hey Chris Liepe here with my first Brandon Boyd vocal analysis this is hardly the first time I
have heard Incubus it is the first time I've heard this version of wish you were here this
live version and a wonderful opportunity to do a deep dive into Brandon's voice
like you've all been asking [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
for [Applause]
[Applause] [Music]
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
through
the toes into the [Music] sound the Ocean looks like a thousand diamonds strewn across
a blue blanket I lean against the wind pretend that I am weightless and in this
moment I am happy to start to appreciate and realize just how incredible Brandon
Boyd's voice really is you have to understand the musical context and environment that this
band entered and if you took a look inside the backpack of CDs that I carried around
in this era you'll understand perfectly sound garden Nirvana coming off of those
bands and then you had corn and the de tones and then Lincoln Park food Fighters aliceon
chains and yeah the Smashing Pumpkins all of these VOC vocalists had this this angst and
their unique grit and then there was Brandon and Incubus in the same sentences and in this
same backpack we have this clean playful oddly precise vocalist this band and his voice had
all the energy and yeah a certain amount of of angst in a completely different and fresh way
also the first time I really got into a band that had any kind of
DJing and when I first heard this it just floored me how different and
amazing it sounded given what I had been listening to the tong into the
sand the Ocean looks like a thousand diamonds strewn across a blue blanket
I lean against the wind pretend that I am weightless and in this moment
I am happy happy okay let's talk about some of the nuances that make Brandon's
voice just absolutely amazing first of all notice his body [Music] language into the
sand [Music] the eyes closed holding the mic's got his Shaker and and he's just chill you can
tell he's chill and relaxed and then how that manifests in his [Music] voice this
contrasts with what he'll do later but there's this sense of relaxing into this descent he
relaxes into his phrases yet there's a burst of energy at the beginning of lot of notes
this will become more clear as we juxtapose it with some of the things he does later but
remember that phrase relaxing into phrases if you like this approach of dissecting and deep
diving into vocalists you love click the link below and join my free voice course
and I'll help you learn how to experiment with your own voice in the ways that we're hearing
here thous diamonds across the blue blanket across the blue blanket across the blue blanket he has
this chill sort of relaxed entrance but his continents are often exaggerated this creates
this playful sort of on top of the Rhythm on top of the beat thing that he's got going on and it's
super compelling and he can be simultaneously relaxed and chill in his body language and in
his phonation but agressive isn't quite the right word but sort of in the way he approaches his
consonant this is why we get the energy and we feel at ease when we listen to him Diamond AC
diamonds a diamond but if I were to be like diamonds St across the blue blanket doesn't
work CU my phonation is not relaxed diamonds stun across the black blanket see how what I
just did where my voice is relaxed but my my my addiction is [Music] not the wind pretend that I
am weightless in this moment I Amy I am I am and in this moment I am lots of percussive choices
there this comes from being simultaneously relaxed and intense but notice H H that's a soft onset but
it's an aggressive soft onset and he follows that up with I am I am lots of variety there
Against the Wind pretend that I am weightless and in this moment I am happy happy happy I am happy
happy I wish you were here so we have this I wish you were here I just try that with your
own voice that contrast and energy we're not going crazy range wise I wish you were
here and then relax back into your phonation incredible these are the details when we listen
to a vocalist and go man he's got an amazing voice why let's unpack it let's figure out
what makes them tick Brandon is one of those it's so fun once you really get into [Music]
it wish you were
here wish you were
here I wish you were
[Music] here oh there's so much to unpack there we'll start with tone listen to this last
one I wish you were
[Music] here okay we have two different postures going on and of course that beautiful Harmony over
it but we've got this posture ah which by itself it's a bit nasal it's a bit cwish Ah I wish you
were here here does this all the time moves his placement around very subtly oftentimes
he'll do it around a run and what I just did is way more interesting and musical than either of
these I wish you were here it's flat ah it's all in that same sort of place right but I
wish you were here what I did here is more forward it's it's more of a belt where versus
this he's phrasing in and out of these different placements huge now listen to the way he I call
it rubber bands with his voice this is pretty unique to the way Brandon works I wish you were
