Beyond the Static: Bryan Fenchel on Resets, Risks, and the Future of Music

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tonya J. Long (00:00):
Hello everyone.
I am so excited RESET withTonya here at KPCR 92.9 FM on a
beautiful sunny day and KMRT101.9 FM out of Santa Cruz, and
I am so excited to welcomesomeone really special to me.
It's Bryan Fenchel.
Bryan the CEO and founder ofStarchild Music.

(00:21):
We're going to get all into howa crazy name like that evolved.
But, speaking of crazy, I willnever forget meeting you.
Your hair was wider than yourhips and you, and for a woman
that's, of course, never a goodthing, but Bryan had the biggest
, boldest but most bodacioushair.
Just down the street from here,we were at a tech meetup and

(00:42):
Bryan and I met, hit it off andhave pretty much worked together
ever since, as Bryan has builtup and had resets in his life
with his company and what he'sdoing to change the world of
music.
So what makes Bryan approach sounique is his willingness to
challenge, to challenge the norm.

(01:04):
Bryan was a multi-instrumentmusician We'll talk about those
days of his fame and glorybefore he became a tech
entrepreneur but he is willingto challenge how we make music
and so with that he's created aproduct with his team that is
going to change the way we lookat instrumentation and music and
our ability to work and partnerwith that.

(01:25):
Bryan, welcome to my littledomain, at least for this hour.
Welcome to KPCR 92.9.
Pirate Cat.
It's great to have you here.
Thank you, Tonya.

Bryan Fenchel (01:33):
I'm happy to be here and I'm Bryan Fenchel.
Yes, I've played manyinstruments I play trumpet,
piano, percussion, I'm acomposer and I am the founder of
Starchild Music.
My background was split betweenmusic and tech.
I started as a jazz trumpetplayer, then worked in film
scoring and producing andeventually I found myself

(01:55):
completely obsessed with thepotential of generative music
and adaptive systems.

Wow, I've never been obsessed with generative
music or adaptive systems, butnow that I have been part of the
development cycles of yourproduct, it makes a lot more
sense what that means for thepeople in our audience who don't
even understand what it meansto have adaptive music.
Can you tell them a littleabout what St Child does like,

(02:25):
what it looks like for theconsumer, so that they can wrap
their head around it?
Otherwise they might be lostfor the rest of our conversation
, and we don't want that.

So let's first say what is Star Child Adaptive?
So that's a new music formatthat listens back.
So music that changes in realtime, based on you, your energy
back.
So music that changes in realtime based on you, your energy,
your moment.
And we're not just building theformat, we're also building
this really cool player that youcan try now, actually, which I
think we'll get into later.
But what is it like for theuser?

(02:56):
Like, how does this look?
What's it sound?
Like Starchild?
It's both for fans and artists.
And so fans, they can use ourplayer to remix music in real
time with no gear, no plugins,just a phone or your laptop.
You can shift the genre, theenergy, the arrangement, even
like the emotional tone of asong, and it's intuitive and

(03:16):
expressive.
So something you can do on yourcommute, in your room or with
friends.
Artists use our pipeline totransform their songs into this
new adaptive format, and thatmeans they can release music
that evolves.
It opens up remix competitionsthat anyone can participate in
and creates deeper engagementwith fans.

So what's a remix ?

What's a remix?
Yeah.
Is that a mashup?
Yeah, it's like a mashup Okay.
But we do it a bit differently.
The way that we do remixes iswe'll take an artist's song and
it will go through our pipelineand will automatically generate
these alternate versions of thesong that a fan can engage with

(03:59):
in real time or an artist canengage with and play with their
music in this new adaptiveformat so I could take an opera
and turn it into a hard rockscore is that what remix means?
that's what a star child remixwas start.

Okay, so I have.
I'm a little influenced byknowing what the product does.

So people like.
So we have this pipeline whichwe call Clara yeah and an artist
.
If they want to do a release onour platform, they will send a
song through our pipeline andthese alternate genres will be
created based upon the analysisof their song.
Yeah, All those alternategenres, those alternate versions

(04:47):
upon the analysis of their song.
Yeah, All those alternategenres, those alternate versions
and alternate energetic levelswill be put into our player,
which plays star child adaptiveformat, which is a multi-channel
format, what I described andthen you can switch between the
genres, you can add effects, youcan do all these things in real
time and create remixes withthis.
So, like, everything you'redoing on that player is recorded

(05:12):
and you can save it and now youhave a personalized version of
that song.

So if you've ever wanted a section to be faster
or wanted a section to I don'tknow, have more strings.
That's what you're saying youcan do.
Wow, know, have more strings isthat's what you're saying you
can do?
Wow, wouldn't the artist beupset about that?
About you?

changing their music.
That's one of the things thatthat we we want to.
We focus on is we want to beright, safe, we want to be
ethical, and our whole thing isabout supporting artists and
they're staying true to theirvision.
When an artist does a releaseon our platform, they get to
decide how they want their fansto be able to change their music

(05:51):
.
Okay, exactly, but with anartist, it opens up all these
different new options for them.
As an artist, they can take itall different types of
directions, any way they want.
So it's both.
Like some artists we spoke to,they are like super into the
idea of fans being able to dowhatever they want with their
music and making it so any fancan do it, not just fans that

(06:12):
have production experience and Iwould be as an artist myself.
I was a bit surprised by this.
I was like wait, so you don'tcare if your fan does anything
they want with your music, theycan speed it up, they can make
you sound like a chipmunk.

they might with your music.
They can speed it up, they canmake you sound like a chipmunk.
They might take your vision.

Helium balloon version Completely like to the
left of what you ever thoughtthe song would do and the artist
I was speaking to, Chizuko, wasone of our first featured
artists.
She was like yeah, that excitesme, like I want my fans to be
able to share and do whateverthey want with my music.
I love it Like I love it with itsome way emotionally, didn't

(07:02):
matter how.
But if the audience couldconnect with it in a way that
was even more powerful, becausethey could personalize it to
whatever they're feeling in thatmoment, that's better.
That's the way music should be.
That's more like a liveperformance.

