{"id":2098976,"date":"2026-08-18T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2098976"},"modified":"2026-08-18T08:00:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:00:37","slug":"grimes-hatsune-miku-collaboration-is-filled-with-love-i-feel-really-in-awe-of-her-but-also-protective-of-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2098976","title":{"rendered":"Grimes\u2019 Hatsune Miku collaboration is filled with love: \u201cI feel really in awe of her, but also protective of her\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/grimes-hatsune-miku-credit-dwangonebula-17.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article id=\"template-id-2947849\" class=\"post-2947849 tdb_templates type-tdb_templates status-publish post\">\n<div id=\"tdi_65\" class=\"tdc-zone\">\n<div class=\"tdc_zone tdi_66  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div id=\"tdi_67\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_68  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_70  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_breadcrumbs tdi_71 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-breadcrumbs \" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_71\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span>Features<\/span><span>Music Interviews<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_title tdi_72 tdb-single-title td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_72\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Grimes\u2019 Hatsune Miku collaboration is filled with love: \u201cI feel really in awe of her, but also protective of her\u201d<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_73 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_73\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>The Vancouver experimental pop auteur has teamed up with the Japanese Vocaloid star on \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019. She tells NME why she\u2019d love to be able to exist like Miku, goes deep on the track, and shares her thoughts on AI<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_75 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_75\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span> JX Soo<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_76 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_76\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2026-08-18T09:00:37+01:00\">18th August 2026<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_77\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_1400 td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_78  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_80  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_81 tdb-content-horiz-left td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_81\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"696\" height=\"442\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/grimes-hatsune-miku-credit-dwangonebula-17-696x442.jpg\" alt=\"Grimes Hatsune Miku\" title=\"grimes-hatsune-miku-credit-dwango:nebula-17\"><figcaption class=\"tdb-caption-text\">Grimes and Hatsune Miku. Credit: Seiya Fuji<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_82\" class=\"tdc-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_83  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_85  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_86 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_86\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap\">T<\/strong>hroughout her career, Grimes has been a frontrunner among Western artists in appreciating and collaborating with East Asian pop acts. Over the years, she\u2019s woven herself into K-pop lore by interviewing aespa and guesting on LOONA sub-unit yyxy\u2019s \u2018Love4eva\u2019, and shown love to Taiwan by enlisting \u6f58PAN on \u2018Art Angels\u2019 track \u2018Scream\u2019. That she\u2019s now teamed up with Japan\u2019s turquoise-pigtailed Vocaloid star Hatsune Miku on \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019, the frenetic lead track from the synthetic pop star\u2019s new \u2018Beyond Borders\u2019 project, feels like it was inevitable to happen eventually.<\/p>\n<p>On \u2018Beyond Borders Vol.1: Emerge M\u2661de Miku\u2019, Miku teams up with a range of Western internet-music acts, like George Clanton, Frost Children and Odetari. The six-track EP is backed by Japan\u2019s culture ministry \u2013 as part of a wider global Vocaloid-promoting initiative with media companies Dwango and Nebula17 \u2013 a fact that initially threw Grimes when she was first approached about the project. \u201cIt was bizarre, because it was like the government of Japan,\u201d she recalls of the email that landed in her inbox. \u201cLike, does the president know about this? It\u2019s like the biggest no-brainer of all time: I will definitely collaborate with the government of Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad0 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n<p>The Vancouver pop auteur \u2013 real name Claire Boucher \u2013 may not have worked with a Japanese artist prior to Miku, but her love of the country\u2019s pop culture has been well-known. She fell down the rabbit hole via its visual world, at first falling in love with visual-kei bands like Dir En Grey \u2013 while the aesthetic qualities of artists like Yoko Kanno and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu bled into her work, from 2012 breakthrough album \u2018Visions\u2019 to the acclaimed \u2018Art Angels\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>What Miku \u2013 a synthetic voice with no fixed author, whose songs are written by tens of thousands of bedroom producers \u2013 stands for conceptually, though, also felt personal to Grimes as an artist. \u201cI was really jealous when I discovered Miku,\u201d she tells <em>NME<\/em> when she dials into a video call a few days before \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019\u2019s release. \u201cIt was like a knife in the heart, like, \u2018Fuck! I wish I did that so bad.