While Adele and Lily Allen write hit songs about broken hearts, the BTO Kid is making music by writing about his broken brain
For Lucas Horne, whose stage name BTO stands for Beat The Odds, discovered his musical talent after a defect in his brain’s blood vessels, known as an AVM (arteriovenous malformation) ruptured, leaving him with a 1% chance of survival.
He says: “I feel incredibly lucky to have survived.”
Shortlisted for a Future Talent Award, after embracing AI to help him make music, his track – aptly called AI Gave Me A Voice – opens with the lyrics: “I pinch myself every day because this just can’t be true.”
Now 26, Lucas, from Nottingham, was just 17 when the “ticking timebomb” erupted in his brain. “It was like any other December morning,” Lucas recalls. “I was at home with my girlfriend eating breakfast when I thought I had a migraine coming on. The next thing I know I was being sick – I don’t remember much after that.
“My family have since told me that I was struggling to breathe and was rushed to hospital in an air ambulance. Before it happened I wasn’t sure what an AVM was.
“It caught me completely by surprise. Doctors said I was having a brain bleed and I spent my 18th birthday in a coma – that’s not something anyone wants to do. They told my parents I had a 1% chance of survival.”
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Lucas had no symptoms to warn him, ahead of the rupture, adding: “My cerebellum, which is responsible for balance, was within millimetres of being crushed completely. I couldn’t talk after the coma and I had a tracheostomy – a tube in my throat to help with breathing – because I couldn’t breathe on my own. Every time I tried to speak nothing came out. It was a difficult and scary time.’
But Lucas refused to let the terrifying experience back in 2016 hold him back. Not only can he walk and talk again, but he started songwriting as an outlet during the early days of his recovery. Instead of feeling sorry for himself during this extremely dark period of his life, Lucas channelled his experience and feelings into music.
Lucas explains: “I started to make music after I woke up from my coma, but it didn’t sound the way I wanted it to sound. I didn’t give up though and AI has helped me get my music out there.”
While the use of AI is frowned upon by many in creative industries, artists like will.i.am and Sir Paul McCartney have embraced some aspects of the technology.
Lucas, who now juggles charity work alongside studying accountancy and working on new tracks – putting the lyrics into an AI music tool to create instruments and his voice, says being shortlisted for an award is a dream come true.
Determined to live life to the full, he says: “It’s all about changing your perspective. I’m in a wheelchair and have physio everyday – I’ve still got a lot more to do, but I feel like I’ve got this. I’m not Adele, but I have been able to make something that I’m proud of.”
Head of AI at Fanvue and Future Sound Awards, Narcis Marincat, who is a judge, adds: “The impact of AI in music continues to divide opinion, but for the first time, via the Future Sound Awards, we’re able to show a different perspective on the positive impact of AI in music.Uncovering the real people behind the technology and sharing their stories and music. It was the richness and human emotion of the backstories that captivated me and the other judges.”
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