Alan Walker on AI, Gaming, New Music and India Plans

One of the things all musicians get asked about – whether they like it or not – is the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on art in these times. We ask Norwegian DJ-producer Alan Walker whether he’s tired of fielding questions about AI and he’s actually rather welcoming.

Speaking over a video call from Oslo (“It’s a lot colder than it was in the U.S.,” he says), Walker regards AI in music to be in a “very early developing stage.” Describing it as “cool but a little bit scary,” but also reminds us about the sea change that’s taken place in modern music recording technology, which allows anyone to produce music from pretty much anywhere and with anyone in the world. He ultimately concludes and says, “I think for an artist, it’s always important to adapt and see where it will take you. But with AI, it’s really hard to say what the result and outcome will be.”

Walker has always engaged with bigger tech changes, like creating Walkerworld in the game Fortnite and more. Even his newest video for the introspective song “Who I Am” – which progresses like an EDM ballad, if there ever was one – brings in a bit of animation and features the artist looking back at different key moments in his life, with family, friends and peers, plus the biggest gigs.

In an interview with Rolling Stone India, Walker talks about the making of his latest song, how he plans to release one song each month and where India figures in his plans this year. Excerpts:

Rolling Stone India: What was it like making “Who I Am” and the music video, especially to dive into the process emotionally for all this footage we see from your past?

Alan Walker: I think it’s a big step for all of us artists who are involved in the son. It’s a song that kind of takes a deep dive in what’s defining you as a person and also as an artist. We wanted to showcase that through the music video, so you show the upbringing, you show what’s happened in your life. Also, there could be good moments, it could also be bad moments, it could be sad moments. But it’s all moments that are leading up to defining you or as we would call it, ‘Who I Am.’

In the video, there’s so much of your personal life that we get to see. Did you have to pick some things over the others, in terms of core memories? What was it like choosing what made it into the video that way?

We’d been looking at a lot of moments back in the past, from before I was starting to make music, and also around the times when I got started, when things started to really start rolling and get bigger and bigger. So it was a lot of very core, meaningful moments that we wanted to capture in the music video, but also very defining for what has led to me where I am today. I think it’s pretty cool also for me to just look back and suddenly see those clips in a music video, because sometimes I also kind of forget and go, ‘Oh, wow, that was actually that long ago’ or ‘That really happened.’

“Who I Am” progresses in a very emotional way as a song. Was it a conscious decision to write something that drew from emotions rather than just give it the familiar EDM structure?

So with the song lyrics being the way they are and that becoming the message we want to convey, I think that makes perfect sense for it to be [this way]. It’s something that I also stand by very much – to be an inspiration, but also to aspire and inspire both myself.

What was it like working with Putri Ariani and Peder Elias? How did that sort of collaboration come along for this track?

So we had the song demo for ‘Who I Am’ ready for quite a while, but I worked with Putri on a performance I did in Indonesia, and that’s when I really recognized her voice as being truly remarkable. And Peder, he also has tremendous success in Asia. So I felt like it could be a good trio collaboration that we could do there, because Putri has the Asian market and I also have the market globally, but also massively in Asia and India especially. I think it was really cool.

In terms of the artists you seek out for collaborations or the ones who come to you, sometimes you’re also thinking about the audience, like how someone has a good fan base in Asia. How have you changed the way you think about collaborations?

I always just look for a natural talent, and then I don’t care if you’re a huge artist or if you’re just a songwriter that has a very nice voice, because there’s so many collaborations and songs that I’ve done with up and coming artists and some larger artists. I think there’s no point in setting limitations because it could be the next banger with whomever. So you don’t have to be, like, a super famous artist to work with me. I think it’s a nice way to find and discover new talents and give them exposure to also help them boost their careers.

You also recently worked on a song with YouTuber Vikkstar123 and Dash Berlin for “Better Off (Alone Pt. III).” It seems to build on your continuing association with the gaming world.

It’s kind of like those two worlds are just like meant to be with each other. There are no gamers who don’t love electronic dance music. I think that’s really cool. When I started off with making music, I was gaming and making music for fun on the side.

I wanted to cater the music that I released to the gamers. I released my music non-copyrighted because I wanted gamers, streamers, content creators to use the music for free and then just build my audience from there on.

Working with Vikkstar, for example, is super cool because he’s a gamer. I think he uploaded one video every single day for like five years. Every single day. That’s a lot of videos, but it shows how passionate people are within that industry. He wanted to start making music and I think that’s really cool and that he also steps into that world. It makes sense, he’s a gamer and gaming and music have such a tight connection.

What has the reception been like for Walkerworld within Fortnite?

It creates a whole different experience for both Walker fans and regular gamers who can try out the island that we created.

We built it as a theme park, so every journey in there or experience is kind of like a theme park ride. That gives us the opportunity to just open new rides, open new experiences within Walkerworld. We have a ton of opportunities to take this and develop it and just build it to the next level for each and every time we have an update.

How involved are you with things like Walkerworld?

Being a gamer myself, it’s super important that I enjoy it myself, because if I wouldn’t be enjoying it, how can other people enjoy it? For me, it felt like a very fun, interactive experience to just go around, experience the music, see through the progression from the early days of Alan Walker to where we are today with Walkerworld. This is the overall journey there.

You’re performing in Dubai this March. Are you passing by India by any chance?

For India, we are looking into doing more shows. We didn’t stop by India last year, and that’s the first time in quite a while where there hasn’t been anything. It was also kind of good to take a little bit of a break from India, make people hyped for our return and I’ve seen it on social media. People really want me to come back to India, and I can’t wait. I think we’ll be planning to do some shows around India and maybe explore some new cities that I haven’t been to before.

What else is coming up in 2024?

So for this year, we made the decision to have a little bit of a challenge, and that will be to release one single per month. To kick it off, we did ‘Who I Am’ and now in February, we’ll be releasing a new one. I think we are on the right path. It will definitely be more than 12 songs. I think we have too many songs that I feel are ready and good to go out.