On Singing

Subscriber-Only Content: hear how terrible my voice used to be!

Here are some fun facts. If you were to name your top ten musical acts that have vocals in them, I guarantee you that at least eight of those acts have powerful, distinctive lead vocals. They have a singer you can recognize who has a lot of resonance and who can basically hit any note they need to. Here’s another fact: in a standard mix with vocals from any genre, the lead voice almost always takes up between 35-60% of the total volume.

And YET, how do most people start bands? Like this:

“Uh… dude, Rick can really shred on lead guitar. My cousin plays bass and I do drums, do you guys wanna, uh, start a band? Cool cool. OK, now, which of us is going to sing?”

I’ve seen dozens and dozens of bands start, learn songs, and crash and burn because their vocalist is just not distinctive, powerful or resonant in any way. They’re usually just the person who had the idea for the band. And for some reason it was super important to get Rick to play guitar but not to look around at karaokes and talent shows for that person who can shred on vocals. It’s weird.

I know because I was one of those guys starting those bands, and my voice suuuuucked. It took me a long time to learn that I was never going to front a truly good band until I figured out how to sing.

And to my mind I just barely figured it out, and there is a whole lot of fakery that goes into the Dreadnoughts vocals. Subtle mixing tricks that make my voice sound bigger, growlier, etc. This did not come naturally to me. I am a wuss and my voice is wussy, and years of drinking and screaming and smoking have sort of made it less wussy to an extent where I can front a folk-punk band. But only just.

My first real band in high school was called The Nocturnal Emissions. We sucked, and the surviving recordings, wherever they are, are embarrassing. My next band was a three piece called—wait for it—”Amazing Staci”. As embarrassing as the name.

My next real band was named after my sister, and we were not embarrassing, we were pretty decent. However, for the most part we just pretended to be Irish and tried to copy the Pogues, and this is a very bad idea if your singer doesn’t have anything close to the power and depth of Shane MacGowan. I can’t listen to most of those early recordings, my voice is thin, nasally, wimpy. I hate it so much.

(It’s a funny thing, by the way, that there is this standard line that says that guys like McGowan and Tom Waits “couldn’t sing”. This helped to prop up their ‘just another drunk barfly’ image, but it is absolute and total nonsense. The vocals on their recordings are astonishing, full of power and character, and they can hit their notes. If you’re looking for a croaky voice that can’t hit its notes, it’s Bob Dylan you’re thinking of, and if you needed another reason to hate Rolling Stone magazine, just remember that they ranked Bob Frigging Dylan #7 on the all time greatest singers’ list, eleven spots ahead of Freddy Mercury. Get FUCKED.)

Anyway, in 2007 I walked into the studio booth to sing “Old Maui” just after starting the Dreadnoughts, for the recording that eventually became Legends Never Die. And I remember it feeling different, like I’d suddenly figured something out, taken my voice to a new level. And I had. Looking back on it, I think the band itself had a lot to do with it; things were really new but I had this deep sense that I was working with some really good musicians with really amazing punk rock vibes, and somehow that energy and confidence fed into my voice. I had taken one step forward.

And ever since, I’ve been just good enough in the studio, and just hammered enough at shows, to sing well enough for this band. But let’s be clear: I am nowhere near as good as a lot of singers in both the punk and folk genres.

I’m thinking for example about my hero Brody Dalle of the Distillers, and how her voice can just ignite a recording. About Stan Rogers, who had a voice you could take a bath in. About Lenny Lashley and how his voice made Darkbuster one of the most unique punk bands ever. About the tragically departed Kim Shattuck. Too many to name, all singers who were born to sing. I hate not being one of them. Sometimes I wonder: why do something for a whole bunch of people if you weren’t born to do it? What’s the point?

Yes, more #gatekeeping. You’re used to that by now.

And you know, it doesn’t help that we’ve decided to sing sea shanties. The Sea Shanty genre is divided into two classes:

1. groups like us, who can hack decent harmonies but who sound, in the memorable words of one online critic, “like the guys selling printers at Best Buy”, and

2. Guys like Rogers, David Coffin, Johnny Collins, and the guys we just met at a Sea Shanty Festival in Quebec, Brise Glace.

You see, when Brice Glace gets together after the festival to sing shanties acoustically, these huge, barrel-chested sounds come roaring out of them, easily cutting through any instruments that my be valiantly attempting to be heard.

Then, when they hand it over to The Dreadnoughts for a tune, by comparison it sounds, well… like our band name should be the Best Buoys.

Anyway, whatever. It’s fine. But it could be better. And hey, PAID SUBSCRIBERS, who wants a treat? Who wants a little snack? You do! That’s right! You get to hear what my singing voice sounded like before I learned to sing properly!

‘And if you aren’t a paid subscriber, why not? What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you just…