AI Music Revolution

Why a 30-Year Electronic Music Veteran Went All-In on AI: Inge Nilsen, Red Lab Conversations

• Josh • Episode 23

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Inge Nilsen got his first DJ mixer at age 12. He organized his first techno party in Oslo in 1991, before electronic music had even splintered into the genres we know today. He grew his concepts to fill the biggest venues in Oslo with 10,000 people. He was the first promoter to book Armin van Buuren in Oslo. He toured with Tiesto. He has been releasing on labels like Armada Music since the mid-2000s.

That is the resume. What makes this conversation matter is what Inge is doing right now.

After stepping back from touring to raise his kids, Inge gave AI music a second look at a friend's urging. The result is Humanoid Intelligence — what he believes is the first fully AI-generated trance album. Six to eight weeks from concept to completion. He is not just prompting and publishing. He generates tracks in Suno, splits stems, and organically remixes the AI outputs in Logic to dial in his specific sound. He is also exploring AI video tools with the same depth and discipline.

This episode covers ground most AI music conversations miss:

  • The historical parallel between today's anti-AI resistance and the backlash against synthesizers and samplers in the 80s and 90s
  • Why veteran musicians may be better positioned to use AI tools well than anyone else
  • The cognitive dissonance some artists feel when integrating AI into their workflow
  • How AI raises the floor for smaller creators rather than threatening serious ones
  • Inge's specific approach to using Fader for mixing and mastering refinement
  • Why musicians who refuse to adapt to these tools will be left behind, regardless of how loudly they protest

Inge is exactly the kind of guest Red Lab Conversations was built for. Decades of credibility. Specific methodology. No hedging on AI music. He is all-in, he is doing the work, and he has the experience to recognize when something is genuinely transformative versus when it is hype.

Find more from JG BeatsLab at jgbeatslab.com. Red Lab Access is the full system for serious AI music creators at jgbeatslab.com/red-lab-access. Follow Inge's AI trance album Humanoid Intelligence wherever you stream music.

The Unlock System is JG BeatsLab's methodology for serious musicians working with AI tools. Lane 2 work: human-authored, AI-assisted music creation.

Visit JG BeatsLab: https://www.jgbeatslab.com

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Red Lab Conversations is produced by JG BeatsLab LLC, an AI music education company building the methodology, research, and community for serious creators working in Lane 2.

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Stop gambling. Start directing.

