Here is a snippet of a recording session with House musician, DJ Strange. The sound track is a snippet of Strange’s composition ‘Matariki’; one of the tracks that I recorded with him and that he is currently editing.
Strange’s music is an unique blend of House, Taonga Pūoro and Waiata (Song). Here is his Facebook link: Strange
For this recording session, I was keen to provide vocals that were sympathetic to the unique tone colours of Taonga Pūoro. Accordingly, I used loads of high pianissimo singing. Pianissimo singing in the upper register with this level of control is unique to Bel Canto singing.
Overall, I use Bel Canto (singing techniques perfected by the Italians and in vogue from the 17th to 19th centuries) as a foundation for my vocals across the genres – from classical to contemporary. I then take this foundation and distort it with aspiration or belt. However, I ALWAYS return to Bel Canto to preserve the voice.
Strange took my vocals from the recording session and ‘distorted’ a few of them using electronic means. I loved this because it meant that I didn’t need to ‘rip’ my voice up in order to achieve the effect! I think ‘distorting’ vocals using electronic means should be done more, especially in a live setting.
The whole point of my blogs is that my passion is vocal technique. I love singing opera & crossover, as well as writing my own material (which uses high belt, aspiration, vocal fry and many other ‘high risk’ techniques). Moreover, I am passionate about sharing these techniques with my students. With the exception of a few students, I teach with the belief that classical singing techniques are vital if a professional contemporary singer wants to last the distance.
I loved this experience of working with Strange and can’t wait to work with Strange again and indeed more DJs in the future. There are so many possibilities yet to be explored in these seemingly contrasting musical genres!
Deborah Wai Kapohe 