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The Power Of The Voice | |
Claire HamillArticle from Music Technology, September 1988 |
After releasing an album consisting entirely of human vocal samples, Claire Hamill reintroduces the synthesiser to her music. David Bradwell listens to the singer's tale.
For her album, Voices, Claire Hamill abandoned conventional instrumentation in favour of layers of samples of the human voice.
"For the Voices album, I sampled my voice as a kind of choral wash on some of the tracks, and sang chords over the top of that."
"I was frightened doing Voices," Hamill recalls. "I thought people might think it self indulgent. It was very frustrating for me - I kept pleading with Nick to let me use a synthesiser. But he would say 'Absolutely not! I'm not selling this album with anything on it but voices. It has to be a statement.' It worked out best in the end.
I sampled my voice as a kind of choral wash on some of the tracks, and mainly sang chords over the top of that. I'm very much an instinctive singer, and I don't take directions very well, to be honest, so it was a good situation for me not to have to talk to people and sit in the background while other people played their parts. I used to work out three part vocal patterns to a DX7 piano sound and a drum click, building up from there, and adding effects and acoustic rhythm parts as a finishing touch. I tracked all of the voices four times, apart from the high lead voice which was just a solo. Voices was very hard work, but eight weeks and it was finished. To me it was heaven."
The album came shortly after the birth of Tara, Hamill's first child, and it needed a very disciplined approach to focus attention away from the delights of motherhood. Having a child changed Hamill's musical perceptions, as did the move away from South London to the East Sussex countryside.
"My era is going to be when I can use my voice and transform it into a cello or violin or flute rather than play it from a keyboard."
Her ideal age of technology may not be quite upon us yet, but, as she explains, it hopefully isn't far away.
"I do find technology incredibly frustrating sometimes, because it's not as quick as I would like it to be. What I'm writing are compositions for the voice and synthesiser, and my era is going to be when everything is voice activated. What I really want is to get something where I can use my voice and transform it into a cello or violin or flute, for example, rather than play it from a keyboard. If I could get my hands on a vocoder I would certainly use it, but I still really have to come to terms with my studio."
As for more conventional keyboards, Hamill would like to get her hands on a Fairlight Series III.
"I don't know anybody who's got one, but that was designed for me", she explains. "Its sampling quality is brilliant, and if I could afford one I'd have it now. Meanwhile, I like the D50 because it has some sounds which sound fairly close to a vocal, and it's got a sparkle which gives a magical quality."
For her most recent tour Hamill was joined by three other women who all play keyboards and sing. I wondered how well she felt her music translates to a live performance.
"It all had to be broken down into small sections so it could be played in a live situation", she explains. "Obviously it doesn't sound as good as in the studio, but it has a different life and a different meaning. I was charmed by the live thing when I first started the tour, then I went through a phase of not being happy, thinking it wasn't good enough. Eventually I realised this is real, this is life, this is the four of us, and it has to have a meaning because of that. I know that sounds like a really arty attitude, but it has to have a meaning for me to do it."
Being so closely connected with Coda Records, you would be forgiven for assuming Hamill is totally seduced by the idea of new age music. But mention of the issue elicits a surprising response.
"When I did the album it was purely a musical adventure, but now I see it as another piece in the jigsaw of my life and the way I feel about the world. Punk was very alien to me because I just didn't believe the world was horrible and you had to tear everything down. But new age is a problem for the radio stations and the public, because they don't want to be aligned with something which is being set up as some kind of snotty elitist thing, which, believe me, I don't want any part of. To me, all music is music - we're all different and everybody should be appreciated on their own merits. There is this kind of yuppie thing attached to new age which I find totally abhorrent. The whole yuppie ideal is based on materialism which I just can't identify with."
Finally, for those of you who fancy yourself as singers but discover that some days your voice is even more co-operative than others, I quote from Hamill's Tips For Better Vocals.
"It's very important this, you must never shout. No loud gigs, and never go to see your favourite band just before you have a performance. Don't smoke - smoking is a killer, and it's terrible for your voice. Drinking alcohol plumps up your vocal chords and they then rub together, so don't do that either. If you're in a smoky atmosphere, which would generally be the case if you were out drinking, it's especially bad. Try to keep the atmosphere humid and do some practice every day to keep limbered up. Try and push your voice a little bit every day, but make sure it's warmed up first. If your voice is going I recommend Fisherman's Friends or gargling with aspirin which will take some of the sting out. If you've got a sore throat, go to the doctor, especially if you've got an important gig coming up, because it may be an infection. But basically, don't smoke, don't drink, and don't shout. You can screw all night, but you mustn't shout while you're doing it!"
The Producers (Tom Newman) |
Interview by David Bradwell
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