hey chris liepe here with the isolated vocals for  julian casablancas the strokes reptilia lots of  

you have been asking for this and commenting very  diligently and politely it's about time i did this  

i'm excited to get into his voice he's got a lot  of texture to his voice his distortion is unique  

yet approachable so i'm excited to get into  these isolated tracks specifically because you  

don't hear the depth of the texture simply by uh  listening to the full track you really don't i've  

heard this song in its entirety in full mix many  many many many times but never noticed some of the  

nice textures of his voice before and the way he  goes in and out of his distortion he modifies his  

tone really really cool so we're going to dive  into all of that if you'd like more help with  

your own voice getting distortion in your voice  you'd like to work with me on a more close level  

click the link below and join my free voice  course or if you've already done that and  

you'd like to go even deeper go to my website  chrisleypay.com and request an invitation  

to my full 12 week journey this way we'll be  able to work face to face if you want i even  

offer private lessons there so let's get into this  he seemed impressed by the way you came in tell us  

a story i know you're not boring i was afraid  that you would not insist you sound so sleepy just  

take this now leave me i said please don't slow  me okay we're transitioning let's talk about  

julian character one here before we get  into the grit really really cool stuff  

he seemed impressed by the way you came in by  the way you came in notice he does not close his  

his words at all at least in this type of  phrasing it came in it came in it's not in

which is how most people when they're singing  in this lazy way they tend to close their  

words sooner and just kind of hum a little bit  he's not doing that yet he has this very lazy  

yet pent-up sound now julian has a way of being  lazy and pent up in a way that's very different  

from other lazy pent-up aggressive singers  like kurt cobain it's very subtly different  

there's less angst behind what he does in this way  that he sings if we're comparing contrasting to  

kurt in particular listen again here though  tell us a story i know you're not boring tell us  

a story the pitch is sharp his pitch is kind of  not all over the place but certainly not precise  

and it's almost like this sort of story he's sort  of speaking it there's definitely pitch there but  

story his voice thins out a little bit so that's  a story you have to get that sort of flippant it's  

a story yeah he's using there's there's a bit  of clean compression going on here but it's not  

brought out by me saying i need to use compression  here it's this like tell us a story tell us a  

i'm story fall asleep like that's kind of the  way that this this vibe works and when we use  

tools at our disposal to to get these sounds we  have to remember that it's more about character  

and less about technique all right listening  on yes you sound so sleepy just take this  

now leave me i said please don't slow  me down only if i'm going too fast okay  

now there's some strangeness to these isolated  tracks my apologies but uh we've got i said please  

let's listen to this a couple times and  let's dissect this type of grit it's so  

cool sounding i said please i said i said okay  that's placed in one area it's a little bit  

lower in the throat and you've heard me talk about  this a lot but we're gonna lift something heavy  

i i i i i i i i i and then we're gonna  play with the placement of that lower

that can get uncomfortable higher

the raspier it gets the higher it's placed in the  throat and if you hear this i said please i said  

i said there's less rasp there but then here  please please i said please i said please you hear  

the difference in what i'm doing i'm practicing  with this very short phrase i'm practicing  

placing my grit in two different places two  different points of engagement i cover this a lot  

more in my courses and help you really workshop  this but start by by taking very small bits  

and experimenting with a different placement  that's how he gets this very deep grit he's not  

thinking about this stuff he's just singing but  we can use these tools and these perspectives to  

put some of the same things in our voices please  don't slow me down only if i'm going too fast

you're in a strange

now that is a third sort of  thing that's happening the please  

is a very controlled pitch is is  central here this is more of like a  

strange it's much more fallen apart listen again  strange there's like almost two tones going on  

this isn't the same thing as strange which is  please it's not that it doesn't sound the same

starts with the fry the fry  gives us gives things away here

you're in a strange

i'm exaggerating that a little  bit yeah they are in a strange

hear how it's more broken up here i'm approaching  my vocal break and i'm letting it fall apart i've  

talked about this kind of thing a lot on  the channel before but it's neat to hear  

all of these different approaches within  a few phrases right please please strange

strange now my mind's more inconsistent  than his but not by much strange strange  

strange strange stray

experiment with your voice if  as long as you're letting your  

voice fall apart or on your vocal break  you're not going to be hurting anything  

but lean into that break and experiment  with the different sounds that come out  

because this sort of like folly a party  sound is going to come back in his singing  

and it's a great way to get more abrasive  while not getting more aggressive listening  

you can really hear sorry to stop  it so soon again you can really  

hear the the breakup right the falling apart  into the more controlled compressed-based

again really exaggerated but part of our  town there it is a bit more dialed in  

here the two different flavors super cool

oh so cool right there again right round  me ran me off the road ran me off the road

there's also a lot of nasality going on here  this is not road this is hard ran me off the road

there's a lot of nasality going on  unapologetically ran me off the road  

the way it is over i'm now taking over you're  no longer laughing i'm not drowning fast enough  

now every time that i look at back to lazy  now but i'd also like to point out that  

how lazy his diction is in the upper  parts or in the more aggressive uh  

abrasive parts we can't really use  aggressive for julian now every time

i thought i told you this world is not for you oh

yeah you sound so angry just calm down  that's not how lazy but ah angsty at this

i mean

the room is on fire oh

not the room is on fire that would be  the butt rock way of doing it right  

we have to let go we have to become completely  ambivalent and desperate the room is on fire

the room is on fire

that's so different than the other way right  the room is on fire there is absolutely not one  

way to distort your voice there's absolutely  not one way to be anx-filled there's so many  

other emotions that are communicated  here and he does this better than most

you sound so angry just calm down you found me i  said please don't slow me down if i'm going too  

fast there again he's back to that more i said  please that more controlled version so he knows  

when to fall apart and when to it controls  the wrong word focused honed in is better

you're in a

you stranger even hear his voice  crack there a little bit but  

part of our sound yeah the nice  night over you're not trying hard

listen to that one big clue there

i i cracked too early ran me off the  road ran me off the road road so cool

now taking over you're no longer laughing i'm  not drowning fast enough oh now you might be  

thinking that it just sounds like he's trashing  his voice there towards the end i don't think  

that's the case it's this it's this sense that  he's abandoning into that cracky uh yodely thing  

but doing it in a very familiar to the way his  voice feels way i can kind of talk like this for  

quite a while and i'm living in that break and  now my voice is cracking here and there but it  

really doesn't take much out of my voice and so  i can just go back to and talk just like normal  

you have to get that coordination before you can  really do that because if you just try to get  

that amount of breakup by just pushing harder and  harder you're going to fry your voice in a matter  

of seconds not minutes you'll know i hope you've  enjoyed this breakdown of the isolated vocals of  

the strokes this was a lot of fun great vibe lots  to unpack in this simple arrangement if you'd like  

more videos like this be sure to request make your  requests in the comments below let me know what  

you thought of this one again if you'd like more  help more personalized help with your voice and me  

as your vocal coach or teacher click that link  below and join my free course talk to you soon