Taking influences and staying true to ourselves.
This blog is aimed at young artists of any genre. It’s about finding out who you are, what you stand for and how to be the performer you want to be. It’s continuing from the themes of previous weeks. It’s influenced by the fact that despite singing over the weekend I managed to cram in three showings of the new film Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen biopic.
Somewhere along my journey I read or was told that boring people become boring singers/artists. And that Interesting people are interested in things. As a young man I-somehow-became interested in things artistic-without even realising it. Now this isn’t going to turn into some ego driven rant about what an interesting person I am, because most of you know me as a name-dropping bore. But my dog finds me interesting, so I will use myself as an example. I didn’t just develop a healthy interest in films/music/ books etc. I became obsessed with it. All of it!
We need to take influences from everywhere. We need to be passionate about what moves us and follow these passions freely. Our wish to perform shouldn’t be so wrapped up in ourselves that we don’t allow ourself the chances given to us by external forces to become something we aren’t already, yet keeping the fire that made us alight. We need to be interested in everything that has some link to human emotions. Music, films, books, art, dance, comics, games.... Everything that is created should be at our banquet whilst we choose the material for the table cloth! (Sorry....)
Opera singers can be the most boring people. One glance at my Facebook wall could cure insomnia. The relentless quest for technical perfection, and the bubble we then live in as we go from singing job to singing job can render us impermeable to the outside world. I’ve ranted to my friends that we should embrace all that we are today, not sneer. I’m never political, but all my friends were so sure of a Remain vote in the referendum as to leave most of them utterly shocked. How can we wish to speak to our public if we don’t understand them? I’ve no interest in only singing to one class/demographic. I dream of singing and reaching out with the music I love to all of us. Shouldn’t we all be more aware of our audience, even if we disagree with their views?
Back to us singing. When we watched the Queen film part of me was jealous of Freddie because he could sing as he wished. Our world is all about making us sing/look/perform exactly the same as the last clone from the music college. If we deviate from what is expected we are spat at, kicked and destroyed (metaphorically). Yet there was Freddie strutting and being ‘fabulous’ and being loved for it. One of my favourite not-classical singers, Tim Buckley, once interviewed Leontyne Price, and accused her (and hence all of us opera singers) of only using part of her voice. Her art and skill was a pinnacle of vocal excellence, but he was correct. We wear straight jackets when we sing. We must, it’s the discipline that leads to wonders. But how often it stifles us to being boringly perfect...
We should listen to opera and classical music during our training. It still astonishes me how little my fellow students at college actually went to the opera, how little they cared and how ignorant they were. But we should also listen to Sinatra, Elvis, Piaf, Nina Simone, Doris Day, Liza Minnelli et al. We should have an opinion about why Elvis became the massive star, why Sinatra with his guttural sounds is so loved. Why Doris Day is a true gay icon. We should listen, observe, devour. And learn. Learn from everyone.
We can have our favourites, but we shouldn’t only live for them. I used to not understand nor appreciate Bach. I do now. One day I’ll even understand why people stay in on a Saturday evening and watch a bunch of has been dance ‘Strictly’...
I can’t go and sing an audition and strut around like Freddie. But I can try to put away the needs of the technical and bring the story I’m telling to life by the force of my imagination. I can SEE what I’m singing about. And I know the more I search for whatever truth I’m looking for, the better the singer I am-somehow. It shows in every phrase when the singer has only put effort into her or his technique. Breaking out of the conventional and open one’s mind to the possibilities is difficult. We are often too scared of being mocked, too British, too restricted. Opening one’s mind to all the aspects of the arts is essential to break down this barrier.
We can go too far, lose ourselves in our vision of what we are. One of the more interesting aspects of the aforementioned film is about Freddie’s dad telling his son that he’ll never succeed by trying to be something he’s not, as the lad becomes ever more flamboyant and camp. Had the young Freddie not been given the chances for success he was given, would he now be an ageing art teacher at a London comprehensive school, married with kids? His father happy and proud? Probably not, but he wouldn’t have had the excesses, losing himself and finding his feet again adventures that he did have. Yet that core craziness would never have died.
We are what we are, but if we’re open we can all be so much more. So go and read that book, listen to that obscure Himalayan mouth music CD. Discover Shakespeare. Buy that scarf!
And Watch Bohemian Rhapsody! It’s ace!
