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Rock, Soul and PopIdol with Daniel Zangger Borch
(page 1)
 Gillyanne
Kayes interviews Rock singer and researcher Daniel Zangger Borch on
performing, voice research and his television work.
Worklife
Gillyanne: I wanted to ask you to talk first about you and the
different strands of your worklife. Because you’re a rock musician,
you’re a vocal teacher, you’re also a researcher and you are a tv
star in Sweden. So tell me about that, how did all of that come
about?
Daniel: Well I started out as a singer. I did my CD debut (or LP
debut at that time) when I was 18 so I come from a singing
background, but not from an academic background like a teaching
background. I was living on my music from 18-24. Then I got so many
questions about my singing on tour and on records that I just had to
find answers. I applied to the Royal College, the University of
Music in Stockholm and they didn’t have any answers when I was
attending their courses. So I thought no-one has any answers to my
questions so I have to look them up myself. And that was how I came
in contact with Johan Sundberg for the first time. I wanted to check
out if we rock, pop and soul singers could benefit from the singer’s
formant when we were singing live. That was my first question. And
from that day I’ve been doing a lot of teaching and research, and
singing less and less, but still doing it anyway.
Gillyanne: I wanted to ask you about this myth that rock and pop
singers don’t need technique. Because you know when you read the
magazines and the cultural stuff then in a way almost, to train you
voice is the opposite to pop, and yet clearly you’re running your
own voice centre. You must have a take on that.
Daniel: Yes, well I think that everyone can benefit from a good
technique, but not all need the good the technique to accomplish
what they want to do. That depends on what we mean by technique. Is
it the ability to have a good stamina, or to sing an hour three days
a week. Or is technique something that could strengthen your
interpretation ability. In the interpretation ability, that kind of
technique is always beneficial because you can never be too good at
getting your phrasing or your text to the audience. You can never be
too good to get your audience to feel something. Do you know what I
mean?
Gillyanne: Absolutely.
Daniel: So that is a never-ending job. But if it’s technique that
we’re talking about in the sense of being able to sing and not
damage your voice, then some people don’t need it. Some people just
sing, sing, sing.
Working on PopIdol
Daniel: I have some people right now, they don’t know anything about
anything about voice. They’ve just sung. When I say they’re not in
pitch, they ask me what’s pitch? And they’re in the top ten in this
programme! So they can sing, but they cannot sing correctly from a
technical point of view, but that doesn’t matter, because, so far,
they are able to sing what they want to do in the amount they want
to. So we’ll see about it in the long run. You never know. In the
long run everyone sooner or later comes to the conclusion “I need
something. I need to be more knowledgeable about my voice and my
technique.”
Gillyanne: So you’re talking now about the tv show. Is it sort of
like XFactor, Pop Idol, that sort of thing?
Daniel: It is Pop Idol in Sweden. I think with XFactor the only
place to do it is the UK isn’t it?
Gillyanne: And what’s your experience been? Obviously you’ve talked
about this particular group. What’s it like having to do that every
week.
Daniel: Every week, three days a week. It’s fun because you can see
all the results at once. I meet them Wednesday and we go through the
song for 40 minutes, then I see them Thursday on stage with cameras
and everything, you know, 20 minutes, and then I have choreography
and camera – where the cameras are and stuff like that. And then we
vocalise, we warm up and cool down, and on Friday it’s the same
thing, and then we have a rehearsal, and then it’s live. In Sweden
this is one of the top 5 of the biggest programmes, 1.3million I
think.
Gillyanne: Wow, congratulations!
Daniel: That’s a lot in Sweden, we’re a small country. So the thing
is then you can see the results from Wednesday in a live performance
on tv on Friday and you’re like, how much could they take in of what
I told them? And that’s not a lot!
Gillyanne: No, because they’re under enormous pressure aren’t they,
in this kind of show.
Daniel: Enormous. So maybe 20% of what I’ve said. And I say the same
thing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for 10 times, maybe. And
then when the programme starts, 20% is still as we talked about. And
80% is gone! So my goal with this is (and I told them), in the end
when you’ve done like 15 tv shows, then maybe we can have 80% that
you can remember of what I’ve told you, and 20% that you forget.
Click here to read
page 2 of Daniel's interview
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Giving the student broader knowledge about the structures of the
larynx can be effective on many levels of their training and
understanding. The 'moveable larynx' has long been the starting
point of Vocal Process courses including Singing and the Actor Training.
Download:
build_your_own_
tilting_larynx.pdf
[2-page PDF, 294kb]
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