The Persona(l) Touch

Take Three: Derelict Dollhouse

Greetings! DD here. I've been in the persona game a rather long time one way or another so I couldn't resist throwing my opinion in on this topic. Apologies if you wanted a short read. LMaO.

When I started using Udio, I really wanted to do it "with a band" and one of the absolute core things I wanted was for people to eventually "just know" it's my music very quickly, be it sight, sound or otherwise. For me, this is why the persona route was natural. Turns out I also massively enjoyed the worldbuilding aspect of it (but I won't talk about that here too much as it's not terribly relevant!).

This article will be my personal take on approaching the topic of personas! There are many ways to approach this topic so if it's your thing, read around!

The Conceptual Bits

For the purposes of imparting my takes and tips, I'm going to focus on two of my personas within the band, the two that are most "out there" in terms of being recognisable. Most people will probably identify at least one of them, probably both with my music immediately, even if you don't know their names. When you see them, you think "Derelict Dollhouse".

I am referring to the two vocalists I use within the band, and who are seen on my artwork and promotional material most often; Felicity (R) and Elmo (L). I'll go through them one at a time talking about the "why" of their craft on their own terms, but also comparatively (as naturally they are compared with each other). The Felicity section will be larger as I'll be laying out the concepts. In the Elmo section I'll largely just focus on how I chose to explore them differently for her and why.

Felicity

As far as most viewers and listeners of my music who aren't acquainted with me closely are concerned, Felicity effectively is Derelict Dollhouse. That's by design. Even if they don't know me, or the nuances of her creation or craft, or anything about her beyond how she appears, if they see her on an album cover on Udio, they know it's probably my music, or failing that, something I'm involved with, and they would be correct in all cases.

Felicity was the first major persona I designed for use in Udio, largely stemming from a "need" on my end to humanise the vocals I decided to stick with. It couldn't just be a voice, it needed to be a person, a concept. If it's going to be that, then I may as well weaponize it not only for my own creative purposes, but also to help brand my music.

Whilst I'm not going to sit here and claim her design was entirely contrived and calculated (much of it was indeed just vibes) many aspects of what I'd call "good branding" did find their way into her design and I'll talk about those now.

Visual Monikers

You see a cover on Udio. The ability to associate the music with me very quickly is based upon seeing the album cover, in all probability Felicity, and made easier still by the fact she has some very clear *monikers* in her design. By this I mean there are visual elements to her that never really change too much, which makes her extremely easy to spot. If you're going to use a persona to help brand your music, you absolutely need to think of a way to make them easily recognisable so people reach a stage where they can glance, and make the association (to you). Felicity has quite a few monikers:

• Her hairstyle is a very distinctive style, long straight black hair with straight bangs. Her hairstyle never changes. This is also a hairstyle that leans in the alternative "goth-mood flavoured" music of Derelict Dollhouse so it makes that connection. If I'm going to have a frontwoman for a band of women rockers who make music about creepy and unfortunate things, leaning into the trope helps. It's also a timeless style in my opinion.

• She has very pale skin, and wears "goth-esque" makeup. This is related to the above. It's also very distinctive "at a glance" and can make her "stick out in a crowd".

• She almost always wears red and black-- and very often what I call a flagship outfit (see above) which once again, makes her extremely easy to identify. These days for my artwork I do change her outfit more often, however I typically stick to the colour palette of red, black and maroon because those are colours associated with her representation. To the point now where people who follow my music and branding closely, will probably associate abstract red and black album covers with Felicity, even if she's not present on the artwork.

• She is heavily tattooed. Whilst not as effective as the above points, it's another core identifier. Enough to say if I produced an artwork with a pale, heavily tattooed hand, many people will assume it's representative of Felicity before assuming it might be someone else.