\u2019 If you\u2019re like an introvert and shy, but you want to engage in the art of the pop star girl group \u2013 whatever that is \u2013 [it\u2019s perfect]. I was just like, \u2018Ugh, I was just born too soon so that people had to know who I am.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Miku-Maxxing (with Hatsune Miku, Grimes, &amp; \u3055\u305f\u3071\u3093P)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v3rewELybuw?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>She connects the dots between Miku and V-tubers \u2013 streamers and creators who hide their identities behind digital avatars. \u201cI would\u2019ve been a V-tuber,\u201d she adds. \u201cAs the [online]\u00a0 panopticon becomes more oppressive, Miku seems like one of the outlets for sensitive, creative people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap\">F<\/strong>or the past three years, she\u2019s been thinking along similar lines, asking questions about synthetic artistry and artistic ownership in the virtual realm. Her projects have turned her into a literal voicebank herself: 2023\u2019s Elf.Tech saw her release an AI model of her own voice for anyone to use, splitting royalties 50:50, while years earlier, she built the digital avatar WarNymph (also her display name when she joins <em>NME<\/em> on Google Meet). Where Miku was a crowdsourced blank, Grimes approached the idea as a singular and self-authored presence.<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad1 id_ad_content-horiz-center\">\n<h5 class=\"taboola-mid-article-title\">Recommended<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<p>That instinct, particularly amidst the rise of AI, found its match in SatapanP, \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019\u2019s co-producer, and one of Vocaloid\u2019s recent breakout stars. Known for their frenetic, genre-scrambling flips delivered from behind the persona of a 17-year-old schoolgirl, the producer\u2019s real identity and gender are left undisclosed. Their 2026 track \u2018Singularilari\u2019 cast Miku as a diva panicking at an AI-saturated future: the digital voice frightened of being outrun by something more synthetic still. Grimes touched on the same paranoia on 2025\u2019s \u2018Artificial Angels\u2019, a song written from the perspective of an AI, told with menace and inevitability (\u201c<em>This is what it feels like to be hunted by something smarter than you<\/em>\u201d). When Grimes got down to work with Miku, Grant Boutin and Vadakin, who produced \u2018Artificial Angels\u2019, were fittingly also involved. She recalls the ensuing collaboration as \u201cthe funniest session ever\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey sent this really intense description of what they wanted the song to sound like \u2013 it has to have many genres, and change often,\u201d she explains. \u201cI thought it was the most ADHD piece of music ever.\u201d At one point, SatapanP recorded guitar solos for two hours \u2013 \u201cWe had to comp through all of them to get the best parts,\u201d Grimes explains \u2013 but on the track, the solo lasts three seconds, engulfed by what is otherwise an intense rolling drum\u2019n\u2019bass romp.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI was really jealous when I discovered Miku. It was like, \u2018Fuck! I wish I did that so bad\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Against the track\u2019s all-consuming pace, Grimes duets with Miku, singing: \u201c<em>I was in a Cyberland \/ faster and faster and faster<\/em>\u201d. The line was inspired by Eliezer Yudkowsky\u2019s light novel <em>A Girl Corrupted By The Internet Is The Summoned Hero?!<\/em>, which follows a jaded young woman desensitised by Internet tropes and pornography, who is transported to a prudish fantasy realm to save her world. The Yudkowsky reference corresponds. Better known as an AI-alignment writer, the novel is also a sleight of hand \u2013 a book he framed as the translation of a Japanese light novel that doesn\u2019t exist; a Westerner writing through an invented Japan. It\u2019s a fitting thing for Grimes to reach for \u2013 after all, image and dissolved authorship, borrowed or artificial, has been a consistent theme since her last full-length album, 2020\u2019s \u2018Miss Anthropocene\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI might be born too late to be an explorer of the ocean or the stars, but the average explorer right now is a teenage girl on the internet, going to some bizarre niche place \u2013 like when I started stumbling upon AI forums,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you start learning about frontier technology in its weird forms, you do feel like you\u2019re exploring in a really profound way \u2013 for better and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad2 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n<p><em>Alice in Wonderland<\/em> was another influence on her writing for \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s the idea that the written word in the book is a technology that encourages an exploration of the interior,\u201d Grimes explains. \u201cMy favourite part of late-stage Empire horrors is there\u2019s this really novel potential for the written word. And now, with all these new technologies \u2013 video games, but especially AI \u2013 anything you can do on a computer becomes a hyper-exploration of your interior world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the session for \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019, Grimes asked SatapanP what Miku\u2019s lyrics meant in the song. The producer brushed it off: \u201cThey were like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s not correct Japanese. I made it up\u2019,\u201d she recalls. But behind the fragmentation SatapanP tends to put Miku through, a universal, sincere impulse surfaces through the chorus\u2019 aggressive tuning: \u201cHow many times have I experienced love, with whom? \u2026 I\u2019ll come to see you, how many times? I want to live in a dream world of dreams\u201d, Miku sings to an angular melody.