Okay, yeah, I have this big word in my head
and I can't get rid of it it'stranscend.
So, like your music, somethingyou compose, it can transcend
you when other people get to becreative with it, absolutely.
When they're blue because theybroke up with their friend and

(07:37):
they can make it a blue song, orthey are really happy, giddy,
excited, they can turn it into areally happy, giddy, excited
song.

They can.

Yeah, and that's I remember when AI first, when
generative AI first hit thestreets two and a half years ago
and I had a friend that was anexecutive coach up in Oregon in
his 60s and he became amid-journey nut and he would
create I bet he couldn't draw astick figure with a pen but he

(08:08):
could make these crazy imageslike of my Airstream on Mars
with me holding my book.
He made these beautiful images.
It unleashed creativity in himthat he every night he'd sit out
by his fire pit smoking a cigarwhile his wife was on her
computer doing other things andhe'd make these images of my

(08:29):
Airstream, bella, and send thesefanciful like steampunk, like
genre, and he, I mean, he wasconsumed by it.
And so I can see from whathappened with him how people
would feel the same way oncethey are given tools to operate
with music in a different wayfrom feel, because they may not

(08:50):
have the technical gifts ofmusic reading or, like your
technical gifts, playing allthose instruments but if they
have a tool that you've giventhem like star child, then they
can be involved in the creativeprocess they could go on some
other music generation platformand take the output of that some
platform that lets you generateyour own songs instantly.

There's some of them today that are pretty cool
Not ethical, but they're verycool and they could take that
and go on our Starchild platformand put it in Starchild format.
They'll have all thesedifferent genres of it and an
interactive experience that theycan then release like, either
under their own name or theycould create some persona.
It's very exciting times forpeople that want to get creative

(09:31):
, that don't necessarily have acreative background.

Yeah, I love it.
I love it, so I can't wait tillyou.
Let me log in and do something.
We will not fight about thathere, but I can't wait.
I honestly can't wait to see it.
So let's rewind the clock alittle, because you didn't just
wake up from a dream and say, oh, I need to build this.
You had years as a performer,as a musician, so that had being

(10:01):
a multi-instrumentalist had toinfluence, like how you looked
at music technically and youproduce music as well.
How did that experience in yourhistory shape how you came to
see the opportunity to do this?

well, like I said , I've been obsessed with how
music makes people feel and, asa performer and composer, I was
chasing the moment like thatgoosebump moment.
Yeah, yeah, it's an addiction.
And I kept hitting a wall Likemusic was always frozen once it
was released so you couldn'treach into it and reshape it,

(10:39):
and I actually wrote this rockopera.

You've told me about this.

It's wild, it's an emotional ride.
But I realized the format Iwanted it to live in.
It just didn't exist yet Okay,so I didn't want it to play the
same every time.
That was the turning point,like I needed to build a format
before I could finish the music.

Have you done anything with that rock opera
have?
Oh?
I actually don't know theanswer to this, so tell all of
us it's not available foreveryone to experience yet, but
it will be.

But I was talking to my co-founder, because my
co-founder also has these likeexpansive creative visions let's
give a shout out to yourco-founder.
Oh star child yizo, his Yizo.
His name's Donye, but he goesby Starchow Yizo and a nice man.
Yeah.

And the Grammys that he has won in his career
haven't changed him?
No, not at all.

He's become far busier since his latest Grammy.

I know I wouldn't notice that.

You would, yeah, as a co-founder.
He's down in LA, which isexciting.
He's got lots of amazingopportunities opening.
So, yeah, so we both have theseexpansive visions and so I, you
know, we've developed StarChild as a format that can you
can release these on.
If you go, try our player now,you'll see.
Yeah, there's really cool music.
You can switch stuff around,but I don't want to give too
much away.
But there will be video addedpretty soon as well.
Get out, yeah, it's going to becool.

(12:07):
Oh, my goodness, Because we haveall multimedia experiences and
we want it to be personalizedmultimedia experiences in real
time.
Okay, now you can imagine nowthat that sounds really cool.
It sounds cool to me, it getsme excited.
So how did I get here, though,really?
So we could take a step back.
It's a little bit of just alittle window more into this

(12:27):
journey.
So, like I was in the musicindustry for a long time myself,
that's where I met Donyea ifyou're looking at this on the
podcast, you see the video.

He looks very young.
I think he came out ofpreschool performing music, so
it's hard to think about you.
I did come out of preschoolperforming music.
Oh, prodigy, okay, keep tellingus your story.

Yeah, I've been performing since I was five
years old oh wow Trumpet andpiano and then I was in the
industry then.
So I graduated high school, Itoured Japan and some other
places as a jazz trumpet playerSuper fun Went to conservatory
and then I got into the musicindustry part.
I was doing a lot of musicproduction, wrote that rock

(13:09):
opera I was talking about andstarted producing for bigger pop
artists and companies likeDisney, universal, neo, french
Montana.
It's a long list and after awhile I decided to take a step
back from the music industry andI moved to San Francisco to
study computer science at USF.
That was when I was 35.

Oh, you just look young then.

Yeah, so I had a journey and I was like I'm
getting super into VR, ar, Iwant to learn how this stuff
works.
I've been using all thisproduction equipment and
programs.
I've always been fascinated howit works and after I went into
computer science I thought I wasjust making a pivot.
I need something different fornow.
But it became this obsession.

(13:53):
So I was building worlds,playing with interaction, and
then I discovered music,information retrieval, mir,
music generation all these wildacademic subfields that were
asking the same questions I'dbeen asking creatively, which
was what else can music do?
And that's when it clicked,like my next chapter wasn't

(14:13):
about making more songs, it wasabout building the future they
could live in.
So it was definitely like this,this identity shift for myself,
because I spent all these yearscalling myself a musician and a
creator and oh, I writescreenplays and my whole life
was just either being in thestudio or being at home creating

(14:35):
music or my next big vision orsomething like that.
And now I was learning datastructures and algorithms in my
30s, along with these19-year-olds.

