![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/1e69cd0c-00f3-4d98-b27c-7311e62c8028.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA talented folk musician was left devastated and was forced to quit his band after motor neurone disease took away his voice. Yet on Wednesday afternoon, he \u201csang\u201d once again, with the help of vocals cloned using AI from practice sessions in his kitchen.<\/p>\n
When Patrick Darling sat down in the kitchen with his acoustic guitar to sing one of his songs, before the disease took hold, he thought perhaps he would watch it back to adjust his style, or maybe show it to bandmates and friends for feedback. <\/p>\n
His singing was casual, imperfect and husky in places. It was not a performance or a studio-level recording. But that quiet moment in a kitchen has given Darling back his voice \u2014 and his music. <\/p>\n
Darling, a musician in a ceilidh band, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2023, at just 29 years old. <\/p>\n
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Darling with bandmates before his MND diagnosis<\/p>\n
Over the course of months, Darling became weaker, eventually having to be carried on stage and struggling to breathe while he sang. <\/p>\n
The emotional performance this week was his first since July 2024 with his folk group, the Ceili House Band, for a debut of his new song, Ghost of a Man I Never Met, written and recorded after his diagnosis. <\/p>\n
Darling, who lives in Bristol, had been singing, composing and playing music since 14. Losing his voice had a \u201cprofound and devastating\u201d effect on him. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeing predominantly self-taught, I learnt to play bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, melodica, mandolin and tenor banjo,\u201d Darling said. \u201cSinging has always been my biggest love and I\u2019ve spent most of my musical life performing live in various bands. Sadly, due to my motor neurone disease, I have completely lost the ability to sing and play my instruments.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing my ability to sing had a deeply profound and devastating effect on me. But the ElevenLabs singing voice that we\u2019ve created is wonderful and definitely sounds like me!<\/p>\n
\u201cThe technology created by ElevenLabs changes lives. It provides hope, support and meaning to people in ways that you can\u2019t fully appreciate unless you\u2019ve lived it yourself. All I can say is thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the UK-based firm\u2019s software, which is free for those with an MND diagnosis, he was able to recreate his voice. <\/p>\n
\u2022 AI voice company ElevenLabs valued at $11bn after latest fundraise<\/a><\/p>\n The process is fundamentally different from singing in a conventional sense, but remains intensely creative. Darling types using his assistive technology what he wants his singing voice to do, describing the effect in words rather than singing in the traditional way. The descriptions \u2014 \u201cmore vibrato now\u201d, for example \u2014 will be translated by the software into his voice. <\/p>\n Moreover, he can create and compose with far greater ease and agency than before while using his own voice. <\/p>\n His bandmates, who performed with him on Wednesday, were overwhelmed by the prospect of singing with him again. <\/p>\n Speaking ahead of their performance at the ElevenLabs forum in London on Wednesday, Nick Cocking, a mandolin player, said hearing the recording of Darling\u2019s new voice was emotional.<\/p>\n On stage in London with Nick Cocking<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me about 20 listens to get past the first three words, because it was just overwhelming. It was just amazing. It felt like Paddy had been sat in his bedroom playing the guitar and put a voice track on it and sent me the track for me to put a mandolin part on,\u201d Cocking said. <\/p>\n![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/71e75aab-9432-44c9-9cfc-6aec697dd9e2.jpg\")
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