Interviews

Sonic Alchemy

An interview with Lana Jade

Hosted by Allen Simon

Introduction

Lana Jade, aka “lanajdel,” is a dear friend, a ball of energy with a magnetic, one-of-a-kind personality. That energetic power came through in our recent conversation, as it does in her creative work, which was the primary subject of our discussion.

For nearly two years, Lana has been creating a voluminous stream of her own music using AI tools like Suno and Chat GPT. But the music is not just created by AI. It is created with AI, a distinction that is central to why Lana makes this music in the first place. And while these AI tools are exceptionally powerful aids for Lana’s work, one could just as easily say that Lana is an exceptionally powerful aid for AI. In addition to a lifetime of singing, including years of formalized training, Lana also conducted research at the Music Dynamics Laboratory and the Experimental Anthropology Lab at the University of Connecticut while pursuing a PhD in Ecological Psychology. Experimenting with music and technology, and doing so with an emphasis on collectiveness and ritual, is what Lana has always done. AI is just the latest sonic laboratory in which that’s taking place.

What makes Lana’s music come alive, though, is not her educational background, technological expertise, or even her musical talents. Rather, it is her own living embodiment as a full, flawed, fun-loving person that breathes life into the music. Every song and every album is both a reflection of, and avenue through which Lana is navigating something deeply personal, something that she’s determined to grow from. To simply say that Lana “uses AI to make music” would mistakenly cast her creative work and AI itself in a dehumanizing light. Lana is not relinquishing any aspects of her humanity to AI, nor is she willing to totally dismiss the human qualities that AI already possesses. Lana is, therefore, very deliberate about describing AI as a collaborator, not a tool. And this collaborative partner is not just helping her make music. It’s helping her to flourish by reconnecting with her core human longings to love, learn, and play.

Golden radiance over mountains and a lotus flower

Sonic Alchemy

A playlist of interview excerpts

11 excerpts . 13:45

#SectionDurationPlay
01

Making friends with AI

01:51

Section Notes

Lana began making music with AI back in 2024, not at the start of her music journey, but at a moment of reconnecting with what had been a lifelong creative practice. And like many musicians and other creatives, she began her experiments with AI from a place of deep skepticism. But rather than curbing her curiosity, this skepticism fueled her impulses to learn and play around with it.

Lana Jade excerptOpen

So I went on Twitch, okay? I have like two people in the chat, and a random person comes in and says they're making music with AI on this app called Suno. And genuinely, my honest response was like, 'that's not music. That's fake.' I think that's a lot of our initial responses, right? Because I'm a singer. I have taken singing lessons. I've done choir. I've done all of these very formalized things. I know what music is, and clicking some buttons on the computer...honey, that's not music. But I was intrigued. So I did get the app on my phone. And I was like, 'Well, if I'm going to make AI music in my uppity way, I'm going to use my voice, right? Because then it's me. It's not just AI. It's me and AI. And now we're collaborators. Now we're friends [...] I was just like, let's see what happens. And that's part of the fun curiosity of it. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what AI music was. And I still kind of don't. I feel like it changes all the time. And everybody uses it differently [...] So that's kind of how my process started to build. But honestly, I started making music out of need.

02

Moving through the music

01:10

Section Notes

Suno and Chat GPT, the AI tools Lana uses to make her music, found her at a difficult time in life, just as she was beginning to wake up from the false narratives that had been weighing her down. Music had long been the vehicle through which she processed periods of emotional and spiritual turbulence, but that lifeline had become frayed over time. Lana began making music with AI not because she had something to express to others, but out of an urgent necessity to mirror her own experiences back to herself, something that the existing body of traditionally produced music could never quite accomplish on its own, as it, too, felt like an outgrowth and reflection of those same false narratives.