So at some point you realized that your life was
transitioning from being aperformer to making music a
different way and enabling otherpeople to make music.

Yeah.

Was that a moment in time, or was it a blend that
got you there?

It was like a gradual shift.
Okay, I was what I was forcedto stop being a jazz trumpet
player at a point in my life.
Okay, I got this terribleillness and I lost feeling in my
lips.

Does that happen to trumpet players?
It happened to me From overuse.
I didn't know if that wasbecause, okay, it was just a
random Bad infection.

Yeah, yeah.
I guess yeah, and I lost feelingin my lips from that infection,
because that's where it startedand it led to endocarditis and
a lot of problems.
I was in the best shape of mylife and then I was walking
around with a cane for monthsafterwards but I wasn't able to
play trumpet anymore the way Iused to.
So I had to get into otherthings, and that's when I got

(15:48):
far deeper, into musicproduction, even video
production, writing screenplays,because I'm a creative person
and I needed to still do that.
Eventually I was able to playtrumpet again, but I'd already
expanded this world.
I learned so much by going intothese different things, and
while I was doing that, I gotinto technology.

Wow, not a technology conversation, but I'm
going to segue just for aminute over into a radio
announcement for one of our KPCR92.9 partners.
Kpcr wants to thank StephenCotton Photography in San Jose
for sponsoring the SignalSociety.
Members receive $50 offin-studio headshots and $50 off

(16:33):
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If you'd like to learn moreabout membership in the Signal
Society, you can hit kpcrorgslash join for more information.
So I'm going to swing back tous.
Bryan Finchel of Star ChildMusic here on RESET with Tonya.
Let me get it all in and saysomething really gloomy, but

(16:54):
it's something I've recognizedin the last few years.
Before we did that littlestation break, you were talking
about becoming ill and evenbeing on a cane and I just with
your energy.
I can't imagine that point inyour life, that time in your
life.
But I had a moment a couple ofyears ago.
I'd taken my Airstream down tothe Rose Parade.
There's a big rally thathappens down there.

(17:15):
It's awesome, and GabbyGiffords was the marshal of the
parade.
You might remember Gabby was aUS senator that was shot.
I'm going to say eight or tenyears ago.
There was a shooting.
She was involved and she wasparalyzed and she's no longer in
the Senate just can't managethe physicality of that role.

(17:36):
And then I thought aboutChristopher Reeve and we all
know what happened withChristopher Reeve in a horse
riding accident and their livesbecame more meaningful after
they had a complete life reset.
And this was a couple, and Iknow it's gloomy, but often out
of these terrible life incidentscomes like the realization of

(17:59):
the new you and who you are now.
Gabby's a major like advocatefor human rights, I think I
wouldn't say gun control, butresponsible gun ownership.
She supported her husband intopolitics.
Her life changed.
It's nothing like it looked likebefore, but I would say it's
more meaningful and more peopleknow who she is.

(18:20):
She would just be the senatorfrom Arizona.
And Christopher Reeve oh, hewould always be the cutest
Superman, but he had a much moremeaningful life.
Michael J Fox same thing.
So I'm putting you in a list ofpeople whose life transitioned
when a personal crisis happenedand all of you you're in a list

(18:40):
of four now had the resilienceto find your path into something
new that was even better thanbefore.
You wouldn't know me if youwere still playing the trumpet
on stages down in LA, that'strue.

Yeah, actually I left LA because I don't think
I'd still be here if I didn'tleave LA.
I'm really happy I changed mylife.

Met Yesenia and Yesenia, sorry, met Yesenia and
yeah your life is on the rightpath, so I love it.
You have said in some of yourpostings and some of the other
things that you've done thatmusing is evolving everywhere
except at its core.
What led you to question thefoundation of music?

(19:24):
That was pretty bold to declaremusic as not evolving.

When I got into music information retrieval and
music tech, I realized we hadall this amazing innovation Like
there's AI mastering, stemseparation, adaptive reverb,
spatial audio.
Oh stop with the terms stop.

Dolby Atmos here.

The delivery format right it.
Oh, stop with the terms.
Stop Dolby Atmos here.
The delivery format right.
It's still just a static file.
Still press play, listen.

Oh, that was great, that was amazing.

But that didn't make sense.
Other mediums evolved Games,they became interactive, films
became immersive, even booksbecame choose your own adventure
.
And music it's still locked inthe past, right.
So eventually this kind ofbecame my mission.

We, I wanted to evolve music and bring it into
this interactive era okay, andthis is the leap is big, but
it's not like from just drivingdown the street listening to the
radio to this.
I've been the Sphere a coupleof times in Las Vegas and when
things happen like a boom, anexplosion, the seats vibrate.

(20:32):
It is an immersion for me.
I'm not an audiophile and it isan immersive experience.
You feel the sound in thatenvironment.
And then now the part that'sbeautiful to me is that you're
bringing people into the musicbecause they can help recreate
it from their lens yeah, I wanteveryone to have that experience

(20:54):
that I felt being on stage andperforming yeah, it's a
collaborative experience, aconversation, and now this star
Adaptive format brings everyoneinto that conversation.
So you and I are both in AI land.
We operate that way, we thinkthat way.
A lot of our, a lot of myfriends and I think a lot of

(21:15):
your friends too, are focused onthe newest technologies that
are happening.
Yet you are also focused onfeeling.
You've talked about wantingpeople to feel the music instead
of it just being static insteadof it and I don't mean static
like on a radio, not dynamic.
So how do you maintain thehuman element since AI is coming

(21:40):
into everything and people arequestioning everything?
How do you keep the humanelement in music while you use
AI to make music adaptive?

