reunion in 1995 during the compilation of their Anthology series.

The demo had been given to McCartney a year prior by Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow. It was part of a cassette labeled "For Paul" that Lennon had recorded shortly before his death in 1980, capturing lo-fi and embryonic tracks as he played the piano in his New York apartment. With the assistance of producer Jeff Lynne, two of those songs, "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love," were completed and released in 1995 and 1996, marking the Beatles' first new material in 25 years. An attempt was also made to record "Now And Then," but the session was abandoned due to various issues, including technical problems with the original recording and George Harrison's disapproval of the sound quality of Lennon's vocal.

McCartney had expressed his desire to finish the song over the years, and a new version of the demo without background noise was leaked on a bootleg CD in 2009. The breakthrough for McCartney came with Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary, where AI was employed to isolate the Beatles' voices and separate them from background noises and instruments, resulting in cleaner audio. This same process allowed McCartney to "duet" with Lennon during his recent tour and facilitated the creation of new surround sound mixes for the Beatles' Revolver album.
By using AI, McCartney and his team were able to extract Lennon's voice from the original low-quality cassette and mix it with other elements to complete the song for what McCartney considers the final Beatles record. While McCartney acknowledged the exciting potential of AI in music production, he also expressed concerns about other applications of the technology, particularly the manipulation of voices and the creation of AI-generated tracks. Despite these concerns, he sees AI as part of the future and remains curious to see where it will lead. McCartney discussed these topics in the context of promoting his new book and photography exhibition, titled "Eyes Of The Storm," featuring portraits he took of the Beatles during their rise to fame in the 1960s.