Ep 11 FB Live interview with Babatunde Akinboboye

Mike Elson: 00:09 … The best voice teachers. Today we actually have someone special on the show. So we’ll just go around and do some brief introductions. Hi I’m Mike Elson, founder of voicelessons.com. With me, I’ll introduce our special guest first. So we’ve got Babatunde Akinboboye with us, who I guess you could say is the artist working on hip-hopera, right? Hip-hop opera. Okay, so welcome, Babatunde.

Babatunde: 00:39 Thank you. [crosstalk 00:00:41]

Mike Elson: 00:40 Thank you for joining us. And also we have Matt Edwards. Matt has been on the show a number of times now and helping us answer a lot of these questions that have come in. So today’s show we just thought we’d switch it up a little bit. We actually have been reaching out, talking to various people that are on the internet doing some cool things. And we happened to come across this YouTube video of Babatunde. And it was just like, when I first watched it I was like, “That is really cool!” So if you don’t know what I’m talking about I’m just going to drop in the video link here to the chat so if you haven’t watched it, take a minute to [inaudible 00:01:19]

Mike Elson: 01:19 Right, just so you can see who we’re talking to and understand a little bit more context. Just watch that briefly there for a second. But it’s a really cool … it’s a very popular beat. Obviously, for reasons you all know, I can’t just play music on the show without having the right license type, so YouTube’s got to handle it for us if you just click on that YouTube link and you’ll actually hear a famous song that you should know, or maybe don’t know, but it’s been on the radio. In fact, we were just talking about it. So I’m going to stop rambling. First, you know, Babatunde, welcome to the show and …

Babatunde: 01:58 Thank you.

Mike Elson: 01:59 Yeah, will you explain to us just briefly, we’ll just start right there. How did this come to be?

Babatunde: 02:07 It’s … that’s a good question. The short answer is that I’ve always loved hip hop. I came to opera really late in the game for … compared to most opera singers. I was, I believe I was, I think I was like twenty the first time I had a voice lesson for singing opera. And the first time I saw my first opera, I think I was twenty-two or something. So I came to it really late in the game. But before that all my life up to that point had been just listening to hip hop. I was a big hip-hop fan. Not even like hip-hop and R & B. Just hip-hip. And so when I started … when I got exposed to classical music and started studying opera, I think part of me still processed it through hip-hop because that’s always been my first musical language, if you will. And so, I saw a lot of the relationships, they just were there.

Babatunde: 03:02 And so, often a lot of times in my car I’m singing, you know, I’m rehearsing stuff from a show I’m doing but I’m usually listening to hip-hop stuff and I would just end up singing it over the beat. And it seemed very normal to me. And then sometimes some beats worked more … work easily with … worked better with some other songs than others and that was more fun and I’d do it over again and clean it up. But then one day I was listening to the Kendrick Lamar song for my YouTube video and I was like … I was singing the Largo al Factotum from Barber of Seville, and a few times … and a number of things stuck out to me both with the translations and the language from both songs and the juxtaposition. But obviously, how closely related they seemed. At least to me.

Babatunde: 03:45 And I was like, “Oh,” and I kept playing with it and I was doing a drive at that moment from San Jose to LA, which is home for me. And a lot of that drive I just kept singing songs over things and then I was like I should probably record this at some point and put it up.

Babatunde: 03:59 And so after a while, months, honestly, months went by, one day I was driving around and I was like, “You know screw it.” You know, I had my phone up there for my GPS and I just turned it sideways and put on the Kendrick Lamar thing and then I recorded it and I was like … And I did a full recording and I was like, “Hey, this is actually dope,” or whatever. And then I was like, “You know, I’ll put it up for my friends. You know, see if maybe they’ll like it.” Because I do funny videos sometimes. You know, for my friends. And then, you know, they liked it a bunch, left comments. I was like, “Wait!” I went to sleep and when I woke up next morning and I was completely blown away by how far it’s been shared, how many people shared it, the comments, the friend requests, the messages in my inbox and I was… emails from Time wanting to interview me. And some other TV shows and I was just like, “Okay. All right, this is something. I guess other people like this more than I do.”

Babatunde: 04:48 I mean I love it. I’ve been doing it by myself for years but it was fun to see other people think it was cool too. I’d always kind of kept that to myself. Mostly because I came from like a hip … I don’t want to say a hip-hop background because, you know, it’s not my lifestyle. I just really like the music. But I’ve always been a little ashamed of that in the opera world because, you know, I thought of opera the way most people think of that from the outside. It’s very, you know, stuffy, and… [crosstalk 00:05:16]

Babatunde: 05:15 Yeah, that’s the short … I tend to ramble. Sorry about that but, yeah. That’s the answer.

