hey chris liepe here with daniel johns of silver chair a vocal transformation
daniel johns has fascinated me as a vocalist for many years i love his voice i originally got into
silver chair during the frog stomp era as many of you probably did but the diorama era oh man
amazing vocals amazing everything arranging all that stuff and in this particular video we're
going to be comparing and contrasting daniel's approach between these two eras we've got isolated
vocals from tomorrow and we've got isolated vocals from tuna in the brine tomorrow recorded in 1995.
tune in the brine was recorded in 2002 so there's not that much space in between
but there was some major things happening in his voice in another video we'll get into his more
recent stuff which is again another departure but i really wanted to focus on these two
approaches if you find this kind of stuff valuable and interesting and you'd like more help with your
own voice click the link below and join my free voice course there's lots of ways we can work
from there together but that's the best place to start all right let's dig in and
see what he's doing from a tonal perspective from a compression and grid perspective
and from a more global perspective 1995 daniel johns it's 12 o'clock and it's a wonderful day
i know you hate me by lasting anyway
basic observations here this is 1995. we are at the height of
grunge nirvana you can hear the the slurred sound
of his approach here it's very it's that lazy aggressive that was so popular that that kurt
cobain sort of thing now he's he's not imitating kurt cobain but he is using that sort of that sort
of mindset or that sort of you know he he's got the plaid shirt on for sure also notice his tone
he's doing a little bit of tongue back of tongue cupping
which you will not hear in the later era daniel johns he is shaping his tone absolutely
for this era he's very young here also his vocal performance is great but there are these
these obvious nods to the era even in this very first portion that we're listening to
let's go listen to the opening of tuna in the brine and hear how his tone in uh in a similar
intro capacity is functioning i found a keys to my heart everyone's heart seems so calm
and you found the lock to my dorm and open the doors to my trust fund very interesting
there's a lot more breath going on i i if you were to sing that like frog stomp era i i i he
he didn't have that sort of dynamic lowness in his voice back then i found a keys to my heart
listen to the way he's using breath i the other observation here is that he's he's letting his
his native sort of australian accent come through a bit more here he's being more himself i think
he found himself and his own style much more in in that gap when everyone's heart seems so calm
and you found the lock to my dorm gone is the tongue cupping you you you no you
his resonance is much more forward he's not trapping his resonance as much in the back
of his throat you can sense that his sound has been brought more into the mask and his teeth
are a bit more out of the way alright let's move on to a bit more dynamic part of the song
tomorrow
hear that you you know it's you
till he's definitely got that tongue cupping going on
and that harmony's really neat but listen to what happens here you say the money isn't everything
but i'd like to see you leave without it
he's got a very one volume approach when he's singing down here contrasting that with
his later self but listen here you think you can keep on going living like a king
love this line by the way one more time you think you can keep on going living like a king when he
goes up in his range he pushes harder you think you think and he's pushing right up to that vocal
break and allowing himself to be comfortable pushing into what might otherwise be a crack
then right here oh and living like a king living like a king again a very consistent
amount of compression a consistent amount of pressure
now there's the same two-part kind of harmony arrangement going on daniel is
harmonizing with himself listen to the dynamics present here as well as the tonal differences
he's bringing this resonance around he's moving it around in addition to moving his dynamics
up and down he swells into that darkest dark and then with ist darkest
he has darkest really forward as he sing it and then he's moving it slightly back he's moving
the resonance back toward his soft palate as he descends that line now is he really
thinking about this i've got to move my no but he has practiced enough adding dynamics both
in volume and in tonal placement to his voice he's allowing himself to be himself a little bit more
if he were to sing this like the 1995 version it might sound more like this in my darkest
very much more plowed through we don't have the swells we don't have the the moving
around of all these tonal possibilities and we certainly don't have the breathiness and the
freedom that he displays but there's another really interesting shift that he makes
in the 2002 version of his singing self let's find out what that is
he's always had a very agile voice right we've got this
that's really really cool stuff listen what he does here
you'll need
he really is comfortable moving between his chest and his head resonances you don't hear him
push up into that gritty self near as much yeah he still does it in this era not really in this song
but he is way more free to move in and out of his entire range and and set of resonances because he
is incorporating head voice trips all the time and they're so wonderful to listen to and experience
don't lose lots of dynamics don't lose your
breathing sort of sighing into that note and then the subtle head voice access
i'm really exaggerating that but this is key to his approach and what it seems like
a lot of singers who start young are able to access and have more freedom with later
take take another bill take another pill is how he
would sort of one dimensionally do that earlier in his career here another pill
head voice transfer dynamics breathiness not a slave to one tone that he's sort of
grabbing from an era are you going away too fat boy bad boy wait till tomorrow
i like this line a lot this is one of those that stuck with me for all these years
i love it when people can sigh in and out of notes it creates a neat sense of of movement and listen
to his grit one more time here are you going away too fat boy you're going away too fat boy
get the pitches in the ballpark and this is a really good one to practice breaking up on because
you have that two so our voice naturally wants to crack right there you're going away too your voice
wants to do that so when it starts to do that on two lean into that crack you're gonna wait too
you're gonna wait too fat boy let your voice push up to that point where it's uncomfortable not
hurting but uncomfortable in terms of maintaining that high pitch you're gonna wait till fat boy
and then you get that sort of sound you're gonna wait too fat boy fat boy wait till tomorrow
now if we combine earlier daniel johns with later daniel johns over this line
some really interesting things could happen the breathiness the dynamics the freedom of
the back of the the tongue and soft palate area to not be moving with this sort of
grungy tongue cupping thing that's going on you're going away too what if we went to
head voice there but we gritted it up at the very beginning she going away too fat boy
and then side out of that at the end with some breathiness you gone away too fat boy
oh so it's fun to uh to work on combining the approaches of one singer from two different eras
and see what you can do wait till tomorrow
you're gonna wait till fan boy fan boy wait till tomorrow
i'll tell ya the chest voice head voice dancing that daniel does in his later career
is really what got me into experimenting with both of my resonances it's really compelling
i hope you enjoy seeing these approaches blended over the different lines closer
now than we ever have been more closer now than we ever should we be closer
everything it's very forward none of this growing eyes very forward and lots of neat dancing around
with his head voice thanks for watching this compare contrast vocal transformation
of daniel johns leave me comments let me know how you liked this format this approach
and i'll do more of them also thank you for suggesting a video on daniel johns
i've been meaning to do one for quite a while again if you'd like more help
with your voice click that link below join my free course we'll see for more