If I’m wrong I’m not afraid to admit it. Involving AI music, I ran into this by just browsing around FB and I bought the album not knowing that it was AI till after lmao. I’m bringing it here to show those of us who don’t particularly agree with AI, I thought I would let the person who does it tell us about it. So here is my interview with Shaun Graves the man behind:
Weight Without Witness
If Hell Wants Me Back
As usual mine in blue and Shaun in black.
I know you said the words are yours. Do you actually write all the songs you have out right now?
Yes, I have written all the lyrics for every song that I have out right now, and for all the songs I’m currently working on. The stories, themes, and emotions all start with me. AI helps me turn those lyrics into finished songs, but every word is mine.
What made you get into AI music?
I started writing poems and song lyrics when I was a teenager. I always dreamed of starting a band one day and performing my own music, but life had other plans. I became a father at a young age, so work and family became my life—and honestly, I wouldn’t change that for anything.
Like most people, I eventually got exposed to AI music through social media and thought it was pretty amazing what people were creating. After a while I thought, “Why not upload some of my own lyrics and see what happens?” I honestly didn’t expect much, but after hearing the first song generated from words I had written years earlier, I was hooked.
It felt like songs that had lived only in notebooks were finally coming to life.
What is your process in coming up with new material?
My process is pretty simple for the most part.
Some of my songs started out as poems that I later rewrote into a song format. A lot of them come from personal pain and experiences. Others are inspired by things friends and family have gone through and shared with me. Some are simply about struggles that I think all of us deal with at one point or another.
Believe it or not, a few songs actually started because I was listening to something on the radio or Spotify before I knew the lyrics. I’d catch myself making up my own words in my head and think, “That would make a great song.” I’d write those ideas down and build from there.
No matter how the idea starts, though, the lyrics always come first.
Have you ever thought about starting your own band?
Oh yes…many times.
Unfortunately I never took the time to fully learn guitar. Right now I can play some basic riffs and things like that, but nothing I’d call impressive.
I also don’t know if singing is in the cards for me anytime soon. Growing up people always told me I had a good singing voice—mostly from singing in church—and like most people, I’d sing along in the car all the time. But last November I had half of my thyroid removed, and the scar tissue has affected my vocal range quite a bit. I barely sing out loud anymore because of it.
Between work, raising younger kids, and everything else life throws at you, it’s hard to find the time to put a band together.
I love writing. I love words. I love poetry. Right now I’m content creating music with AI because it finally gives those words a voice. That said, I’d absolutely love to collaborate with real musicians someday and hear my lyrics come to life through a full human band.
In the meantime, I’m slowly teaching myself guitar, and I’m proud to say that two of my upcoming songs actually feature guitar riffs that I wrote myself.
How do you go about putting a voice to your words? Is it always the same voice you use or is it a mixture of voices? (I’m stuck on If Hell Wants Me Back) That voice is what drew me in, there are only a handful of Growl Vocalists that I love, it takes time and practice to get it right.
That’s actually changed quite a bit over time.
If you listen to my very first song, “I’ll Stand With You,” you’ll hear that the vocals sound a little different from everything that came after it. Then the next three singles—“My Side of Hell,” “The Silence,” and “Breathing Doesn’t Mean Alive”—all used the same vocal style.
As I kept making music, I found myself wanting something deeper, grittier, and a little more raw emotionally. That’s where the current vocal style on “If Hell Wants Me Back” came from.
Even though the vocals on “Pillar,” “Dead Signal,” and “Me” don’t go quite as deep or gritty, they’re actually built from that same vocal style. The music itself also evolved. I started bringing in more industrial sounds and a little electronic influence while still keeping that heavy metalcore feel.
Apparently that’s created a pretty good dilemma because I’ve got fans telling me they love both styles…they just can’t agree on which one they like better!
Going forward, I think the sound of “If Hell Wants Me Back” and “Pillar” is where Weight Without Witness is headed.
Now…about “Alone, Not Unseen”…
That album wasn’t actually supposed to come out.
I had originally planned on releasing it and had everything mastered and submitted to my distributor. Then I changed my mind because I felt those songs no longer represented where Weight Without Witness was headed. I canceled the release so I could eventually remake those songs in my newer style.
Then Friday morning rolled around. I woke up to check that “Borrowed Stars” had released, and it had…but to my surprise “Alone, Not Unseen” had also gone live on Apple Music and iTunes and had already started getting streams.
I just kind of took a deep breath and thought, “Well…I guess it’s out in the wild now.”
So I went ahead and released it everywhere else too. Thankfully, the response has been really positive, and people seem to understand it’s almost like a snapshot of where the project used to be.
How long does it take from writing the words to the finished project?