Mike Elson: 05:20 No, I mean that’s great. I love to hear that it’s part of your practice regimen is to, you know, practice your music with these different beats. So that’s really cool. I think, you know, we’ll just lead into the next question. Kind of on the same vein, then is, so then how did you get into opera, right? So you mentioned in your twenties there. So what was that journey like?

Babatunde: 05:45 Okay. That’s a fun story. I think the best place to start would be high school. So no one in my family really sings. No one plays any … I’m not from a very musical family in that way. But, when I got into high school … A little back story about me. I grew up in Nigeria, but I’ve been living in southern California since I was thirteen. And so when I was sixteen, in high school, one of my friends said, “Hey. You should sign up for this class.” And I was like, “What’s men’s ensemble?” And it’s like, “It doesn’t matter, dude. It’s an easy A and Gerald’s in it, J.V.’s in it, John’s in it.” I was like, “Okay cool, I’ll sign up.” All my friends were in it.

Babatunde: 06:24 So I signed up. I showed up the first day and I realized it was a singing class and I freaked out but I wasn’t going to take off running because Gerald’s in it, JV’s in it, all my guy friends are in it so I was like, “Okay, just play it cool.” It’s an all men’s choir and I started singing and I was hooked. I fell in love with it. Getting to see the music taken apart for the first time. We had this little exercise where he’s like, “Okay …” Because most of the guys in there at that time were completely brand new to singing in any classical sense, or any structure. Since, you know, we all sang … no previous choir experience. So –

Mike Elson: 06:58 Sure.

Babatunde: 07:00 – he was like, “We’re going to experience … experiment with harmony. Now, some of you are familiar with what harmony is.” And I was like, “I’ve heard the word before.” I didn’t register harmony. For instance, I knew that Boyz II Men had four guys and I didn’t know why. All I heard was melody. I was never introduced to music in that way. And so it fit in all … songs on the radio, everything. I just heard melody. Never realized that other things are going on at the same part. So at this time, the choir director, he says, “Okay, so you guys are the basses. You guys sing (singing) la. And you guys are the baritones. You guys sing (singing) la. And you guys are the tenors. You guys (singing) la.” Or whatever a triad is. I can’t think right now.

Babatunde: 07:34 But he said, “We’re going to try that. Okay, ready guys?” And everyone tried it at the same time. And I did it, and getting to watch the sausage made, I think was … It was like suddenly seeing the world in color. And I was … I could finally hear harmony in, like, you know, theme songs for TV shows and things on the radio. I was like, “It’s everywhere!” And obviously I played it cool, but that’s the experience I had. Blew my mind. I was hooked.

Babatunde: 07:56 And so I decided I wanted to sing in choir for a living. And I asked my choir director if that was possible. He said, “Yeah, there’s some professional choirs …” and, you know, especially in Los Angeles and so on. So I was like, “Okay.”

Babatunde: 08:06 So after that I went to the … there was a junior college nearby, Mt. San Antonio College, that had a great choral department. And I was like, “Okay, I’m going to audition and get in there and get into the choir department.” And I did. And when I got into the top level choir there, we’d get free voice lessons. So I was taking voice lessons because I wanted to be better at choir. And then one day my voice teacher’s like, “Have you ever considered doing opera?” I was like, “No, I don’t want to do opera! Like, opera’s boring, it’s loud, they don’t … No. I don’t … No.” And he was like, “No, try it. Try it. Let’s try a few vocal exercises and just see what you think.” Or whatever.

Babatunde: 08:36 And so, you know, we’re going through … we’re trying … a regular voice lesson. Trying different technical things, and (singing) changed to (singing). And I was like … and I remember standing perfectly still saying, like, “How did I do that?” And not wanting to move so I don’t ruin it. And I was like, “Tell me how to do that again.” You know, and a half hour voice lesson turned into an hour and he had a lot of fun and I was, like, excited for the next voice lesson because it felt like having a superpower. That’s the experience. Like finding out all along, like, “Oh my gosh! I can do the opera thing!”