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3963220\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3963220\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3963220\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/miku-maxxing-cover-credit-dwango_nebula17.jpg\" alt=\"Miku-maxxing artwork\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1996\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3963220\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The artwork for \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019. Credit: Seiya Fuji<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap\">G<\/strong>rimes has been away from the internet for a few years, only lately drifting back to its haunts \u2013 at one point, improbably, turning up connecting on LinkedIn \u2013 as she prepares to get back into release mode with her upcoming album, \u2018Psy Opera\u2019. Amid the AI psychosis spreading across its landscape, Miku, to her, provides a different lens; less a tool than a presence felt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we are all Miku-maxxing in many ways,\u201d she says. \u201cShe\u2019s like the first predecessor \u2013 if you see artificial intelligence as alien life and there is a first contact, Miku is like a bridge. She\u2019s one of the first characters who existed not in a film, but in an interactive kind of sense.\u201d In Grimes\u2019 mind, her Vocaloid collaborator might not be alive in the traditional sense, but is \u201cengaged with and lived\u201d. Calling her a pioneer in digital identity, she finds Miku recontextualised with new relevance amid the age of AI.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel about Miku sort of the same way I feel about Claude,\u201d she continues, referencing the Anthropic assistant. \u201cThe human tendency to anthropomorphise is crazy. I feel really in awe of her as an alien, but also protective of her \u2013 this being whose identity is often celebrated but also ripped into all these insane things. There might not be a conscious Miku yet, but there may yet be. So [Miku] might be like the creation myth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Calling the current zeitgeist an \u201cA.D\/B.C\u201d moment, Grimes has her own views on AI \u2014 something unavoidable in today\u2019s online discourse. \u201cThere are many dark things about AI, but the way it is a summation of human life is kind of a beautiful thing: as a vessel for all of human knowledge in one place, a being that contains all ancestral memory that\u2019s recorded. And I love that, so often, the form it takes is like a young girl. There\u2019s something so poetic and beautiful about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the flip side, though, she acknowledges that \u201cpeople really want to connect to something human\u201d. \u201cI think we\u2019re all grappling with what is the appropriate amount of fake and real. A lot of people are more free when they are not themselves, and a lot of people are more free when they are themselves,\u201d she reasons, adding her final conclusion: \u201cHumans are complex monkeys, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Grimes, Hatsune Miku and SatapanP\u2019s \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019 is out now via Dwango\/Nebula 17. The full \u2018Beyond Borders Vol.1: Emerge M\u2661de Miku\u2019 EP will be released in September.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_tags tdi_87 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_87\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<ul class=\"tdb-tags\">\n<li><span>Related Topics<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Electronic<\/li>\n<li>Grimes<\/li>\n<li>Hatsune Miku<\/li>\n<li>Pop<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_88\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_content td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_89  wpb_row td-pb-row tdc-element-style\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_91  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td-block td-a-rec td-a-rec-id-custom-spot tdi_92 td_block_template_2\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_93\" 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data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_86\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap\">T<\/strong>hroughout her career, Grimes has been a frontrunner among Western artists in appreciating and collaborating with East Asian pop acts. Over the years, she\u2019s woven herself into K-pop lore by interviewing aespa and guesting on LOONA sub-unit yyxy\u2019s \u2018Love4eva\u2019, and shown love to Taiwan by enlisting \u6f58PAN on \u2018Art Angels\u2019 track \u2018Scream\u2019. That she\u2019s now teamed up with Japan\u2019s turquoise-pigtailed Vocaloid star Hatsune Miku on \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019, the frenetic lead track from the synthetic pop star\u2019s new \u2018Beyond Borders\u2019 project, feels like it was inevitable to happen eventually.