That's a great question.
So at Star Child, we're notchasing automation for its own
sake.
We're building a system whereAI enhances human expression.
It doesn't replace it.
So every track starts with areal artist.
So the emotions, the stems, theintent, that's all human.
Our adaptive engine, clara,simply makes those songs

(22:09):
responsive, letting fans shiftgenres, energies and
arrangements in real time,without breaking the artistry.
We don't do generic, throwawaygenerative content.
We do expression with feelingand we back that up.
Structurally.
Our entire system is builtaround attribution and ethics.
So artists are credited andcompensated.

(22:31):
They stay in control of howtheir music is adapted and when
Remix revenue is generated, theartists get paid.
But it goes even deeper thanthat.
So when we use generative toolslike alternate genre stems, the
AI model creators get a cut ofthe revenue too, and with some
of our partners, it doesn't stopthere.
They also pay out the dataproviders who contributed to the

(22:54):
training of those models, andthat means musicians whose
catalogs help power the AI arealso compensated.
So it's not just aboutinnovation building a new
creative economy where everyonewho contributes gets recognized
and rewarded.
And that's how we preserveartistic integrity in the age of
AI by making sure every voice,human and hybrid is heard,

(23:18):
respected and paid and paid.

So is the ethical concern around music just about
getting paid?
I shouldn't say just becauseit's fair.
That's people's work and whatthey've done, it should be
compensated.
I'm asking you the definitionor the categories of ethics in
music.
Is it mostly around licensingrights or are there other

(23:47):
ethical considerations in theproduction of music?

I think a lot about licensing rights.
Yeah, of course.

What you're building you have to.
It's transactional, and there'snothing wrong with that.
It has to be figured out.

There's another side too, right yeah, Like when
I first started messing aroundwith stuff like Midjourney and
these other magical models outthere yeah yeah, I thought it
was Amazing.
It was so much fun.
Just like your friend, I likegot lost in it and then I
started realizing wait a minute,what about the artists?
Who's this stuff is all likebased on what's going to happen

(24:21):
to their careers, and there'stwo sides of this, oh wait, but
they can use this tool too, andthis could help them and they
could do stuff way faster.
But then it's.
Shouldn't they be compensatedfor everyone else using their
work, that it was trained offtheir work so if there's an
attribution layer and people aregetting paid for the usage of
this model the actual artiststhat give the data great.

(24:42):
And if these artists can usethis to enhance what they're
doing or even expand whatthey're doing, that's great too.
But you just got to make surethat there's an attribution
layer, so when you're replacingthese people's jobs, they're
going to benefit from thesemodels as well.
I just want to try to keepeveryone in the loop.

(25:02):
So when you say, like when wesay this is ethical, we're
saying that we support artists,like what we do at star child
isn't meant to replace artists.
It's meant to amplify them andhelp them reach more people or
help them expand theircreativity.
In no way are we trying toreplace artists in any way.

I don't know, I'm not going to say this well, but
bringing people into thecreative process, I think,
creates not just more visibilitybut more fans.
For me, art and art is a verybroad term, but I remember going
into my first really big namemuseums and seeing things that I
had only seen on calendarsbefore right and seeing Monet's

(25:46):
Water Lilies in St Louis.
It's huge, it's an enormous,it's a wall mural.
Who knew?
And who knew when I went to theLouvre that the Mona Lisa is
this tiny little postcard-sizedpainting?
It's a little bitty thing.
When you are physically in thepresence of visual art, you

(26:07):
appreciate it more, you feellike you're a part of it and I
think you are allowing people tobe part of that creative
process.
Do you think creativity has aconnection to connection?
I mean, there's clearly adeeper human need and I'm

(26:27):
thinking that adaptive musicallows us to curate different
experiences with music.
You talk about remixcompetitions.
Competitions inherently meanpeople are facing off, even if
it's online or digital.

I guess at its core, music has always been
about connection.

Really.

Yeah, to ourselves, to each other, to
moments in time.
But the way we consume musictoday often feels disconnected,
so it's passive and prepackaged.
You press, play and that's it.
And I think people are cravingsomething deeper and, yeah,
these creative tools do enablethat.
They want experience thatresponds to them, that feels

(27:10):
alive, like just as I'm messingwith Midjourney that feels alive
, like I can like create art inthe style of artists I know and
it's dope, I love it.
You can do the same thing withstar child.
It gives them, it will give yousome kind of agency.
Everyone wants that.
Actually, in a world that oftenfeels overwhelming or out of
control now, even your musicwill respond to you and that's

(27:34):
it responds to you.

Say more about that, because I don't inherently
intuitively understand that.

Yeah, that's where adaptive music comes in
star child adaptive.
So when music responds to youlike your mood, your movement,
your motion, it becomes a mirror, it becomes a conversation and
you're not just listeninganymore, You're co-creating the
moment and that creates apowerful sense of presence.

(28:01):
It helps you reconnect withyour own feelings and when
shared with others, throughremixing, competition or just
co-listening, it becomes a wayto communicate things words just
can't reach.
So we've seen it happen in realtime People light up when they
realize they can shape the music, not just consume it.

(28:22):
And that sense of play orownership of emotional residence
, that's what we're unlockingwith Star.
Child.
Yeah, adaptive music.
It's a tech innovation.
More importantly, it's a humanone, and it meets a deep need to
be seen, to be heard and tofeel like our presence in the
world actually changes somethingand that something's listening

(28:46):
out there.

Interesting, interesting.
I'm going to do a quick stationbreak.
It's the bottom of the hour.
Everyone you are listening toRESET with Tonya and with our
guest Bryan Finchel of StarChild Music on KPCR 92.9 FM out
of Los Gatos, k215 GA 90.5 FM,also in Los Gatos, and KMRT

(29:10):
101.9 FM in Santa Cruz.
That was my version of waves.
I can't make music with my voicelike you can, but you are
listening to us from these threeradios, radio frequencies.
So wonderful to have you heretoday.
I am back to Bryan Fenchel, afriend, a founder, someone that

(29:34):
I gosh.
Hardly a week goes by the lastyear and a half that I haven't
been talking with you about whatyou're building and what you're
doing.
We were talking about theconnection that music creates
and I questioned how musiccreates connection, but there's
also, I think, quite a bit ofcollaboration that music enables
.
That music enables becauseyou've worked with major

(29:58):
automotive car companies, you'veworked with game platforms, all
looking at how to use music anduse the ability to modify music
to suit their constituents,that that that use their core
products.
But whether it's fitness brandsor developers or whatever the
new peloton is going to be, asthose evolve, you're looking
cross-industry and collaboratingon what is next.