Babatunde:09:06 So I was hooked. And so after a few voice lessons I was like, “Can …” He was like, “I think you should pursue a career in opera.” I was like, “I don’t know. I’m not, like … You know, I’m not like what typical opera singers look like,” and so on. And he’s like, “No, trust me.” And we went back and forth and he said, “Everyone that I’ve told to pursue a career in opera that has actually pursued it has been successful.” And I said, “All right. That’s good enough for me. I’ll try it out.”

Babatunde: 09:34 And so I started taking voice lessons, more for opera. He told me there was a little competition nearby. I should audition for it. And he said that the flyer’s on someone’s door. So I looked at the flyer and I was like, “Okay.” And I went back to him, I was like, “I need to learn an area. What’s an area?” And he was like, “Okay, that word’s pronounced aria and we’re going to get you one.” And that was kind of my beginning.

Babatunde: 09:55 And so I did that competition and I won, which was great. And then I auditioned to go to Cal State Northridge. Got my degree there and I just kept singing, and here I am.

Mike Elson: 10:07 That’s awesome![inaudible 00:10:08] … the points I heard. So all you students looking for easy A’s, join choir. Okay, just be in the male ensemble. Choir directors, you can thank me later, all right? I’m just getting you more students. So easy A’s if you just go sing.

Mike Elson: 10:23 The second cool thing I liked is how you said, you know, just making the sausage. So just experiencing everyone’s voices together, right? We had this one song in high school, I remember, called One Voice, right, where the choir would sing but … It’s a unique experience when you get to sing in an ensemble and hear the different parts come together. Right, as you will, and understand and learn that, even for the non-musicians out there that are just curious or wanting to learn more about singing and maybe you haven’t even had a voice lesson yet. So that’s a fun experience that I would totally highly suggest if you are still in public school, or any schooling for that matter, you can get into singing. Definitely go check it out. Do what you can for that.

Mike Elson: 11:03 So I think, then, that your experience, then, about the superpower. That’s really cool. Right? I think realizing that and then developing that into where you’ve taken it now … I really like that. I mean, that should touch a lot of people out there. Because you don’t really know until you start to sing, what you can do with your voice, right? And that’s really sometimes where you need a voice coach that can help you explore. Like you said, try these different exercises and explore the different positions and the different ways you can change the resonance or the registration. So super super cool answer.

Matt: 11:38 [crosstalk 00:11:38] I’m not sure –

Mike Elson: 11:39 Matt, do you have anything?

Matt: 11:41 Yeah. I was just going to say, I’m not sure everybody who’s watching understands what kind of degrees are available. So can you kind of, like, talk a little bit about, like, what … what is a degree if you want to be an opera singer. Like, what kind of stuff would you study? What was your days like?

Babatunde: 11:53 Okay, so … and this is … Well, I’m glad you brought that up, because … because of my experience in opera in getting to this point and what I’ve seen, I’m hesitant to suggest that there is only one way to get there. That being said, if there’s younger singers that think, like, or are considering a career in opera, I strongly recommend going to get your degrees in opera. Going and getting a bachelor’s and master’s. It’ll … I think it … Well, okay.

Babatunde: 12:23 So I got my bachelor’s in music. My B.M. from Cal State Northridge and the next option which most opera singers have, in my experience, most working opera singers, is a master’s in music. I don’t have a master’s in music, just because at the time I just couldn’t afford one. But the money I had, what I did at that time was I invested it in getting regular voice lessons and coachings. For me, because I felt like that was something else I really wanted. And it worked out for me. Some people have taken a different path, but … So and then after that, a lot of my friends had gone ahead and gotten their doctorate in music. Their D.M.

Babatunde: 13:05 But one thing I talk to my friends a lot who are not musicians or not singers in that sense, they want to know do you have to get a degree in opera. Or, like, why do you have to get a degree. Can’t you just take voice lessons and, like, coachings regularly and so on? And what I say is that there’s so much to learn in opera that has nothing to do with singing, that I always … With some things, like if you want to be a carpenter, I don’t know if you have to go to school to do that. I think you could be a master by studying with someone else and that alone. But with this I feel like a university is the most efficient way to get all that information, all the information you’ll need, in that period of time.

Babatunde: 13:46 And also working in the industry, kind of when you show up you sing with a certain level of ability. It’s kind of expected that you know certain things. So, it’s like, “Oh. He sings this well, so you know when I tell you to sing that like it was Puccini and not Mozart, I don’t need to spend the time to educate you on that. You’ve gone to college. You know what that means.” And so on and so forth. So that’s been my experience, but, yeah. Does that answer your question? I think I kind of … My mind just kind of goes.