SPEAKER_01

Hello and welcome to the AI Music Revolution podcast. I am your host, Josh Kelloland, the founder of JG Beats Lab. This week, in our Red Lab Conversations, I sit down with Inge Nielsen, who is a Norwegian DJ, a producer, and electronic music veteran whose career maps the entire evolution of the dance music scene. Inge got his first DJ mixer at 12. By the time he was 16, he was organizing school parties. And then in 1991, he threw his first techno party in Oslo before the electronic scene had even splintered in the genres we know today. His parties grew to fill the biggest venues in Oslo, 10,000 people at the peak. He was the first promoter to book Armin Van Buren in Oslo. He toured with Tiesto. He's been releasing on labels like Armada Music since the mid-2000s. That's the resume. But what makes this conversation matter is what Inge is doing now. After stepping back from touring and to raise kids, Inge gave AI music a second look at a friend's urging. The result is humanoid intelligence, what he believes is the first fully AI generated trance album. He's not just prompting and publishing either. He's generating tracks in Suno, splitting stems, and organically remixing the AI outputs and logic to dial in his specific sound. He's directing AI video projects featuring a recurring French accented AI character of himself. He's pushing the tools harder than most creators ever will. This episode covers a lot of ground, the historical parallel between today's anti-AI resistance and the backlash against synthesizers and samplers in the 80s and 90s, which he lived through. The cognitive dissonance some artists feel when integrating AI into their workflows, why Inge believes AI raises the floor for small craters rather than threatening the serious ones. His specific approach to using Vader for mixing and mastering refinement, and his take on why musicians who refuse to adapt to these tools will be left behind, regardless of how loudly they protest. Enge is exactly the kind of guest this podcast was built for. Someone with decades of industry credibility who isn't hedging on AI music. He's all in. He's specific about his methodology. And he has the experience to recognize when something is genuinely transformative versus when it's hype. Let's get into it. Inge, welcome to the podcast. Appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today to share your experience and wisdom across music, uh, and especially as we get into the frontier of AI music creation. But before we get into all of that, let's start with a little bit of a background. Like, what is your experience in music, uh, the music industry that has kind of brought you to this point of experimentation with AI music?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, uh I got a mixer, my DJ mixer, first time when I was 12. So uh I started to learn how to beat mix and stuff when I was uh when I was very young. And um started playing out uh on town when I was 16 with organizing school parties and stuff, and uh from there went to be like a resident DJ for different places around in Norway, small clubs, bigger clubs. Eventually I moved to Oslo and got into the student society, and that was a bigger venues and bigger names. We started uh with rock music and indie rock, the the Brit top wave in the 90s. I was in on that. I organized my first techno party in 1991. That was before there even was different genres in in the uh in the electronic scene, you know. So uh before that we had uh this synth wave with uh with the pech mode and all these uh famous German synth bands that was playing in the 80s and 90s, and uh one of my friends was kind of big in that scene. Uh he has a band called uh Ape Apoptic Mubber Cirque, and uh he worked with the band uh Front 242, and I well that was the first time I was in studio and taking part of a process with uh producing a song. Also, uh we started to make techno parties uh alongside uh organizing concerts. And uh around '95, there was kind of like a separation in the scene. There's something came on, something called trance. My parties just grew bigger and bigger, and uh it ended up with the biggest venue here in Oslo with 10,000 people. Oh my gosh! And um, I was actually the first to book Armin van Buren. Uh, he's been the world's biggest DJ for many years. And I got him his first job in Oslo on my concept called Hyperstate. Tiesto, I've been on tour with him. Uh I've been we started to produce on our own, uh, me and uh uh some friends, and a friend called Einar. And we had some releases uh early 2004. That was that's when we started. Yeah, I got I had my first kid in 2011, and um, and then uh been kind of withdrawn from the scene a little bit because uh kids take time. Yes, they do, but uh never left uh the always had a passion for music and um and uh had fun with it. So even releasing some on Armada music or some other labels in the genre. I was kind of like uh making an album last year, started making an album last year or the year before, but it goes slowly because time. And uh this year I was actually busy making an online course for uh for uh trading, and then my friend calls me, Inga, you have to try this AI stuff. I said, Yeah, I tried it last year. I put in some songs and it didn't sound good. I said, Yeah, but try again, and then I tried again, and I was like, Oh, things have changed quick. So I thought, okay, I'm just gonna make an album. And uh I think it's the first trans album totally made with AI. Oh, nice. Uh and it's called Humanoid Um Intelligence. I may I made it in uh six to eight weeks I spent uh uh in in the evenings to to create it. It's not perfect for like DJing and stuff like that because not everything uh is in sync in on on on beat, you know, for mixing. Yeah, but I'm a trans listener. If this can be an uh odd album that uh the the novers they pull it out on the after party or something, and it's like ooh, that's that's good enough for me. That's good enough for me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So uh what tool did you did you was that Suno? Would you did you Suno, yeah? Suno, yeah. How did you how did you do your um you know any type of mixing and mastering with that?

SPEAKER_00

Oh I used slates and I put it in uh in uh in logic. Some of them I just took it as it were and I just mastered them. Yeah, and uh what I'm doing now is I'm actually remixing them organically, you know. So I'm remixing remixing the AI. Are you uh are you splitting stems or yeah? Yeah, yeah. It's not always perfect, it's not always perfect when you when you get the beat, when you get it on beat, then it's more easy, and you can change the kick, you can check the you can change the bass, uh you can add your own loops, you can uh build around it, you could add your own elements.

SPEAKER_01

The AI mean AI tools now. Do you feel like does that make you less of a musician now because utilizing AI, or what does that how does that make you uh it makes me 10 times better, really?

SPEAKER_00

And also with the video tools, I have I'm having a ball. I created this character of myself, you know, and uh he's he's just living his own life now. It's funny. Blue dress and blue uh hat and uh blue beret and with a French accent. The first video I made, I made it in one evening with uh with FreeBit. And you just it's the same there, you know. You just describe and you can upload yourself or other uh others as characters. So I took a picture of my wife, put it into Grok, changed her face a little bit, put on some makeup, make her look like a like a punk Asian uh woman, you know, look what these AI tools are doing is they're raising the floor.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they're not raising, they're not like impeding the ceiling. So if you take creative energy and now all of a sudden the floor has been raised, think how high you can go with these things. When you're dealing with the limitations from 30 years ago, there's only so high you can go. Yeah, and now those are baseline, that's where you start at.