It really depends on the song, but I’d say on average probably two weeks over many many hours. Although, Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter.
I always start with the lyrics. Once I have those mostly where I want them, I start building the music around them.
One thing people may not realize is that hearing the music usually causes me to go back and rewrite the lyrics. Something may not flow quite right or fit the timing the way I imagined, so I’ll rewrite lines over and over again. Most songs probably go through 10 to 20 lyric revisions before I’m happy.
Then comes the music itself.
A lot of people think AI means you just type in some lyrics, click a button, and you’re done. You certainly can do that—but that’s not how I work.
I usually have a very specific sound in my head, so I’ll spend hours rewriting prompts, adjusting tempos, vocal styles, instrumentation, arrangements, and little details until the music feels like what I originally imagined.
Even then, I may take it into a DAW afterward and make additional edits because there’s one little thing that still bothers me.
So while AI definitely speeds up parts of the process, creating something you’re actually proud of still takes a lot of patience.
Do you have a producer/promoter, or do you do it all yourself?
I do it all myself, and honestly it’s been pretty overwhelming at times.
I’ve never done anything like this before, and it gives you a whole new appreciation for independent artists who have to wear every hat.
I write the lyrics, direct the music, create the artwork, make the videos, run the social media pages, distribute the music, and promote everything myself.
I also started with zero fans, knowing full well that AI music—especially in the metal community—would be an uphill battle.
My first little breakthrough came with “My Side of Hell” on TikTok, but I couldn’t seem to get anything going on Facebook or Instagram.
Then everything changed with “Pillar.”
I wrote that song for my wife and made a short reel for it. I almost didn’t even post it to Facebook because nothing had really worked there before. Then, just on a whim, I checked Facebook later that day and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
The reel had over 7,000 views in less than 24 hours.
Eventually it climbed past 60,000 views, and people just kept finding it. After that I started posting more reels around “Pillar” and then introduced “If Hell Wants Me Back,” and those took off too.
In less than a month I went from about 60 Spotify followers to nearly 1,700, from around 100 YouTube subscribers to over 900, and from just 15 Facebook followers to more than 15,000.
My biggest song before that had around 5,000 Spotify streams. Now I’ve had songs reach well into the hundreds of thousands of streams across platforms.
I still consider myself a very small artist, and honestly I never imagined any of this would happen.
The numbers are exciting, but what means the most are the comments from people telling me a song helped them through a difficult time or made them feel understood.
At the end of the day, that’s why I write.
If I could add one thing, it’s this:
These lyrics sat in notebooks and on hard drives for years. I never wrote them thinking anyone else would hear them—I wrote because writing has always been how I process life. AI simply gave me a way to finally bring those words to life in a way I couldn’t before.
I completely understand why AI music makes some people uncomfortable, especially in the metal community, and I respect that. My goal has never been to convince everyone to embrace AI. My hope is simply that people will judge the music by how it makes them feel. If one of my songs helps someone through a hard time, makes them feel understood, or reminds them they’re not alone, then it’s done exactly what I hoped it would do.
More than anything, I’m grateful. I never imagined songs that almost stayed hidden forever would end up reaching people all over the world. Every comment, every stream, every message from someone who connected with the music means more to me than they’ll probably ever know. That’s what keeps me writing, and that’s what Weight Without Witness has always been about.
There you have it my HeadBangers. I think everyone who reads the blog knows I love written interviews, you really get the feeling and emotion that the artist has for his work. I want to thank Shaun for taking time to explain his process. The interview almost didn’t happen because he had read my views about AI and metal music. But, like I told him I got this don’t worry. If I‘m wrong I’m not afraid to admit it. While I still want my bands and I won’t actively look for AI music to just post, I do want to give Shaun big thank you for coming on this blog of HeadBangers to explain it all to those of us who are clueless about it. Listen to the music, it is really good, the vocals are great, and a lot of people really like his work. Also, he is very honest and upfront about his work. All his words come to him just like any other musician. They are his words and that is where it’s the same as other metal bands. He’s putting it out there and people can judge whether or not it’s for them. But, I listened to it and said quick buy that. Then I started looking up “Weight Without Witness”, image my surprise my HeadBangers. Only each of of can decide if it’s something we want to listen to. But as a die hard Headbanger, I for one do like the music. As I say Metal is a constant evolving beast and all are welcome here, and those are my words and I mean it. As a blogger I can say everything I write is mine I don’t and haven’t use AI to write for me, if I did you would not see my fiery language lmfao. Again thank you Shaun I want to wish you the best of luck in the music area, I know between work and blogging sometimes I miss one, even though I try not to but shit happens.
My HeadBangers come back next week for another band and another song. Until then, don’t stand to close to the fire if you can’t handle the burn…..
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