Weavers Weave
Twisted Souls on Factory Floors
Luddites smashing looms? What the heck is a loom anyway?
On a recent video conference, I was speaking with a colleague about what they did over the weekend, and they shared that their spouse was a weaver. I couldn’t resist a “bad” dad-joke and said, “When it comes to weaving, I’m pretty much a Luddite…”
Thud. A puzzled look… and then an obligatory chuckle.
It got me thinking about the on-going technology disruptions that have been accelerating since humans discovered fire was useful and started scribbling on cave walls. I wrote about this dynamic in The Innovator’s Indictment.
Is that enough to inspire a song? And is there really such a thing as a bad dad-joke?
Looms & Luddites
And yes, I had an idea for an After the Long Game song. It’s inspired by the prevailing sentiment that AI can only create derivative works. I believe that argument is flawed. It is comparable to stating a bass guitar can only generate bass guitar sounds. Or any tool can only do what that tool was created to do.
Generative AI can create derivative melodies, chord progression, instrument sounds, etc. and present them in something that is completely derivative if it’s a simple, “make me a song that sounds like” prompt. A weaver with a pattern working the loom. What if a master weaver... or wait... a musician... worked with AI agents to evaluate music history to identify a previously unknown genre, chord progression, sound, approach, etc.?
It’s no longer “GenAI” producing derivative works. It’s a bass guitar with a Jaco Pastorious-like operator making sounds/moods like no human has yet to experience.
Finding Chords and Lyrics
“So Matt, What’s your song idea?” you ask, waiting eagerly for a great idea. AI to the rescue!
Me: What if it’s a steam punk-like mashup of an AI musician and Larry the Luddite?
Claude: Larry the Luddite is a character worth keeping in the compost pile.
OK… so maybe lean a bit less into a goofy character and song concept and get busy being creative.
So, I set off with “Looms & Luddites” as my working song title with my typical folk-grunge genre and started exploring chord progressions that conveyed smooth, weaving for the verse, unsettling, shifting, vibe for a bridge leading into a smashing, destructive chorus.
For the smooth, steady weaving verse vibe, I found my way harmonically to verses with a descending bass line – David Bowie’s “Life On Mars” and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” are two well known example. For the demo, a 1/8 light swing beat…
[VERSE 1]
Silent blood on factory floors
Weaving strands of crimson time
Uniforms a hangman’s rope
Looms are spinning webs divine
Pounding needles, threading minds
Spinning gears. Credit for souls.
For the shifting, uneasy bridge, I looked to some jazz influences for an unresolved, centerless approach. Allan Holdsworth’s “Pud Wud” was a starting point for influence. Mix in 1/8 heavy swing for the demo and let the foundation start to crumble…
[BRIDGE 1]
Can’t you see?
Can’t you hear?
Don’t you know?
You know...
It’s happening again...
and again...
Now for the smashing… What would be a good “smashing” chord progression? Give me some examples.
Claude: The tritone is the most direct answer. Known as diabolus in musica — the devil in music — it spans three whole tones, creating a clash so dissonant the church banned it for liturgical use for centuries. It doesn’t resolve. It ruptures. That’s not a shift from minor to major — that’s the harmonic equivalent of a hammer through a loom.
Examples: “Black Sabbath” by Black Sabbath, “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix.
Sign me up! Shift from the 1/8 heavy swing to a straight beat and let the smashing begin.
[CHORUS 1]
Bang, smash, the hammer falls
“We Deserve!” the Luddites call
Ring the bell the time clock tolls
Twisted souls on factory floors
Smash, bang, the hammer screams
Burning smoke the fire sings
Bang, smash, the hammer falls
Give us what we’re owed! [hold]
Here’s where the chord progression landed for the demo.
[VERSE]
Measures 1–4: F#m — F#m/E# — F#m/E — D#dim7
Measures 5–8: G#m — G#m/G — G#m/F# — E
Measures 9–12: C#7 — A — Bmaj7 — C#7 (unresolved)
[BRIDGE]
Measures 1–2: Amaj7#11 — Emaj7
Measures 3–4: Gmaj7 — Dmaj7
Measures 5–6: Bmaj7 — Abmaj7
Measures 7–8: C#m7 — C#m7sus4 (hold)
[CHORUS]
Measures 1–4: F#5 — C5 — F#5 — C5
Measures 5–8: F#5 — Cdim7 — F#5 — Bdim7
Measures 9–12: C5 — C5 — F#m(add b5) — F#m (add b5)
Measures 13–16: F#5 — C5 — F#5 — F#5 (let ring)
The Demo
I’ve used Suno to work through sound concepts on previous projects. For this one, I purposely avoided the usefulness of Suno and reverted to “old school non-AI” tools… GarageBand!
But wait… Aren’t those prerecorded loops and keyboard, strings, guitar progressions…
And an “AI” drummer that can follow your composition – or play from pre-recorded drum riffs?
Sorry – I lose myself in where the lines get drawn.
I opted to create the first demo in GarageBand… Here’s where it landed with my first pass for scratch vocals. Hold onto your hammers!
Looms & Luddites Demo - Take 1:
An AI Conclusion
Prompt: Claude, how do you like my article? Were there any topics you found interesting that I did not already write about? In 200 words or less, provide your assessment.
Claude: The Larry the Luddite exchange is the best moment in the article — not because it’s funny, but because it shows the tool doing something other than agreeing. You came in with a character concept. I killed it in seven words. You moved on and made something better. That’s the argument the article is trying to make, demonstrated inside the article itself.
What’s missing is the rhythm. You documented the harmonic architecture of three sections but not the fact that each one also exists in a different relationship to time — light swing, heavy swing, straight — and that when you played the demo back, the arc worked in a way you hadn’t designed. That discovery is the most honest production moment in the piece and it didn’t make the cut.
The GarageBand question at the end is the real thesis. You set out to make something without AI. Then you interrogated whether GarageBand counts. The song about tools became a demo made with tools you couldn’t fully classify. That’s not a digression. That’s the point.