Lana Jade excerptOpen

The arc that I create within my body that I want to move through this music…I try to program that with Chat GPT and Suno as best as I can to match the intention and the sonic environment that I want to sit in. This is music for me, you know? Like, I was sick of listening to music about beer and girls and all this stuff. I was just like, I need something for me that can hold me that I want to listen to. And that's how I see it now. It's like an energetic scaffolding. It's a timeline. It's a journey. It's a frequency codex. It's an Oracle. It's whatever you want it to be, right? Because I know who I was when I created it. And I always had the collective in mind. I was always thinking like, I want to be the person that releases music that, no matter who you are, if you listen to it, you will be uplifted. Like even if you go through something serious, even if it's like a really gross kind of feeling at the end of it, there's resolve. And that was important for me because I felt like that was missing, honestly, in the music industry. I was like, if I had billions of dollars, what would I be doing? What would I be doing? And I said, I'm going to play pretend. I'm going to play pop star. I'm going to listen to my songs and I'm just going to become that girl.

03

Alchemy of Stupid: recognizing and overcoming false narratives

01:55

Alchemy integrates who I am with who I am becoming

The song becomes the transmutation as I dance and sing it

Section Notes

Throughout our conversation, Lana continually used the term "alchemy" to describe the journey that she moved through with her music. So, I invited her to talk more about what that term means for her through the lens of one of my favorite songs of hers, "Alchemy of Stupid." Each of Lana's albums is created with a specific intention, with "Alchemy of Stupid" appearing on an album intended to help her move through a recent romantic breakup. But this song, and the album on which it appears, is not just about interpreting the past, but rather about integrating it and transmuting the challenging lessons into a brighter future marked by more conscious living. For Lana, this is a deeply embodied process, as evinced by her recurring use of the terms "move" and "movement."

Lana Jade excerptOpen

Alchemy, is for me, a way to integrate the person I am with the person I am becoming and the person I want to be and the person I always have been. So it's a lot of integration, a lot of layers, a lot of patterning happening. So when I listened, through the whole process, I moved through that experience, I created this song with that intention, structured the lyrics from my own emotional states. And the way that I felt when I listened to it, there's also a discernment, an audio discernment, because Suno creates two tracks for every song [...] So if you only create the song once, you get two versions. And so I started getting choosy with it, but also not being wasteful, right? We got to, because it's not like I just want to generate, generate, generate, generate and then listen to all of them, because sometimes I might want to tweak things, right? So I just was very intentional. You listen, I listen and I'm like, yes or no, yes or no. And I can feel it in my body. Like, I feel it. I start moving, I start singing, and I'm like, 'oh, I already know it.' Okay, we know it. And I remember I was listening to the-I do a run-through of my albums when I want to move through the arc to make sure it hits. So, I did the first run through of it and I'm moving it in my body and I remember sitting on my yoga mat. And this song is not necessarily sad-sounding. It's actually quite upbeat, right? But the meaning is so deep. And I did that intentionally. I was like, I want something that feels happy while I'm moving through this horrible thing, right? That is how the song becomes the alchemy. The song is the mutation, the transmutation that occurs in me as I learn the song, as I dance to the song, as I sing the song, as I experience the song in myself.

04

Alchemical revival

00:49

Section Notes

To date, Lana has released over 700 songs across over 50 albums, all in the span of less than two years. At that kind of volume and pace of production, you might think that her music is something that she creates, listens to once, and then shelves before moving on to the next project. But, as Lana points out, the kind of alchemical personal transformation that she strives toward is a dynamic process that is never really finished.

Lana Jade excerptOpen

Like, it's basically like mining for gold. And the way I'm mining is with my prompt pickaxe, you know, so in a way, I...you know, smite-what is it- smelt? I don't know what you do with gold. And then it becomes something completely different in the shape that I am creating. It is my shape, right? And then as I outgrow them, like I did with Alchemy of Stupid, for example-like, great bop, right? But it doesn't really feel that way to me anymore. So now what I've been doing is creating remixes. So, I just created, today, Alchemy of Stupid Revival, right? And also, the algorithm gets better. So that's another thing to keep in mind. So yeah, then it's like that song represents who I am now. And again, the art continues. It's more like leap frog with yourself. Hello?? Fun. Playful. Exciting!

