How can they sing like this and continue into the next song in their set? Is there a secret to this kind of singing where there voice doesn’t go out right away?
In: 980
Since you mentioned Dave Grohl who very likely was either taught by Kurt how to sing like that or learned via his approximation to him, here’s an anecdote about Kurt:
Nevermind producer Bitch Vig setting up Kurt’s vocal microphone during recording of the album turned up all the attenuators on his desk, and lowered the gain as much as possible before Kurt began to sing, in anticipation of a massive loud voice. When he pressed record, he wasn’t getting a level. On playback, nothing had recorded. He was shocked to learn that Kurt was achieving these raspy screamy tones at what he called “whisper-level” volume. He has since worked with Dave and admitted Dave using the same technique. It should be noted however at least in Kurt’s case that he was not interested in technique, just making good sounds (it appears at though he stumbled upon correct technique) and often blew out his voice on tour.
The trick is (and you can find a lot more of this on r/singing) that to achieve the rasp one does not push harder to distort the note, but to relax the vocal chords and sing with compression so it distorts in a healthier way. Think about the half-assed noises one makes when they’re told to get out of bed with a hangover, where it sounds gravelly but still quiet (we call this vocal fry) or when someone lifts a heavy object and makes an accompanying noise from the belly (compression). It is absolutely a skill to marry these two techniques to create a healthy and sustainable rasp that can take years to pull off, and even longer to master.
Some notable examples of healthy rasp technique are M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold (throughout his entire career he has continued to have vocal lessons and training, even now.) And Kelley Jones of Stereophonics (a very relaxed singer resulting in a natural rasp in chest voice).
For resources on singing with this technique, see Chris Liepe and Ken Tamplin on YouTube. I quite enjoyed Rob Chapman’s vlogs on learning to sing with Ken Tamplin, as they’re a good example of what to expect going into singing, everyone has been given a different instrument and you cannot expect to sound exactly like your heroes, but you can still create a fantastic and enjoyable unique voice.
If this comment does well I’ll try and find a link to Butch talking about Kurt’s voice. It might be in the Rick Beato interview.
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