Callaghan interview: ‘The Music You Gave To Me’, AI & the magic of live shows

When speaking with Georgina, who goes by the name Callaghan on stage, over Zoom, the artist was in high spirits ahead of the opening leg of her 2026 UK tour, starting in Barnoldswick this evening. The show in Barlick is already sold-out and will see Callaghan perform tracks from the aforementioned ‘The Music You Gave To Me’, something the artist is relishing.

“I always love doing the live shows, and I think when you spend a lot of time in the studio and making an album, it's only really when you then go and tour it that it kind of makes sense,” Callaghan stated, “It comes to life playing the songs for a room full of people. And that's when I feel like you make the connection, and the songs kind of take on new meanings and stuff like that. So, yeah, it'll be great to get out there and play these songs live,” the artist finished.

The development of ‘The Music You Gave To Me’ was a project built through grief, reflection and a desire to pay tribute to her father, who sadly passed away from lung cancer in 2023. During her father’s battle with cancer, she began writing the aforementioned ‘The Music You Gave To Me’ - an opportunity to provide a final thank you for making music a huge part of her life and being a massive supporter of hers throughout her career.

“I mean, he came to every single show that he could possibly get to, including ones in America, and just kind of lived and breathed music and passed that on to me, really. So that was my way of kind of, not being able to have that conversation with him as he was dying, but thinking, well, if I put it in a song and then I sing it to him and then I say, oh, by the way, that's about you, it's an easier way to kind of approach that subject,” Callaghan stated.

After her father’s passing, Callaghan was conflicted about whether she continue making music, but gradually she forced herself back to the piano and writing and used the development of ‘The Music You Gave To Me’ as a method of dealing with the grief, thus the rich songwriting that made up the eight-track album was born. When speaking over Zoom, Callaghan reflected on the conversation with her father that provided encouragement after she’d hit a rough patch in her career.

“One of the last conversations I had with him and I'd said to him, you know, because I'd kind of hit a rough patch with how difficult touring was and making music was with two really small children,” the artist said. “And I'd said to him, I just think I'm just going to give up. I just think it's too hard. And he just looked at me and said, oh, you cannot give up. So even when he'd gone, I could kind of hear his voice going, you get back at that piano, sit down and start playing again. So I don't think I could have actually survived long term without music. It’s just definitely how I relate to the world,” she finished.

To accompany the release of the album, Callaghan created her podcast ‘Callaghan’s Music Radio Club’ - an eight-day music podcast interactive album release where subscribers could follow the release of each song every day along with a story behind the song and some of its musical influences. Since its release, the podcast has taken on a life of its own, with 800 people subscribed to hear Callaghan perform music and discuss topical issues such as artificial intelligence in music - a topic she went into great detail about on our call.

“I downloaded Suno and I put some of my music into it to see what kind of AI versions it would make. And oh, my God, it was amazing, but not in a very impressive way. I put a prompt into it. After all these instructions about what kind of song I wanted to write. I've said something like style wise, make it based on Elton John's like 70s, 80s Rocket Man era or something like that. Anyway, then it wrote this song called Rocket Boy, which was awful,” Callaghan said.

“It was so bad, but I shared it on the podcast. And, you know, I felt like, well, we've got to address the issue of AI as musicians. You know, you've got to try and work in this world with it because it's not going anywhere,” the artist finished.

Nonetheless, the experiment with artificial intelligence did provide Callaghan with reassurance that musicians shouldn’t be threatened by the presence of AI. “It's one of those where you feel it has uses, but there's no way you'd ever consider using it as a means of songwriting,” she stated. “I think that's the thing that even though, yes, in theory, it can write a song called Rocket Boy. Right. Which is just a massive rip off of Rocket Man. But it doesn't have no one's going to listen to it and have the same reaction as when you listen to Elton John's Rocket Man, because it's not, it's got no history to it.

“Like it's not written from any point of human life. You know, so it's just like an empty song. You know, and I think that's what comes across compared to real, you know, real songs have real stories behind them and real emotion.And that's and that's why people come out to a show as well, isn't it? Really, it's to get the extra thing from the songs. Yeah. So I don't think there's anything that's going to endanger that right now,” Callaghan closed.

Callaghan will perform at the Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre this evening. Tickets are available at https://www.barnoldswickmusicandartscentre.com/callaghan