Overview: Lyric writing has always been tough for me. Inspired by David Bowie’s “cut-up method”—cutting and rearranging snippets of text—I wanted to try this approach digitally using AI. Physically cutting up paper wasn’t practical in my home studio, so I recreated the method digitally, hoping AI could help me generate scratch lyrics and break through creative blocks.
Setting the Stage: Previous attempts at AI lyric generation with tools like ChatGPT or Gemini felt too rigid and lacked my personal touch— no matter how long I spent tweaking prompts. I wasn’t finding it inspiring or productive. I researched methods by songwriters to see how they went about their creative process to find a new approach that offered a way to overcome that.
David Bowie used a variation of “the cut-up method” – first explored by the Dadaist in the 1920’s and popularised by William Burroughs in the 1950’s – to generate surprising and unique lyrics, unlocking new perspectives in his writing.
I felt this could be a good fit to modernise with GenAI, aiming to create a continuous stream of lyrics that I could chop, change, and inject my own creativity into.
The Process: I built a simple web app, called BOW-[AI]-E, to create a digital version of the cut-up method. Key features included:
Generate or Input Text: Generate lyrics using AI or input your own.
Chop into Phrases: Split the text into smaller snippets (3-7 words).
Rearrange on Canvas: Drag and drop snippets to experiment with new lines.
Export: Save your new lyrics as a text file.
I used OpenAI’s API for lyric generation and quickly iterated on the design:
Custom Prompts: Allowing custom prompts for more control over theme or genre.
Content Cleanup: Removing unnecessary formatting like VERSE or CHORUS tags.
Flexible Cut-Up: Options to cut by phrases, sentences, or individual words.
De-Dupe Feature: Hiding repeated phrases to make editing easier.
Edit Mode: Enabling direct editing of snippets for more personal input.
Results: The tool helped me generate scratch lyrics fast, giving me creative control while using AI as a catalyst. I used the AI outputs as inspiration, refining them to suit my songs. This hybrid approach of AI assistance and personal creativity allowed me to overcome writer’s block effectively.
Reflection: My goal was impact over perfection—spending just four hours resulted in a tool I’ve used repeatedly. BOW-[AI]-E felt genuine: not just copying AI output but building on it to create something personal. I also logged ideas for future improvements:
– Aaving canvases.
– Adding version tracking.
– Clustering phrases into chorus/verse/pre-chorus etc.
– Collaborative multi-editor mode.
Conclusion: BOW-[AI]-E showed me that AI can be a powerful co-creator. By generating raw material and then editing and rearranging it, I kept my creative voice intact while benefiting from AI’s unique suggestions. If you’re stuck with lyric writing, I’ve included a link to the (very) rough and ready tool here – go play!
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