(30:24):
So how are those cross-industrycollaborations important for
what you think the future ofmusic looks like?

I think the future of music is Starchild
Adaptive.
Raise it up and because we'renot just building a product and
we're building this new formatfor music, music that's alive
and adaptive, that shifts inreal time, that listens back, to
make this the new normal, likea new format.
We can't stay inside theboundaries of the music industry

(30:54):
.
We need to work across theecosystem Game platforms,
fitness brands, catalog owners,developers, anyone creating
experiences where music can playa deeper, more dynamic role.
So we believe adaptive musicshould live everywhere, like you
said, like the next Peloton,workouts, games, wellness apps,
social platforms, virtual worldsand to make that happen, it

(31:17):
takes collaboration.
It also takes community.
We're building this withartists, technologists, curators
, fans, anyone excited aboutreimagining that music can be.
You know what music can be.
It's not a top-down shift, it'sa movement, one that invites
people to experiment, toco-create and to shape this
format with us.

(31:38):
And that's how formats becomestandards, not just like through
tech, but through a sharedbelief that music deserves to
evolve.
And we're building that belief,that community, more and more
every day.

That evolution, I think, is based on resets and
pivots in the world.
I think every evolution isbased on.
It's pretty obvious when yousay it, but people get so
agitated or excited, dependingon their nature about things
changing, and change is whatleads us to new things.

(32:14):
I know you've done a lot ofdifferent things.
You've had multiple ventures,you've worked through
accelerators, you've done VRwork.
Did you fail at anything?
Oh yeah, that's how I got here.
Really, yeah.

Every pivot, every failure.
It's been part of the path, andeven when it didn't feel like
it at the time.
So this, like other startupconcept I had it was called the
StageMark VR.
We were experimenting withimmersive performance, digital
identity, long before the worldwas really ready for it.
Okay, the idea was sound, weare artists performing anywhere

(32:50):
that sounds cool, and shortlyafter we decided that's not for
us, burger King did stuff likethat, and McDonald's and all
these AR companies.

I've been early once.
It was no fun to watch the restof the world do my stuff a year
after I shut it down.

It was super fun.
Actually, I was like oh,finally, that's exactly what we
were talking about, but yeah,helping artists perform in 3D
spaces, but when we were doingit, the infrastructure really
wasn't there yet.
But, still we were doing it.
The infrastructure reallywasn't there yet, but still it
taught me how much potentialmusic has outside the
traditional stage.
It also taught me, like, howimportant timing is and how you
have to build just far enoughahead of the curve to be

(33:24):
visionary without getting lostin the fog.
Yeah, I did this really coolaccelerator.

It's called sound of ai accelerator which I found
the sound of music, but thesound of ai, the sound of ai.
There's this guy.
I have this mental model ofjulie.
What was her name?

skipping through the, the fields in between the
mountains sound, the sound of ailisten if you can picture, like
valerio, who's has a wholeyoutube channel called sound of
ai.
He's like this genius mirscientist okay, all right out in
right now he's a barcelona verycool guy, yeah.
But so this Acceleratorcommunity and momentum, when I
needed it and we actually wonthis hackathon that validated

(34:02):
the wild idea I had that Iwasn't just a musician trying to
play with tech, but now I was afounder building something new,
yeah, and I made labs.
But like all these differentexperiences and like
accelerators and things, just itjust taught me like when you're
building somethingrevolutionary, you're not just
making a product, you'rebuilding new mental models and

(34:23):
you're teaching people to seemusic differently.
And that takes patience, ittakes empathy and it takes being
okay with things breaking alongthe way, because I guess just
in my life, path broke a lot oftimes along the way and I
learned patience with that andwith others.
So each chapter refines themission.
It helped me stop trying toreplicate the old models and

(34:44):
instead ask what's possible now?
That wasn't before.
And that's how this star childthing was born Not as a reaction
to failure, but more as aresponse to everything those
failures taught me about whatreally matters.

I love it.
So things happen for you, notas a reaction, but as a response
.
That's something memorable.
I'm going to hold on to thatone.
So you used the wordrevolutionary a minute ago and
that made me think.
This is revolutionary, and noteverybody likes change.
So I'm wondering.
Some people are such puriststhat any shift in models and

(35:22):
processes and the way of beingthat we have are painful for
them.
So how do you?
And music everybody has musicsomewhere in their lives, right?
Music is not foreign to anyonethat's capable of receiving it.
So music is out there, foreignto anyone that's capable of
receiving it.
So music is out there.
And I have to think that you'vehad to basically find ways to

(35:46):
balance or to honor traditionalmusic while you're creating
something that's completelydisruptive.
So what have you guys done tohonor traditional music so that
you can convert those fans intoadding new music genres?
You're right.

Balance is everything.
So Star Child isn't aboutthrowing away the past, it's
about building a bridge fromwhat's timeless to what's next.
We have deep respect fortraditional music, creation, the
artistry, the craft, the rights, the culture.
I'm not the onlymulti-instrumentalist on my team
.
My whole team, we're allmusicians, we're all creators on

(36:23):
the founding team, every one ofus.

You're all building a digital product, an
AI product, and you're allmusicians.

