Jake Andrews, guitarist in the New Zealand metalcore band Crooked Royals, believes an American who fronts a project called Our Sin used AI to turn his solo instrumental "Brainlock" into a track titled "Brain Locked". The report, by RNZ and carried by the Otago Daily Times, rests on Andrews' account and emails he shared with the broadcaster. He released "Brainlock" as a solo track in early April.
He says Devin Cloutier emailed him in April, presenting himself as a Kansas singer whose band's previous guitarist, also called Jake Andrews, had just died in a car crash, and invited him to collaborate. Cloutier then sent what Andrews took to be an AI version of his track, now with male and female vocals. Andrews declined, suspecting Our Sin's music was machine-made. Cloutier replied that only the drums used AI and promised videos of himself singing with a female vocalist; according to the emails, those never came, with the delays blamed on tiredness, his wife being unwell and finally a tree hitting his house.
Andrews says he refused permission several times, yet the song appeared on Our Sin's YouTube channel. He had it removed, but it has since resurfaced on YouTube, TikTok and Spotify, and plans more takedowns. Asked by RNZ, Cloutier said the riff had been reworked into something new and was inspired by Andrews' piece, and denied copying artists.
Entertainment lawyer Joel Tashkoff of Dominion Law told RNZ that a composer owns copyright in original work from the moment it is made, with no need to register it, and that artists who think they have been copied can go to the distributor named on a video and use its takedown process, which usually pulls the track while a claim is checked. Plagiarism is old, he said, but AI means no musical skill is needed to produce a result.
Andrews, who blames AI for damaging the industry, says the hours spent writing, recording and promoting a song can be undone with a few clicks. His band plays Auckland's Powerstation next month.
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