# 1605: Revenge Ballads, Prolific Songwriting and AI in Music with Igor Keller

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketer-of-the-day-with-robert-plank-business-growth-entrepreneur-stories-315720/1605-revenge-ballads-prolific-songwriting-and-ai-in-music-with-igor-keller
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketer-of-the-day-with-robert-plank-business-growth-entrepreneur-stories-315720/1605-revenge-ballads-prolific-songwriting-and-ai-in-music-with-igor-keller.md
Podcast: [Marketer of the Day with Robert Plank: Business Growth & Entrepreneur Stories](https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketer-of-the-day-with-robert-plank-business-growth-entrepreneur-stories-315720)
Published: 2026-07-03T13:41:13+00:00
Episode link: https://www.robertplank.com/1605-human-vs-ai-music-igor-keller/
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/robertplank/MOTD1605-Igor-Keller_1.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1902

## Resource

In a world of copy-paste pop hooks and AI-generated playlists, most independent musicians don’t struggle with ideas, they struggle with being heard and standing out. Today’s guest, Igor Keller, the songwriter and mastermind behind the band Longboat, has released 35+ albums and written 96 songs in a single year, all while refusing to write love songs or chase trends. Instead, he turns themes like revenge, technology, wealth inequality, and modern absurdity into highly narrative “revenge ballads” that sound like nothing else in your feed. In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Igor dive deep into Revenge Ballads, his Eastern European‑flavored concept album built around mythological betrayals, World War II stories, Slavic legends, and real-life payback. Igor breaks down how he structures albums around a single powerful idea, like the life of a musician, the dark side of technology, or revenge, and then crafts songs such as “Medea” and “The Last Voyage of the Gray Gull” to tell fully realized stories instead of generic “vibe” tracks. You’ll hear how he keeps 15 songs moving through the same stages at once, so he can release more music without compromising on depth or quality. Rather than waiting for inspiration, Igor treats songwriting as a disciplined, repeatable process. He shares his 70% rule for quality control, why he genuinely likes every song that makes it onto an album, and how he balances volume with standards so nothing feels like filler. If you’ve ever wondered how a truly prolific artist thinks about arrangements, lyrics, and themes, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how Igor turns complex ideas, like concentration camps, self-driving cars, and billionaire culture, into songs that are actually coherent, meaningful, and emotionally resonant. Igor also take…

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