Matt: 14:15 [crosstalk 00:14:15] Yeah yeah. I think it’s cool that, like, you said it, like, you were able to pursue things on your own post-bachelor’s degree instead of just having to go into academia.

Babatunde: 14:22 Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.

Matt: 14:23 What you just said is that there’s not just one way to get into this. There’s lots of pathways and I … It’s kind of like finding what’s authentic to you.

Babatunde: 14:32 Yeah. Yeah, I really believe that it’s important to just kind of like follow your own path … That sounds so woowoo, but pay attention to, like … You know when you’re doing the things you should be doing. Or when things feel like, “No, this is … I’m forcing something that shouldn’t be right.” I think it’s important to listen to that and follow your path, as woowoo as that sounds. It’s the only way I know how to say it.

Mike Elson: 14:55 Yeah. I mean, that’s completely true. So everyone has their own path and just knowing, feeling comfortable that you’re on that right path. Sometimes you don’t know, you need to get guidance, right? And schools can help be a place where you can … if you don’t know, right, they’re also, like you were saying, they’re great places to figure that out, but they’re also great places to get background.

Babatunde: 15:18 Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Mike Elson: 15:19 And I think, absolutely true. I know I learned a lot even in my years in undergrad, so … And then, Matt, you’ve got, you know, degrees … more degrees than we both have combined, so …

Matt: 15:34 Accidentally. [inaudible 00:15:34]

Mike Elson: 15:34 [crosstalk 00:15:34] Accidentally, he says. He’s the accidental …

Babatunde: 15:37 [crosstalk 00:15:37] Yeah, I’ve accidentally gotten a degree before.

Matt: 15:39 I paid a portion for my undergrad and got the others for free. So, there you go.

Mike Elson: 15:46 You definitely passed, right? So some people don’t accidentally get their doctorate and that’s their main goal. So our point here, as we move on to the next question, there’s a lot of different ways. So I love that you had that unique path and I think my next question kind of moves into … As we go back to the video and, you know, your creation here, and I mentioned here earlier. You know, it’s just super cool that we found this, right, and then you’ve kind of become this YouTube star, if you will, where you’ve got almost a million hits on this video. So are there … people are wondering, I’m wondering myself too. Are there other videos you’re working on? Are there other things that are coming? And what can you share with us?

Babatunde: 16:30 There are … So now that I know that other people like it, yes, there’s a lot. There’s a lot coming. I have grand, grand plans. There are more videos coming. They’ll be of different quality than things I’ve done previously. Some things I don’t want to say yet. Obviously for a number of reasons, but there are things I can say that you might … could expect in the future.

Babatunde: 16:57 As everyone knows, or as a lot of people know, that have been following me, I am almost done working on an EP. Small, three tracks professionally recorded in the studio. I’m working with a great producer. And it’s really fun as an opera singer, getting to work in a studio. Because opera singers, we kind of get one take in front of all the people that are going to hear it. We don’t do a lot of recording very often. I mean, more so now than before. So getting to do a full three tracks and then getting to do a take and start from the middle, it’s just paradise. So I’m working on that. I’m working on that EP and it should be … I don’t want to give a date, but sometime towards the end of this month. We’re in May now. Or early next month. I want to say towards the end of this month, you should expect the ETA. There. I said it out loud. Now I just have to [inaudible 00:17:47]

Mike Elson: 17:47 [inaudible 00:17:47] Wait, you’re not going to be driving with one hand on the wheel on this one.

Babatunde: 17:52 No. I’m trying to step … honestly, I’m trying to step away from the car videos because some other people have done some other videos similar to the hip-hopera style, and it’s really exciting. No one’s done it in a car, but I don’t want that to become a thing.

Mike Elson: 18:07 Sure.

