Butch, when you play live, I believe
you have a regimen for your voice. Can you describe it?
I suppose we can get this out of the way right
away–Yes, my name is Butch Balich and I DO have LSD…Lead Singers’ Disease. I
am neurotic about my voice and this manifests itself in several ways–some of
which people would notice and some that aren’t that unusual and go
unnoticed.
It begins a few days before. I usually only clock in about 5 hours sleep per
night so I try to increase that and I’ll almost always make sure I’m in bed
early enough or long enough that I get 8 hours minimum the night before a
show. I avoid smoking during the week and day of the show–if I light up its
on the last song and then after. No alcohol, which isn’t a problem as I’m
not a big drinker anyway. I avoid very fatty foods like Pizza, fast food
etc…ditto spicy foods, sugar, soda or caffeinated beverages like iced tea.
Basically I eat very very bland food. I drink lots and lots of water. I also
like to use Slippery Elm lozenges for during the day and I usually drink
some Throat Coat tea leading up to set time, especially if I think I may
have a harder evening.
I speak very little or as little as is possible up until I get on stage.
This is the one that makes me feel like a dick because when we play shows
and folks want to talk I tend to be not very responsive or I avoid people
altogether…which sucks but if I talk too much or too loud I’ll end up
blowing my voice out onstage. So I imagine pre-shows I come off as
standoffish, which I am but only because I take performing…probably too
seriously for my own good.
About an hour-half hour before set time I warm
up to a CD I put together of exercises from former coaches. This is one area
that the lessons definitely helped. There is a definite difference between
me getting on stage “cold” as opposed to warming up with some "la la la la
la la las," etc beforehand. I’ll do these anywhere but prefer somewhere
quiet and secluded so generally I do them in my car as most clubs don’t have
dressing rooms and those that do usually are full of chatting folks. It’s
noisy and in addition I’m really self-conscious about looking silly doing
the scales. I got some very interesting looks whilst on tour with Penance,
as often I had to do the exercises outside or in a hallway near a bathroom,
or in the bathroom.
What other kinds of "maintenance" do you
perform to keep your voice in shape?
Not enough. One of my biggest flaws as a human
being is lack of discipline. I began singing at age 10 or so in elementary
school chorus. I was always in honor chorus and then in junior high I was in
ensemble (smaller version of honor chorus). My chorus director at the time
recommended vocal lessons in order to maximize my potential….. Needless to
say, I never did it then. I have had 4-5 vocal coaches, most of them
classical-based teachers, though I did take lessons from Tim Aymar (Pharaoh)
and he had a lot of knowledge and a massive voice, but I was never
disciplined enough to do the exercises to get better and better and better.
In all cases I ended up realizing I was pissing money out the window and
quit. I did pick up a few things that ended up in my “ritual” on show days
or studio days. I have big regrets to this day that I didn’t push myself.
Anyway–to get back to my initial answer “Not Enough.” I smoke occasionally.
I eat fatty foods. I eat sugary foods. I don’t exercise and I don’t get
enough sleep. I drink too many caffeinated beverages. All of that stuff is
bad not only for a singer in decent health otherwise, but I also have
Esophageal Reflux and all of those behaviors worsen that. Reflux itself has
presented problems for my voice as that acid slamming your vocal folds
causes them to become irritated. And I don’t sing enough. I don’t sing
around the house, in the car…basically just at rehearsal and gigs….which
worked well when rehearsal was close but now I only get out there maybe
twice a month. I also speak in a way that is damaging to my chords–very
concussive. I began speech therapy but again….. you fill in the blank LOL.
So–around times I know gigs are coming or I’m
headed into the studio I try to control those behaviors as best I can. I
also do my best to fight colds with Vitamin C, Airborne, Zinc, etc., as if I
get a cold, I’m fucked.
Uhmmm – I guess you can retitle this question
“What kinds of things do you do to wreck your voice?”
Do you consider yourself a "natural" singer,
one who just sings what comes out, or do you shape your voice, its tone and
timbre, to match the music or your vision for the vocals?
I generally work to the music. My melody lines
are developed based upon the feeling I get from the music. I will try to
sing on the fly at rehearsals but generally I’m not very good at that. I
like to place the notes to fit. Maybe it's part of me being self-conscious
about my voice that I rarely let loose and “jam” with my voice.
Are there things you can't do with your voice
that you wish you could?
It used to be I could sing more smoothly but the years of singing
improperly, smoking, etc., have really whittled that down quite a bit. I
describe it as forgetting how to SING sing. Its something if I worked at
perhaps I could find a comfortable place–kind of like how Eric Wagner has
the lower pitched singing voice he uses on the more mellow Trouble songs.
My range is fairly limited–I would like to be able to reach higher notes
naturally without pushing, screaming, or sounding rough. I’d also like to
get really low (like Peter Steele). I think that would be interesting to use
now and then.
I can’t see myself doing it often but I do wish I could rip the way LG
Petrov of Entombed does–that real masculine, rough without being
unintelligible style. I’d lose my voice within 2 minutes doing that. It
would be a good change of pace thing or just to add color here and there on
the really aggressive stuff.
I do not have a bluesy voice and with cats like
Paul Rodgers and Steve Marriot being favorites of mine, it’s a bummer I
can’t mimic that somewhat.The singer I look up to most is Ronnie James Dio–I
would give my left nut to have ½ that power, melody, and range.
