In this lonely day (because my sister is away, and she's always away), I feel like I want to listen to mellow songs. So that's what I do. I occupied my playlist with mellow songs from ONE OK ROCK. It's just because Taka's voice can make the songs become even more mellow than it is actually. He's got some kind of magic in his voice.
That's what I want to write here. About singers.
I've listened to many singers in my life and many of them have brought me into a state where I realized that I had to do "something" (it can be anything). In other words, they've inspired me. They've inspired me in many different ways. Here's my credits for them.
1. Doug Robb of Hoobastank
He is the first singer that I took into account. I know some other singers before him, but I think he's the first notable one. I can say that he's the one that "corrected" my singing. Many people say that I have beautiful voice, but when I listened to him, I realized what a singer needs to sing his/her mind and heart, besides just having beautiful voice. I started to learn from him, since he doesn't only sing in "usual way" but also sing in what people might call "harsh way" (though it's not as harsh as growling, screaming, and pig squealing). After I watched his live concert in Jakarta, I felt like I learned more about being a singer in a rock band. You sure must have good stamina and (what I call) "magnetic charisma of rocking", so that you can make everybody goes crazy with your music, especially your singing. Doug's got both the stamina and charisma.
2. Craig Mabbitt of blessthefall (ex) and Escape the Fate
He's the one that got me into my wildest side. He "taught" me to scream. The time when I listened to him was when I started my first band which is a screamo / post-hardcore band. It was the time when I experienced the "teenage angst". What I like about him is that he still can sing well after he screams, a little bit like Taka but Craig usually screams more and his voice is not as sweet as Taka's. He sure has good stamina too, and good control of his voice.
3. Shou of Alice Nine
Here comes my Japanese era. From Korean boybands, I suddenly started to have interest in Japanese bands. Before Alice Nine, I liked the GazettE first but Ruki doesn't the voice I was looking for. After several months of having Alice Nine's RAINBOWS without being a fan of them, I got bored of GazettE's style which I considered static (it's just a subjective comment, no offense yo!) and started to download Alice Nine's stuffs. Shou, on the other hand, has the voice I was looking for. He can play harsh, sweet, cheerful, sad, and many more. In fact, I really love his voice. This Shou-fanatism lasted long and it made me blind of his weaknesses. Finally, I started to realize his weaknesses after I watched Alice Nine's Tokyo Galaxy several times. He's got too much vibration in his voice and it makes him lose control of his voice, even in recordings. His pitch control is also awful sometimes. I notice that there are some notes that he can't hit correctly. However, in spite of his weaknesses, he has "taught" me to sing Japanese lyrics. I learned how to pronounce the words well in songs so that they sound natural and suit the so-called Japanese notes. That way, I won't sound so much like non-Japanese. It is proven by a comment by my Japanese friend who said that I sang Japanese songs perfectly and that the words are clear. I'm glad to hear that.
4. Taka of ONE OK ROCK
Being a son of Japanese singers (Mori Shinichi and Mori Masako), it's just natural that he's got such beautiful voice. Liking Taka takes me back to my western music era. He reminds me so much of Doug, only that he's got high-pitched voice and scream like Craig. However, his style and the way he sings his songs is more like Doug, and so do ONE OK ROCK's music which resembles Hoobastank's music a bit. Overall, OOR is a perfect hybrid of western and Japanese music. That is why being a fan of OOR allows me to have a kind of nostalgia and remember my western time. Back to Taka, he's got the same stamina and charisma like Doug but, maybe because of his young age, he's more lively and attractive than Doug is. Despite my desire to laugh everytime I see him, I always want to sing, jump, and headbang everytime I see his live show in my laptop. Like Shou, he can also play harsh, sweet, cheerful, sad, and so on. However, he does it better than Shou. He's got vibration but he doesn't use it too much, even in slow songs. The portion is perfect. Besides that, how many times can you find a rock singer who can sing slow songs sweetly like pop singers? He shouts and screams powerfully in hard songs and after that he sings beautifully in slow songs. He can do both perfectly, even in live shows. His live shows, in my opinion, sometimes are better than the recordings. However, sometimes when he moves too much, he can lose control too. He will pant and hit notes incorrectly. My advice to him, measure your moves and your control equally. One more positive point of him is his clear English pronunciation, since Japanese singers' English pronunciation is usually awful (including
Shou). He's the person that I look up for now. I learn so much from him, especially about how to let all my feelings out on stage without any hesitation.
Tha's all. Hope everybody who reads can enjoy this and maybe share opinions with me. Adieu!
P.S.: After I read this once again, I realized that out of four singers here, three of them have Japanese blood. Besides Shou and Taka who are truly Japanese, Doug is actually half-Japanese. Mmmm....
