Counterparts call out suspected AI-generated clone band Broken Avenue

The frontman of the band Counterparts, Brendan Murphy, has called out a band he suspects is AI-generated.

The suspected AI band Broken Avenue has, at the time of writing, over 139,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and is listed as a “verified artist”. 

Most of Broken Avenue's tracks were released in the past six weeks, further raising suspicion that the band is AI-generated.

On social media, fans of metalcore flagged similarities between Broken Avenue’s artwork and other bands’ album artwork: Knocked Loose’s 2024 album You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, Counterparts’ 2019 album Nothing Left To Love, and The Devil Wears Prada’s 2022 album Color Decay. Many fans online have called it a “blatant rip-off” of the other bands’ work. 

You literally can’t make this shit up lol pic.twitter.com/kqwkNHCUKZ

— jake (@droptunedjake) December 30, 2025

The similarities in artwork was shared by a user on X, prompting Counterparts’ Brandon Murphy to reshare the post, adding: “$100 to anyone who can get me the legit contact info for James Trolby I won’t do anything f*cking crazy you won’t get in trouble,” with a screenshot showing James Trolby in the credits of Broken Avenue’s songs.  

James Trolby is credited as composer and lyricist on all of Broken Avenue’s releases, except for one 2011 EP that lists Santana Marsh as the composer, as Stereogum reports. 

$100 to anyone who can get me the legit contact info for James Trolby I won’t do anything fucking crazy you won’t get in trouble https://t.co/5cKDH7A1Sn pic.twitter.com/tOReNdYSrr

— brendan murphy (@brendan905) December 31, 2025

Similarly, in October, Cardiff band Holding Absence hit out at an AI “band” that they believe was trained on their music, which had overtaken them in streaming figures on Spotify in only two months.

In December, shortly after King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard removed their music from Spotify, an AI clone called King Lizard Wizard was discovered on the platform. Spotify removed King Lizard Wizard from the platform.

The news comes after artists and others in the industry have continued to voice concerns about AI’s potential effect on the music industry. Over 1,000 artists, including Damon Albarn, Kate Bush, Bastille, The Clash, Cat Stevens, Tori Amos, Hans Zimmer, and members of Radiohead, released a silent album in February 2025 in protest of the UK’s copyright AI laws. 

In May, 400 artists, including Elton John, Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Florence Welch, and Kate Bush, called on the government to change copyright laws due to the threat of AI.

In the past year, AI “artist” Xania Monet signed a multi-million dollar record deal and became the first AI artist to chart on Billboard, Jorja Smith’s label called out an AI song for using Smith's voice, AI-generated band The Velvet Sundown racked up over a million monthly listeners on Spotify in less than a month, and AI country song 'Walk My Walk' topped the US Billboard chart. 

In November, it was announced that major labels (Warner, Universal, and Sony) had signed licensing deals with AI companies. 

Read more about why we should be worried about AI. 

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Header image credit: Counterparts / Facebook.com