There have been other monikers I have used (black neckties) which I have since reduced, but the point is monikers make identifying a persona easy, but also unlock certain freedoms where they're done properly. By this I mean I can take any of the above elements divorced from Felicity (for example a wig similar to her hair, a red and black checkered shirt) and place them in a different context and people who follow my music will in all probability immediately draw an association with it being something to do with Felicity. Such is the power of symbolic branding! You could also see it as a limitation too (should I ever want to explore such visuals outside of Felicity) but I have no plans to change what I'm doing so I'm not worried.

Aesthetic Vibes

I wouldn't class these as monikers as they're less specific, but more a general "flavour" of the persona that is carried in their design or presentation (in the case of video) which gives them dimension. There are a few reasons you want to do this:

• It makes them feel more "real" in that they have "character". People tend to like attaching to things that have dimensions to them. A face is more relatable than a circle with dots and a line, as it were.

• Certain aesthetic choices can make them more (or less) appealing to specific potential viewers or listeners depending upon the vibe you go for.

Derelict Dollhouse has always been within the territory of alternative rock. This is a male-dominated genre, and this is a big part of the reason I wished to make a girl band to do it (aside from alternative rock being my favourite kind of music, and a desire to do it for the sisterhood). But what this also means is most of my listeners are probably going to be male, and looking at my youtube breakdown metrics, this is correct (about 75%-80% of my listeners are men).

This is gonna sound terribly conceited, but men are quite visual creatures. What this means is if I want them to take my womanly approach to alternative rock seriously, it's not going to hurt if I give them a version of that which also engages with their potential aesthetic tastes. Therefore one thing was immediately clear; the frontwoman has to be at least "kinda hot" if she's gonna be the visual identifier.

Now obviously taste is a subjective thing, and it would be wrong to say Felicity was designed entirely with this goal in mind, but it would be accurate to say I certainly didn't avoid such things, so long as they held consistent to my "thematic vision" for the band and their characters.

So the result is Felicity (at least when compared with the other band members who aren't seen as often) is "the attractive one". Her depictions lean into sex appeal in a way that keeps it consistent with the alt-rocker she's supposed to be. The people who follow my worldbuilding more closely will be acquainted with the additional dimensions and narrative I've associated with her in addition to this, which is fabulous, but for the randoms on Udio who don't see all that, they get the "hot gothish girl" experience which sometimes is enough to get someone's curiosity to click the song.

In short; your persona (if it's a person or humanoid) will, as shallow as it is to say, benefit from being somewhat pleasing or interesting to look at. It's just the way it works. Science and psychology have quite literally proven this.

Think of what listeners of your persona's music might be expecting and looking for and balance them where possible with your own creative vision. I would never advise someone to design something they don't believe in just to "play to the crowd" however. 99% of the time it's going to be your belief in your persona concept that keeps it going.

Consistency and Coherence

For me this is a huge one, because alongside giving Felicity a consistent visual appearance, heck, even before that, I made her vocals consistent. If I want people to believe she is indeed fronting this band, it made sense for me, for her voice not to change all the time, as that breaks the coherence of the persona concept and "reveals" the AI workings underneath. Not that I hide the fact Derelict Dollhouse are AI, but immersion is a powerful thing, and I don't want to break it. It also has the cool side effect of people end up being able to distinguish my songs from others within seconds of vocals starting, even if they had no other information to go off and it was compared with songs of a similar genre. Pretty neat for branding. There have been a few changes along the way as I've moved across models but i've always worked from extension clips/sources rooted in that very first generation.

Not just vocals, keeping a persona consistent in other ways (how they appear and what they do) is also key to branding. People like to attach themselves to "things" and humans are notoriously prone to becoming quite tribal in their attachment to "things that are not like other things". Even if the option to like both things is present.