Babatunde: 18:07 Just because, yeah. Just something, the adrenaline and performance gets … we get lost and we’re no longer … we’re now performing and we’re not driving, and I’m trying to step away from that. But, so, there will be videos coming up that will be different than the ones in the car. I think I might be done with that. There’s one more I kind of want to do, but we’ll see. And besides that I have some very big things in the works as well. I don’t want to say too much about that as well, but the other thing is some collaboration, some very exciting collaborations, that are not set in stone yet and I cannot say any names until …

Mike Elson: 18:50 I’m going to ask you [inaudible 00:18:50] and so I don’t know if this is going to be useful. But like, who are your favorite hip-hop artists, right, and would there be one or two maybe out there you’re not talking to, or maybe you are, but [inaudible 00:19:03]

Babatunde: 19:03 Okay. I will say this. I have always listened to and I listen to a lot of hip-hop. Some of my … well, I don’t have a favorite hip-hop artist. That’s really tricky for me to answer. I can say I have some favorites and some that I listen to more now. Obviously I listen to a lot of Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, 21 Savage, Lil Wayne, The Baby. Yeah, I think that without naming everyone on my playlist, yeah. And some of my favorite artists of all time, I would say somewhere … actually, of the artist’s I’ve mentioned … actually, no. Nevermind. I can’t do that. But yes. I have some favorite hip-hop artists.

Mike Elson: 19:55 Okay, cool. So you’ve got your playlist at least, right?

Matt: 20:03 I mean, you have all these, you know, video projects in the works and whatnot. Are you still planning on performing opera as operatically?

Babatunde: 20:10 Yeah. I still have my opera career. I’m still doing operas. And I don’t know that I’ll stop, just because it’s so much fun. Because once I got into it, after I learned about the superpower, and I got to experience opera and the grandeur of it, you know, the costumes, the orchestra, the boas, the divas, the glitz, the glamor of it, the standing ovations. It’s just like, you can’t … it’s hard to step away from, like, the live audience in that sense. But I don’t know. I’ll see, like I said, I’m following my path. I feel like something’s happening with this and I’m just going to keep doing the things I feel like I’m supposed to be doing until … until life changes. But yeah, I’m still … I don’t know that I’ll ever stop performing operas. I love them.

Mike Elson: 20:56 Sure. That’s fantastic. [inaudible 00:20:59]

Mike Elson: 21:00 What advice do you have … Sorry, Matt, were you saying …?

Matt: 21:05 Oh, I was just saying, I think one of the thing’s that’s interesting for our listeners, if you don’t know this … I’m surprised by how many people don’t realize that opera singers don’t have microphones.

Babatunde: 21:14 Oh, yeah. That’s a fascinating thing. Because every now and then I’ll have a thing where I’ll have to ask for an opera singer and I’ll show and and they’re, “Okay, here’s your mic.” I’m just like, “Thanks, but I really don’t know what to do with that.” I’ve never really worked with a microphone before. I mean, in some cases, but generally speaking, no, we don’t use mics. We’re … it’s a really … For those who don’t know, and I wasn’t sure if you were going to … Well, opera’s a very very old style of singing. It’s older than the microphone. And so even when the microphone came around, it was just like, “No, we’re good. We don’t need that, but thanks. That’s really cool. You can have it if you want, but we’re good.” So we still sing that way.

Matt: 21:50 [inaudible 00:21:50] … incredible is to go sit in a 3000 seat house and hear somebody fill it up with just their voice. That’s … that is a superpower.

Babatunde: 21:58 Yeah. Yeah. And it was really really exciting for me, some of the nuances of it, like doing the opera whisper onstage, where I’m singing softly to this person so that person five feet away from me can’t hear, but the person in the cheap seats against the back wall can hear exactly what I’m whispering. That kind of nuance with that voice magic. Yeah. I love it.

Mike Elson: 22:22 So the next question that I have is, you know, what advice do you have for aspiring opera singers or any, could be any singer. Musical theater singer, someone on a commercial radio, you know, any of our audiences listening. I guess what advice would you want to share?

Babatunde: 22:49 I think one of the most important things that … because deciding to become a singer is a very … it’s not an easy path. For anyone, even those who have had, like, accidental success, it’s just not an easy path. For a number of reasons, meaning, like, the competition, yeah. There’s that. But also our instrument is our body and I think one thing that isn’t mentioned enough is, that goes both ways. So how we’re feeling affects … what’s going on with our life and our emotion affects our voice, and also singing for a living affects you. It goes both ways.

Babatunde: 23:26 So for some people, when you go and you sing, especially in opera, we’re baring our souls. We’re pulling from real experiences to give you real emotions and we finish and then someone on my audition table says, “Okay, thanks. We’ll call you.” You know, it doesn’t feel like, “Oh, they didn’t really like my singing.” It’s like, “They didn’t like me.”

Babatunde: 23:44 So in order to keep doing what it takes to be a singer, I’d say with any singer, the most important thing is you have to love it. You have to absolutely love it. The way … and I don’t want to … I don’t have any children, so I don’t want to make this … but I think of the way parents love their kids, where their kids do something that’s horrible. And they’re so frustrated. It’s the most difficult day of their life. But they still love the kid.

