Hi you’all. I am the musician and songwriter behind ‘The Garden Trailors’ music project, an AI-assisted production, which is far from being AI-generated from A to Z…
I was born in the deeply rural French department of Mayenne, a place where, back then, cows famously outnumbered inhabitants. That is where my lifelong, visceral connection to rural landscapes and country roots comes from. This passion only deepened during a four-year professional stay in Alabama, the legendary heartland of the Blues, situated right between the jazz cradle of New Orleans to the south and the country music capital of Nashville to the north. Today, I split my life in France between the bustling energy of Lyon and a remote, tiny village hidden among the forests and fields of the Haute-Loire department in Auvergne.
My musical journey began in adolescence. I was supposed to follow in the footsteps of my older brother, who played classical piano, but the music teacher told me I was “too restless” and my “fingers were too soft”. So, I became self-taught. Very early on, I started composing my own music and songs, accompanying myself on piano or guitar. Over the years, I played live in numerous bands as a singer, keyboardist, guitarist, and bassist, exploring a vast musical landscape spanning rock, pop, jazz, blues, and folk.
Yet, I always carried the frustration of never finding the right conditions, line-ups, or budgets to fully bring my music to life. Seeking total creative freedom, I turned to computer-assisted music and sampling, but it left me feeling incomplete. It was missing that raw, magical thrill of the exact moment you find a melody.
The true breakthrough came with AI. For the first time, I felt I had the world’s finest arrangers, session musicians, vocalists, and sound engineers at my fingertips, entirely free from record label constraints. AI-assisted production finally allowed my songwriting to achieve a flawless, professional studio quality. No more poorly recorded drums or out-of-tune vocals; my compositions could finally be heard as I envisioned them.
But using AI is not about pressing a button and waiting for a miracle. It is a rigorous creative process. Each of my songs begins traditionally, composing at the piano, guitar, or synth, writing the lyrics, and mapping out the vocal delivery with the precise syllable placement, phrasing, and emotional inflections. Then comes AI intervention, the multitude of choices it offers, in terms of synthetic voices and arrangments in particular. The last steps consist in remixing, adjusting, editing and correcting so that the music I was meant to share is eventually produced.
What about fully independent, live singer-songwriters? I have nothing but absolute admiration for their complete artistry. As for me? I like to think of myself as a “semi-complete” artist (a bit like whole-wheat pasta!).
The Garden Trailors is the result of this creative laboratory. While it is a studio project today, one of my ultimate dream and achievement would be to see live musicians and artists take these songs, perform them on stage, and bring them to life in front of an audience.
My debut EP is officially out on June 1st across all streaming platforms and is fully accessible on Soundclick.
While I am currently preparing a full 12-track album for September, entitled Gear Down and Sit, let me first take you through the five tracks of this debut EP, each one a unique sonic story.
This track explores the emotional fragmentation of life over time. Despite this sense of erosion and displacement, the song holds onto a central thread: love in all its forms, from care to affection and passion, whether received or given, is still preserved and locked within anyone’s heart as a fragile but persistent anchor.
This single describes the stories of three brothers and their respective, divergent paths to fulfillment.
One finds his truth on the open road, another on the ocean waves, and the third within the chords of his music. This song asks a universal question: What does it truly take and mean to be free? A tribute to everyone, men and women alike, searching for their own version of freedom.
This song is a reflection on the fragility of humankind. Across centuries, empires, wars, beliefs, and dreams, humanity keeps imagining itself powerful, eternal, untouchable. Yet behind every kingdom, every monument, every victory, we remain fragile beings drifting through time, like leaves on a river.
This piece reflects on a world in tension, where violence, corruption, and injustice often shape what we learn and accept. The song adopts a deliberately retro style to ask a blunt question: Have these ideals grown old along with the music? This track is also an invitation to wonder what the word “love” actually means today, and whether we are just preaching ghosts of the past or finding something real to hold on to.
This is a high-energy country instrumental featuring upbeat electric guitars. Tracteur Orange (Orange Tractor) is an anthem dedicated to rural life, farming enthusiasts, and the grit of the countryside. Perfect for high-energy morning routines.
I’d like the EP to become the opening chapter of a much larger journey. Over the years, my goal is to build a collection of musical works that ultimately reads like a book of short stories, fables, or novellas. Each song stands alone as an independent piece, yet they are all bound together by a shared atmosphere and common themes.
Using synthetic voices led to an unexpected and beautiful paradox. AI is often dismissed as a lifeless tool that shackles human imagination; yet here, I found it does the exact opposite. By dissociating the songs from a specific, flesh-and-blood singer, the music becomes disembodied. This offers you the complete freedom to embody the storyteller however you choose. Your imagination isn’t imprisoned by a marketing face. Each song is performed by a different ‘Garden Trailor”, who could be your neighbor, your friend, your lover, or your parent… who knows? This is not ‘fictive art’ as some might call it, but rather art based on fiction. And after all, isn’t art always a question of fiction?
While you dive into these first five stories, I’m already back in my laboratory shaping the next major chapter: a full 12-track album entitled Gear Down and Sit, coming this September. Thank you for listening, for supporting this independent creative laboratory, and I hope to see these stories brought to life on stage by live musicians one day!”