This blog is aimed at young artists of any genre. It’s about finding out who you are, what you stand for and how to be the performer you want to be. It’s continuing from the themes of previous weeks. It’s influenced by the fact that despite singing over the weekend I managed to cram in three showings of the new film Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen biopic.
Somewhere along my journey I read or was told that boring people become boring singers/artists. And that Interesting people are interested in things. As a young man I-somehow-became interested in things artistic-without even realising it. Now this isn’t going to turn into some ego driven rant about what an interesting person I am, because most of you know me as a name-dropping bore. But my dog finds me interesting, so I will use myself as an example. I didn’t just develop a healthy interest in films/music/ books etc. I became obsessed with it. All of it!
We need to take influences from everywhere. We need to be passionate about what moves us and follow these passions freely. Our wish to perform shouldn’t be so wrapped up in ourselves that we don’t allow ourself the chances given to us by external forces to become something we aren’t already, yet keeping the fire that made us alight. We need to be interested in everything that has some link to human emotions. Music, films, books, art, dance, comics, games.... Everything that is created should be at our banquet whilst we choose the material for the table cloth! (Sorry....)
Opera singers can be the most boring people. One glance at my Facebook wall could cure insomnia. The relentless quest for technical perfection, and the bubble we then live in as we go from singing job to singing job can render us impermeable to the outside world. I’ve ranted to my friends that we should embrace all that we are today, not sneer. I’m never political, but all my friends were so sure of a Remain vote in the referendum as to leave most of them utterly shocked. How can we wish to speak to our public if we don’t understand them? I’ve no interest in only singing to one class/demographic. I dream of singing and reaching out with the music I love to all of us. Shouldn’t we all be more aware of our audience, even if we disagree with their views?
Back to us singing. When we watched the Queen film part of me was jealous of Freddie because he could sing as he wished. Our world is all about making us sing/look/perform exactly the same as the last clone from the music college. If we deviate from what is expected we are spat at, kicked and destroyed (metaphorically). Yet there was Freddie strutting and being ‘fabulous’ and being loved for it. One of my favourite not-classical singers, Tim Buckley, once interviewed Leontyne Price, and accused her (and hence all of us opera singers) of only using part of her voice. Her art and skill was a pinnacle of vocal excellence, but he was correct. We wear straight jackets when we sing. We must, it’s the discipline that leads to wonders. But how often it stifles us to being boringly perfect...
We should listen to opera and classical music during our training. It still astonishes me how little my fellow students at college actually went to the opera, how little they cared and how ignorant they were. But we should also listen to Sinatra, Elvis, Piaf, Nina Simone, Doris Day, Liza Minnelli et al. We should have an opinion about why Elvis became the massive star, why Sinatra with his guttural sounds is so loved. Why Doris Day is a true gay icon. We should listen, observe, devour. And learn. Learn from everyone.
We can have our favourites, but we shouldn’t only live for them. I used to not understand nor appreciate Bach. I do now. One day I’ll even understand why people stay in on a Saturday evening and watch a bunch of has been dance ‘Strictly’...
I can’t go and sing an audition and strut around like Freddie. But I can try to put away the needs of the technical and bring the story I’m telling to life by the force of my imagination. I can SEE what I’m singing about. And I know the more I search for whatever truth I’m looking for, the better the singer I am-somehow. It shows in every phrase when the singer has only put effort into her or his technique. Breaking out of the conventional and open one’s mind to the possibilities is difficult. We are often too scared of being mocked, too British, too restricted. Opening one’s mind to all the aspects of the arts is essential to break down this barrier.
We can go too far, lose ourselves in our vision of what we are. One of the more interesting aspects of the aforementioned film is about Freddie’s dad telling his son that he’ll never succeed by trying to be something he’s not, as the lad becomes ever more flamboyant and camp. Had the young Freddie not been given the chances for success he was given, would he now be an ageing art teacher at a London comprehensive school, married with kids? His father happy and proud? Probably not, but he wouldn’t have had the excesses, losing himself and finding his feet again adventures that he did have. Yet that core craziness would never have died.
We are what we are, but if we’re open we can all be so much more. So go and read that book, listen to that obscure Himalayan mouth music CD. Discover Shakespeare. Buy that scarf!
And Watch Bohemian Rhapsody! It’s ace!