A Welsh Band Spent a Decade Building a Fanbase — An AI Imitator Outpaced Them in Two Months

['Brian Hiatt', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Vertical-Align Middle .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar Is .Alignleft .Alignright'] Rolling Stone 2025-10-01 17:52:23

Lucas Woodland, frontman of the Welsh post-hardcore band Holding Absence, recently made a disturbing discovery on Spotify: an AI-generated act that cites his band as an influence has more monthly listeners than their human inspiration. Holding Absence has been around for a decade; the AI “band,” Bleeding Verse, only launched on Spotify in late July. “Inspired by artists like Dayseeker and Holding Absence, we blend ambient textures, soaring vocals, and poetic lyricism to explore grief, identity, and healing. Holding Absence appears to be roundly defeating their AI counterparts on other platforms: They have more than 83,000 Instagram followers, while an account claiming to represent Bleeding Verse has 1,937. Holding Absence released their most recent album, The Noble Art of Self Destruction, in 2023.