The Wombats Made Their New Record As A 'Revolt Against AI'

The Wombats’ new album, Oh! The Ocean, is a lot of things. It’s the British group’s most reflective and ambitious record, their most imperfect, and, most importantly, it’s a revolt against AI.

As this week’s The Music cover stars, The Wombats have dug deep into their latest full-length, which they released yesterday.

Discussing the band’s need to change things up and embrace “mistakes” with their new music, frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy explained, “I had this idea I wanted to embrace human error—or mistakes—for this record. It was a revolt against AI and my worries that it was going to [create] perfect music.”

Murph highlighted the band’s mission to embrace the “messy, human” side of music, saying, “I’m not worried about AI replacing people in music. I’m worried about it perfecting it too much. AI can’t mess up like a human can. I think that’s what gives music its soul—those little imperfections that make something feel alive.”

Murph elaborated on not being worried about AI creating music, but about how it could strip the creative process of its messiness. “If you’ve got something that’s ‘perfect,’ it’s almost too clean,” he said. “I don’t want to listen to something that sounds like it was made in a lab.

“Music has to have that organic, raw edge—those little moments when things don’t quite go right but end up sounding so much better for it. That’s where the soul is.”

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You can read the full cover story interview here.

Earlier this week, The Wombats announced that they’d return to Australia in September and October.

The English group will headline venues in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney and headline the SummerSalt Festival in Torquay, Tamborine, Lake Macquarie, and Fremantle, alongside beloved Aussie outfits DMA’S and Ball Park Music.

For the tour and SummerSalt dates, The Wombats will be joined by special guests Del Water Gap, Bea And Her Business, and Ra Ra Viper.

You can find all the tour dates here and purchase pre-sale tickets via the Secret Sounds website ahead of the general sale opening on Monday (17 February) at 12 pm local time.