Quotes About Vocals

#1. Sometimes when you cut your bed tracks right off the bat, you don't really know where the vocal is landing and where the background vocals are, and other loops and stuff that are going on.

Tommy Lee

#2. You want to go in the steam bath to get your vocals sounding well, but you don't want your fingers to get soft.

Brian May

#3. I'm obsessed with choirs, and always have been, because of that sense of overwhelming vocals.

Florence Welch

#4. The soothing vocals of "Ave Maria" serenaded from the small speaker, and Austin looked at me and shrugged in embarrassment. "It makes her smile," was all he said. I lost a piece of my heart to him right then.

Tillie Cole

#5. I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it.

Axl Rose

#6. After so many years of whispery, DIY vocals, there's this new generation of voices that are really starting to burst through the seams.

Zach Condon

#7. I do sing a bit, a solo called 'Rubies,' and the female vocals on 'In Paradisum,' 'The Sound of Silence,' and 'Sapphire Clouds'.

Catherine Asaro

#8. Whenever I'm home, I haven't got any makeup on. But even in the studio, before I do vocals, I put makeup on.

Robert Smith

#9. I grew up singing Mexican music, and that's based on indigenous Mexican rhythms. Mexican music also has an overlay of West African music, based on huapango drums, and it's kind of like a 6/8 time signature, but it really is a very syncopated 6/8. And that's how I attack vocals.

Linda Ronstadt

#10. As a musician, I don't think I'm the greatest guitar player. I'm a bigger fan of the drums than I am the guitar; I just happen to play guitar. I play drums almost every day at my house. I wrote a lot of songs behind the drum kit, just having the music and vocals in my head and playing the rhythm.

Daron Malakian

#11. I really love the EMS Vocoder 2000, which is a pretty nice little box. You put one thing in one end and another in the other end, and you're able to change vocals by the sound and do a lot - it's just got a great sound. But the thing is, it's a bit clunky, so it's kind of hard to use it.

Tim Gane

#12. I pay such close attention of the record making process that most people would assume are very little and wouldn't be that big of a deal; the packaging, the title, and the harmonies, I think, are arguably as important as the lead vocals.

David Nail

#13. Blind Willie Johnson is a pretty big vocal influence. He can be very harsh, like gargly, gruff vocals, but also just slip into some very delicate, vulnerable soft stuff. I like that combination.

Benjamin Booker

#14. There's not a day that I don't work on vocals, have vocal coaches, go to acting classes, read books.

Aaron Carter

#15. I think I'm a vocal genius, not a musical genius. I like background vocals. I consider myself a voice, not a singer. A voice is a sound, and singing is what you do with that sound.

Brian Wilson

#16. I don't think my vocals demand effects. I like reverb to a certain extent, but I don't want to hide my voice. I like stripped-down vocals, but I also like crazy, powerful, doubled vocals like in dance or electronic music.

Victoria Legrand

#17. I still do one song by myself onstage. it gives people the extremely personal thing where it's just me on guitar. But, I think the songs are better as a band. I think with all of the extra little hooks and backing vocals, it just adds to what my initial idea was.

Butterfly Boucher

#18. The vocals are the very last thing I do. So, it's kinda the opposite: with country. it's singing and guitar first, but with rock, I worry about the riff and music, vocals last.

Hank Williams III

#19. When making the first album, I think I wrote a song about every six months. The first album was so much about the vocals carrying it.

Florence Welch

#20. Suffice to say that the TG2, Germ pre and EQ, and TG1 are there anytime I track drums, TG2 for guitars and the LTD-1 is there whenever I do vocals!

Billy Bush

#21. As far as favorite 'overall package' record of all time, I'd have to say 'My Girl' by The Temptations. I like everything about it, not only the composition - but the arrangement, the production, the lead vocals, the background vocals, the horns, the strings. That one I listen to over and over again.

Paul Shaffer

#22. I think one of the things about writing in the studio is that the song hasn't matured, if you like, so quite often the vocals are early attempts. Whereas once you've taken it out on the road a bit, you learn more about a song.

Peter Gabriel

#23. It's fun singing with other people who are really good singers. There's something kind of poignant about braiding a couple vocals.

Eddie Vedder

#24. My vocals are bad, I can't sing, hey man, I wouldn't ask you to do a drum roll if your arm was falling off.