What do I mean? What I mean is it helps a persona to lean into a niche and way of being. Now obviously Udio leaves us with limited ways to "present them" outside of music and artwork but honestly those two are enough for me to make some good points. Let's take a look:

Music: Felicity is the frontwoman of Derelict Dollhouse, and she is an inviting, somewhat dark and suggestive character. She does not sing pop music. She does not do country music. She does not do soulful acoustic pieces. She does not rap. Can I create these things and do them well? Yes I can, I do literally make them. I do not publish them however and I certainly do not associate them with Felicity because it harms "her brand" and makes her "less believable" as a persona concept if she does "a bit of everything". One offs are fine, but like the idea of "I'm bored of rock, let's have Felicity do an entire album of rap" just isn't something I will do. If I want to make rap, she (her vocals, appearance) will not be the association. I have successfully brought her vocals into such genres for testing purposes (and have made her rap) but this is not something I will ever formally publish as being a "Derelict Dollhouse enterprise".

Similarly Felicity does not sing songs about certain things. She does not sing about finding true love (and it working out) or about a lovely walk on a beach, or politics. It's "off brand" for the band to do so. When people load up a Derelict Dollhouse song with Felicity on vocals, they have a general idea of what they're gonna get; it's probably gonna be about something unfortunate, dark, or sex-related. Haha.

I've actually taken this concept a step further (totally unnecessarily) regarding allotment of instrumental roles within the band; there are certain things Felicity cannot do. She cannot play every instrument known to mankind so depictions of her will only ever show her handling instruments she plays: piano, guitar and keyboard.

Visuals: I've already talked about monikers, so obviously that's covered, but also an element of other presentations -- there's more to album covers than clothing after all. There's the "visual narrative" or what you're showing. Actions. Things being performed. Relationships to songs. With representation of Felicity this means she is often depicted in situations that lend her a certain glamour, suggestiveness, darkness or all of the above. No album covers with her at a picnic, or bright bold pastel colours. Unless of course it's ironic.

Elmo

Elmo is the second vocal persona and second major visual persona for Derelict Dollhouse. Fun fact: her original voice isn't actually that much younger than Felicity's being spawned in a side project rap song perhaps 7 songs into my very first Derelict Dollhouse album. At this point I hadn't really decided on the "who" of anyone besides Felicity, the main vocalist, but I decided when I generated this rapped voice, that "person" would be the bass player and one day I'd try to bring their voice over to the genre Derelict Dollhouse do so she can lead vocals sometimes. 6 Udio albums later, I attempted, and succeeded.

Elmo's visual design was actually drawn up roughly when the rapped track was first generated (as I like to associate my music with the person delivering it supposedly). It was a bit different then but the idea of a "bi-racial british woman with an alternative vibe and very long dreadlocks she wears in a messy updo a lot" formed at that point. Her appearance crystallised when I got access to photorealistic generation and it's then I made a few concerted choices when representing her "properly".

Visual Monikers

Elmo has many monikers just like Felicity, some of hers have changed over time and I've added some to her over time.

• Once again she has an extremely distinctive hairstyle: very long dark dreadlocks often worn in a messy updo. Whilst I have seen some depictions (be they graphics or photos) on Udio covers of figures similar to Felicity, I have never ever seen one similar to Elmo largely on the basis of the hairstyle alone.

• Elmo is bi-racial with a caramel skin tone. Whilst I wouldn't say this is a trademark, this is a core aspect of her character. At risk of sounding political (lmao) a big part of the reason I decided this British rapper was to become the band's bass player was I wanted some diversity in the band. Certain parts of alt scenes have been very clichey historically so I wanted the second main persona in the band to be a big middle finger to that sort of thing. There are also personal reasons Elmo is bi-racial as well. But it's largely because it fits the voice and I believe the representation is great and doesn't hurt at all.

• Like Felicity Elmo has colour palettes -- mostly greyscale (black, white, grey), I associate green with her as well (largely because it contrasts with red the most).

• More recently, I have started to associate Elmo with wearing lots and lots of metal neck chains. This is a moniker decision (plus I think it suits her kind of urban punkish vibe)

• She is heavily tattooed.

Aesthetic Vibes

Elmo's aesthetic vibe is very different to Felicity's. At this point it's not just about giving her "something of her own", because she's also "in competition" with a character I use myself, so I need her to stand out from them perhaps most of all. This is why:

• Elmo is gritty and raw to Felicity's glamorous and cultivated

• Elmo is not "conventionally attractive" in the sense of appealing to a largely male fanbase in the same way Felicity is, as in many ways she is quite "butch", this does however allow her to appeal to people into that sort of thing.

