Virtual music is testing the limits of human connection

Sami Tauber is a Gen Z Australian musician and artist who performs worldwide as a human, and metaverse-wide as a super-sentient crime-fighting cyborg heroine named VNCCII (pronounced like Leonardo da …). She blends virtual realities with real-world talent to create new ways of connecting with fans. But how long will it be before music itself is created virtually?

Matt Carmichael: Do you do many interviews in your actual form?

Sami Tauber: I'm kind of like Daft Punk. They’ve got the helmets. My mask is my character, but I enjoy talking as myself.

Carmichael: How did you develop this persona and how did VNCCII start?

Tauber: I love gaming and I love storytelling. It was around 2017. The name itself was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci. I respected the polymathic approach to art. It was an aspirational name, and that inspired a super-hero character. I thought, when I put out my music, it'd be cool to tell a story and add an extra dimension that I didn’t have at the time. I didn't have anyone really to look to who was doing that.  

Carmichael: How does she interact with you?

Tauber: I'm a bit of a director in my mind. The character became a bit of a muse for me. I'd have a song idea in my head, and I'd see the full music video or story. Sometimes I make my sound design around that. I would see that in my head as I was literally programming in the bass to fit to the visual.

Carmichael: Who are your influences?

Tauber: I grew up loving the Doors and strong front personas like Michael Hutchence from INXS — he’s from Australia. And then I saw Flume come through in Australia. He was the kid in the bedroom producing, so that was a bit of a nod of confidence for me to go and become that as well.

Outside the music, the thing that actually means more to me is storytelling. I love George Lucas and “Star Wars” — iconic characters and franchises that take you on a hero's journey and transport you to other dimensions and landscapes and worlds.

Carmichael: How do you technically make it work when you perform as your avatar? Is it scalable?

Tauber: It’s transported me across the planet doing the Superverse Dubai, their first metaverse conference. I was beaming in real time on a giant LED screen and seeing a camera input of the audience in Dubai.

It’s a surreal experience, playing the role of a character because that’s how they perceive you. But also getting all the tech set up because there’s a lot going on. I think everything will become democratized. At the moment, it still takes quite a bit of computation power to pull that off.

Carmichael: How does VNCCII grow a fan base and connect with her fans?

Tauber: VNCCII can be a little bit everywhere at the same time because she’s a 3D model, whereas there’s just one of me. I’ve written a novel, and there are other characters besides VNCCII. There’s a futuristic world. I want to give that back to the community. I’ve got a storyline and it’s done, and everything’s mapped out.

What’s not mapped out is the unknown variable of whom the community will be in the story. It’ll become a co-created story and experience. They will be part of the VNCCII story.

Carmichael: How do you monetize all of this?

Tauber: It’s a work in progress as the metaverse space is so new. Partnerships are a great way to monetize based on a brand’s equity as well as the traditional model of performance fees. Being a phygital model also creates opportunities for virtual appearances without the hassle of traveling, etc. NFTs are another way to monetize and build a community as they are portals to the VNCCII universe.

Carmichael: Is all this a steppingstone to a world where we don’t even need the humans behind the virtual performers?

Tauber: I don’t think humans will accept that, and I hope they don’t because there’s an intangible nature and quality to being a human that you can’t get from an algorithmic-filtration-bubble-recommendation-hologram-AI-best-friend-of-some-musician. But I do think it will become part of the world, once you’ve accepted that there’s no point going against it. If [someday] an AI can do exactly what I’m doing and literally make a song, then it becomes a matter of what is it about being a human that I can give as an experience to people that this technology cannot?