FAQ's
So, you’ve accidentally stumbled across Unhinged Records either through Youtube, Spotify, Deezer, iTunes, Apple Music, or one of the many other streaming platforms – and we get it – you’ve probably got questions.
We’ve tried to answer some of the most frequently asked questions here – but if the answer you seek does not lie before you, do feel free to contact us.
What IS Unhinged Records?
Unhinged Records is a UK-based YouTube channel known for original comedy music and parody songs. We create fully fictional artists that perform bizarre yet beautifully produced tracks across various vintage genres.
Are the Songs or Artists in your cataloge REAL?
They’re REAL in the sense that they now exist, and you can listen to them over and over again, and are archived on the internet, Yes. But were they real “at the time”? No — our artists are completely fictional characters, created to parody different genres and eras of music. Think of them as musical fever dreams. Each one has a fake backstory, a unique sound, and a disturbingly strong fanbase.
Why do you make it look like they're real when they aren't?
Because that’s part of the joke.
A lot of the humour comes from presenting something completely ridiculous with a straight face, as though it has been dug out of an archive, rescued from an old record collection or broadcast to an unsuspecting public decades ago.
If every video opened with a flashing banner saying “THIS IS FAKE, THIS IS A JOKE, PLEASE DO NOT PANIC”, most of the comedy would be dead before the song had even started.
That doesn’t mean I’m trying to genuinely deceive anyone.
The characters, recordings and backstories are fictional or satirical, and where appropriate the channel and website make that clear and in accordance with Youtube’s Terms of Service for Creators.
The presentation is simply part of the performance, in much the same way that a mockumentary, spoof advert or fictional news report doesn’t stop every thirty seconds to remind you that the actors aren’t actually experiencing the events on screen.
Part of the fun is seeing how long it takes before the penny drops.
Let’s be realistic; if you’ve made it through a song about someone’s front bottom, a video asking you to make sure you check the old lady in your house is definitely your grandmother or a video telling you not to stare at the sun, then I’m not entirely sure a disclaimer was going to save you in the first place, and you should probably stay off the internet and indoors out of harms reach. If anything, it says more about you as a person than it does about me.
Isn’t this just AI slop?
No — and let’s clear this up properly.
“AI slop” refers to mass-produced, contextless, soulless content — churned out by content farms with no thought, no craft, and no human spark. It’s content for content’s sake, usually crap, and often just to try and make quick money through platforms such as Youtube and Tiktok.
Unhinged Records is categorically NOT one of those slop content farms.
There’s a big difference between that and using generative AI as a creative tool.
At Unhinged Records, AI assists the process — it doesn’t define it. Every parody, every persona, every unholy lyric is deliberately created. Songs often begin with original human made audio in Cubase, and once vocals are generated, they’re reworked, split, layered, mixed, and mastered with genuine musical intent.
We don’t copy.
We build fake history, then soundtrack it.
While AI plays a role in the vocal generation process, most songs on Unhinged Records start with audio written and recorded in Cubase — chords, melodies, instrumentation — as a jumping-off point. Once a vocal is generated, it’s split, reprocessed, layered, arranged, and mixed in Cubase again.
This isn’t “click, save, upload.” It’s a full production workflow with actual musical skill, a twisted creative vision, and a hefty dose of post-production polish.
It’s not AI slop — it’s AI sculpture. And yes, the sculpture is usually shaped like a phallus.
Isn’t using AI incredibly wasteful because data centres consume electricity, water and other precious resources?
Yes, AI providers use data centres. Some use closed-loop cooling, some use air cooling and some use evaporative water cooling. Water used in evaporative cooling doesn’t simply cease to exist, but it does remove water from the immediate local supply and that can absolutely matter, particularly in areas where water is already scarce. I’m not pretending otherwise. (Source)
What I do find slightly odd is the idea that huge, resource-hungry data centres only became a problem when somebody started using AI.
Facebook and Instagram use data centres. TikTok uses them. YouTube and Google use them. Microsoft uses them. Netflix uses them. Cloud storage uses them. Online gaming uses them. Pretty much everything you do online has to be processed, stored or delivered using physical infrastructure somewhere.
There’s NO such thing as the Cloud – It’s just somebody else’s computer.
