The Last Song on Earth

Can you sum up the premise of the book in a few lines?

The Last Song on Earth is set in a world where human-made music has been erased by a powerful online platform run by a mysterious trillionaire, and replaced with AI-generated sound.

It follows a broken music producer clinging to the belief that something real still exists. Alongside William, Eliza, and a group of misfit allies, he sets out on a life-or-death journey to bring human music back.

Where did the idea come from? Is this something you’ve been developing for a while?

The seed came from conversations Jamie and I had over five years, we’ve been friends since school. It started with a simple question: what happens when imitation becomes indistinguishable from the real thing? Over time, that stopped feeling hypothetical and started to feel inevitable. From there, it evolved into something more unsettling: what if we didn’t just lose control of creativity, but lost the need for it altogether? At its heart, though, the book is a love story between two damaged people. Since its release, that’s the element readers seem to have connected with most, which has meant a lot to us.

As co-authors, can you talk us through your writing process and how you collaborated?

It was a constant back-and-forth. We challenged each other on tone, ideas, and whether something felt honest, clever, or genuinely funny. One of us would draft, the other would reshape, and then we’d swap. The key was trust, being willing to tear things apart without letting ego get in the way. Not always easy when you’re writing a book with the lead singer of your second favourite band.

What mattered most was our shared understanding of the characters. If the human story didn’t work, none of the plot did. We also approached it with a filmic mindset as well as a literary one, which helped us pull together a near-future thriller with a love story at its core, and hopefully a few laughs along the way.

AI is obviously a hot topic right now. How optimistic do you feel about the future of human creativity?

Cautiously optimistic. Creativity has always adapted to the tools available to it, and that will continue. The balance is what matters.

When everything becomes instant, infinite, and frictionless, the things that require time, effort, and even pain start to stand out. Authenticity becomes the premium.

The book is a warning about what happens if we stop valuing that distinction. We also wanted to explore the wider consequences, what the world might look like if AI reshapes not just creativity, but work, purpose, and identity.

AI is already doing incredible things, but if it leads to mass displacement, a loss of purpose, and worsening mental health, those are conversations we need to have. The response from readers on these themes has been incredibly powerful.

How did the collaboration with Charlie Davis come about, and was it important to work with an artist on the cover?

Jamie is good friends with Jon at Handsome Frank, who introduced us to Charlie’s work. I saw one image and immediately knew it was right. Working with Charlie Davis felt essential. The book is about the value of human-made art, so it mattered that the cover reflected that. We didn’t want something overly polished or manufactured. His work has texture, nuance, and authenticity, qualities AI often struggles to replicate.

This was an adaptation of an existing image, what changes did you request and why?

The original image already captured the core idea: musicians moving through a timeless, almost empty world. We worked to bring it closer to the characters in the book.

We loved Charlie’s use of negative space. Small details helped personalise it: the dog on the back cover, adding the stickers on the guitar case, subtle changes to the characters’ appearance.

In many ways, the cover works like a blurb. Two young people fall in love, pick up their guitars, and set off on an adventure. There’s something enduring about that, and we didn’t want to overcomplicate it.