James Hetfield

#25. Yeah, I'm just blessed to have this very strong thing, my vocals. I'm very healthy in that regard.

Bob Seger

#26. Vocals do not make a worshipper.

Temi Peters

#27. Working on my own vocals is something I've been avoiding. But, I'm constantly thinking of ways to be able to include my own vocals without getting embarrassed. Even John Lennon wasn't comfortable on hearing his voice.

Hans-Peter Lindstrom

#28. The first thing people look at with Four Seasons records is the vocals. But for me, the drum fills and rhythms are as much a part of it as anything. They're the base on which the harmonies were built.

Bob Gaudio

#29. I played guitar and bass. I didn't do much vocals, although I did have one band where I was the lead singer. But that was when I was in college.

Oscar Isaac

#30. The dilemma of the eighth-grade dance is that boys and girls use music in different ways. Girls enjoy music they can dance to, music with strong vocals and catchy melodies. Boys, on the other hand, enjoy music they can improve by making up filthy new lyrics.

Rob Sheffield

#31. I was able to apply ukulele to whatever I'm trying to write. It's become part of songwriting for me, the knowledge I gained from hearing the melodies come out, and then applying that to guitar or vocals.

Eddie Vedder

#32. I don't believe that recordings should sound radically better than the artist, I think that's dishonest. For example, I'm not a great singer but if I spent enough time tweaking my vocals, I could sound like one. But I don't, what you hear is pretty much what I sing.

Malcolm Wilson

#33. I've recorded a lot of vocals so far and I think they're kinda still in my own world, but I do have that urge sometimes. You want to push yourself to do other things.

Spencer Krug

#34. The only time it dominates is during a solo, or when we play a low blues and I put figures in behind Eric's vocals. There's never any real problem fitting guitar and organ together.

Alan Price

#35. Nine Inch Nails' sound is dominated by clanging synths and sardonic, shrieking vocals.

Michael Azerrad

#36. When we talk about my music, it's a cross between Tina Turner, Alanis Morrisette, and Diana Ross. It's the glamour and the showiness of Diana Ross; the ferociousness and pain of Tina Turner; and the vocals of Alanis.

Wynter Gordon

#37. Remixes come very quickly, because you already have the melody and the vocals. I have a great passion for music, so it doesn't matter to me if it's a remix or an original production. I don't think about it as, 'Well, I have to spend three hours on a remix or I have to do something all original.'

Tiesto

#38. I'm tired of being around men all the time. I'm going to start a band called Skirt with three girls and I'll play the guitar and sing backing vocals in drag. I went window shopping when I was in New York, saw a lot of amazing dresses.

Brian Molko

#39. It's no longer necessary to slave over the vocals. I don't sing the lyrics until I write them, and singing is the very last thing I do. I record the entire track, and then I worry about lyrics and vocals. The music will suggest where the words are going to a certain extent.

Todd Rundgren

#40. But I would lie on the floor and analyze everything. I'd listen to all the strings and the background vocals on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and try to pick out the different instruments.

Kevin Richardson

#41. I'm making a record that's half stripped down acoustic which is the way I perform a lot and half of it is very produced. It's really hard to keep music simple but I was trying to keep it simple and focus on one or two instruments and vocals.

Lisa Loeb

#42. For any producer I've ever worked with, their toughest job is to convince me to not to obscure my vocals. A lot of people don't like the sound of their own voice on, like, cassette tape or something. It's like that for me, and other songwriters I know. Like, "Oh God, that's what I sound like?"

Ryan Adams

#43. What we look for when we need to find someone who can fit in with our music, the vocals and the harmonies and the way they blend are very important to us because if you listen to Beach Boys music, the harmonies, not only are the notes being sung, but there's a blend to it. The voices have to blend.

Mike Love

#44. It's always amazing seeing the song-writing process. A song just starts off as just an idea or a story you want to tell. It keeps building and building when you add the lyrics, the instruments, the vocals until you finally reach the finished song other people can enjoy.

Manika

#45. No one really listens to the drums, I don't think. They're there, but it's not a conscious thing to listen to. Everyone listens to the vocals, of course, and the words.

Patty Schemel

#46. I can't really sing and play live, because I can't play bass efficiently and sing at the same time. If I concentrated on the vocals, I'd mess up the bass, and if I concentrated on the bass, I'd forget the lines.