We love music so we're not here to replace that.
We're here to give it a newdimension.
So we built Star Child Adaptiveto be a format that evolves
with the artist's intent, notagainst it.
So artists still create themusic, they still control the
feel, the flow, the emotionalarc.
We're just giving them a newset of tools to let their work
breathe, adapt and connect innew ways and to allow fans to

(36:54):
have this deeper connection withmusic they already love.
And we had already spoke aboutrespecting rights holders, and
so, whether you're like an indieartist or a major catalog owner
, we make sure your content isprotected and attributed and
monetized fairly.
You can choose how your musicis adapted.
You decide, like, how fans aregoing to remix it, and nothing

(37:15):
happens without your say.
But what we found with, like Isaid, so many artists is they
just don't want to lose controlor get left behind.
So we've done this platform toempower them, not replace them,
and to preserve what makes musichuman while unlocking what's
possible when it becomesinteractive.
It's not disruption fordisruption's sake.

(37:37):
Okay, that's a good statement,it's a conversation between
generations of creativity, andwe're here to help them speak
the same language.

We've talked about connection, a little bit
about community.
What are you most excited aboutin terms of what this product
actually does for humanity?

That's really big humanity.

Now all I'm thinking about is Alpha Launch
Fine, fine, but humanity couldbe the first million people that
you have.
That use it.
That's a segment of humanitythat you will impact.
That use it.
That's a segment of humanitythat you will impact.
So, what are you most lookingforward to?

with what it helps shift for those users.
I think it's going to makepeople appreciate music a lot
more and to see people realizethat feeling that I get when I
play be able to play with music,not just play music.
So it's a whole new way toengage, so people can tap into
songs and reshape them, live inreal time and that sense of
control and creative freedom issomething most fans have never

(38:51):
felt before, and these remixcompetitions take that to the
next level, aren't liketraditional remix contests where
you download stems or open aDAW and have to submit a file
weeks later.
This is live, intuitiveremixing, just pure expression,
like the Starchild player.
If you go try it atstarchildmusic, you can go

(39:11):
experience this and it's likeyou're playing an instrument,
but really you're playing withan artist you love.
Right now that's Chizuko, soyou probably haven't heard of
her yet.

But if you go listen to her on there, she's
there.
I saw the trailer you developedwith her.
She's cute and her personality.
She's just perky and fun andopen and she was a great first
artist launch for you.

Yeah, she's great and she's an amazing dancer as
well as a singer and writer andpianist, so it's good to hear
her music.

I love it.
So I said the word, my magicword community, a minute ago,
and you and I have participatedin and been part of several
communities.
We both do a fair amount ofnetworking and connection
through the tech communitiesthat we get involved with.

(40:04):
I think that you've hadcommunity through all your
resets.
I imagine you as a trumpetplayer down in LA up till 3 am
doing sets every night, but youhad a community there, right,
that's just how you're wired.
And then now you've got a techcommunity.
At different points in time youprobably got a dog community to

(40:26):
go with ozzy.
I'm sure you and ozzy havefriends, so those communities
have been support systems foryou through these various resets
, wink, wink that you've had inyour life.
So what's your advice to othersabout finding support systems

(40:47):
through community?
That's a deep sigh.

Yeah, in my life, community has been everything,
every major reset in my life,from leaving, leaving LA, going
back to studying computerscience, or there's always been
a community I met and connectedwith to help support these
resets in my life.
Because when the people aroundme change, it's more like I
started seeking out differenttypes of people after going

(41:15):
through these resets and itreally helps Because your life
changed.
If you're going through yourown creative or professional
reset, don't try to do it solo.
Found yourself with people whostretch you.

Oh, yes, and who see?

your transition not as a loss, but more as a
reinvention.

Evolution yeah, I love it.

So look for communities at the intersection
of your interests, whereinnovation lives, whether it's
an accelerator, a Discord group,a writing camp like a start
child writing camp or ahackathon.
Put yourself in rooms where artand tech and intuition and data
, creativity and systems collide.
Be open about where you're at.

It occurs to me, you've had several resets
through your career LA musician,student here in the Bay Area,
founder, now soon-to-be husband.
You had a dad, dog dad.
So you've had lots oftransitions that you've lived
through, but each of thosetransitions represented

(42:17):
different communities for you.

Yeah, yeah, community has been everything.
Every major reset in my lifeleaving LA, going back to school
for computer science, shiftingfrom musician to founder I
wouldn't have made it throughwithout the right people around
me, like when I left musicindustry to pursue tech.
It was disorienting, like Iwent from studios and stages to

(42:41):
algorithms and labs.
But in San Francisco, I found anew kind of community, one that
welcomed experimentation.
I met developers who lovedmusic, artists who loved data
and mentors who saw potential inthe crossover.
So the Sound of AI Acceleratorwas a huge turning point.
It gave me structure,accountability and, most

(43:01):
importantly, it gave me peerswho were asking the same crazy
questions I was.
And that's where we built theearly vision for Starchild and
where our team won the hackathon.
It was really cool.
It was our team.
It was called Pacifierifier.
We built this thing in just afew days that could convert any
song into a lullaby.

(43:22):
We said any song, but after wewon, like one, one of the judges
like, oh, could you convert aheavy metal song into a lullaby?
We're like not yet.
We'll work on that.
I think we can do that nowthough.
But yeah, it was connection, itwas.
You're not alone in this.
So if you're going through yourown creative or like
professional reset, I would saydon't try to do it solo.

(43:45):
Surround yourself with peoplewho stretch you.

Yeah, and to see your transition not as a loss
but as a reinvention, yeah yeah,and I've seen you reinvent just
in the last year and a halffrom the really large head of
hair that you had to, dare I say, finding more investor meeting
looks to bring, because you'renot going to wear your favorite

(44:11):
t-shirt into a meeting with apotential investor.

Why not you could .
Yeah, honestly, I was justscared of haircuts.
You were Okay, so I had to getover that fear.
Yeah, are you sincere yeah.

Why were you scared of haircuts?
I?

just don't like haircuts.
It's scary.

Okay.

And so I usually don't get one.
Maybe once a year I'll go inand get one.