Tonally, where do you think your strengths lie?
My buddy Tommy described me as a “belter” and I
guess that fits the bill. I sing powerfully and I try to use as much melody
as I can. I’m not nearly perfect pitch-wise but I do think I have a good
sense of melody and that the vocal lines I write are good and generally
catchy and hopefully not boring or all same-sounding. My attention to
composing the vocal lines and concentration on delivering them well in a
live setting allows me to mask some of my deficiencies.
I’m definitely stronger when I’m in my mid range, though; I’ll push myself
to go as high as I can sometimes. That can be a crap shoot and a bitch to
replicate live or in the studio… but what fun would it be being in my
comfort zone all the time, plus it would be boring to sing the same 5 notes
always. Sometimes I surprise myself–half the time in a good way, half the
time…not so much. Ha!
When you record vocals, do you double track
everything?
Yes. Always. My base vocal track since
Penance's “Alpha & Omega” is a double-tracked melody. Then I use tripling
and quadrupling if I want any added effect or for countermelodies and
harmony type stuff.
Are you the last person to record his tracks?
Do you edit much to achieve your goals, or do you prefer to get a good,
straight-through performance?
I generally have gone last which allows me to
feed fully off the music while I lay down my tracks. I do as much
editing/punching-in as I need to do to be satisfied that I sound good and
that what I’ve recorded is something I won’t be embarrassed to let others
hear. How I lay down the vocals depends on what the song calls for–sometimes
I sing straight through and punch in the bum notes, muffed lyrics, etc. If a
section of the song is fast or wordy, sometimes I’ll record every other line
and go back and fill in the others on a different track. It really varies.
At the end of the day, I still believe that rock and roll is not meant to be
pristine and perfect so I don’t agonize over every word of every line–I try
to keep it as live as possible but I’m not afraid to punch in. One thing I
won’t do is record one chorus, for example, and pro-tool it over to the
other chorus section. There’s something inorganic about that that bothers
me. At least on punch-ins, yes I’m cleaning things up, but I leave room for
a different inflection or emphasis or maybe I sing it differently on the
spot and it works. I like to do it that way.
I give a lot of credit to any engineer who has
ever worked with me because I’m very very picky and will do as many takes as
I need to achieve what I hear in my head. I can get temperamental–not with
the engineer but with myself. Mike and Kevin know how I was while we did the
Argus demo and Chris Kozlowski knows well how I work. Those are the kind of
guys I need to have in the studio–patient.
What is your goal for the recorded sound of
your vocals?
In key. Powerful. Thick. Clear. Intelligible.
Smooth–I don’t mean having no edge, I mean not sounding forced or strained.
Audible–I don’t want to be buried in the mix but I don’t want to be
over-the-top louder than everyone else.
What effects do you place on your vocals in the
production?
I’m not big fan of an overly dry sound for my
vocals, so I like to use some reverb as a base. From there it just depends
on the song. The double-tracking I do generally creates a bit of effect
without having to push a button. Sometimes that alone with the reverb is
enough. I don’t go crazy too often, but if the song calls for it, I’m fond
of ye olde echo and delay, especially on “spacey” or psychedelic parts of a
song. Pitch shift is fun to play with. I’ll leave the rest to the engineer
and just get involved with volume levels and those specific spots where I
know what effects I want to use.
What do you see as the main differences between
singing live and singing for a record? Do you prefer one more than the
other?
Studio work is a lot more stressful because
this is something that is going to be around for, hopefully, a long time and
bear repeated listens. So I feel much more pressure to be great in the
studio as opposed to live. Yeah, I get stressed and feel pressure to deliver
live as well, but that dissipates as soon as I start singing (at least on a
good night it does). Studio stress is much more prolonged. For big shows,
fests like Doom or Be Doomed, Doom Shall Rise, opening for someone like
Trouble–that is very close to the amount of stress I feel when I record. I
get to be like a basket case really, because those types of shows where the
crowds are big and/or a lot of folks are hearing me for the first time, I
have one chance to impress them or go down as the singer who sucks in a band
that’s great. “What are those guys doing with THAT singer??” It doesn’t get
any easier as I get older because I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The style of singing I do gives me a somewhat limited amount of time in
which to do it. Eventually I’ll be in a position like Ozzy where I’ve
written melodies with notes I can’t hit anymore and that day is really going
to suck when it comes.
Do I prefer one over the other? Good question. I like the result of
recording material but I really prefer getting in front of people. It’s
odd–I am actually very shy and insecure when it comes to singing. I try to
tell people “I sing in a band but am terrified of public speaking and
karaoke.” They look at me like I’m from Mars. But there’s a group mentality
about live performance–I’m in it with those other 4 guys up on the stage.
For 40 minutes I’m living my dream–performing music I’ve helped create for
people to get off on. On a good night (i.e., my voice is strong and I don’t
crack) I feel very powerful and I loosen up quickly and can have more fun
and enjoy a rapport with the crowd. On a bad night I’m much more introverted
and uptight. I view live gigs as fun but I take that fun seriously.
So there you have it. Thanks for this and
hopefully everyone will forgive me if I sounded like a self-absorbed
twat…which I am, but that’s beside the point.
You rock, Butch!
Contribute to Butch's "LSD" by
listening to Argus constantly:
www.myspace.com/theargus
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