Craig Raybould, now 43 and originally from Birmingham, has transformed his passion for 90s girl groups into an innovative virtual music project that has attracted millions of fans. As a teenager, he admired iconic acts like Destiny’s Child, Spice Girls, Sugababes and All Saints, and dreamed of creating his own all-female band. Decades later, he has brought that vision to life through artificial intelligence.
His creation, Certain Call, is a virtual R&B group comprising fictional members Tahlia, Imani, Sierra and Maya. Together, they have amassed over two million subscribers on YouTube. Craig utilised lyrics he penned in his youth and combined these with AI-generated music produced via tools such as Suno, which creates instrumental and vocal tracks based on written prompts. He then refines the songs through AI-assisted mixing and mastering to enhance sound quality.
Last year, Craig released Certain Call’s debut album, “Here We Go”, featuring 14 tracks originating from his family’s loft notebooks. He emphasises transparency in the project, openly acknowledging the AI creation of music and the fictional nature of the band members, while he remains credited as the songwriter and creator.
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“I never expected the response to go beyond my imagination,” said Craig. “Certain Call surpassed 100,000 YouTube subscribers in January and now enjoys a diverse audience, particularly across Asia and Africa.” He highlighted advancements in technology, noting that photorealistic music videos with convincing facial expressions and lip-sync are now achievable, improvements that were not possible in 2025 when he began the project.
Craig has developed distinct personalities for each virtual member: Tahlia as the confident frontwoman with red hair, Imani portrayed as glamorous and demure with long dark hair, Sierra the edgy blonde, and Maya the sweet heart of the group. He plans to maintain their characters at a similar age, managing them as if they were a real band with their own brand and potential solo ventures.
Having stepped away from his academic publishing career temporarily to focus on Certain Call, Craig finds it surreal that friends perform songs he wrote as a teenager and that his virtual band features on radio stations. Despite the project’s growing popularity, he acknowledges financial challenges due to subscription costs for the various online tools used and the limited monetisation opportunities on platforms like YouTube and Spotify, especially as some streaming services do not promote AI-generated music.
The use of AI in music has sparked debate within the industry, but Craig reports mostly positive feedback. “It’s a creative outlet that has allowed me to bring these songs to life, which otherwise might never have existed,” he explained. Encouraged by friends and supporters, he remains enthusiastic about the possibilities of this pioneering approach.