The people I admire are Tim Buckley and John Martyn – singers that grew into themselves and were honest. John Martyn is one of the great soul singers because soul is not a genre; it’s a feeling.
But I’m really into old music – bluesy, soulful singers, like Etta James, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin. I wouldn’t have minded being born in the 1960s!
I originally wanted to be an opera singer. I studied classical voice at the University of Washington but soon realised I didn’t have the instrument or the discipline. The road for opera singers is more difficult than for actors.
Novelists get to say plenty in their massive tomes; rock singers only get four-minute songs with two verses and a chorus’ worth of lyrics, and so there’s a real pleasure in accessing the intelligence behind the music, even if it doesn’t qualify as ‘great literature.’
We made history. Two Latin urban singers on the cover of Billboard is incredible. I’m proud of myself, I’m proud of J Balvin, our music, and of all Latinos.
For me, it is incredible to hear singers in the metal scene telling me I had been their inspiration.
I always considered myself being an organizer. I’m very good at teaching singers, I’m very good at staging a show, to entertain people. But I never included myself. I never applied this to me as an artist.
Right from my first film, I’ve introduced several singers and lyricists to the industry.
I think Phil Collins is one of the most underrated musicians, singers, performers – he is absolutely amazing, I think, and I think he’s probably got a bit of a rough ride occasionally because he became so mainstream and so popular.
‘X Factor’ isn’t just about internationally recognized singers, it’s about all the rest of us. There’s a human interest story there.
My mother was a singer, and both of her sisters were singers. There was always music around.
I guess, from the beginning, Thurston and Kim were the dominant singers in the band, and although I was singing in bands previously, I guess I mainly deferred to them a lot in terms of who was singing the bulk of the songs.
I’ve always said that Adele has turned so many people on to British singers – whether female singers or just like music from this country in general.
I think a lot of singers are shy people. I suppose singing on stage is not like talking; you are not as exposed.
I prefer to listen to a lot of male singers rather than females. Sometimes I find it a bit too shrill. I even find my own voice a bit too high.
Singers, like Frank Sinatra and myself, we interpret the songs that we like. Not unlike a Shakespearean actor that goes back to the greatest words ever written, we go back to the greatest songs and bring about my interpretation of them.
When I am seriously composing, sometimes a phrase will come into my head, a catch phrase. When I was writing pop songs for a few years, as a career, separate from my folksinging career, I used to write songs for pop singers.
We have always been like The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac in that we have numerous lead singers.
In Hollywood, for me, it’s all about the movie stars and the singers. Baseball players don’t draw too much attention; we’re low key. I’m good with faces and sometimes bad with names, but I’ll walk up to somebody if I know who they are… show them some love.
Obviously there are a lot of 12-year-olds over in America who are incredible singers.
Like dancers with choreography or actors with scripts, jazz singers could take material that was known, even loved, then risk interpreting and revising it. They could conceal even as they revealed themselves. Inflection, timing and tonality were their language, at least as much as words.
By the time Sonic Youth formed in 1981, my musical tastes had left the Dead behind, but I was always very proud of the fact that we had three different singers singing individually from different points of view, like the Dead.
I think it was just an opera. Now, you go to opera, you expect to see and hear what the opera is. So, it was Catfish Row. It was singers. Marvelous voices. It didn’t make no difference what color they were.
It worries me that young singers think you can shortcut the training and go straight to fame and fortune, and programmes like Pop Idol have encouraged that.
I am fascinated with singers. I find them cooler than actors.
It’s been a joy to be a part of other people’s journey, to be able to inspire and be a part of new singers coming up in this business.
Jazz scares me. I’ve witnessed so many incredible singers and jazz musicians. Pop and soul music have always been the things that I felt like I could do.
After ten years of struggle I reached somewhere, and then I see some people pulling me down. I tell myself that if this is what singers have to go through, I would never let my kid enter this field.
I’ve seen a couple of singer switches happen right before my eyes, one being Roy Khan to Tommy Karevik in Kamelot, and the other was Anette Olzon to Floor Jansen in Nightwish. Those happened with me present, and I saw how well the fans took to these singers because they were presented in the proper way.
With all singers, insecurity is your best security. That’s why we’re such loud people and why we walk all funny. You think, ‘Are people interested?’ But I think our band has something and they know we don’t just put albums out. We do think about it.
I’m the chairman of the board of the Actor’s Fund. It’s an incredible organization. It helps anybody that has made their living in the performing arts and entertainment: actors, singers, dancers, film producers, agents, managers, ticket takers, writers, anybody in times of need or crisis.
This trend used to exist in Bengali playback where singers and composers would have their own hit series. I am thrilled that Bengal is seeing a revival of that trend.
I wish I could sing. I love singers, but I am way too shy. Scares the hell out of me.
Composers, artists, actors, singers – all of them, I think, unconsciously learn from others. I’m sure it’s not conscious, but they can’t help it.
I’ve been blessed because there are a lot of great singers out there that didn’t make it past their first album.
My idols are singers like Billie Holiday and Erykah Badu because there’s no gloss on what they do.
I grew up in a house that was always happy, and my family was always music, music. I started playing percussion very young, because I had some uncles who were musicians and all my aunts were singers.
To have a live choir there on the stage and then these singers from different countries signing with us in real time through Skype, it’s as if there aren’t borders anymore.
The fact is that the learning process goes on, and so long as the voices are not stilled and the singers go on singing some of it gets through.
In the days following 9/11, when we were reeling and disoriented, there was a kind of solace to be found in old recordings, and even pseudo-folk singers like James Taylor seemed to be safeguarding something, drawing back bygone days.
I don’t think I can speak of the achievements of Indian cinema because it’s so large next to me. It’s not stopping. It’s ever-growing. We are going towards the right direction. We are evolving as a filmmaking industry as actors, directors, producers, singers, musicians. Everybody just pushing the boundaries.
Nobody put the camera on the background singers who were singing. It was on Stevie Wonder. It was on Elton John. It was on whoever was the lead singer out front. We were 20 feet from stardom.
I am on Facebook, but it’s mainly for friends and family, so it’s not my real name. But I am on Twitter a lot. I resisted it for so long, but I love it because I get to connect with people I look up to – actors, comedians, and singers.
The voice muscle doesn’t last forever. I have a lot of friends who are classical and opera singers. My friend Beverly Sills stopped singing in her 50s, so I’m careful with mine. But I’ll keep going as long as it lets me.
‘The Voice’ has lots of singers who fit the ‘Idol’ mold of young, innocent ingenues with psycho stage moms. But it also has long-suffering adult pros, with a whiff of thirtysomething despair in their voices. That adds an edge of realness.
There are some singers that know exactly when to go, and others hang on much too long and that is the same, that is the same with judges.
You’re one of the most natural, great singers I’ve heard in a long time.
I love a lot of the ’70s singers: Pam Grier from the ‘Foxy Brown’ movie, Diana Ross, Tina Turner. They’ve always been able to embrace their hair, and they’ve never been afraid to take risks and go all out and make it thick and fun and a statement at the same time.
As for singers, I’m fond of Mohit Chauhan.
Like all soul singers, I grew up singing in church but sometimes I would leave early and sit in the car listening to gospel band, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Hearing their lead singer Clarence made me connect the idea of church and show business and see how I could make a career singing music that stirred the soul.
When I started, my teachers told me that I had to sing ‘Mozart, Mozart, Mozart.’ I said, ‘No, I want to sing all the other stuff.’ If you do not push yourself, you will stay the same. Maybe some singers are happy with that, but I have to move, I have to do something new always.
