Finding Your Voice

4 May 08

Welcome to The Pier's 'Ask Weege' column. This is where the 880 South's front man and music scene veteran will be answering questions and providing tips for up-and-coming bands and musicians.

This week Antonio asks, 'I want to sing, but I can't get past mimicking of other singers voices. How would one find your own singing style? This should be simple, right?'

What up Antonio.

There is no real science to singing. I do know this, anyone can sing, but how pleasant one's voice may be to another...is really in the ear of the beholder.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say 75% of mankind understand how to stay in tune. We were all raised whistling and hummin' and singing silly kiddie songs. Still there are a good chunk of people that really sing so badly that it makes you stop what you're doing and shreak. My advice to those people. Loud doesn't mean you're singing in key. Some people are just tone deaf.

Ok...finding your singing style? It's like a recipe for some BBQ'd ribs. You might take a little from your family recipe, a little from a friend of a friend's recipe. You might add some spices you think work. Maybe your ribs are more asian spicy or maybe they are sweet and sour. Maybe you add as many elements as you can. So maybe I'm hungry?

I say...fuck it. Sing like your heroes, sing like your influences. In time you'll get around to keeping what you like, what you don't like and so forth. It all mends together through time and experience. I mean if you're stealing "verbage" and straight up rippin off an artist like a lot of bands do, then you gotta expect people to call you on it. So I think between singing and writing, it's important that you think of the way you would speak with your friends/family and speak from the heart. Then add that to how you sing. You'll find it will be quite a combination.

I think music is best sung from the heart. Let's take my old band for instance. They were heavily influenced by jazz 'n' funk meets hard rock kind of thing. Personally those aren't my biggest influences, and it showed when I sung in that band. A lot of the times we were just writing to make cool hooks and music people could groove and chill out to. A lot of times it was just silliness and perversion. Which some people really loved. Well again, it showed and down the line the lack of vocal orginality took a toll on my voice and my spirit. It was really hard for me to find my own voice in that band. I really didn't write any of the music, just lyrics and hooks. I was either trying to sound like RHCP or Mike Patton. It never really gelled because even though I love both of those artists, it wasn't my own.

There are some people in this world that can write a song about a banana and sing that shit so good that it makes you wanna eat a banana right fucking there. I'm not one of those folks, at least I wasn't. I think now with 12 years of singing under my belt I actually could do that. The truth is, you never stop learning and improving and each time I go into the recording studio I learn something new about myself. That's what you have to figure out and understand. Nobody is perfect and even if they project some kind of greatness, they all had to start somewhere.

As soon as I started writing my own material was when I really came to my own with my vocals. A lot of that was because I was singing about my experiences, my life, my follies, my heartbreaks and earthquakes. The things I knew that were very near and dear to myself. Sometimes when you're singing your life stories, you tend to bring it all out from the heart and soul. Doesn't mean you have to be a songwriter, it just means, find songs you connect with deeply and sing the shit out of it.

For me it was very easy to get pigeon-holed into the whole Sublime thing. I am a big fan, I still am, so naturally my friends could see where my influence came from. I don't think I sound like Bradley, but some people might think so. In truth I've been told I sound like the guy from Big Mountain. I've also been told I sound like the big fella (John Popper) from Blues Traveler. I'm not a big fan of Blues Traveler. My favorite was when my drummer said I sound like Corey Glover from Living Color. At first, that kinda annoyed me. I wanted to sound like all kinds of different people. Afterall my vocal influences are people like Freddie Mercury, Mike Patton, Bradley Nowell, Dean Martin, Bob Marley, Angelo Moore and I can do this all day...seriously.

So for me...it's hard to accept I sound like some vocalists I'm not all that interested in. Although Living Color was pretty dope. Big Mountain is alright and I don't absolutely hate Blues Traveler...wait....No I don't. I did have to think about it.

The truth is, as a singer, you have to learn to accept criticism. This may not help you at all, but I'll be honest I've changed musical tastes so many times in my life that I can't think of one time where I knew what I would sound like for the rest of my life. I've gone from Led Zeppelin to MC5 to Pantera to Misfits to Suicidal Tendencies to Guns N Roses to NWA to Pearl Jam to Ohio Players to The Police and right back to Bob Marley. So for me I could never decide who or what I wanted to sound like. I can't honestly say all of that influence shows but it is what it is. Still even with all that influence I know there is always gonna be a good amount of people who don't like my voice, don't like my music, don't like my face and that's just life. You can't win everyone over and in my heart I could care less. I do what I do to please myself and hopefully to inspire others. Plain and simple.

Finding your own voice is not easy. I think it's really hard to figure out in early stages because you're still learning as you go. It doesn't hurt to take vocal lessons. I never took any vocal lessons or guitar lessons for that matter. I would still recommend it and I even consider doing it myself. Still, something that helped me a lot was not trying too hard to sing a popular song exactly like the song is sung. You don't have to sound like the song has already been done. I used to sing a lot of Led Zeppelin tunes as a teenager and in time I learned I sound nothing like Robert Plant. So even today when we get the Led out live for our own amusement I sing it my way. I eventually learned my limits and strengths in my own voice. I even found it fun to harmonize with an already written song. I find people who try to mimic someone to be exact really struggle the most.

I have a brother-in-law who loves singing, he's really not very good of a singer (sorry dude). I've told him many times it's not about volume, it's about volume control and how you breathe. I love that he hasn't quit and he keeps trying. Still...his biggest mistake is he tries to mimic as you say. For me listening to his voice, his voice is built for punk or hard rock. In time his style may come together as he learns his strengths and weaknesses, but a lot of people are not patient enough to understand that. I told him to listen to more old r&b, more blues/funk, more of the classics. Not just the classic rock music influences that he loves. For me when I listen to Zeppelin, The Who, Cream, The Rolling Stones or any of the classic rock bands. I wanna know...who influences those guys? That's when you really start to undertand music. You start to realize, hey even the great rock bands stole a little from their influences. It makes you feel a little more confident in a way. It almost takes away from their immortality as rock bands. Gives you just enough of a boost to think...I could do that too.

When it comes to writing my own music, it's usually just a feeling I get. Something inside me tells me I need to belt this part out and I need smooth the next part out. Ya know? That probably has developed from experience. It wasn't always like that...but sometimes I'll hear a song from Stevie Wonder or Gregory Isaacs and it gets me in the mood for a certain style. Maybe it's a Marvin Gaye jam that influences me to do somethin on the funky R&B tip. Sometimes I'll hear a quirky old 80's jam that people think sucked, but there is one little riff that I dig a lot. So I'll think of that when I'm writing.

I find sometimes I write my best material when I'm grumpy or in a weird mood. Instead of writing about the mundane I end up writing some uplifting material. So a lot of that takes part in how I write and end up singing a song. Like if I write a verse that reminds me of Steely Dan and a chorus that reminds me of Bob Marley, then I'm gonna make sure I bring that to the table when I sing it without totally ripping them off. So what if the song is about working for minimum wage at Burger King? Well...that could actually be interesting. Cause would Bob Marley sing about working at Burger King? So you could actually bring that out (haha). I guess I'm saying...experiment as much as possible. You'll find something you love and a lot of something you might hate.

I guess you have to take a little from your influences and then put your own flavor on it. Kind of like recipes for food. You tend to inherit ideas and add your own spices as you go.

Good luck homie.

-Weege-

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