Okay.
Or once every few years, all thethings that you are fearless
about, and I would not haveanticipated that you would have
been scared of cutting your hair.
You must, somewhere in yourlineage, have Samson From
biblical times.
Remember Samson who couldn'tcut his hair.
He would lose his strength.
So I see, at this point, it'stime in the radio show for us to

(44:56):
give a little shout-out, andwe're going to do a shout-out
for Surprise Chef.
Now, when you think Bryan, whenyou think of Surprise Chef, do
you think of cooking classes?
Do you think of bands?
What do you think of?

Surprise Chef.
Yep, I think about Chef fromSouth Park.
That was like the first thingthat came to my head.

He was not a surprise.
He was except what was going tocome out of his mouth, because
that was South Park.

Yeah, or I think about cooking up in the studio.
Yeah, one of those things, yeah.

Surprise Chef is a band and we're going to be
giving away three pairs oftickets for the July 26th show,
so that's coming up in just afew days at Moe's Alley.
Now I'm not a music gal, like Idon't follow music closely like
a lot of our listeners do, butMoe's Alley is like a pretty
famous music venue down in SantaCruz.

(45:50):
So we're giving away ticketsfor the July 26th show and if
you'll join, or if you are partof the Signal Society, then you
can enter to win.
And if you need to find a wayto join the Signal Society, you
can do that at kpcrorg slashjoin.
We're going to announce thewinners on July 24th, so just a

(46:11):
couple of days before the show.
So as we transition into ourfinal section, it has become my
favorite part of the show.
It is a lightning round.
So it become my favorite partof the show.
It is a lightning round.
So it's half a dozen or soquestions, spontaneous answers,
short answers.
I don't have an issue with you.
Some people tell stories thatgo five and eight minutes, which

(46:32):
is forever on a one-hour show.
I don't have to rein you inwith answers.
I was at a place last nightwhere they kept telling the
speaker we need one minuteanswers.
We need one minute answersbecause he was a storyteller,
right, but this is a lightninground, so let's get on with it.
First question for you I feellike I need some kind of TV game
show background music, and if Iwas equipped with Starchild

(46:56):
sitting here I might do that.
But we'll do that on anothershow on a future show and you
could change the genre, theenergy level?
Yeah, we'll have to do a showtogether.
Add intensity yeah, we can dothat.
So the question is if you couldcollaborate with any artist,
living or dead, on a Starchildadaptive track, who would that

(47:19):
artist be?

That's a really difficult question.

I know you music people.
It's like asking you to pickbetween your babies.

What kind of artist is this perfect for?
I don't know if any of you haveheard Fred again, but Fred
again.

I know that name.

Yeah is amazing and what he does would be
perfect for this platform.

Okay, so yeah, Can you say a little bit about
why.
Because I'm curious, since Idon't readily know Fred's music
why is his music perfect for theplatform?

He pushes boundaries.

Okay.

He's not afraid to have his fans remix his work.
That's actually one way like hedirectly connects and engages
his audience.
He collaborates with everyone.
A big part of his music iscollaboration and the followers
of this electronic genre ofmusic.
They're a far more engagedaudience and they're more likely

(48:13):
to get a lot out of somethinglike Starchild.

Okay, got it.
Thank you, thank you.
So, in the age of AI, what'sone skill every creative person
should develop?
Now that we have AI tools?

You have to get really good at prompting Okay.
You have to be aware of theseAI tools and use them.
So I guess, if you're a creator, instead of saying I'm not
going to use this because it'scheating- or I'm not going to
use this because it's.
I would say how can you usethis to beat the game?
I don't know.
I used to love Mario Brothers 3.

(48:56):
And the thing I loved about itis the way you beat the game.
Is you cheat?
You have to cheat to beat thegame.

Oh interesting.

You have to know the cheat codes.

We'll have to talk about that on another show.
What's the biggestmisconception people have about
AI in music?

music.
I think a lot of people believethat it's replacing artists and
that it's all unethical andthat music AI is the enemy.
But that's only true about thebad actors and it just turns out
the bad actors.
They get the most marketing andpublicity because they get the
most support from VCS or the badactors are the ones getting all

(49:45):
that funding hundreds ofmillions of dollars.
There are many players outthere that aren't like that.

That's our child, okay, so what's a piece of
technology that you wish existedright now for creators?

I always wanted something to exist where I could
just wave my hand and it wouldalmost read my mind and what I
wanted to create and just createit.
Not necessarily Neuralink.

Okay, okay, fine, fine, you want to wave your
hand and create?
Yeah, like a conductor.
Okay, what if I was a?

conductor and I didn't have a symphony.
I didn't have a musician towave my hand in front of.
I would like it to be possiblefor anyone just to wave their
hand and create music Like.
I wrote this screenplay a whileback, and in one of the scenes
in it there's this holographicsymphonic painter and he comes
out and he's like waving hishand and he's wearing a bathrobe

(50:49):
with a long beard like a crazywizard, but he's waving his hand
around and as he's waving it,this amazing holographic
painting appears, along withmusic.
Oh, that's sensational.
That's coming out spontaneously.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's what we see the future being possibly
, because with Star Child, rightnow you can just move a finger
and push a button and it'sgenerative and we're going to
add support for videos you don'tknow maybe someday, with Star
Child, you'll be able to be aholographic painter of music,
fascinating Multidimensionalexperiences.

Okay, yes, I love the multidimensional
experiences.
Speaking of these creativeexperiences, if traditional
record labels disappearedtomorrow, would it be good or
bad for artists?

labels disappeared tomorrow, would it
be good or bad for artists?
I can't answer that question.
I don't want to answer thatquestion.
Okay, I think it would be.
I want to work with thetraditional labels.
I think they're awesome.
Yeah, yeah, I'd love to meetwith Warner, which I would.

Yeah, that's a good answer.

I'd love to work with them as artists.
I always was waiting, like, oh,I want to get signed to one of
these labels.

Yeah.