Bill Wyman

#47. There's Eddie's conviction and his lyrics and his ideals, and he can just rock straight out. His vocals are incredible. And we all are really competent musicians.

Mike McCready

#48. When you do a remix, obviously you get a beautiful melody, you get the beautiful vocals - everything is already set up. You already have a base, which means all I gotta to do is create the music behind, 'cuz it's already beautiful.

Cedric Gervais

#49. I just like simplicity. I like simple songs, I like simple chords, simple vocals, simple lead guitar. I just like simplicity. That's just the way I like it.

Jeremy Spencer

#50. I went to Juilliard in New York and used to do cabarets just for fun. Occasionally, I would get together with a jazz musician and play at a restaurant for cash. And I've done some background vocals for recording artists.

Nicole Beharie

#51. It's great, because we've had some really great people playing with us who really have studied the record and been able to recreate a lot of what was done. But I would need a choir of eight, probably, to do all of the backup vocals.

Zooey Deschanel

#52. The music that I listen to is very minimalistic. I listen to a lot of old blues that is just guitar and vocals.

Lykke Li

#53. I don't think it's important to be that good at singing. I think people who are good at singing sing backing vocals for pop stars. It's about how you project. I wouldn't consider myself to be a singer.

Robbie Williams

#54. But when I record my next studio album, of course I'll do the lead vocals.

Lita Ford

#55. I live for playing live. All my records are live, since After the Gold Rush, with the exception of Trans and the vocals on Landing on Water.

Neil Young

#56. My son is in a band, and he's a singer, and his vocals ... they're screaming-growling stuff ... and he's got a pretty reasonable voice. Yet he practices really hard to get the screaming-growling thing without losing that voice every five minutes. So I'm, like, 'Hats off to you.'

Bruce Dickinson

#57. There are a lot of people using technology that are playing to a click with backing vocals already stuck in there on some computerized thing that runs along in time to the show so they have these amazing vocals that are only partly the guys on stage producing them at the time.

James Young

#58. I used to put the vocals on top and piece it together. Now I start with the vocals and the string parts I write; the drums are kind of an afterthought. And who knows, maybe that will get boring, but right now that's the most interesting way for me.

Hamilton Leithauser

#59. A lot of the album is made of love songs I've written over the past three or four years that have lasted the test of time. It's probably the thing that connects the songs together other than the sound of my vocals.

Vance Joy

#60. I want to make an album with just great beats and big vocals and just amazing lyrics.

Tessanne Chin

#61. The vocal arrangements are a big part of the formula for a Bad Religion song - layered harmonies and background vocals. So when I start to describe the elements of Bad Religion's sound, it starts to sound like a Christmas choir.

Greg Graffin

#62. When I listen to the radio, I just hear so much music that doesn't even sound like people. The vocals are all tuned, and the drums are all fake.

Dave Grohl

#63. When you've got insane drums and a lot of guitar, it's really hard to mix the vocals, to mix it all well.

Marnie Stern

#64. I feel like vocals are to music what portraits are to painting. They're the humanity. Landscapes are good and fine, but at the end of the day everyone loves the Mona Lisa.

Grimes

#65. To me, dance is so ethereal and elusive, so much of an illusion. After a performance, that's it. With vocals and music, you have good recordings.

Jamie Wyeth

#66. Surf is that music which is entirely about evoking something. There's never any vocals, so it's not about the lyrics, it's about the reverb.

Stephin Merritt

#67. I grew up writing songs in my room on GarageBand, and I would make the beats just out of layering my vocals over and over again. Very Imogen Heap-inspired.

Ariana Grande

#68. Couples swayed and embraced to the beat as the singer's vocals soared above a group of confused teenagers and twenty-something's.

Brian Joyce

#69. If I'm playing with Ozzy it's just a guitar thing. But with the vocals I feel like I'm studying for the SATs.

Zakk Wylde

#70. It was way out in the woods in a beautiful, huge log studio. Keith Richards came in and did the vocals with Levon. Again, a big party, but we did get a good cut out of it.

Scotty Moore

#71. Upwell is one of the most terrifyingly great bands I have ever known out of Seattle. Their musicianship and songwriting is monstrous ... They're heavy like Soundgarden or Zeppelin with killer female vocals, but with their own unique style.

