Autism, AI, and the Art of Songwriting with Rachel Schaub
Rachel Schaub is a 17-year-old autistic songwriter who joins us to share stories about her love of music and songwriting with the help of AI. She shares about the experiences that inspire her and her writing process. Rachel also discusses how technology helps her connect with others and express herself in unique ways. Listeners will hear firsthand how music and AI intersect to open up creative possibilities.
Autism, AI, and the Art of Songwriting with Rachel Schaub
All Autism Talk
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Richie Ploesch
Rachel, thank you so much for being here. It's a pleasure to have you.
Rachel Schaub
Thank you for having me.
Richie
You are a, amongst other things, a singer songwriter and I am so jealous because I have very little, if any musical ability except for listening to the radio that I can do. So I'm curious, what inspired you to write songs?
Rachel
well, there's this group called Triple Charm. There are three sisters and they've always been writing music ever since they started their group, their singing group. And I've always just really liked their music. I've already met them two times at two of their concerts and one was in New York City. The other one was in Chicago and I just really liked them. actually handed them the song I wrote about them. I handed it to them when I went to Chicago, which was the second time I met them. So yeah, I just have always liked their music.
Richie
That's great. I'm so glad you got to meet your favorite artist. That's incredible. What is your favorite song and why?
Rachel
Well, I wrote this one song. It's called When I Tried to Meet You. It's about me trying to meet JoJo Siwa, but it didn't really work out. We drove all the way to Rhode Island to go to Comic Con, me and my mom, and it didn't really work out. They kind of took the picture. It kind of was very fast, but we're actually going to meet her again on November 28th at Mall of America. So yeah.
Richie
I'm glad that you tried once and that you're trying again. Good job following up. That's great. Which songwriters do you admire most, Rachel?
Rachel
I just like Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor, like all those people.
Richie
tried to write those down, but I think I got them because they're the same ones that my daughter likes a lot. Can you describe the process of how you use Suno for songwriting? Did I say that right? Suno? I'm sorry. Yes, thank you.
Rachel
Yeah. Um, so basically I come up with an idea for a song and I have to come up with all the, um, lyrics for the song. And then I use AI to kind of help me make the lyrics a little bit better. And then I put the lyrics in the Suno and then you can tell Suno what melody you want that you create the lyrics but Suno creates like the music and the melody
Richie
That's amazing. I have a follow-up question about how you write songs. Where do you get the inspiration to write your songs?
Rachel
Well, if I'm doing something in my life or having like an experience in my life, I write the song based on that.
Richie
That's why you wrote a song about meeting triple charm, right? The three sisters.
Rachel
Yeah.
Richie
Great, Have you ever written any other songs dedicated to people that you know?
Rachel
Yes, I've written songs about my cousins wanting to sing with them and our grandma. I also wrote a song about my dad, how he told me how to get there. And I wrote a song about my good friends who live in Adrian and yeah.
Richie
That's so inspiring that you wrote songs about people that you care about. I'm sure that they appreciated that very much. Did your dad like the song when you sang it for him?
Rachel
Yeah.
Richie
I bet. Can you describe one challenge along the way or piece of advice for other songwriters?
Rachel
Like one challenge - Just like not knowing what's gonna happen because like before I actually found out I was gonna do these interviews or meet JoJo Siwa again. I didn't know if it was gonna happen but my dad actually knew it was gonna happen before I did. He kept telling me like I know you're gonna meet JoJo again and I didn't believe him. I didn't know it was gonna actually happen again but he kind of knew it before I did so yeah.
Richie
but he knew it, but he didn't tell you?
Rachel
Well, he told me like, know you're gonna meet her again and stuff. Like he just knew it was gonna happen.
Richie
Got it. So then a challenge for you is just not knowing what's coming.
Rachel
Yeah, because I never know what's coming, really.
Richie
And what about challenges with writing songs?
Rachel
Um, just like using AI is a little bit hard because you don't have full copyright of your songs. And I guess you have full copyright of your songs. If you do the other way of writing songs, that's without AI. So it's a little bit easier if you do the other way.
Richie
I didn't know that. So you talked about your family a little bit and you talked about special events. Where else do your song ideas come from?
Rachel
Yeah. Well, I read a lot of songs. One of my songs that I recently wrote actually came from a song I wrote about Triple Charm because one of the things I talk about in the song about Triple Charm is I talk about being a super fan of Triple Charm. So my most recent song that I actually wrote is actually called Super Fan And it's about me being a super fan.
Richie
That's great. I think I heard, don't think I heard that one on your website, but I heard some of the other ones that you were talking about and they're beautiful. They're amazing songs. Rachel, what kind of feedback have you gotten from friends and family?
Rachel
It was really great. My cousins really loved the song. My grandma really loved the song. I showed it to her actually on her 80th birthday. She was crying really emotional. She really loved the song. Yeah, and then my two friends that wrote the song about, they really liked it. I think their dad got really emotional and he heard it.
Richie
That's amazing. Sometimes people get very emotional when they think something is very beautiful and when they're really happy. So that's not always a bad thing, right?
Rachel
Yeah.
Richie
What are the pros and cons of using AI in songwriting?
Rachel
Um, just that when you use AI, helps you make a song very fast and really quickly. Because I guess when you don't use AI, have to sit there and like make up your own melody for the song. And that can just take a little while to do. So definitely makes it a lot faster if you want to put out a song really quickly.
Richie
And then what are some of the challenge? sounds like a good thing. What are some of the hard things about using AI?
Rachel
Hmm…Just that like at first I didn't really know if I'd be able to get my music up on Spotify. Like I have it right now because my dad was saying like, you won't be able to put your music up on Spotify because it won't like, you're not supposed to do that if you use AI because it's like copyright or something. And so then we got this thing called DistroKid, which is a distributor. It helps you to get your music on Spotify and things like that. But I didn't know if I'd be able to do that at first because I was using AI.
Richie
Thank you for sharing about that. Rachel, how do you see your future in the music industry?
Rachel
I don't know, it's like writing more songs about more things, more experiences that I have. Maybe trying to learn how to write songs without just using AI, because I'm trying to learn the other way. Where like you actually sit down, you make your own melody for your songs.
Richie
It sounds harder, but I think you can do it. Rachel, my last question for you is why is music so important for you?
Rachel
I've just always liked music. I've always been listening to music. Yeah, I listen to a lot of different artists who make music and music has just always been really important to me.
Richie
Great. Rachel, is there anything else that you want to tell us about today or?
Rachel
not really.
Richie
Great. Well, we will make sure that we put your website and other things in our show notes and so that other people can find out about you and the songs that you're making. Thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it. Don't go anywhere just yet, but thank you.
Rachel
Yeah, thank you.
