hey Chris Liepe here with teenagers My Chemical Romance Gerard Way the studio multi-tracks or
stems and I recently had the opportunity to see these guys live they reached out to me after the
video I did on the black parade and invited me to a concert so cool so I got to see them live Gerard
Way was absolutely amazing so I've got footage from teenagers the one that they performed while I
was watching them live and the studio multitracks and we're gonna go back and forth a little bit and
compare and contrast Gerard's live approach with his Studio approach
this is going to be super fun because for us as vocalists there are key elements that we
can take away from how Gerard does things in the studio versus live it's all extremely useful if
you're looking to further your craft in studio performance and live performance and even if
you're not it's just really fun to see if you'd like more help with your own voice and dialing in
some of the sounds you hear me make and you hear Gerard make as we go through these tracks click
the link below and join my free course let's start with some isolated guitar sounds foreign
notice that there is a lot of river hopefully you're listening in headphones but on the
right side it is more Reverb focused and on the left side listen carefully
it's very dry on the left side and very wet on the right side foreign
this helps that single performance of the guitar feel wide and get it out of the way
of the vocals it can be panned over to one side at least the direct well while still
maintaining a a good image a good consistent image listen when we put the vocals in now
with a gun and keep an eye on you it sounds nice and balanced even
though there's only one performance and it's out of the way of the vocals super
super key production technique here now listen we have a doubled guitar come in
foreign
but very very differently performed it goes in and out like this
so you have that Reverb kicking in or at least you recognize the wideness because of the
Reverb and then you have the dry sound of that alternate performance or that extra performance
on the on the right side super super cool and great way to build the song
foreign
you can hear that the dry sound from the octaves is primarily on the right side
and the thick Rhythm dry is on the left side and then they've taken the reverbs
and they've crossed them so you get both dry and wet you get both articulation and
wideness and fullness let's take a listen to the solo isolated
again super articulate you've got that dry sound in the center you've got the Reverb
spread out a bit it's wonderful to hear this level of Imaging with these isolated tracks some drums
interesting
kicking symbol snaring symbols
they're really diverse
yeah
foreign consistently play check out this fill
percussion
yeah base
foreign now let's get into these vocals keep in mind as I go back and forth between the
studio and live approaches character Gerard is a master of character development in his singing
they're gonna clean up your looks with all the lies in the books to make a citizen out of you
listen to the quiver in his voice you citizen out of you
that's not really vibrato as much as it is this holding back of air and this pent up
sort of inconsistent compression but you also hear on books the lies in the books lies in the books
hear the closing on b or just before B lies in the books lies in them books there's this sense that
he's pulling back almost like he's doing this the citizen out of you not citizen out of you
that's part of this character that then erupts when we hit to the chorus because they sleep
with a gun and keep an eye on you son so they can watch all the things you do gets louder here they
can watch all the things you do unbridled because the drugs never work they gonna give you a smirk
cause they got methods of keeping you clean oh you're that quiver getting unclean clean clean
another Dragon the murder machine okay let's talk about a few things
here first of all his approach as he goes to that high note is incredible
we're gonna unpack that a little they're gonna rip up your heads your aspirations
to shred your aspirations to shreds there's the notes but that's not his Approach at all
it's interesting when I listen to this version versus the version that he does live
there's a clue as to how he hits those notes so well and it has to do with Psy they're gonna rip
up your heads your aspirations to shred that would be reaching for that note he doesn't though it's
gritty and in the live version you can hear him almost releasing or sighing into that high note
your aspirations to shreds did you hear it it's broken up it's desperate sounding it's
also aggressive that's very different than this your aspirations to shreds that sounds squeezed
and forced but his approach and you can see it and hear it much more clearly live now yes live they
even dropped it a little bit in terms of key which is totally normal and expected for lots
of these guys I mean Brendan Yuri is a perfect example of someone who has an incredible voice
but because of vocal budgeting because they're out on tour they lower things a little bit to
keep it easier on the vocalist to get through a whole set but he maintains character and