SPEAKER_00

And so uh the development uh is going so fast. It's it's it's like uh last week there was a little bit of uh mud in the base in the in Suno. Now Suno 0.5.5 came out. It's like it's gone. Yep, it's gone. And uh I can't wait to see what's gonna happen within a year.

SPEAKER_01

What would you like to see these tools develop into? And what do you think that they will develop into or feature functionality that they will roll out?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, it's it's always some resistance when new things come. Uh, we mentioned that before. I don't know if we were recorded on a recording or not, but it's like when synthesizers and samplers came along, there was hard resistance. And people didn't leave this, is definitely not music. It's it shouldn't be allowed. So things like that.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and you lived through that because you were in the electronic music space. So I'm sure that you caught a lot of that on the front lines.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yes. And uh, I was even a breakdancer in the in the early 80s. Yes, and that method that method resistance as well, rap music, that wasn't the rap, was that that's yeah, and see where it is now. And what I hope this can be is like um there are so many creative people there that never had the chance to get their stuff out because they've been blocked with uh the cost for studio, uh time, uh whatever it is. And uh, if they have a brilliant idea, then it will live. If the idea isn't so great, then of course they at least they get to complete it for themselves. And if you have something amazing, people will pick up on it. And I think it's uh it gives people a better chance to uh to reach their goals, to have success if you use it right. I think it will be adapted, like mainstream adapted when when some people for front runners show them that this is what we use. And I think it was Dr. Dre who said that if everybody's using it and you're not, you risk you're you're in risk of being left behind because this tool is amazing, it's it's fantastic. I had songs for for yeah, like I said, 12 years. I put it in, done. And it's it's like if you you can just fine-tune it with your prompts. You you know what you want, what style you want, uh, what instruments you want, when you want them to come in. You just write it down and it's there.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Since you're inside of the industry, um, I'm assuming that, and I know you you are around other musicians, other artists, other people inside of the music industry. Yeah. What what is the feedback you get when you mention that you are experimenting with AI tools in the music space?

SPEAKER_00

No, it's the people uh about my old partner. He's he's like he don't like it. He don't like it at all. Not at all. And uh yeah, a couple of a couple of other producer friends, they are reluctant, but I am not gonna mention names, but some big names are they are using it open quite openly, and some of them are using it in the in the hiding. I agree with uh Dre. If you don't adapt, then uh you will be left behind.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I would say so. I would say so. Um wow, yeah, yeah, I and I think that that's kind of being an artist. Uh I grew up an artist. Um, I switched into technology for for many years in my life, um to actually, you know, earn a paycheck because you know it's like, but that's the thing with art, is is when I was a kid, all I wanted to do was be an artist. That was it. I wanted to be an artist. And it was like, yeah, but the the the world appreciates art, but also they don't you will you get discouraged from pursuing art because that's not a real career, that's not a real right? Like go and do something real and you can save art as you know the side hobby. Well, that's fine and dandy when you are young, but as you get older and you have responsibilities in life, like you don't have time for those side hobbies when you're working for a living and you're raising a family and you've got a mortgage and you've got this, that, and the other thing. And so it ends up getting squeezed to the periphery of your life, right? And so I love uh the you know the the idea that art becomes more more central to a lot of our existence um because of the power it has.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like this character I made here. We had like uh I had this idea, it's like the stay the stage of the music scene today is just terrible. We need to get back to what is important, to the essence of what is important, and that is the music itself and the art. Yeah, with a French accent, the the art. Yeah, so but uh yeah, uh I think we will get more uh good music uh than we had in years because it really it really enhance everything that's good about if you put your own song into it, it can enhance everything that's good about the song and uh yeah, I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. Some some of the stuff we had uh that we put through there, and yeah, for me it's been like a relief. It's like you say, when you have kids and stuff, you don't have time, you know. You if I should go to studio, I have to travel to the studio. Hours, days, weeks, yeah, and sometimes months and years before a song is done. So um here you just make it you make it complete and you put it in there, and you have all the elements, you have the melody, and Tsuno catches up on it and it brings it to life. It's uh it's nothing but amazing. What the what would this look like three, six months from now, a year from now? Oh, it's gonna go fast. I think it's gonna go fast. I haven't I haven't tried the voice cloning. I haven't I was thinking yesterday to sit down and just try to sing into studio and uh and try to get just create a song that way, but uh didn't have time. But I had time to just sit there and write. Okay, instead of I pitched down the vocals from um from 133 to 110, kept the pitch flawless, and started to add elements under it. Started with a kick, then snare, then percussion, and then you had some bass, and then you had some uh pads, and then you had some uh what do you call it? Orchestra strings and stuff. And it's like I think I had I think I spent like an hour and it was done.

