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David
let’s talk a little bit about your experience
as a professional performer.
What’s been your favorite performance
that you can remember doing?
Oh wow, my favorite performance.
You know I have moments where the place was amazing.
Like, singing in the White House was just surreal.
You know I’m talking to myself saying,
“Just walk through this. Just finish. Don’t think too much about it.”
Because you know, it’s nerve wracking.
That was amazing.
Singing the O2 in London, those were amazing.
The Sydney Opera House was just incredible.
So those are, you know, combined really energetic
nights and locations.
But um, I get excited about what I do every night.
I get up there and I think this is why I love it.
All of the stuff that you have to do what we do,
all of that stuff leads up to that moment for me.
So, we’ve been in little bitty places,
small halls where it’s been a smaller more intimate crowd
and I’ve walked out thinking that was just an amazing night.
So, the newness and the energy of it,
feeling like you really connected.
That is what keeps feeding me in performances.
Do you have a least favorite performance?
You know, when I was in school I remember
my teaching saying-
I was singing for a class one time and she introduced me.
She said, “This is my student who will sing the high note
no matter what.”
And you know, she was like, “even if he’s having
trouble with it or he’s sick, he’s gonna do it.”
And you know, those nights when I feel like I’m having
to power through and I feel like I’m having to
calculate a whole lot vocally,
those are really hard nights.
Because I’m there to communicate with the audience.
And for me on those nights when I can’t get out of myself
or out of my technique, those are nights that I walk off
and go, ugh.
Man, I just, that was not satisfying.
Any night that I feel like we just didn’t do our best, you know.
I walk off and go to where our band is and I say,
“Hey, before I forget it, thank you guys for the night,
but we’ve got to make sure that tomorrow we do this.”
Because when tomorrow comes I might forget.
So, let’s make sure we touch on these things,
because that wasn’t quite right.
There was a night on one of the Christmas tours
where we had to just take stuff down.
And I was so grateful for an amazing band at that point
because I was like, guys, it’s the second half and
I’m just, I’m shot.
That is so defeating, you know.
And I just, you know, I hate it.
And I was so grateful that we were able to do that.
And it was just one night, you know.
One of my mentors, Bill Gaither
who I used to sing with, he used to say
“one night won’t make you and one night won’t break you.”
So those are important things to remember,
when you put so much weight on what you do
and what you’re doing in that moment,
to remember the perspective of you know what
this is going to pass and we’ll have a chance again
Lord willing.
And we’ll get to do this again.
But yeah, um, I have been chastised before
about the mindset of, uh,
I’m only as good as my last performance.
You know.
And there’s a magic with that and there’s a
downside to that as well.
Well a lot of our singers that watch the show
they do put a lot of pressure on themselves.
They want to do well, I think any singer
wants to do well.
But sometimes this can lead to performance anxiety
and maybe sometimes stage fright.
Do you have any tips for reducing those nerves
and coming in confidant and strong?
Well the first tip is to be comfortable with your technique.
Know what you can do, know what you can’t do.
And, eventually, try to before you get onstage
know what’s not possible that night.
You know, once you start to get the feeling of
I can feel what’s going on and I can’t do that tonight.
Then you make another call and a set list and
change things.
And that alleviates a lot.
Just being confident in what your abilities are.
Also, um, being confident in who you are as a communicator.
So there’s not this idea of gosh, what if I fumble my words.
You know, you have to come to a place of if I fumble
my words they’d probably like that even better.
You just have to become comfortable enough in your own skin
that if you mess up you realize everybody messes up
and it only makes you human.
And so it’s not so much of beforehand going,
”Okay I’ve got to calm my nerves”
that doesn’t work.
“I’m going to calm my nerves”
well yeah if that worked everybody would do it.
It’s doing the work ahead of time
so that your confidant when you step out
that you know what you can do, what you can’t do.
You’re going to communicate with people
and you kind of have your bases covered on what could happen.
What if the sound goes out?
Well then maybe I’ll sing something a cappella.
So I think a lot of times that’s what stage fright comes from.
Is the insecurity in not knowing what your capabilities
and limitations are.
Fantastic stuff, this as been David on Performance!
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