here [Music] I I wish you were here we combine the resonance shifts the
placement shifts with what he's doing in the run I've always thought of Brandon's voice as
he has these pitches that he he digs into he might aggressively get into it and then
[Music] relax and then he'll throw his voice a little higher a little
lower and as I've played with my voice with inspiration from Brandon it winds up doing
this go back to that one
note play this game with yourself how can you throw your voice higher or lower and
then wind up on the same pitch it's actually kind kind of hard to do and then run around
it a little bit more but it's almost like we're always coming back to this home base
like don't worry about the other notes sounding good around that
one note that if if you try this and then you listen to what he's doing and then you
hone this it's really a great way to start working in more agility to your voice hey
[Applause]
you [Music]
are now not only is that note Choice amazing but this is a different texture still than we've
heard we have this beautiful like engaged cord closure and then we have a [Music] whisper and a
nice Trail off the diversity in this particular word is it just it strikes me every time I hear
it you [Music] are starts with a whis so beautiful this kind of thing needs
to be noticed intentionally and then experimented with intentionally with
our own voices before we can just be led by our inspiration we have to
play I my head on to the [Music] sand Sky resembles the backli can
canopy there's another example of that resonant shift you have phones I signal them with a my
ladder and in this moment I am happy happy and in this moment I am I am lots of Hard onsets lots
of he really gets into some of those notes but
then he backs off and retains that really chill ah such a such a unique
posture moment I am happy
happy I wish you were here I wish you were
here wish you were he
just beautiful that sequence of wish you were
Hees
you
youy yes you were playing with that movement of resonance and placement
like crazy and it's all clean lots of other singers in this era were doing similar things
but they had the had a lot of grit and a lot of other things going on he has this
distilled energy that is so simple upon first listen cuz it's clean but the aggression and
energy is still there this is why Dynamic resonance and placement his voice can be
so interesting and clean because there are so many things going on with Dynamic placement
hey
hey just try that with your
voice I open up my nose at one point [Music]
there
the world to roller coaster the world the world his sense of Rhythm his sense of percussion with
his voice again understated but so prominent and then that that head voice thing deserves another
listen [Music]
it's a little H and then notice how no apologies about accentuating his break
that's what confident singers do they just let themselves sort of relax into their break relax
into their head voice and see what happens this is playful exploration the world roller
coaster we are [Music] maybe we should always maybe we should maybe we should notice these
pickups stuff's happening before the main beat
this perpetuates this wonderful rhythmic Groove we hear in his
voice of the world there's
one maybe we should maybe we maybe maybe I say I wish you were here
I wish you were I wish you were was you were there's that placement again so cool
wish you
are I wish you were
here wish you were
here wish you
were I wish
you you love how he opened up the wish so by doing wish in a lot of different ways earlier
in the song Wes you where he was singing lower but you threw the resonance back a little bit
he is allowing for a acceptable slant on that note I wish it's not I wish it's wish which
is easier because it's a more open Sound but you can tell because of the way he's played with his
voice earlier that he's not just doing this because he has to he's not doing this at all
because he has to he's not sling that vup there because he wouldn't be able to hit it any other
way he's choosing the best way for his tone and the energy of the song to sing that word Wes is
not a word however because he's connected it and slanted it earlier in the song by being playful
with it this works and it not only works it's like the high point vocally really really cool
and this is a big way for those of you wanting to work on expanding your range to think about
doing so how can you play into and modify vowels in strategic ways so that it makes
sense to slant and modify in the context of what you've already done in the song I wish you
were you
[Music] [Applause] [Music] wor he even has that same sound that same note as he's greeting the
audience at the end there I want to point out one more thing on that ending Wes it's
Wes you were you it's open as well thanks so much for getting Nerdy with me over Brandon
Boyd's voice one of my favorite vocalists it's about time I did something on the channel again
if you'd like more help exploring your own voice in a playful non-judgmental
freeing way click the link below and join my free voice course we'll see you for more