What does it take to build a rock star from scratch — voice, image, backstory, and all? That’s exactly the question at the heart of the latest episode of Put a Mic In It!, host Ava Bently’s podcast on the Studio 25 Podcast Network.
Episode 9 features Barrie, the UK-based creator behind JJ Felix, a fully AI-generated musical artist who has amassed a devoted fanbase — and is already on his second album.
Barrie, who also runs the five-year-old YouTube channel Music Tech Info — which just crossed 10,000 subscribers — walked Ava and co-host Dave Warner through the intricate process of building JJ Felix from the ground up, the realities of the AI music landscape, and why he believes this technology is simply the next chapter in a story musicians have been living for decades.
The Making of JJ Felix
JJ Felix didn’t start with a look or a name. He started with a voice.
“I found the right voice that was in my head,” Barrie explained during the episode. “There’s passion, there’s strength — there’s everything that I’d love to be as a singer.” After locking in the AI vocal that would become JJ, Barrie turned to visual AI platform Leonardo to craft the artist’s image, generating well over a hundred variations before landing on the one that felt right.
JJ is now a rock-pop persona with a backstory to match: a UK native who moved to Los Angeles to chase a music career — a narrative that mirrors Barrie’s own ambitions.
“He’s based in LA,” Barrie said. “He’s gone over to make it in the music industry. That really fits with my own self-belief and personality.”
JJ’s debut album was followed by Love and Loss, a 22-track deluxe release available for digital download on the JJ Felix website with bonus tracks not found on streaming platforms.
Barrie has been deliberate about offering fans something beyond Spotify — a nod to the platform’s well-documented shortcomings for independent artists.
The new album is more emotionally driven than the debut, anchored by “Moral Compass,” a song Barrie wrote to process his mother’s passing. Alongside it are standout tracks like “Million,” “Flores Street” — named after a road just off Sunset Strip in West Hollywood — and “Breaking Rust,” a gritty country-tinged track written as a tribute to another early AI artist.
“Fans were like, why isn’t this on the first album?” Barrie recalled of “Breaking Rust.” “I said, well, it was because it was about an AI artist. They said, can you put it on the next album? So that’s exactly what I’ve done.”
The episode closes with a full performance of “Breaking Rust,” which Ava describes as one of her favorites.
The Real Work Behind AI Music
One of the most candid exchanges in the episode came when Ava, Barrie, and Dave pushed back on the popular assumption that AI music is just a matter of typing in a prompt and hitting go.
“I get up in the morning, I get a song in my head, I’m crafting the lyrics, and then I’m starting the process,” Ava said. “That can take me hours. Sometimes I get up at 4 or 5 in the morning and next thing you know it’s 8 or 9 and I’m still working on the same song.”
Barrie compared building a song for JJ to brand management — every track has to feel authentic to who JJ is as an artist. For video, he’s now using motion capture techniques, physically performing as JJ and using AI tools to translate those movements into JJ’s persona. “I’ve got to get mentally in the mood to act as JJ,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, but the results are amazing.”
Dave put it in blunter terms: “You’re hiring a studio band, Ava. You’re instructing them how you want them to play. It’s your voice, it’s your lyrics — you have musicians that happen to be electronic.”
Suno, Walled Gardens, and Where the Industry Is Heading
Barrie — who describes Suno as currently the top AI music-generation platform — shared breaking news during the recording: Suno’s CEO had just announced a Series D funding round and a forthcoming licensing deal with Warner Music Group.
Barrie also gave a rundown of the broader competitive landscape, including Udio, Mureka, Mozart AI, and Google’s newly rebranded Flow Music (formed after acquiring the AI music platform Producer AI). Spotify is also entering the space, inking a deal with UMG to allow fans to create remixes and covers of opted-in artists.
The conversation turned pointed when Dave raised the concept of “walled gardens” — platforms that let you create music but won’t let you export it. “It’s like being able to make music in a prison with cuffs around your wrists,” Barrie said. He praised Suno for resisting that model, though acknowledged the legal battles ahead are far from over.
AI, Fear, and the Long View
The trio addressed the growing public skepticism around AI head-on, including criticism about data center energy use. Dave drew a direct line to his own experience running servers in data centers since the late 90s: “You’re basically saying I don’t want television anymore, I don’t want banking anymore, I don’t want social media anymore — because they’re all running on what you’re calling AI data centers.”
Barrie drew a historical parallel to the music industry’s resistance to synthesizers and electronic drum kits in the 1980s — tools that were once condemned as job-killers and are now simply instruments. “In ten years you’ll look back and think, what was that about?”
Ava was equally direct about her own position: “I can’t stop it. It is the future. And this would be the time to familiarize yourself.”
The episode also touched on the horizon for live performance — both Ava’s upcoming concert plans (with Dave involved in production and lighting) and the tantalizing possibility that JJ Felix could one day appear on a physical stage through holographic or motion-capture technology.
Watch, Listen, Stream
Episode 9 of Put a Mic In It! — featuring “Long Way” (Ava’s collaboration with Barrie), “Attention” from JJ Felix’s debut album, and the closing performance of “Breaking Rust” — is available now on the Studio 25 Podcast Network on YouTube. You can also catch it on the Studio 25 Music Roku channel and the Studio 25 Music iOS app.
To follow Barry’s work, search Music Tech Info on YouTube, and find JJ Felix’s music and digital downloads at jjfelix.com.
Put a Mic In It! drops new episodes regularly on the Studio 25 Podcast Network. Watch the video on YouTube, or below, add the Roku channel, or download the iOS app to stay current.