• Felicity is represented visually and vocally as being quite dramatic and inherently sexual/suggestive, Elmo is more "real" and never, ever sings or performs songs to do with sex, and has only performed one song regarding romance.

• Felicity sings in a theatrical manner and often plays to "seductive tropes", Elmo has a comparatively more masculine voice, raps, and screams more frequently. Their vocal performances are very distinct. This can be heard on more recent work of mine where I duet them.

Their generalisations differ. Most people more acquainted with my work would associate as a single word choice with Felicity, probably something like "promiscuity". For Elmo it's more likely to be something like "Gritty" "Unhinged" "Aggressive". This spawns from a combination of their appearances, depictions, lyrical themes and vocal deliveries over time.

As I have over time conceptualised the rest of the band members in persona terms, it has always been important to me they look and "feel" distinct from each other so it's very difficult to mix them up. It also helps with diverse representations which I believe is a net positive- in many ways the persona diversity of Derelict Dollhouse as a band (overlooking the fact they're all women, haha) is very high.

Consistency and Coherence

For Elmo much of the same rules apply as to Felicity but there a few amendments

• Top priority is Elmo must be clearly distinct from Felicity.

• Elmo will never sing about sex.

Otherwise the same rules about consistency in topics vocalised, depictions and such apply to Elmo. For Elmo a higher degree of strictness is applied to her voice as it has some incredibly distinct inflections and features that I insist upon in her vocal performance. It's also harder to naturally "raise" in the genre as Elmo is technically a "foreign import" which means it is easier for Udio to degrade her vocal distinctiveness if I allow it even a little leeway.

As with Felicity the coherence rules apply to the themes of the music Elmo works in too. She's an abrasive tough-nut of a character who is quite misanthropic and therefore most of her songs take on an accusatory tone, with the narrator "accusing or attacking" a target.I never mix the kinds of songs my two vocalists sing and they differ instrumentally as well.

The "Too Long Didn't Read" Bit - Conceptual

• Make your personas have monikers: clear symbols and visual elements that make them extremely easy to identify and try to avoid changing them too much (or keep an element of them, like colour, but change other things).

• Being good-looking never hurts, if your persona has humanoid qualities that is.

• Give them identity; name, personality, "vibe", even if you cannot show these very easily in song and artwork, it can help build a consistent depiction framework for you and obviously the main purpose for utilising a persona is to build a consistency around your music that people will come to know.

• If you're utilising multiple personas, make them different from each other. There's no point branding with a group if people mix them up and just treat them as a "blob".

Do it right, and it will reach a point where the style and individual elements become more flexible, and people will still recognise your personas irrespective!

Other conceptual considerations - Logos

If you're going for a group persona concept (or artist with a distinctive brand), another worthwhile consideration is logo branding, be it a distinct symbol, name, or both. This then becomes another moniker you can attach to your artwork and people become very familiar with. For example:

The first image being an example of my official band logo, the second being the symbolic element on its own. But it's generally still enough that when I include it, on its own in an image, people will assume the image relates to my band somehow as I have aggressively branded my artwork with this symbol for a long time.

When designing a logo I'd advise you stick to the consistency rules for personas: make it fit, make it make sense. Fundamentally you can make anything work but it always helps if there's some links. Admittedly this isn't terribly obvious in my band logo (it vaguely resembles a structure with some doors) however the main reasoning for my logo appearing the way it does is it references the band name: Derelict DollHouse: the "doors" being overlapping Ds and the "structure being a H shape.

If you're going for a logo and text brand, I'd suggest once again going for something you can easily replicate and reuse, isn't too complex but is also visually striking in some manner. I tend to favour abstract designs for my Udio band concepts as you can quickly work them out from simple shapes and colours and it allows you to play around with them more flexibly. It also fits thematically with how many bands choose to brand themselves and makes it realistic. I've applied the same philosophy all my persona acts (known or soon to come)

The Practical Bits

So let's say you read the above (or didn't) and have decided yes, I'd like to enter the persona game. Let's talk practical.