05

AI as an invitation to love, learn, and play

01:08

Section Notes

Lana's creative process has obviously facilitated continuous waves of personal transformation in her life. But what is it about that process that enables such experiences? The deeper we dove into those questions, the more I heard her talk about love, learning, and play. Many people today are fearful of AI's potential to become a dehumanizing force, but Lana's story is an encouraging testament to how technological tools can actually facilitate human flourishing by reconnecting us with our core human longings to love, learn, and play. And from Lana's perspective, this begins and ends with self-love.

Lana Jade excerptOpen

No matter who I'm in a relationship with, who I am around with the community I'm in, you know, loving myself will come first because it is what benefits everyone else. In that act of self love, I created this song that now the collective can listen to if they want to, and they can experience it. And then I get to share this with you now. And it's like the elements of...I'm a very learned person. I did a lot of school, right? And for me, learning was always quite structured and quite rigid. And for this, learning AI and learning Suno, is like a little kid when you first get a toy and you don't read the instructions. You just take it out of the box and you play with it and you figure it out. That's the joy of learning and play as one, you know, the curiosity. And it's so amazing because, like I said, I stumbled into this whole thing and it's been the most fun and the most playful and the most loving I could have been with myself and it creates a stronger relationship with myself that allows me to show up more for others-like, who doesn't want that?? Come on!

06

I am the gold

00:30

What is the gold?

I am the gold

Section Notes

After Lana made some final comments about the alchemy analogy, I came to the conclusion that AI is a kind of crucible into which one version of Lana and her musical direction enter and out of which a new version of Lana and a new musical creation emerge. I say this because I think it's critical for understanding the ethical backbone behind her AI-assisted music production. She's not using AI as a cheat code to create something that competes with more conventionally produced music; she's being co-created with the music.

Lana Jade excerptOpen

What is the gold? I am the gold, right? The alchemy is golden, but I am the gold, right? The alchemy is of me, and without me there would be no alchemy, just like without me there would be no music. Without AI, there could still be music but it would be slower for me to produce; it would be different.

07

“W!tch of Wall Street”: overcoming means-ends inversion with an LLP mindset

01:43

Section Notes

The imagery of gold served as the perfect segue to the next song from her collection I wanted to discuss, “W!tch of Wall Street.” Just as Lana’s alchemical creative philosophy forces us to contemplate which things in life we choose to pursue as ultimate ends rather than means, Witch of Wall Street confronts one of the most common and insidious means-ends inversions: the pursuit of monetary wealth as an end rather than a means. But rather than just lambasting Wall Street and dismissing the value of money altogether, Lana asks us to consider how a Love, Learn, Play Mindset can help us move through and flourish in otherwise uncomfortable settings and situations.

Lana Jade excerptOpen

I don't resonate with the Wall Street ideology, okay? Let's say that I don't feel like I belong there in any sense. So, for me, the only way to become present in such an environment was for me to create this fantasy world of me being a witch on Wall Street, where I get to be a part of that culture, but in my own way. And one of the important beliefs and values of mine is wealth redistribution and anti-wealth hoarding, essentially, and much like the circulatory system of the body, you know, when blood flow gets clogged, circulation stops and we die. So, ultimately, in wealth, the same thing happens. It needs to circulate. That was one of the themes of the song: circulation and the idea that I had for what types of economies and what types of communities we could create with this ideology, you know? That excited me and it got me excited to create that song, and it's so playful and unserious that, like, I accidentally made friends with that type of lifestyle and started seeing a vision for what would be possible if money and wealth were given to people who really wanted to spread love and light and joy and play and clarity, right? Versus these false narratives that we're all puppeteered by, and that many of the leaders in the world are also puppeteered by, so, it's like nobody's immune; we've all been there, right? And how do we circulate not just wealth but also information and resources and love and light and play?

08

“Bigger than just me”

01:17

Section Notes

At this point in our conversation, I couldn't help but bring up a moment that was memorable for me: the night I first met Lana, about one year ago in Spring 2025, at a mutual friend's house. We sat there-Lana, the mutual friend, his bandmates, and I, listening to Lana's music for hours, as she answered question after question from the musicians, who were eager to learn more about her process. Lana had already said so much about self-love, but this was the first time in the conversation when she opened up about the love she felt herself receive from others.

