An introduction to Suno

I first found Suno in July 2024. Suno is an AI enabled software for the creation of music.

At that time it was mostly a novelty, pretty funny, and mostly i used it for a bit of mischief - creating songs about funny premises, using simple prompts.
For instance - exploring the fact that i was playing Valheim - a game about warrior vikings, and yet i was roleplaying as a carrot farmer. And so created a viking metal song about the imminent fear of the harvest that the carrots must feel. a complete turn around of the event of a peaceful carrot harvest, from the perspective of the carrots.

At that time the model was "3.5" , and it was very easy to pick an AI song, as impressive as the results were.

Later, I used Suno as a means to express and explore identity, creating songs about different archetypes I hold within myself. this was certainly interesting, and still very much in the create and explore stage, with simple prompts creating interesting results

It really started to get interesting when I began to bring the contents of my Journal into the song production workflow - exploring my own world model as i broke it down and rebuilt it, using Gemini to polish the lyrics from my raw emotional data dumps.
This was very archetypal, and used to explore my own mind at the mythic layer. At this time Suno released into their free tier the v4.5 model, which producted much tigher results.
These songs are very personal, and yet at the mythic level don't really highlight anything specific about my life, instead capture the pure emotional states that i was moving through at these times.

To be specific i was struggling with stepping up into a leadership role, managing a high stakes business operation that was in the midst of chaos, and struggling with health and addiction issues. All while rapidly exploring and remapping my world model constantly - triggered in part by the reading of a certain book that allowed me to take radical responsibilty for my own life experience, and at the same time likely stress induced by the demands i was putting on myself.

I really kicked off something special when i decided to explore a specific emotional feeling, rather than just pulling raw data out of my day to day challenges.
It started with a track that i later named "The Machine that Amplifies the Soul".
In this track - I explored the feeling that comes with the ability to rapidly create music with software the likes of Suno, and the tension , pushback and gatekeeping that seems to come with it.

 The Machine that Amplifies the Soul

Months Later - I returned to this track,  moving it from a pure instrumental and adding lyrics describing briefly what I have come to call "The Torchlight Method"

The Machine
[Intro]

A new form of power

[Verse]

Look

Every great leap in human history's been accompanied by a new form of power

Fire

The printing press

Electricity—each offered a fundamental choice

To build or to burn

To enlighten or to enslave

Artificial intelligence is the new fire

It is arguably the most powerful tool humanity has ever conceived

And it holds that same dual potential

Magnified a thousandfold

We can use it to build deeper cages for our minds

To distract

To divide

To distribute propaganda

Or we can use it to shine a light

Like a human touch

Yeah

I can feel it

Can you feel it?

And it amplifies the soul

[Chorus]

(Like a human touch)

I feel it

I feel it

I feel it

And it amplifies the soul

Like a human touch

I feel it

I feel it

I feel it

And it amplifies the soul

[Outro]

Like a human touch

Like a human touch 

Torchlight in Hand

[Verse 1]

Every great leap

Had a match in the dark

Fire for the forge

Or fire for the spark

Printing press ink

On a shaking hand

Electric hum

Changed the shape of the land

[Pre-Chorus]

Now it’s here

In our palms tonight

One tool can cage

Or cut the night

We can feed it fear

We can feed it truth

What we choose now

Will choose our youth

[Chorus]

Torchlight in your hand

Torchlight in your hand

You can burn the room

Or help us stand

Torchlight in your hand

Torchlight in your hand

Use it to see

Use it to understand

[Verse 2]

It can feed the maze

And widen the split

Make a thousand lies

Look like the fit

Or pull back the veil

From the hidden bruise

Turn the locked-up mind

Into something loose

[Pre-Chorus]

One bright tool

With a shadowed edge

We can build a wall

Or climb the ledge

We can hand it doubt

We can hand it grace

Lift the blindfold off

And face our face

[Chorus]

Torchlight in your hand

Torchlight in your hand

You can burn the room

Or help us stand

Torchlight in your hand

Torchlight in your hand

Use it to see

Use it to understand

[Bridge]

Not to blind

Not to break

Not to feed

The fear we make

Let it reach

Let it show

Let it point

To what we know

[Final Chorus]

Torchlight in your hand

Torchlight in your hand

You can burn the room

Or help us stand

Torchlight in your hand

Torchlight in your hand

Use it to see

Use it to understand

Torchlight in your hand

Torchlight in your hand

The fire can guide

If we choose the light