Meta itself says that its data centres account for the highest percentage of its energy and water use. (Source)
Netflix says the servers used for its Open Connect service are deployed in more than 60 global data centres, as well as directly inside the networks of over a thousand internet service providers. (Source)
TikTok also operates dedicated data centre infrastructure. Its Hamar facility in Norway has three buildings containing servers used to store and process European user data. (Source)
And the numbers involved aren’t exactly tiny.
In 2023, Google reported total water consumption of 6.4 BILLION US gallons across its data centres and offices. Around 6.1 BILLION gallons of that was attributed to its data centres. (Source)
Microsoft reported company-wide water consumption of 7.84 million cubic metres in FY2023, which works out at roughly 2.07 BILLION US gallons. (Source)
Electricity is much the same story. The International Energy Agency estimates that data centres consumed around 415 TWh of electricity worldwide in 2024, about 1.5% of global electricity consumption. The IEA also specifically points out that AI is only one of a range of workloads carried out by data centres, although AI is now a significant driver of increasing demand. (Source)
That electricity obviously has to come from somewhere. Depending on the country and the grid supplying it, that can include renewables, nuclear, natural gas and coal. So yes, using online services has a real physical and environmental cost. It always has.
If your actual position is that using services which consume large amounts of electricity, water and physical resources is morally unacceptable, then fair enough.
Delete Facebook and Instagram. Stop using TikTok. Cancel Netflix and Spotify. Stop watching YouTube. Stop using Google. Turn off your cloud backups, stop gaming online, cancel your broadband and write me a letter.
If you’re quite happy doing all of those things, but suddenly become deeply concerned about data centre resource consumption the moment somebody mentions AI, then perhaps the outrage is a little selective.
I’m not claiming AI has no environmental impact. Obviously it does. AI companies should be expected to make their systems more efficient, use cleaner energy, reduce unnecessary water consumption and minimise their environmental impact wherever possible.
I’m simply applying the same standard to the rest of ‘the internet.’
There’s another assumption I see quite often too, which is that everything I create involves typing a sentence into an AI generator, pressing a button and calling the result finished.
It doesn’t.
There’s writing. Rewriting. Recording. Audio production. Arrangement. Mixing. Video editing. Compositing. Timing. Choosing between takes and generations. Throwing away the rubbish ones. Fixing mistakes. Re-recording things. Creating graphics. Cutting things apart and putting them back together again. Then usually spending far too long messing around with something that started as a stupid idea.
AI is a tool in that process.
Sometimes I use it to create an individual element. Sometimes it helps me refine something. Sometimes it’s effectively a finishing tool. What you eventually see or hear is still the result of my ideas, writing, decisions, editing and production work.
You are perfectly entitled to dislike AI, refuse to use it, or think that nobody should use it. That’s your choice. I’m not trying to take that away from you whatsoever.
But if you’re posting a complaint about its electricity and water consumption on YouTube from an iPhone, while Spotify is streaming and your photos are uploading to iCloud, I’m probably not going to accept the lecture about my personal contribution to the collapse of civilisation without questioning the consistency of your argument.
Perhaps the problem isn’t that technology uses resources. Perhaps you’ve just decided that this particular technology is the one you’re currently angry about because it’s cool and trendy and in-vogue to shit on anything with a sniff of AI, and it somehow justifies your lifestyle choices. Much like how in the early 2000’s internet culture deemed it was ‘cool’ and the ‘in thing’ to shit on Furries, and in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s everybody wanted to shit on people who liked Emo Music.
If I agree that AI uses vast swathes of natural resources but continue to use it, does that make me complicit?
If knowing that AI uses resources and continuing to use it makes me complicit, then presumably knowing that YouTube, Google, Facebook, Netflix, cloud storage and your ISP also consume huge amounts of resources makes you complicit too. I’m happy to accept that rather mundane reality. Unlike some people who like to kick up a fuss whenever I post something, I’m not pretending I’m morally spotless because I’ve arbitrarily chosen one bit of the internet to be angry about.
How is Unhinged Records different from other parody or AI music channels?
Unlike many comedy music channels — which often rely on the same themes or delivering punchlines up front — Unhinged Records is built on surprise.