The first and most important thing you're going to need under your belt is access to a reliable way to generate a consistent likeness of the persona you're using. The degree of consistency is going to vary based upon what your persona is, if it's abstract for example you may have some wriggle room. There are other choices you may take which make consistency less of an issue as well (see Allen's section) but generally speaking yes, you're going to want a way to "keep creating them" - there are two main ways to achieve this:

• Use an image generator which tends to interpret your character prompt in exactly the same way each time you use it, even if other details like posture and such change. Whilst this can be generally true for abstract depictions or cartoons, for depictions of realistic people, you're likely to get variation in their facial features etc. (unless you have a crazy specific prompt, but even then, you're likely to get some variation).

• Use an image generator which has subject/image referencing, where it builds an image using an attached image as a reference.

Initially I used the first method (due to being new to AI and having no clue what I was doing) but moved to the second once I found my image genner of choice. Generally speaking now I can depict my characters doing largely what I like, in whatever outfits I like and it will tend to keep their features identical, with very little "tooth combing" required to find a good match.

Some examples of some AI image generators that have access to subject/image referencing:

• Midjourney

• Gencraft

• ChatGPT 4os/Sora

The key thing is you want to settle on a single platform if you can and avoid "hopping" too much for ease on yourself. For example I use Gencraft, and if I try to generate consistent depictions from the same image sources in ChatGPT, I get different results (very similar but not quite). I am not terribly experienced with Midjourney but from what I have seen it gets extremely close to representing my personas accurately when in the hands of a seasoned user; however, of course, it will never do it "exactly" as precisely as the genner I use, because a variable has changed. It would be good enough to have most people recognise them however.

My suggestion is you have a little play with each on their free/trial versions to figure out which is your speed. Complexity varies, as does price and other tools.

Some notes to bear in mind with creating a persona you're replicating (and some of these I totally ignored when I started but it's too late now!):

• Try to avoid giving your persona complicated design elements which the AI is going to have problems depicting or replicating. Initially I depicted Elmo with a huge array of facial piercings based on my initial generations for her. When it became clear the AI was going to constantly change where they are, what size etc (despite my prompt and image references) I made the decision to retire her piercings from her design.I did not however retire the tattoos, but they are a similar "almost impossible to get exactly the same from shot to shot" but this is a concession I make because personally I prefer them with tattoos. I do however (with specific adjustment prompts) still use the original "prompt only" images I generated for Felicity and Elmo to recreate every image of them I use even now; despite this image of Elmo having piercings.

• Test reliability of regenerations for features and clothing before committing. Lets say you generate a character and their outfit is really quite cool. You like it. Re-test the prompt a few more times- does the same outfit reappear or does that prompt combination tend to be interpreted wildly? Can you narrow down the prompt so you get the same thing again and again? Or at least as much as you want it? I guess what I'm saying here is related to the above, but TEST IT FIRST.

If you're going the full hog in your Udio persona experience and going for sound-replication, I suggest you read mine and KillerM's guides on vocal replication to get an idea of some ways to do this. It's not absolutely necessary to work with a persona, sure, but as said earlier, it helps with immersion in the concept if your vocalist isn't changing how they sound every song because that is somewhat unrealistic. There are some clever ways to work around this with persona design so it becomes a non-issue (See Allen's thoughts and takes).

The "Too Long Didn't Read" Bit - Practical

• Find an image generator that can recreate your persona consistently; several options exist

• It helps when building your persona not to include too many complicated or terribly specific details the AI will have hard times recreating.

• If you want to do vocal replication, see the guides written by KillerM and myself.

If you got this far, well done, and thanks for reading!! Personas can add a bit more of a personal touch to your Udio craft, so if you do decide to give it a spin, have fun!