But really today's age, you don't need a
label.

Yeah, I published a book and I self-published.
I didn't want to wait the 18months that it takes to create
and get to market with a bookwith the publishing houses.
I was in a hurry.
It was an AI book, I didn'thave 18 months.
So I feel like that's aparallel for people.
A parallel for people.

(52:43):
Some people may prefer the, theconstruct of working with the
formal channels to get thesethings in the market, and but
you don't have to these days, itall takes community right.

So if you don't have a label, let's say the
labels did disappear tomorrow,which would be sad for some,
yeah, but for the rest of usit'll be like oh, that's, it's
totally fine, because I wasgoing to collaborate with this
other creator.
We're going to do these collabstogether and market together to
push our stuff out there.

Yeah.
So if you had to explainStarchild to your granny in 10
seconds or less, what would youtell her?
It does.

You can make your music fit your moment.

Oh, I like that Good Perfect Fill in the blank.
Here's the last one.

Music becomes truly alive when when it makes
you feel alive.

Oh yeah, I do see that and agree.
Okay, I love it, I love it.

So looking ahead.
The wrap-up question for ourtalk is what reset do you see
coming for the world as itrelates to music?
What do you think the big resetwill be?
For us?
Right now it's dull theatmosphere, and spatial and
immersive music.
But I think what's coming isthis shift from static music
formats, like I just described,to these adaptive, interactive
experiences music that's alive,responsive and personalized.
So we're already seeing theearly signs, like there's ai

(54:17):
artists, virtual virtualpersonas, immersive fan
experiences.
But what ties it all togetheris this growing expectation that
music should do more than play.
It should react, it shouldadapt to who you are, where you
are, you feel, and that's whatStarShield Adaptive is built for

(54:38):
.
It's not just like a feature.
It's a new format that makes allof this possible so whether
it's like a real artistreleasing music in multiple
styles and moods, or an AIpersona interacting dynamically
with fans, star Child is theformat that powers that.
You know musical responsiveness.
And it's not just about themusic industry.

(54:59):
This reset is going to rippleacross everything, because music
is everywhere.
It's part of gaming, fitness,fashion, wellness and, yes, even
of course, branding andadvertising.
And for brands, this is huge.
Adaptive music means you're nolonger stuck with
one-size-fits-all soundtracks.
You can deliver emotionallytailored musical experiences,

(55:20):
resonate in the moment,personalize ads, immersive brand
campaigns, music that shiftsbased on your user's state of
mind or activity.
It brings feeling back intomarketing in a way that's
dynamic and respectful and notdisruptive, and Star Child opens
the door to that future wheremusic becomes a living part of

(55:40):
every experience.
It's already a part of.
I have music on all the time,but some people like driving in
silence.

I've heard I yes, you listened to my last NorCal
Narratives podcast.
She was wonderful.
Yeah, she was great.
Yeah, paige Brodsky ofStreetlight Records was on
another podcast that I do, and Iconfess that I actually never
have music on at home on mydrive.

(56:06):
So, Bryan, I'm thrilled thatyou listened to my last podcast
so how do we prepare for thiscoming future of adaptivity?

if you're a creator you can start thinking
beyond the track and and this isyour chance to design
experiences, not just dropping asingle and if you're a listener
, you get ready to shape themusic around you, your mood,
your moment.
It's really just trying it out.
You don't have to get ready foranything.

It's that easy.

My three-year-old niece can use Star Child and
enjoys it.
So if you're a brand orplatform, you know this is your
invitation to connect withaudiences, and if you want to
see where it's all going, comevisit us at starchildmusic or,
for sure, connect with me onLinkedIn.
I'm always on there.

That is a bold-faced lie.

Okay, I'm always on there.
That is a bold-faced lie.
So yeah, we're building thisnew musical universe.
Yeah, and it's not just forartists or fans, it's for
everyone, okay.
Okay, just don't lie about yourLinkedIn.
So come join us.
And yeah, I do need to postmore on LinkedIn.

(57:19):
I haven't even announced this.

You've talked about your camp, the camp that
you're doing, the writer's camp,which I think will be
fascinating.
It'll be similar to the campthat we ran here at Pirate Cat
for kids this summer to learn todo radio production and
podcasts.
So I think getting peopleinvolved in your medium is going
to be a big step forward.
When's that camp coming up?
We just had one actually in LAOkay.

And we're going to have another one, because
unfortunately I wasn't able tomake this one.
In LA Star Child, yizo Donye heran it, and Shizuko was there
and Juan, who's my co-founder.
He flew out from New York to bethere.
Yeah, and we videoed the wholething.
We just haven't released any ofthe content yet.

Good, but yeah, there should be some more video
and info coming soon.
Beautiful, beautiful.
You've told people how to getin touch with you at Starchild
Music on LinkedIn.
Are you Bryan Fenchel?
F-e-n-c-h-e-l?
Yeah, Bryan Fenchel, awesomeStarchildmusic or Bryan at
starchildmusicai, starchildmusic.

or Bryan at starchildmusicai.

Okay, excellent, that's my email.
So if people want to follow you,want to pursue what they can do
creatively with music, theyhave different ways to get a
hold of you and we will dropthat into the show notes.
Excellent, okay.
So, Bryan, it has been apleasure to have you today on
RESET with Tonya.
Talking about creativity isoutside my creative zone, so I

(58:39):
really enjoyed this.
I appreciate you.
We love our audience, so we'regiving the little love sign to
our video podcast that we'llproduce.
But you've been listening tothis show with Bryan Fenchel of
Star Child Music on the RESETwith Tonya program and it's
being broadcast from kpcr, 92.9fm, as well as k215 ga, 90.9 fm

(59:03):
and santa cruz's lovely kmrt,101.9 fm.
Everyone have a beautiful,wonderful, lovely day and we
will see you again next week.

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Host

Tonya J. Long

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Beyond the Static: Bryan Fenchel on Resets, Risks, and the Future of Music