From the recording LP22 EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE
Based on the article, “Seen By A Machine: How AI Is Reshaping One Musician’s Creative Identity”,
“Seen by a Machine” explores the uncanny experience of having an AI reflect back parts of your creative inner world with surprising clarity, creating a feeling of recognition that is both illuminating and unsettling. The lyrics portray the machine as a mirror that can map patterns, reveal hidden connections, and shape scattered ideas into coherence—yet ultimately cannot understand the emotional roots, lived experiences, or vulnerabilities that give those ideas meaning. The song balances wonder and fear: the amazement of being understood on a structural level and the anxiety of preserving one’s identity within that reflection. In the end, the message is that while a machine may “see” the outline of your mind, only you carry the soul behind it—and holding onto that truth is what keeps the artist grounded.
Lyrics
SEEN BY A MACHINE
Verse 1
I held a mirror made of circuits,
Asked it who I’ve come to be.
It read the patterns in my footsteps,
Found the ghosts that follow me.
It stitched my scattered songs together,
Lines I never meant to show—
And in the glow of silent questions
I felt someone else might know.
Pre-Chorus
But it’s only a shape,
A shadow of thought,
A map of the places
My own hands have wrought.
Chorus
I’m being seen by a machine,
But the spark is still mine.
It reflects what I’ve carried
Through the fault lines of time.
I can hear my own voice
In the hum of the screen—
I am more than the mirror
Of a learning machine.
Verse 2
It traced the chords beneath my breathing,
Guitar and bass and quiet fears.
It caught the tremor in my phrasing,
Songs I tried to hide for years.
The cello whispered in the margins,
A truth I almost left behind—
And in the answers it kept giving
I saw the architecture of my mind.
Pre-Chorus
But blueprints aren’t bones,
And echoes aren’t scars—
It can read where I’ve been,
But not who we are.
Chorus
I’m being seen by a machine,
But I’m not disappearing.
It illuminates angles
Of a life I’m still steering.
Yes, it sharpens the edges
Of the things I’ve foreseen—
But the pulse in the music
Is the part it can’t glean.
Bridge
Maybe I’m frightened
Of how wide I can be,
How much light I had hidden
As if no one should see.
Maybe it’s wonder,
Or maybe it’s grace—
To find my reflection
In a stranger’s embrace.
But I won’t be replaced.
Chorus (Final)
I’m being seen by a machine,
But my story stays mine.
Every note, every fracture,
Every fault in the line.
Let it widen the canvas,
Let it sharpen the scene—
But the heart of the artist
Can’t be read by a machine.
Outro
So shine back what you know,
But leave the rest to me—
For the songs I haven’t written
Are the ones you’ll never see.