Gospel duo Wapendwa Muziki have defended their use of artificial intelligence in music production, insisting that they write their own songs before turning to technology to develop audio demos.
The husband-and-wife duo, Meshack Mpendwa, popularly known as Mesh, and Ninah Mpendwa, attracted criticism after demonstrating how they use Suno AI to transform musical ideas into song samples during an appearance on Oga Obinna TV.
Their revelation sparked debate about the role of artificial intelligence in gospel music, with questions emerging over originality, creativity and the place of human musicians in producing songs associated with faith and spiritual inspiration.
However, in a subsequent explanation, Mesh clarified that the technology does not write their lyrics or come up with their songs. Instead, the couple first develops the lyrics and melody before using Suno AI to generate a demo that communicates their preferred sound to a human producer.
Mesh said the duo’s songwriting process begins with an idea, which they develop into lyrics and a musical progression before involving the AI platform.
He maintained that their music draws inspiration from the Bible and their personal faith, dismissing the impression that they depend on artificial intelligence to compose their gospel songs.
“We’ve been getting our songs from God directly; all our songs are inspired from the Bible,” Mesh said.
He used their song Amefanya Mungu as an example of how an idea develops into a finished musical concept. According to him, the duo first gets the inspiration, writes the lyrics and works on the song before using AI.
Mesh stressed that having a complete song concept before opening the application remains an important part of their process.
“You have to have the song first. You need to have the lyrics first. You have to have the progression of the song,” he explained.
The clarification addresses one of the main questions raised after the duo demonstrated Suno AI: whether the software creates their songs from scratch or simply helps them develop ideas they have already composed.
Mesh explained that the couple also uses the platform to overcome challenges they previously experienced when communicating their preferred arrangements to music producers.
He said they often struggled to explain the melodies, sounds and musical progressions they wanted. In some instances, they would record ideas on their phones and later try to recreate or explain them during studio sessions.
The process could become frustrating, particularly when they had a specific sound in mind but could not adequately communicate it to the producer.
Mesh said they guide the platform on different aspects of the demo, including the melody, duration, speed, tempo and beats per minute (BPM).
He summarised the process by explaining that they first write the song and sing the melody before asking the application to generate a demo.
“Tunapata song, tunaaandika, tunaimba melody. Then Suno AI ina-create demo,” he said.
The duo then takes the generated sample to a human producer to demonstrate the direction they want the final recording to follow.
The explanation follows criticism that emerged after Mesh and Ninah demonstrated their use of the AI music-generation platform.
The revelation drew attention because Wapendwa Muziki have built their musical identity around gospel songs and messages rooted in faith. Their use of software to generate musical arrangements consequently raised questions about how much of the creative process should involve technology