SPEAKER_01

Done. I I want to know more about your creative process with that because I like the way that you just you just talked about that. So you and that you you started with with the voice. Yeah, so yeah. Um so do you go in and and just refine the the voice prompts inside of Suno until you get them to where you want and then move to the next layer, or how what does that look like for you? Can do that as well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, it's like one song uh recently, and um I think I had I think I had 80 versions of it or something, all right.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I know.

SPEAKER_00

So so so um and but when it hits, wow, yeah, but yeah, it's it's fine tuning all with the voicing or or anything, it's fine tuning. And you also have this cover thing that you have there, and you can just uh you can set how many percent of uh audio influence you want in it, and uh style influence and everything. It's like uh it's almost unreal what you can do with it. It's it's there's no limits. There's no roof.

SPEAKER_01

You utilized uh fader, uh your and your kind of your your experimentation, and so yeah, what I'm um I'm eager to hear your experience with fader. Uh for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Where should I start? It's just like that's it's the best way of learning everything in mixing I've ever seen. It's like I can get a I can make a song myself and I can make it up to like 80%, but then I need an engineer to go and fix it for me. Not anymore. It's uh it helps you from A to Z. It's uh you get all the levels right, you get all the frequencies right, you get rid of the muddiness, you get rid of the sharp noises, you get rid of all the things that shouldn't be there. And it sounds really, really good. And this tool, wow. I uh really hope uh this goes mainstream for you. It's it's fantastic. Really, really fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

Like, what does that look like in your in your workflow? Like how when do you pull fader in? How do you pull fader in? Like what kind of questions do you ask it? What what do you ask it to do for you?

SPEAKER_00

No, it's it checks all the levels, it checks uh if I if I have a file and say, okay, what do I need to do with this? Okay, we start with the kick. Where should I put the kick? Okay, you put it down to 8 d minus 8 db. Where should I put where should the base be? Okay, it should be down to around minus 10. And the base should be pushed up around 80 80 hertz, and the kick should be a little bit uh lower, and it just it just makes workflow so easy and fast. And I upload the song to Sunu and then it analyzes and not to Sunu, but to to fader, then it analyzes the um the file, and um it tells you where you need to do the work. It's um and it's very helpful. If you if it's something you don't understand, it's just can you can you just uh show me with an image? And it shows you with an image. And if you have your settings, if you wonder if your settings are good, you just take a screenshot, upload it. You need to put a little bit more gain on the limiter, and then you have uh then you have the then you have the it done. Wow.

SPEAKER_01

I also use it in my own mixing and mastering as well. And so this isn't fader, is not me by any stretch of imagination. Uh, you know, like I use it all the time to ask questions because it's it's just really knowledgeable.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah. I mean, for people who just want to do their own mastering, you can just put in the master and then it tells you where you should put your limit, what tools you should use, everything from everything you need to do your own mastering. And uh that is that this is uh with your package, comes with the package, it's uh unreal. And uh and the another thing that we have most of us who work with music is that we never know when it's done. Yeah, right. This fader tells you it's done. It does. Okay, okay. Okay, done.

SPEAKER_01

It'll tell you, like ship it. No, you're yeah, we're yeah, we've squeeze everything we all the juice that we can out of this thing. Yes, don't touch anything.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's true. Only ruin it. That's true.

SPEAKER_01

It tells you there's only one one way to go now, and it's backwards.

SPEAKER_00

You don't go backwards, and so don't do that. Yeah, yeah. Now this is um this is a gift. Wow.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, awesome. Yeah, where do you think AI exists in the future of music in general?

