Umlilo’s latest project marks a bold new chapter in an already shape-shifting career. After a decade of making music, exploring fashion, mentoring artists, and co-founding a festival, Umlilo found herself at a crossroads—creatively restless and questioning the structures that had defined her work. What followed was a period of withdrawal, a break from performing and releasing music, which opened space for reflection and reinvention. That reinvention has led to an album that is as much an artistic experiment as it is a declaration of independence, embracing new modes of creation through artificial intelligence.
Tentatively titled Non-Binary Hearts, the album began as a collection of love songs inspired by personal upheaval, but soon expanded into a broader interrogation of contemporary existence. Robots, aliens, clones, and inter-dimensional travel became recurring motifs, woven together with themes of identity, passion, and playful irreverence. At its core, the project reflects a conversation between human and machine, with Umlilo collaborating not with producers or songwriters, but with an AI-generated version of herself. The process involved training AI models on her voice, writing style, and aesthetic, creating a digital twin that could generate melodies, lyrics, and visual concepts in an iterative creative exchange. Some tracks play out as a battle between human and AI, a sonic rivalry between organic instinct and algorithmic precision, while others imagine a world where these forces coexist and collaborate.
Sonically, the album veers into new territory, embracing a lighter, more playful pop sound that contrasts with the darker electronic textures of her previous work. Tracks like Sad Robot channel an industrial, mechanical energy, while Digital Twin explores the uncanny interplay between real and simulated selves. Alien reflects on what extraterrestrial visitors might make of a world plagued by war, pollution, and displacement, capturing both an outsider’s perspective and a deeply personal sense of otherness. Each song is a self-contained universe, a distinct sonic and conceptual world brought to life through a fusion of human emotion and technological intervention.
Umlilo’s embrace of AI is not just an aesthetic choice but a response to the evolving landscape of creative production. Having always been drawn to technology—studying computer science, experimenting with virtual reality, and integrating digital tools into her practice—the recent advancements in AI felt like a natural extension of her work. Cloning herself using apps like Kits.ai, generating visuals through Runway and Kling AI, and refining lyrics with large language models, Umlilo constructed an entire ecosystem of digital selves, each contributing to the project in different ways. The process was one of discovery, adaptation, and conversation, where the AI acted as both collaborator and provocateur, challenging expectations and expanding creative possibilities.
The implications of this approach extend beyond personal experimentation. As debates around AI’s role in art continue, Umlilo sees potential for empowerment, particularly for independent artists who lack the resources of major labels. While acknowledging the ethical concerns surrounding AI, she advocates for more equitable models where artists can be compensated for their contributions to training datasets, rather than displaced by exploitative corporate structures. For Umlilo, AI is not a threat to human creativity but a tool for expanding it—a means of democratising access to artistic production and opening up new dimensions of expression.
This willingness to challenge conventions extends to her relationship with the music industry itself. Never one to conform to rigid structures, Umlilo has long prioritised self-sufficiency over industry validation, carving out spaces where her art can exist on its own terms. The slow, deliberate rollout of this album—releasing a track each month rather than adhering to traditional release cycles—reflects this ethos, allowing for an organic evolution rather than a singular moment of consumption. Beyond this project, she is already exploring new creative frontiers, working on a body of work centred around climate change, ecology, and the legacies of colonialism.
Umlilo’s artistic trajectory has always been defined by fluidity, experimentation, and an unrelenting push toward the future. With this latest project, she has not only redefined her own creative process but also offered a glimpse into a world where human and artificial intelligence collide, collaborate, and create something entirely new.
Watch Umlilo’s video for her latest single Love Songs here
Stream the single here