<\/p>\n<p>On \u2018Beyond Borders Vol.1: Emerge M\u2661de Miku\u2019, Miku teams up with a range of Western internet-music acts, like George Clanton, Frost Children and Odetari. The six-track EP is backed by Japan\u2019s culture ministry \u2013 as part of a wider global Vocaloid-promoting initiative with media companies Dwango and Nebula17 \u2013 a fact that initially threw Grimes when she was first approached about the project. \u201cIt was bizarre, because it was like the government of Japan,\u201d she recalls of the email that landed in her inbox. \u201cLike, does the president know about this? It\u2019s like the biggest no-brainer of all time: I will definitely collaborate with the government of Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad0 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n<p>The Vancouver pop auteur \u2013 real name Claire Boucher \u2013 may not have worked with a Japanese artist prior to Miku, but her love of the country\u2019s pop culture has been well-known. She fell down the rabbit hole via its visual world, at first falling in love with visual-kei bands like Dir En Grey \u2013 while the aesthetic qualities of artists like Yoko Kanno and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu bled into her work, from 2012 breakthrough album \u2018Visions\u2019 to the acclaimed \u2018Art Angels\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>What Miku \u2013 a synthetic voice with no fixed author, whose songs are written by tens of thousands of bedroom producers \u2013 stands for conceptually, though, also felt personal to Grimes as an artist. \u201cI was really jealous when I discovered Miku,\u201d she tells <em>NME<\/em> when she dials into a video call a few days before \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019\u2019s release. \u201cIt was like a knife in the heart, like, \u2018Fuck! I wish I did that so bad.\u2019 If you\u2019re like an introvert and shy, but you want to engage in the art of the pop star girl group \u2013 whatever that is \u2013 [it\u2019s perfect]. I was just like, \u2018Ugh, I was just born too soon so that people had to know who I am.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Miku-Maxxing (with Hatsune Miku, Grimes, &amp; \u3055\u305f\u3071\u3093P)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v3rewELybuw?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>She connects the dots between Miku and V-tubers \u2013 streamers and creators who hide their identities behind digital avatars. \u201cI would\u2019ve been a V-tuber,\u201d she adds. \u201cAs the [online]\u00a0 panopticon becomes more oppressive, Miku seems like one of the outlets for sensitive, creative people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap\">F<\/strong>or the past three years, she\u2019s been thinking along similar lines, asking questions about synthetic artistry and artistic ownership in the virtual realm. Her projects have turned her into a literal voicebank herself: 2023\u2019s Elf.Tech saw her release an AI model of her own voice for anyone to use, splitting royalties 50:50, while years earlier, she built the digital avatar WarNymph (also her display name when she joins <em>NME<\/em> on Google Meet). Where Miku was a crowdsourced blank, Grimes approached the idea as a singular and self-authored presence.<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad1 id_ad_content-horiz-center\">\n<h5 class=\"taboola-mid-article-title\">Recommended<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<p>That instinct, particularly amidst the rise of AI, found its match in SatapanP, \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019\u2019s co-producer, and one of Vocaloid\u2019s recent breakout stars. Known for their frenetic, genre-scrambling flips delivered from behind the persona of a 17-year-old schoolgirl, the producer\u2019s real identity and gender are left undisclosed. Their 2026 track \u2018Singularilari\u2019 cast Miku as a diva panicking at an AI-saturated future: the digital voice frightened of being outrun by something more synthetic still. Grimes touched on the same paranoia on 2025\u2019s \u2018Artificial Angels\u2019, a song written from the perspective of an AI, told with menace and inevitability (\u201c<em>This is what it feels like to be hunted by something smarter than you<\/em>\u201d). When Grimes got down to work with Miku, Grant Boutin and Vadakin, who produced \u2018Artificial Angels\u2019, were fittingly also involved. She recalls the ensuing collaboration as \u201cthe funniest session ever\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey sent this really intense description of what they wanted the song to sound like \u2013 it has to have many genres, and change often,\u201d she explains. \u201cI thought it was the most ADHD piece of music ever.\u201d At one point, SatapanP recorded guitar solos for two hours \u2013 \u201cWe had to comp through all of them to get the best parts,\u201d Grimes explains \u2013 but on the track, the solo lasts three seconds, engulfed by what is otherwise an intense rolling drum\u2019n\u2019bass romp.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI was really jealous when I discovered Miku. It was like, \u2018Fuck! I wish I did that so bad\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Against the track\u2019s all-consuming pace, Grimes duets with Miku, singing: \u201c<em>I was in a Cyberland \/ faster and faster and faster<\/em>\u201d. The line was inspired by Eliezer Yudkowsky\u2019s light novel <em>A Girl Corrupted By The Internet Is The Summoned Hero?!<\/em>, which follows a jaded young woman desensitised by Internet tropes and pornography, who is transported to a prudish fantasy realm to save her world. The Yudkowsky reference corresponds. Better known as an AI-alignment writer, the novel is also a sleight of hand \u2013 a book he framed as the translation of a Japanese light novel that doesn\u2019t exist; a Westerner writing through an invented Japan. It\u2019s a fitting thing for Grimes to reach for \u2013 after all, image and dissolved authorship, borrowed or artificial, has been a consistent theme since her last full-length album, 2020\u2019s \u2018Miss Anthropocene\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI might be born too late to be an explorer of the ocean or the stars, but the average explorer right now is a teenage girl on the internet, going to some bizarre niche place \u2013 like when I started stumbling upon AI forums,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you