FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's ERIC 'A.K.' KNUTSON: 'You Can Either Fight A.I. Or You Can Learn How To Use It'

In a new interview with Tomasz Michalski of Poland's MetalSide, vocalist Eric "A.K." Knutson of veteran Arizona metallers FLOTSAM AND JETSAM weighed in on a debate about people using an A.I. (artificial intelligence) music generator as a tool to create melodies, harmonies and rhymes based on artificial intelligence (A.I.) algorithms and machine learning (M.L.) models. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "You can either fight A.I. or you can learn how to use it. There's no other way to go about it. And I don't think A.I. is gonna go away. So it's learn how to use it, and learn how to use it to where it doesn't take the creativity out of it.

"The A.I. spots we used in the [recent FLOTSAM AND JETSAM music] videos, they were ideas that we already had or that [video director] Lance [Gergar] already had, and it's either spend a bunch of money and film those ideas or just throw them in A.I. and see what it can do. So, A.I. just came up with a few seconds of stuff here and there that fulfilled our ideas that we had that we wanted to do anyway."

Asked what he thinks about the bands who use A.I. to create music, Eric said: "They're gonna get themselves in some trouble. You have to be able to recreate that stuff live. So if you're doing something in A.I. or you're writing songs in A.I., if you don't understand the song structure and why and how you got there, you're gonna be in trouble when you have to go write songs without it. So A.I. can be dangerous, but it's a very easy tool to use. It makes the world go a little faster.

"Right now the only thing A.I. can't do is live performance, but eventually holograms will be good enough to where A.I. can do that also, and then we'll all be out of jobs," he continued. "But I've heard some A.I. songs that were written very, very well. A.I. combines some of the best songwriters on the planet and puts them all together into one song. How can you go wrong? But if you have to recreate that or you have to write it yourself and you want it to be just as good as A.I., who uses everybody, you can get yourself into some trouble that way. So you have to be very selective about what you use on A.I. We didn't use any on the actual recordings or the record, and we didn't think it was gonna be any harm to use a tiny bit on the video here and there."

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's new album, "Rats In The Temple", is due on August 28, 2026 via Napalm Records.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's current lineup is arguably its strongest ever. Knutson continues bringing the magic, steadily improving his craft with every album and tour. He's backed by the incredibly talented, exceptionally brilliant guitar duo of co-founder Michael Gilbert and Steve Conley, the powerful, precise and lightning fast magic of drummer Ken Mary (ALICE COOPER, ACCEPT) and the "fresh blood", extraordinary technical skills and prowess of bassist Bill Bodily.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's new album will mark 40 years since the band's groundbreaking debut, "Doomsday For The Deceiver" — one of the only albums to ever receive a 6K rating from Kerrang! magazine. Though bassist Jason Newsted departed to join METALLICA, the band pushed forward, following up with 1988's unstoppable "No Place For Disgrace". Since then, they have continued to evolve, showcasing some of their best work to date with recent releases "Flotsam And Jetsam", "The End Of Chaos", "Blood In The Water" and "I Am The Weapon".