Jack Endino

#72. Background vocals during her song "I Hope You Dance" ... 'Time is a wheel in constant motion always, rolling us along. Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder, where those years have gone.'

Lee Ann Womack

#73. You want to hear vocals? Go sing it.

James Hetfield

#74. I had this weird, nomadic little tent with a rug over it, like a booth where I'd sing the vocals.

Neneh Cherry

#75. The only rumors worth listening to have Stevie Nicks on vocals.

Chris Jericho

#76. Use a condom. Those Reed men breed like rabbits." Then she walks into the booth with the others and we get set up to record some vocals. Rabbits. Little Reeds. I have to say, that's not an entirely bad thought.

Tammy Falkner

#77. Musicians like James Blake were a big influence on me. How he uses his vocals is amazing. And then Yeasayer and Animal Collective, who aren't pop bands exactly, but they do something that is so catchy and undeniable and so much fun.

Lorde

#78. All my vocals were recorded at home, which was great for me. You can actually have a studio in a computer program called ProTools. I did half the record with ProTools.

David Coverdale

#79. The leader's (Jeff Denson's) superb bowing.. showcasing Denson's haunting vocals

Bill Milkowski

#80. Cyndi Lauper's 'Time After Time' was a perfect song. It was so beautiful and so heartfelt. Her vocals were so amazing. And, for me, that was a song I went to when I was feeling sad and wanted to feel even sadder.

Lea Thompson

#81. Sometimes silence become the most excruciating sound; sometimes the mind becomes a musical symphony of clouded thoughts, questions and clarifications but the vocals fail to present the sound of conversation.

Sumrit Shahi

#82. All of my favorite records have vocals high in the mix, even if it's music that wasn't necessarily mainstream.

Dee Dee Ramone

#83. The boarders have changed. My vocals explore different elements and you know it was really important for me to transfer the atmosphere of the songs with my voice.

Heather Nova

#84. I don't think I'm a singer that likes to flex my vocals. I'll do some runs and a bunch of high notes, but that's it. I really pride myself and I really work on just trying to sing. Like emotions. Just using my voice, not doing anything extra.

Shamir

#85. I usually prepare a track and then I work with the artist when it's time to do the vocals.

Kenneth Edmonds

#86. On 'Idol,' I understood that everyone wanted to hear my vocals, so I stuck with the ballads.

Jessica Sanchez

#87. I do the work with friends who are musicians as well. I'm working on a piece of music and I have an idea of who I want on the vocals, but I don't really have a list.

Paul Van Dyk

#88. For a young band about to make a record, make sure you get the vocals right.

Jerry Harrison

#89. I like adding little elements into the final mix. I'm more fond of the '70s glam than '80s. I have that style of vocals ... there are a lot of pop artists who are using the glam vibe in their music. I'm part of that wave.

Adam Lambert

#90. It's a particular skill, I think, doing backing vocals. You're blending the vocals between the gaps, between the music.

Lisa Hannigan

#91. When I did the vocals, I always became so angry and pissed off ...

Gustav Ejstes

#92. In hip hop, it's a lot more about lacing a hot track. I start it, I help mix it, I help write it, I help produce it, I cut the person's vocals. I'm involved from the beginning to the end of a song. I'm not just giving someone a beat, you know?

Benny Blanco

#93. I've always wanted my music to have that desperation, where you just want to strip your clothes off and run down the highway. I want the feeling where you don't really know what to do with yourself - in the vocals, in the production. Everything.

Tove Lo

#94. The original vocals had an awful lot of work put into them at the time, and I wasn't really sure that I could better them - I don't know if I have bettered them.

Kate Bush

#95. We were gradually playing larger venues and in the early days PA systems were kind of non-existent. So to play loud, we had to use louder equipment. The PA systems back then didn't mic the instruments - only the vocals.

John Entwistle

#96. For most of the projects I've worked on, I've been entrusted with some degree of musical responsibility, even if it's just like coaching for vocals and stuff.

J. Robbins

#97. The vocals are what immediately draw people in and sell the song.

Jerry Harrison

#98. His vocals are the stuff of legend - strong, clean, and powerful with a rawness that hooks into your soul and gives it a tug. He sings, and you feel he's doing it just for you, taking your pain, frustration, joy, rage, sorrow, and love and giving it a voice.

Kristen Callihan