Babatunde: 24:10 So opera, or singing in general, is going to give you some really difficult days. And if you don’t love it, then you’re going to be done. You’re going to be trying to find someone to give that kid to. So that’s my … So know that you love it, like love it love it. And then keep loving it. And sometimes you’re going to have to go visit, or go revisit, what made you fall in love with it in the first place. Because honestly, when you’re working on some things that are difficult and going over and over and singing until I can’t stand it, I forget sometimes. Like, “Why do I do this?” And then I have an experience. I go back and I remember. Listen to some of the old recordings and I was just like, “Oh yeah. That’s right. Okay. I’m back.”

Mike Elson: 24:53 I’m so [inaudible 00:24:54] answered the question. Like, just, not to be cliché or anything, but that’s, like, the best answer you could have said for me, you know, for my art too. Because I honestly feel the same way. I wouldn’t be here doing this show and, you know, lucky to have guys like Matt and you on this show, and our platform that we’re building with voicelessons.com if I didn’t love it. Right? So I think you’ve got to feel the same way about singing to really pursue it as an art. You know, I just … my hat’s off to you on that one.

Mike Elson: 25:29 Matt, do you have anything you want to add?

Matt: 25:32 No, I agree. It’s like raising kids. [inaudible 00:25:35]

Babatunde: 25:35 [crosstalk 00:25:35] Okay, cool. I guess I’m right.

Mike Elson: 25:39 Don’t worry, there’s a score card at the end. We’ll send it to you.

Mike Elson: 25:45 So I guess this one … I don’t know … it’s not really a duplicate, but do you have any hip-hopera, hip-opera, or hip-hop opera vocaleses or warm-ups? Like is there a particular track or, like, something that’s like, “That’s my go-to. I just put that on.” And whether it’s a track or a playlist, or it’s just a certain, I don’t know, lip trill or scale, I mean it’s like, “That’s what I do to get in the zone.”

Babatunde: 26:09 I live in LA and everyone in LA drives constantly, so most of my singing happens behind the wheel. And so that’s where I do a lot of my vocalizing, a lot of my warming up, because especially if I’m local and I’m having a rehearsal, sometimes it could be an hour away. And that’s, you know, that’s plenty of time to get a decent warm-up. And honestly, because I don’t want to sacrifice the time that I could be spending listening to my music warming up, I usually listen to my music while I’m warming up. And my music is almost always hip-hop. Unless I’m working on a show … and that’s not true, I listen to a lot of opera as well. I’m realizing, like, pulling up to people next and getting the looks, like, okay. I listen to a lot of opera as well. But I’m often on my way to rehearsals, I think because I’m going to be, like, immersed in an opera environment, I listen to a lot of hip-hop going there.

Babatunde: 27:02 But I’m vocalizing. I’m doing my opera warm-ups over the hip-hop beat and it’s just something I do for fun. It’s not to, like test a skill. It’s just the way it ends up happening. So I’ll do a beat and, like … or if I’m doing a warm-up, or like a vocal exercise like a lip trill or … And I don’t do anything special. It’s just, you know, standard operatic warm-ups like, you know, singing arpeggios and stuff like that. But I usually line it up to the beat. And if the beat … sometimes I’ll be vocalizing, I’m like in a warmer space, I want to move, I change the song to something faster. I’m like, “Okay, cool.” Or I switch the warm-up to play along with the beat and that’s what it is.

Babatunde: 27:44 But I have a few favorite warm-ups I do, but it’s nothing really special. Wait, do you want me to, like, share … [inaudible 00:27:56] Well, like the first thing I do to get my voice just starting to wake up is just these little (singing). I just do that over and over again, but there’s some hip-hop song going in my head. It’s like (singing). Because it also kind of helps me take my mind off of some things I’m doing technically, and I can just focus on just doing the work. Because warming up is one of the tediums of opera that I cannot stand. It takes so long sometimes, but I have to do it. So if my mind can be elsewhere while this is doing its own thing, and that’s usually how that goes for me.

Mike Elson: 28:48 [inaudible 00:28:48] And so then I guess one of the last questions I have is, what’s your, you know, kind of like, what’s your game day routine, right? What’s your pre-performance routine like? As you’re gearing up to go onstage. You mentioned that you love the process of performing in opera and stuff like that. So what does a day look like? Like how do you get ready, get …?

