Worship | Ambient | Psalms | EXPERIMENTAL

The congregational worship songs presented through Breakers And Waves are 100% written by me, Jonny Shepherd, and are the results of decades of practicing the discipline of worship songwriting and using the songs in church contexts. Only the arrangements are processed using AI tools.

The non congregational/corporate songs, (the ambient/instrumental pieces and Psalms project) have a heavier weighting towards the AI technologies used, although their curation and direction as musical pieces were guided by me.

Computers, drum machines, synthesisers, smart tools, autotune and now AI tools have long been at the forefront of music creation. These are all, at the end of the day, only tools that help in the process of the end goal of creating music. God’s Spirit lives and breathes in ME, the worship songwriter, and YOU the worshipper and the heart and motivation of me as a curator of these tools is more important than whether a specific tool is Godly or not.

I have. Many times. However, the cost and time of doing so can be incredibly prohibitive and this experiment into using cutting edge production tools can help fast track getting new worship songs into the hands of worship leaders, bands and churches across the world. I don't want AI to take people’s jobs as musicians or recording engineers but do want to carefully use the tools available to me to help further the gifts that God has given me, within the means that I have available to me.

I have been worship songwriting for more than 25 years and have used many of those songs in churches. A significant number of those songs and the songs I continue to write have never been recorded. My heart has always been to write songs for the church worldwide and for that to happen, a recorded version of the song needs to exist somewhere that is easy to access and provides an excellent representation of a possible arrangement. I normally work on demo versions in my home studio, often experimenting with arrangements, lyrics, song structures, and hooks and riffs. It is from these demos, that I have then used online tools to help create band arrangements that inspire me personally and represent the song well. To clarify further, the corporate worship songs are 100% written by me (chords, lyrics, melody) and then AI tools used to complete arrangements that I am unable to achieve on my own merit.

I get it. That’s why I’m trying to answer some questions here. Whether we like it or not, AI is changing our world at breakneck speeds and the ethics of its use will continue to be debated. All I can say is that true worship is to do with YOUR heart, not whether a tool or method was used/not used in creating something. If these arrangements provide tension for you, you don’t have to listen, that’s OK. If you can see past the methods used, look into the heart of the songs written by a worshipper and use them in your own worship times and in your own churches, then I hope you can do so without feeling duped or fooled in any way.

Do these songs point to Jesus? Yes. Do these songs glorify God? Yes. Can they serve you and your church in your worship times? Yes.

I’d love to hear from you. Email me at shepherdworshipmusic@gmail.com