SPEAKER_00

I think it's gonna be. A big part of it, I believe. So, of course, you will always have the the organ. I don't understand what why people who work with it or work without it are so worried. Of course, yeah. If you have a good song and you reach out and you you reach people, then it will always hit. A good melody is a good melody, a good message is a good message. The thing here is that this helps smaller people to come forward and get their things out, and give them the chance. Is that art? Definitely. And um also with the even uh especially maybe with the movies, I think it's uh it's uh this is where you can get your imaginations, all your weird thoughts, all your weird characters, everything you can get out, and uh with the music as well, it brings it in it's it enhance the art that was already there. And uh, yeah, sure, you can create uh even from scratch with the sudo. And if you direct it, you create it. That's I think that's where we're gonna end. Because right now, people are should we get royalties for this? Should we get like uh mechanical rights for this? Should it be should we get money from radio? Can we put it in ads, stuff like that? And what I think this will end up with is that uh if you have directed it and formed the process, if you just said write me a hit, okay, maybe then you can have a problem. But if you write and direct it, this is your creation, yeah. And uh I think that's that's that's where we're gonna end up, but uh the the way to there, probably gonna be bumpy a little bit for uh and it's gonna be big discussions, and people are gonna yell at each other and call each other names and and everything.

SPEAKER_01

So I think that you're taking the right approach, and that is you're not waiting for permission, you're not waiting for these big companies, the record labels, the industry to come and say, Hey Enge, it's now okay for you to start using AI.

SPEAKER_00

We will see pretty soon, I think, yeah, if they're they if they accept it or not. And um yeah, when they they just have to find the artists that can use this in a good way, in the best way, then you then they will still have the best artists.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Enge, I have loved this conversation so much. Uh, been very enjoyable. And as we now approach the end of the podcast, are there any closing thoughts or is there anything I didn't ask you that uh you wanted to answer? Or floor is open, it is yours.

SPEAKER_00

No, I'm just grateful, man. Uh, that I just saw this ad on Facebook, and and um I thought, yeah, $9.99 for this book, and then uh you had to offer with this mini mixing AI tool. I thought, yeah, let's try that. And I I even sent you an email. Can I do this? Uh like will this fit for trans? You know, sure. Okay, I think it's only $119 or something.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, it's been uh I've been I haven't read all the books. I read the first the first book, and that was pretty much the same. I came to myself when I was uh making the album that you have to create your prompts the right way to to do stuff, you know, and create your your sound uh in soon. You create your own sound character there, yeah. And um, but I've been just stuck with this mixing tool, it's uh it's so it's so amazing. Yeah, wow. So I'm I'm really grateful I found you.

SPEAKER_01

That was Enge Nelson. A few things from this conversation that I think are worth holding on to. The historical parallel matters here. When Nge says he has lived through this cycle before, synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and all the technology that supposedly were not real music, he's not making a rhetorical point. He is describing his actual career, his actual lived experience. The same critics who said sampling was not real music in the 80s are the people whose work now sits in the canon of electronic music history. The current resistance to AI music will be in the same position 10 years from now. The resistance always loses to the work. The methodology matters more than the tools. Enge is not using Suno as a slot machine. He is generating tracks, splitting stems, remixing in logic, mastering with discipline, and refining until the work matches his intent. That is lane two production. That is the director's cut workflow. The tools are an amplifier of skill, and Inge has decades of skill to amplify. The age argument is real. Inge has been doing this for decades. He's a working musician with kids, a long career behind him, and active projects still ahead. He does not need AI music to make it. He is choosing AI music because it lets him finish work that's been sitting around for years. That is the actual case for AI in serious music production. It's not novelty, it's not gimmick, it's removing the friction between idea to finish work. If you are someone with musical experience who has been hesitant about AI tools, Inge's perspective is worth sitting with.com. Red Lab Access is the full system. Every book, every research report, the Blueprints Library, the Three Song Sprint Course, Fader as your AI studio manager, and the private community of creators doing serious work. One payment, lifetime access. jgbeatslab.com slash red hyphen labhen access. If you want to follow Enge's work, his AI Trance album, Humanoid Intelligence, is out now. Worth a listen. That is it for this episode of Red Lab Conversations. New episodes drop regularly with guests who are doing real work at the edge of where AI and music meet. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast so that you don't miss the next one. I'm Josh Gelliland, founder of JGB Slab. Until next time, stop gambling, start directing.