approach even though the key is lower and gives away how he gets those notes so girthy and so
full of resonance and character another Cog in the murder machine they said loud to scare the living
out of me they could care less as long as someone will bleed yeah the edited version it's all I all
I could get because this these are originally from the Guitar Hero or Rock Band video game
they could care less as long as someone will bleed
so dark in your clothes I'll strike a violet post maybe to leave you alone
but not me the group vocals there clearly some of Gerard but other members of the band
joining in to get that variety gang vocal oriented sound here's a killer chorus live
you know
his movements come out in his voice his performance and his tone are one the
other thing I want to point out about these game vocals is listen to how loose they are so jockey
that sound back there is I mean it's it's nowhere near like
calculated they wanted this floppy sound that's what gets this sort of ironically Unified
agreeable sound out of the vocals is the fact that it's floppiered but not me the
boys and girls in the click the awful names are at the stick you're never gonna fit in much kid
it's into the exhales I love that about his voice and girls in the click the click click
Mark of a well-engaged vocalist who has plenty of good breath support click the awful names
at the stick you're never gonna fit in much kid much kid lots of good use of compression there
but if you traveled in heart what you got under your shirt we'll make them pay for the things
that they did okay now here's that sigh coming in again and it's more obvious here than ever we'll
make them pay for the thing things that they did this is not we'll make them pay for the things
that they did no he's got this well it's almost exasperated sound we'll make them we'll make
we'll make them pay for the things that they did now I'm going way overboard there and I've lost
the pitch some but you have to go there with your voice don't be so concerned about hitting
the pitches that you end up being this sterile choir boy listen to what he's doing we'll make
them pay for the things that they things things that they did this is so key he's abandoning into
this line oh that is the character and then his voice is almost coming in behind that pitch and
the rest of delivery is totally secondary to this this exasperated sigh that's happening
and the grit the false chord engagement That You Hear Comes as a result of pursuing the character
what you gotta do
pay for the things now there you can hear him take a slightly different approach
still based off of the psy but it's like he captured the Sigh we'll make them pay for the
things that they yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah really dug into it they said now teenagers
they can care less as long as someone will bleed
so dark in your post I'll strike a violent post Maybe not yeah
lots of sigh there as well that exasperated character now listen to this part did they said oh
else they said wow that is doubled they started doubling before they started the
harmony which is really cool from a production standpoint but listen to how he does those vowels
that's not just they said oh think about your typical karaoke singer who would who would
sing this right they said all right they would be so straight with it trying to get
the notes but he's just they said ow vomiting the words and sighing through the notes is so
ugly yet so pretty too I'm kind of a neat Easter egg here maybe
suppose listen to that sound right here ah now listen to the other chorus maybe they flew
those background vocals from Chorus to chorus it's the same guy doing the same articulation
and it's it's the same it's not different versions of the same line it really does sound like they
flew those which is another very common production technique you get a good sound off the first gang
vocal and you perform the lead vocals differently every chorus but if you're performing to a click
or CL close enough you can very easily take those and and move them to a different chorus
around like crazy and then
again sighing I'm using that word a ton that exasperated teenager
is exactly what he is embodying here in this song
they could care less as long as someone will bleed so dark in your
clothes I'll strike goodbye your liposed maybe the leave you alone
but not me there's that background vocal that you can hear again
they could care less as long as someone will bleed so dark in your clothes I'll strike a
violent post maybe they'll leave you alone but not me and the band taking us out live
together
still hear how forward everything is you can almost see it and hear it better
be cool group of group assortion boxes up around his mic and every once a while he'd
touch one and and he was in control of his own vocal effects thanks for watching and
unpacking with me and listening to me make stupid sounds as I get to the root of how
Gerard Way works as a vocalist and in the context of two different settings super fun
to hear both the isolated tracks and a recent live show that I was actually at again for more
help with your voice click that link below join my free course we'll see you for more