Our songs begin like convincing pastiches of classic genres — innocent, nostalgic, even sincere. But partway through, the tone shifts. The lyrics twist. The meaning unravels. You start to question your life choices. What sounded like a love song might be about pegging. A ballad could suddenly mention irritable bowel syndrome. A Jazz crooner suddenly starts rabbiting on about his electricity bill. It’s all about creating that “I was NOT expecting that” moment.
We don’t just parody music — we parody expectations.
Where others play the joke loud and early, we hide it under layers of harmony, production, and craft… then yank the rug away.
Do you sell physical copies of your music?
Not at present, no. We’d absolutely LOVE to have vinyl’s pressed, or limited run CD’s or Cassette Tapes – but the truth is, these things cost a lot of money, especially on small batch runs, and the demand just isn’t there.
Of course, if we suddenly become inundated with hundreds of legitimate requests for pressings, then we could explore the possibility of physical media. But for now, it’s streaming only unfortunately.
Of course, you’re more than welcome to make your own physical backup copies of our music for personal use.
Where do you come up with all of these ideas?
To be perfectly honest, weeks can pass without a single feasable idea. Other times, we can come up with 4 or 5 in a single day. Weaponised ADHD and Autism is a key factor.
Usually a song idea would stem from a word or phrase, or perhaps a lived experience. (Not the ones about incontinence, I’m a big boy now, I use the big boy bathrooms, you can ask my Mum!)
Then, usually during downtime between real life work and chores, these ideas get explored and drafted into ideas and rhythms. Usually whilst sat on the toilet having run out of TikToks to watch.
Then it will get assigned to a suitable artist persona, and a melody gets devised, drafted with VST’s in cubase as a starting reference, then put through generative AI engines with the semi finished lyrical drafts, tweaked and repeated, imported back into a DAW and further edited, mastered, mixed down, aged, and distributed.
It’s hard to give an average time per song as it wildly varies. But perhaps 1 a week at worst.
Can I license your music for use in Film/Video/Podcast/Live Performance?
Yes! All we ask is that you contact us, and let us know the scope of your project. What you’d like to use, and how – that way, we can instruct our distribution partners to release any copyright claims on your content once a license has been agreed.
Even if it’s for non-profit use, please still get in touch. We don’t ask for a commission or fee, we just want to make sure your content doesn’t get taken down and avoid being labelled as the bad guys.
Can my brand collaborate with you?
Whilst we’re honoured that you think partnering with us will help boost your brand, unfortunately it just wouldn’t work. We’re not in the business to make money and advertise, we’re here to entertain. Sponsored content usually comes with caveats and stifles creativity, and we don’t want that. It’s just impractical. Unless you can pitch a very convincing case.
Do you have a Patreon or other way to support the channel?
We strongly believe that comedy should be accessible for all. Therefore, we decided to enable a flat-rate and affordable Youtube Channel Membership scheme regardless of your financial situation.
You can become a Channel Member on our Youtube Channel for the flat low rate of 99p per month.
Channel Members have Early-Access to all releases from Unhinged Records – usually up to 2 months in advance of public release!*
Channel Members also get a badge next to their name when they comment, which changes depending on the length of time supporting the channel – so people know you’re a serious record collector! 
If you would like to learn more about Youtube Channel Memberships, you can read their article which explains the concept in detail.
Or, if you’re already sold on the idea, you can become an Unhinged Records Youtube Channel Member today.
If you’re not in a position to be able to support the channel financially – don’t panic! Just by listening to our music, sharing it with your friends, and commenting with your favourite false memories helps us massively. And it costs you nothing!
What other channels do you reccomend?
The Official S3X Records
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Daddy Arcade Entertainment
Your one-stop destination for music, madness, and must-see moments. What started as a record channel has exploded into a full-blown entertainment experience. If it’s funny, creative, or just plain awesome, you’ll find it here.
B4 Rhythms
If “Carry On” Films were song, this is it. B4 Rhythms refers to music before (B4) the current day, music of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. A Fellow UK Creator, so a few of the terms may require a (very) discreet internet search. Full on Schoolboy humour!
Ray0ken
Ray0ken is a long time fan of the channel and creates content predominantly retro-gaming based. He also streams live on Twitch and has a great active Discord community.