Babatunde: 29:09 Well there’s not a huge difference between my performance days and when I’m not performing. I know that I do drink a lot more water. I do consciously drink a lot more water the day before a performance. Especially if it’s, like, a big important one. I mean, all performances are important, but …

Mike Elson: 29:29 Of course.

Babatunde: 29:31 So the day before like a big important one, I’ll drink more water. I’m a big yogi. I practice yoga a lot. And so that’s usually part of my morning practice. But on the day of performance, especially if it’s a situation where I have my dressing room to myself, I have a specific yoga practice I do right before … in the dressing room right before that performance. I don’t have any weird food things. I like to drink apple juice before and after a performance. I’m just really … something about apples … well, apples … I had a thing about choking on an apple once right before a performance, but … and I was just drinking apple juice. But yeah, apple juice for some reason. That’s my thing.

Mike Elson: 30:15 Great.

Matt: 30:19 So how do you feel … so people do talk … I hear a lot of singers talk about yoga as part of their routine. What do you feel like it does for you?

Babatunde: 30:26 Oh my gosh.

Matt: 30:28 [inaudible 00:30:28] … impact your voice. Could you talk about that?

Babatunde: 30:30 Well, okay, so the reason … one of the reasons I do it right before my performance is … some singers get really nervous before they perform. I get really excited. Similar to … and I get this comparison, like I’m kind of like a St. Bernard. Like I get really … and that’s true in a lot of my life. I get really really excited and one of the things … the irritations I have with that, as far as my singing goes, is I tend to go sharp a lot. So if you listen to some of my old performances, my first entrance onstage it’s a little sharp. Just because it’s that puppy-dog energy of just, like, “Yeah! Yeah! Opera! Let’s do this!” And so the yoga kind of helps me find … I don’t want to say calms me down, because that’s the last thing I want. I don’t want to, like, lower my energy before. But it kind of brings me to like, this “in the zone” space, if you will.

Babatunde: 31:19 And as far as my regular yoga practice, I … like I said before, with the advice for younger singers, our entire body is our instrument. And so just like we have a violin, you would with your violin or flute or any other physical instrument. You know, if you’ve ever made the mistake of putting like a wet water bottle on top of your pianist’s piano, you know what I’m talking about. You take care of your instrument. And so for me, my body is my instrument. So the yoga, the regular stretching of my body, and breathing, has … I feel like it’s helped me get more familiar with my body in two ways. One as a singer. Just the instrument and my breathing and what I can do. My capacity and so on and so forth.

Babatunde: 32:06 And also physically moving onstage. You know, I’m playing different characters, you know, from Rigoletto to like, the Count. It’s very different posture and, you know, director says, like, “Oh, you know, I want you to, you know, do this. So be a little more …” whatever. You want to be familiar enough with your body to know how to make that convincing.

Babatunde: 32:25 And so I think yoga and also Alexander Technique, if you’re familiar with it. It’s another thing that I’m big on that I recommend. It’s helped me a lot with my body awareness, both inside and outside. And just allowing myself to take care … I think the third part of that is just working in this industry, you need to learn how to take care of yourself. Because if you just keep going and do everything you feel like you should do and everyone’s telling you to do, you’re going to burn yourself out if you don’t have some way of, like, keeping yourself calm. Yeah, yoga’s been a big part of that for me.

Matt: 33:02 Great. So what’s your favorite role or roles? What are some of your favorite roles you’ve performed.

Babatunde: 33:08 My favorite role will almost always be Escamillo. Escamillo from Carmen. He’s the bullfighter, for those people who are not familiar with Carmen. I like him … I should have thought of that before I answered that question. All right.

Babatunde: 33:24 A number of reasons.

Babatunde: 33:28 Yeah, obviously. Personality-wise, we’re not that different. I mean, there’s some of the negative qualities to Escamillo that I have worked out of my system, but … And I also … he’s the one character where I feel like I have to try the least whenever I play him. It’s just kind of, like, just tap into a little part of me when I’m in a good mood and it’s kind of Escamillo.

