What’s in a voice…?
I’ll say it loud. I’ll say it proud. I am an anti-musician! “A what?” I hear you say. An anti-musician. Basically, I’m a musician who can’t play a single instrument. I know, terrible, isn’t it? Or is it…?
See the thing about being a musician or somebody in a creative field is that you have to be exactly that. Creative! The first song I ever wrote, Blackout, was written using nothing but my voice and a kick drum preset in a VST (this is essentially Virtual Studio Technology – audio plug-in software (geeky shit)). Not being able to play guitar or piano or bass forced me to get creative and use my voice as the instrument. Let’s face it, that’s what a voice is, an instrument.
Over the years I’ve become more adept at using VSTs and enlisting the expertise and talents of others (Miles Williams, Steve Wilkinson, David Soulsby, Chris Morton), but I’ve also become a little smarter at using and mixing my own voice. Imagine recording the same person’s vocals for 10 tracks. That’s lead vocals, backing vocals, adlibs and having to mix it and proof it. At some point, you’re going to get really REALLY sick of hearing that person’s voice!
Welcome to my world!
So, you’ve got to be clever with it. I think of it a bit like you would a waning relationship with a significant other. Let’s class it as the seven year itch. So to keep things interesting, I like to pitch shift my vocals, time-stretch them, stack them, chop them up and put them back into my tracks. I’ve been known on occasion to make my own voice sound like a dude… just for the laugh.
Why is this relevant to the new single? Because I’ve used a great many of these methods on my vocals in Don’t Pacify Me. I guess my two guitars, two trumpets, one clarinet and piano can stay where the are. I’m sure I’ll learn how to play them at some point. But for now, at least I’ve mastered my own voice… and we’ve got a pretty good working relationship, it seems!