Digital Revolution 2.0
With his debut album "One Love Frequencies", Florian Zederbauer — from the quiet Austrian countryside — completely redefines the term "One Man Army": all 16 tracks were created single-handedly, from production to songwriting, even though he had to learn a brand-new instrument to pull it off, as he reveals in the interview.
He came to reggae early through his mentor Sam Gilly of House Of Riddim, who hails from the very same village in Lower Austria. Watching him work over his shoulder in the studio sparked his interest in producing. For a long time he toured the country himself as a drummer in various bands. By now he also plays guitar and keyboard, but feels most at home behind the mixing desk in his own home studio. Over the years, countless self-produced riddims have piled up there — and he has now picked the best of them for his first album.
The sound is dominated by organic, melodic One Drop riddims, while the lyrics are guided by a hopeful positivity.
"At the same time, I like to combine that sound with digital elements. I often start a riddim on the drums and then add more elements in Logic. My problem is that I'm a passionate musician, but unfortunately I can't sing."
False modesty? The album's tunes are all sung pretty well throughout. Or is someone else singing who doesn't appear in the credits? "I worked with various lesser-known singers from Austria, Germany and Jamaica, but sadly I was never really happy with the results. Then I had the idea that the lyrics I'd written for my riddims could also be sung by an AI."
At first you feel a little deceived — even though he makes no secret of his working method. Even after learning that it's an AI-generated voice, it's hard to tell it apart from a human one, which is eerie and fascinating at once. But that outcome was preceded by a long, painstaking process.
"You have to learn how to describe as precisely as possible what you want to hear. The first attempts sounded terrible, but after nights of studio sessions, at some point I reached a moment where I was so satisfied with the result that I thought: this can be released."
He's well aware that his approach will also draw negative reactions. "I know I'll get a lot of criticism for this project, especially from the reggae scene. But it was never about competing with real singers. I wanted to use my creative freedom and engage openly with this tool that simply exists. At the same time, I hope it makes people think about how much AI will continue to influence our society. If I can fool people with simple means — even though I don't actually want to, because I make no secret of it — you can imagine what's still to come. Telling reality from fiction is getting harder and harder, so it's more important than ever to question things critically."
Working only with AI is out of the question for him — there are already several real, existing artists he'd love to collaborate with: "Internationally it would be Anthony B, because his music has accompanied and influenced me for a very long time. From the German-speaking world, Ganjaman would be right at the top of my list, because I think his songwriting is fantastic."
His riddims would certainly deserve to be voiced by real artists. His debut album should serve as a helpful calling card when making those connections. (This article was written without AI assistance.)