Art Inhuman: Dan Schenker Creates A.I.-generated Artwork Inspired By blink-182 Coinciding with Tom DeLonge's Return & Ahead of World Tour 2023/2024
Art Inhuman is a collaborative effort between Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) artist Dan Schenker and writer Matt Horowitz. Dan takes band names, lyrics, and song names and with the help of an A.I. manipulates them into what he feels best represents them visually. If you have a suggestion for an upcoming addition to this series, Tweet Matt at @SharpChedder856 and/or Dan at @heydanschenker and Tag the band or artist you'd like us to feature next. This project spawned from Dan's decades-long love of music. Dan had been a fan of the band FOLLY since early high school—for the blend of Punk, Ska, and Hardcore they seamlessly wove, for the energy their music made him feel, and for the almost disproportionately poetic lyrics and topics they covered. So, when Dan thought to input some of his favorite lyrics, song titles, and album titles into Midjourney, the results were staggering. He posted them to Facebook, which caught the attention of the band, who were fascinated by the project. After the band asked to re-post Dan's work, he connected with music journalist Matt Horowitz (TheWitzard.com, NOECHO.net, IDIOTEQ.com, and more) and Art Inhuman, their semi-regular project making A.I.-generated art for some of their favorite bands, was born.
It's Day 2 of 182 Days of blink-182... just kidding! But this is our second day of back-to-back blink-182 features. We here at The Witzard and, especially, our founder and editor in chief, Matt Horowitz, have a very special place in our hearts for blink-182. Horowitz has no shame in admitting blink were his first favorite band he found and discovered on his own. He's been listening to blink-182 for at least 24 years, at this point in time. Like most of us, Horowitz started out with their commercial break-through, Enema of The State (1999) and moved both backwards and forward from there, enjoying every blink release since. We all know blink's "classic" (well, technically, second) line-up consisted of bassist and co-lead vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist and co-lead vocalist Tom Delonge, and drummer extraordinaire Travis Barker. That iteration of blink was active from 1998-2005 and released the aforementioned Enema of The State, Take Off Your Pants & Jacket, and untitled/self-titled before parting ways. Mark Tom & Travis reunited from 2009-15 for a few completely awesome comback tours, dropped an album in 2011, Neighborhoods, and an EP in 2012 entitled Dogs Eating Dogs.
When DeLonge left the band again, blink recruited Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio, Matt Skiba & The Sekrets, and theHELL to fill in on guitar and co-lead vocals; this third iternation of blink released California, California Deluxe with a whole new album on Disc 2, Nine, and a Christmas single called "Not Another Christmas Song." We're sure you've seen the headlines by now that blink got back together with DeLonge, politely kicked out Skiba, announced a massive 2023-24 world tour, dropped a new single called "EDGING," and announced their tenth album for next year. Oddly enough, looking back now, it does not appear as though Skiba played on blink's 2020 COVID-19-themed song. It now looks like "Quarantine" featured Brian Lee on electric guitar, who has worked with everyone from Lady GaGa to Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness. So, it looks like this DeLonge/Skiba subbing out situation has been going on behind-the-scenes longer than any of us knew.