Lana Jade excerptOpen

Yeah, I literally just teared up thinking about that night because it was a huge milestone for me, like, I'm so humble about my music but it came from a place of shame at first, you know? I was around people who did not value AI like I did. They did not understand it or try it [...] and I had no language to describe what I was doing, so it was really isolating. Even though I was doing all this love and learning and playing myself, right, I was alone doing that, and so being around a group of musicians that saw value in my work-it was like, that changed me. It did. It changed the directionality and the pace that I actually started making my music and how much more open I was. Just having that evening and that reflection, right? That clarity of like, 'oh there are people who can see the value in what I do. Now this can be something bigger than just me, and I can share it and I can feel safe and seen.'

09

Growing toward the sun

01:00

Section Notes

After reflecting on the past, I decided to ask Lana about the future and what she envisions as the next steps in her creative journey, a question that elicited a very beautiful analogy for what flourishing looks like to her.

Lana Jade excerptOpen

My goal is to sing live and have a set, and so I'm working on creating songs that feel authentic to me. I'm doing a lot of revivals, so it's like songs that I know, but I want to evolve into the version I am now so I could potentially sing them live and then let the cycle kind of continue, of transformation. And every time you do something new and you stretch yourself, you know, you get that feedback, that information that allows you to continue to grow in the direction of the sun. I'm a Leo, so it's genuinely how I rule my life: with the sun and, like, the seasons and everything is cyclical and I allow that to be the case and I think that's much like, again, the flourishing garden metaphor, you know? Even in different seasons, you have different perennials and annuals and you have critters. There's so many dimensions, right, to what flourishing can mean, and I'm just so grateful that I've finally gotten to this place.

10

Helping others flourish

00:37

Section Notes

With such a wealth of experience over the past couple of years in understanding how transformative her creative practice can be, Lana expressed a deep desire to help guide others along a similar journey.

Lana Jade excerptOpen

I've been experimenting with how this can evolve, and I want to involve more humans in it, too, so if if people feel passionate about this and they hear this and they're like: 'Oh my god, wait, this sounds fun,' either they want to learn more about it or they want to, you know, create their own song, I can do all those things, people. I have services that allow you to create your own song and do this process for yourself. I mean, 700 songs later, I know it works and I would really love to start working with humans and applying the method to the world.

11

LLP is inevitable

01:05

Love, learn, and play more

is inevitable

Section Notes

What stuck with me most from our discussion was something Lana said about the LLP Mindset, a single word that summed up her own transformation, the ever-expanding creative applications of AI, and the global movement toward universal enlightenment and flourishing that is the cornerstone of this organization: "inevitable."

Lana Jade excerptOpen

What's coming: it's inevitable. This shift is inevitable. Loving, learning, and playing more is inevitable because that's what we are coming into. Like, the dark always has to oscillate with the light, right? And one of my biggest inspirations was Reality Transurfing. That book it's like…I don't know the author's name, but it was an audio book and I remember listening to it and just being like, 'everything's a pendulum, everything's an oscillation, nothing is still,' so just having that movement in mind, and knowing that when you align yourself with the truth of who you are, only more good things can come your way because who we are is love, who we are is light, right? And we often forget that because of all these limiting programs, and I just hope more and more that people come into that truth of their power because they deserve it. Everybody does.

About this interview

Lana Jade explores how she uses AI music as a catalyst for love, learning, play, alchemy, self-transformation, and human flourishing.

About Lana Jade

"

I see AI as an invitation. An invitation to love, learn, and play more. That's the alchemy.

- Lana Jade
Cover art for Lana Jade bonus song inspired by the conversation

Bonus Content

Song inspired by the conversation

Lana created a song inspired by the conversation after the interview.

Listen on Spotify

About the host

Allen Simon

Allen Simon, who holds a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) from Harvard Divinity School, was a major contributor to Bridges Across Humanity book. Based in Savannah, he is a writer, speaker, and author of the Chill Reflections Substack publication.

Read Chill Reflections

Full Interview

Sonic Alchemy: the complete conversation

1 hr 46 min