Former Scientist | Woods Witch Frontman | Certified Voice Teacher

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For the last 10 years I’ve been a scientist. Molecular and Cell Biology to be specific. But as everyone I’ve worked with knows, I’ve also been self-recording hardcore punk and black metal albums the whole time. I first taught myself how to scream and growl and make all kinds of unholy noises by absolutely blasting the stereo in my room at 16 years old and blasting my vocal chords just as hard. This led to my first band, a lot of fun, and losing my voice probably once a week for a good chunk of high school. 

I went off to college, kept experimenting, but that initial technique and set of habits stayed with me for a long time. It wasn’t until about 26 when I decided that I badly wanted to tour and focus more on music that I decided I had to clean up my technique. I started formal lessons. My first teacher decided that it was necessary to start from the beginning- breathing, vowel pronunciation, clean singing from soft to belting, sound color, the inner workings of the larynx and deeper anatomy, vocal effects- a whole world of vocalization. And while this didn’t end up fixing the voices I needed for black metal, it did unlock a whole world of learning that I had always been missing, and gave me more than a year of focus on clean singing that I had always loved, but never honed. 

With my second teacher we focused on the noise I needed. False cord distortions from scratch, high pitched howls, character work to capture the spirit of golem. I stopped pushing so hard, my lows and my highs got healthier, and next thing you know, I’m on a west coast tour performing just fine multiple nights in a row on three hours of sleep after an eight hour drive with my band Woods Witch. Dream fulfilled!

Then, in 2023 I started teaching friends. The smallest adjustments can make such a big difference in singing, and most people, even if they’ve been singing all their lives, never get those crucial basics. Or sometimes you just need someone in the room to tell you good job, keep going. I’ve found now that this one-on-one work is just as fun and maybe even more gratifying than playing live, and I want to make my life about it. 

So now I’m taking that 15+ years of self-taught exploration and formal training, a 50-hour Voice Teacher Training Certification from New York Vocal Coaching (NYVC) as well as a Vocal Distortion Training Certification from the same, and moving from the lab to the studio. Beginner or advanced, singing for the first time or perfecting your sound, clean or extreme, send me a message, book a lesson, and let’s figure out how to get you the sound you want. 

 

-Stuart

​Photo Credit: Chad Kelco