An ARGH! Tune: Superficial (Dark synth-pop with post-punk)

This song was inspired by the '80s post-punk band New Order.
It critiques someone for being superficial.
The song was co-created with my friend and New Order fanatic, Struan Grant.

Superficial (Dark synth-pop with post-punk)

At the time, creating a song using Udio meant working with 32-second blocks of music.** After extensively studying New Order's style, I generated 4–6 samples approximating their sound for Struan to choose from. Every few days, we added another 32-second segment, repeating this process until the song was complete.

SIDENOTE: The song’s biggest weakness was the inability to replicate Bernard Sumner’s (New Order’s singer) vocal style. I tried hundreds of ways to describe Sumner’s unique, unpolished delivery but couldn’t capture it. If vocal control technology improves, I plan to revisit this song and update the vocals—though this may never happen if the current lawsuit rules the AI software guilty of copyright infringement.

Created using Udio’s AI technology
Music: Superficial (Dark Synth-Pop with Post-Punk)
Co-created by Jim Romer & Struan Grant using Udio.com
Title by Struan Grant
Lyrics by Jim Romer

As of this writing, Udio.com has improved, now allowing 2:10 song clips, trimming, inpainting (editing sections of music), and remixes (completely reimagining a song). However, I still find that working with half-minute segments provides better control over the music I want to create.

Adventure Time Thoughts

I miss seeing new Adventure Time cartoons.

There don't seem to be as many original shows out there that push the imagination envelope. (Yes, there are shows like Rick and Morty, Hilda, and a handful of other great cartoon series out there. But to me there seems to be a void with new original content from the past 2 years.) As an illustrator and character designer, I'm not watching as many cartoons anymore - we need more Adventure Time-like, Steven Universe and Hilda shows to bring back true imaginative storytelling.

Digital Sketch of a slightly small and young Finn from Adventure Time
using Adobe Fresco and a charcoal crayon setting, with a limited color pallet

I enjoyed the sequel post-shows and Fiona series on Netflix, and feel there is so much more possible with the characters and history of the original. So, I started imagining a prequel series for Adventure Time. We have seen Finn as a baby, and were given several alternative reality versions of Finn. But I was thinking, what about Finn as a young kid, say 8 years old? That's a perfect age where he is becoming aware of the world, but is still not quite prepared to go out and bravely adventure.

I was thinking he'd be younger, smaller, and more immature. The series could explore the origins of Finn and Jake meeting characters for the first time. It could explain the gear Finn found and uses, such as his backpack and iconic bunny hood. (I know some of Finn's past has been explained, but there is still much left untold. At least, I believe there is... MORE ADVENTURE TIME!... please...)