Melbourne artist rejected by industry for decades finds success with sexy AI alter ego

A Melbourne artist who created an AI singer in response to 20 years of knock-backs from showbusiness bosses to his film and TV scripts and ideas has suddenly made it.

AI pop star Dimitrii. Picture: Supplied

A Melbourne artist spurned by decades of industry rejection has found sudden success with a sexy AI alter ego.

Author Jayson Sutcliffe created an AI singer, Dimitrii, as a response to 20 years of knock-backs from showbiz bosses to his film and television scripts and ideas.

Dimitrii’s debut single, Gravity, was released this month, to thousands of Spotify listens, repeat plays, and interest from around the world.

Sutcliffe said after endless industry rebuffs, Dimitrii was his last-ditch attempt to be heard.

Dimitrii was Sutcliffe’s last-ditch attempt to be heard. Picture: Supplied

“It’s been a frustrating few decades,” Sutcliffe told the Herald Sun.

“I’ve been to LA every year, going to meetings relentlessly, and pitching projects, whether it’s pilots, or books, or options.

“Time and time again you get built up to something, and then all of a sudden it’s nothing. “I’ve had so many meetings with projects where you feel you’re over the line, and then they’re not.

“It’s shocking and it’s brutal,” he added. “It’s months and months, which turns into years of waiting, twiddling your thumbs, just waiting for a response. I mean, how do you live like that?”

Sutcliffe, a former roller skating world champion is a published author. He has also directed two films based on the skating world.

Sutcliffe says Dimitrii is inspired by people he has met in the past and would like to meet in the future. Picture: Supplied

The Dimitrii project happened after he wrote a song for a trailer he’d planned to pitch in LA.

“They’re all my lyrics, but the voice is AI,” Sutcliffe said. “It’s not like press a button and, boom, it’s all there. To have consistency, maintain character, and create personas, it’s a very involved process.”

Sutcliffe says Dimitrii is Greek-Australian.

“I wouldn’t say Dimitrii is based on an ex, or anything like that. But he’s inspired by people I’ve met in the past, and people I’d like to meet in the future. I feel like he has resonated a lot because the amount of DMs I’m getting from mature age women — and men — is insane.”

Sutcliffe said the positive response to his hunky AI singer is bittersweet.

Sutcliffe says the positive response to his hunky AI singer is bittersweet. Picture: Supplied

“It makes me sad because I’ve tried and tried and tried to get somewhere in this industry,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’ve produced terrible things. I always put in 100 per cent. But people in the industry just don’t get back to you. It’s crushing.

“I’m thrilled that Dimitrii is getting attention, and I may get opportunities because of him. But, again, I’m sad I had to do it this way.”

Dimitrii’s debut comes a week after revelations the No.1 song on Billboard’s country digital song sales chart — Walk My Walk, by Breaking Rust — is an AI creation.

Elsewhere, Xania Monet made history as the first known AI-generated singer to appear on a Billboard radio airplay chart.

Monet’s creator Telisha Nikki Jones told US broadcaster Gayle King: “Xania is an extension of me, so I look at her as a real person”.

King shot back: “But you can’t sing! So in that sense, she’s not a real person,”

“AI is the new era that we’re in,” Jones replied. “I look at it as a tool, as an instrument.”