In a recent conversation with Guitar World magazine, HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale was asked how she manages to maintain her powerful vocals while touring.
“A lot of it is just… I’ve been doing it for such a long time. You end up really being in tune and listening to your own body,” she responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “So every day you’re, like, ‘Okay, how do I feel? What do I need to work out today?’ It used to be, in my twenties, I was doing like a regular, like, okay, I have a 20- to-a-30-minute warm-up in the exact same way. I do it the exact same time every day. And I don’t really do that anymore. It’s more, like, feeling it out every day. So it’s, like, you wake up, it’s, like, ‘Oh, I’ve got a little phlegm here. I’ve gotta make sure I hydrate.’
“But it’s a lot of dumb stuff. It’s a lot of like trying to get enough sleep, which is the hardest thing.’ I waterboard myself every day. It’s seven to — whatever — 10 bottles of water, whatever, before we go on stage. You warm up to some degree, usually lightly and everything, but for the most part, for me now that I’m in my early forties, it’s trusting yourself almost. And so for me it’s the breath control and keeping up with my stamina and all of that. But nothing I do hurts. I always have to reassure people, especially my own family members that come and see the show. They’re, like, ‘I don’t know. You did this scream thing. We’re worried about you.’ I’m, like, ‘It’s okay. It sounds like I’m gargling razor blades, but I’m not.”
“I had an amazing teacher in the very beginning when I was 16 years old, Steve Whiteman from the band KIX, back in the day,” Lzzy continued. “I was 16 and we had a show at this place called The Tourist Inn in Hallam, Pennsylvania. It was just kind of a biker bar. And Steve Whiteman had his side project called FUNNY MONEY there. We ended up opening up for him. And we were sharing this tiny closet of a dressing room. And he was doing these kind of like vocal acrobatics in a towel to kind of muffle it up. And me being the curious teenager, I’m, like, ‘What are you doing?’ And he’s, like, ‘Oh, I’m warming up.’ I was, like, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ At the time I had no idea what I was doing. And so he’s, like, ‘Well, actually, they stuck me in the basement of Marty’s Music Store and I actually teach vocal lessons. If you wanna come down on Tuesday, I’ll show you some stuff.’
“So I went down that Tuesday and then I ended up continuing with him and he taught me everything he knows. And, yeah, I’ve just kind of kept that as my foundation for many years. He’s truly amazing. And what a sweetheart of a dude. He was so incredibly patient with me. And I walked out of my lessons with him a completely different person. I had a confidence, a foundation. I’ve dabbled with other vocal teachers since then, but I really haven’t done anything that has strayed from what he taught me. And I’m really proud of that, actually.”
HALESTORM’s newest album, Everest, was released in August through Atlantic Records.
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