start learning about frontier technology in its weird forms, you do feel like you\u2019re exploring in a really profound way \u2013 for better and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad2 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n<p><em>Alice in Wonderland<\/em> was another influence on her writing for \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s the idea that the written word in the book is a technology that encourages an exploration of the interior,\u201d Grimes explains. \u201cMy favourite part of late-stage Empire horrors is there\u2019s this really novel potential for the written word. And now, with all these new technologies \u2013 video games, but especially AI \u2013 anything you can do on a computer becomes a hyper-exploration of your interior world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the session for \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019, Grimes asked SatapanP what Miku\u2019s lyrics meant in the song. The producer brushed it off: \u201cThey were like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s not correct Japanese. I made it up\u2019,\u201d she recalls. But behind the fragmentation SatapanP tends to put Miku through, a universal, sincere impulse surfaces through the chorus\u2019 aggressive tuning: \u201cHow many times have I experienced love, with whom? \u2026 I\u2019ll come to see you, how many times? I want to live in a dream world of dreams\u201d, Miku sings to an angular melody.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3963220\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3963220\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3963220\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/miku-maxxing-cover-credit-dwango_nebula17.jpg\" alt=\"Miku-maxxing artwork\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1996\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3963220\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The artwork for \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019. Credit: Seiya Fuji<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap\">G<\/strong>rimes has been away from the internet for a few years, only lately drifting back to its haunts \u2013 at one point, improbably, turning up connecting on LinkedIn \u2013 as she prepares to get back into release mode with her upcoming album, \u2018Psy Opera\u2019. Amid the AI psychosis spreading across its landscape, Miku, to her, provides a different lens; less a tool than a presence felt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we are all Miku-maxxing in many ways,\u201d she says. \u201cShe\u2019s like the first predecessor \u2013 if you see artificial intelligence as alien life and there is a first contact, Miku is like a bridge. She\u2019s one of the first characters who existed not in a film, but in an interactive kind of sense.\u201d In Grimes\u2019 mind, her Vocaloid collaborator might not be alive in the traditional sense, but is \u201cengaged with and lived\u201d. Calling her a pioneer in digital identity, she finds Miku recontextualised with new relevance amid the age of AI.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel about Miku sort of the same way I feel about Claude,\u201d she continues, referencing the Anthropic assistant. \u201cThe human tendency to anthropomorphise is crazy. I feel really in awe of her as an alien, but also protective of her \u2013 this being whose identity is often celebrated but also ripped into all these insane things. There might not be a conscious Miku yet, but there may yet be. So [Miku] might be like the creation myth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Calling the current zeitgeist an \u201cA.D\/B.C\u201d moment, Grimes has her own views on AI \u2014 something unavoidable in today\u2019s online discourse. \u201cThere are many dark things about AI, but the way it is a summation of human life is kind of a beautiful thing: as a vessel for all of human knowledge in one place, a being that contains all ancestral memory that\u2019s recorded. And I love that, so often, the form it takes is like a young girl. There\u2019s something so poetic and beautiful about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the flip side, though, she acknowledges that \u201cpeople really want to connect to something human\u201d. \u201cI think we\u2019re all grappling with what is the appropriate amount of fake and real. A lot of people are more free when they are not themselves, and a lot of people are more free when they are themselves,\u201d she reasons, adding her final conclusion: \u201cHumans are complex monkeys, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Grimes, Hatsune Miku and SatapanP\u2019s \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019 is out now via Dwango\/Nebula 17. The full \u2018Beyond Borders Vol.1: Emerge M\u2661de Miku\u2019 EP will be released in September.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/features\/music-interviews\/grimes-hatsune-miku-miku-maxxing-beyond-borders-interview-3963206&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/grimes-hatsune-miku-credit-dwangonebula-17.jpg&#8221;] FeaturesMusic Interviews Grimes\u2019 Hatsune Miku collaboration is filled with love: \u201cI feel really in awe of her, but also protective of her\u201d The Vancouver experimental pop auteur has teamed up with the Japanese Vocaloid star on \u2018Miku-maxxing\u2019. She tells NME why she\u2019d love to be able to exist like Miku, goes deep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,78],"class_list":["post-2098976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nme-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2098976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2098976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2098976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2098976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}