Babatunde: 33:53 And I also like that, you know, he’s not there the entire first act. He shows up halfway through the second act and stops the entire opera. Everything stops. And leaves, and all anyone’s talking about, like if there’s an intermission afterwards, is Escamillo’s entrance and that song he sang. Shows up again way later on, fights the guy, leaves, comes back, says bye to the girl, leaves. That’s it. Where’s my paycheck. Escamillo. And when the finish … and he bows in front with the … and there are people who’ve done more singing, more “difficult” singing, more fancy singing, than Escamillo, throughout that opera. Micaela is singing her heart out the entire opera. And typically she may get a bow after Escamillo. Or at the same time. And it’s a little unfair, but it’s like … And there’ve been times in, for instance, I’m not the best piano player in school. But I got along great with my piano teachers and she was like … well I had several, so no one knows who it was. And she was like, “Okay. You know. It’s good enough.”

Babatunde: 34:54 There’s been times in life where I’ve gotten away with things that maybe I shouldn’t have gotten away with and I feel like it’s such an Escamillo thing. Like he shows up, he sings a little bit and still gets one of the first bows. And so I just –

Babatunde: 35:09 Wait, what?

Matt: 35:10 I said, that duet at the end is no joke.

Babatunde: 35:14 Oh. Yeah. Seriously, that’s monster. But it’s fun. So much fun.

Mike Elson: 35:21 Well, I just wanted to say thank you so much for joining us today. Do you have, you know, anything else you want to share? I know you mentioned you do have some projects you’re working on.

Babatunde: 35:32 [crosstalk 00:35:32] Yes, I have some projects coming up. Well, I’ll say if you’re not already following me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube … oh, and Twitter, do so. All my … the Twitter handles have changed. So on Instagram I’m Babatunde_hiphopera. Actually, in the comments section I’ll …

Mike Elson: 35:52 Yeah, you can drop in all your names for sure. That’ll be great.

Babatunde: 35:55 Yeah, but follow me, share and like my stuff. Look up the video if you don’t know what is going on. Because there are a few videos I’ve done so far. And stay tuned for all the fun stuff coming up.

Mike Elson: 36:06 Yeah, that’s awesome. Well thanks for being on our show. I’ll connect with you more too, because I’m curious to, like, learn more about how you warm up to some of the beats too, right. Maybe we could figure out how to put some of that …

Babatunde: 36:19 I would play something, but yeah, I hadn’t thought ahead with some of the things and not everything I listen to … nothing I listen to is PG, and so, yeah. I’m not going to …

Matt: 36:31 I’d say, Mike, remind me to have like a Babatunde hip-hop beat section of the app. So we’ll just get you to, like, get some beats …

Babatunde: 36:39 And some warm-ups that go [inaudible 00:36:41] Yeah.

Mike Elson: 36:43 [crosstalk 00:36:43] … yeah, it could just be totally for fun. We’ll see what happens. But I mean, since you kind of know a lot of the beats that you’re using, it would just be if you want to put a couple in there and like, “Well, how do you do a … how do you do a [inaudible 00:36:54]

Babatunde: 36:54 That’s so funny! I’m thinking about that now. It’s just, like, I’m imagining listening to these, like, “All right, guys. (singing)” And so on.

Matt: 37:00 You know what? That would be a warm-up I would want to do too.

Mike Elson: 37:11 [crosstalk 00:37:11] People are going to want to try it just to see if they can … if they can stay in tempo with the beat. Right? I mean, it’s just fun. We just had someone commented. Yeah, look, there’s so many ways, guys, to work at your voice. As Babatunde mentioned, there’s so many different paths to becoming an opera singer or any kind of singer. So, you know, as you’re warming up, you could be in your car, you could be in your home, you could be at the church before your worship. Whatever you’re doing, right, there’s a lot of different ways.

Mike Elson: 37:37 So, you know, I just thought it was cool coming … finding your work that you put on, your creativity you came up with, mixing these two things together. So anything we can do to borrow that, like last week we talked about stealing like an artist. So if there’s any way we can, like, borrow a little bit and come up with some cool other stuff that people want to try, we’d love to do that just to keep … help everyone be a better singer. So, Babatunde, thank you so much for being on our show today.

Matt: 38:07 My pleasure. Thanks for having me. It was lots of fun.

Mike Elson: 38:07 Absolutely. We’ve got a couple other things we’re going to go over, guys, so we’re going to say goodbye to Babatunde. Thank you so much.

Babatunde: 38:13 Take care, guys.

Matt: 38:14 Bye.

Mike Elson: 38:14 Awesome. Thank you.

Mike Elson: 38:17 Well, guys, that was super cool. What a … just a gift and a blessing to have –

Matt: 38:24 What an awesome guy.

Mike Elson: 38:25 – Babatunde on the show with us today. And so, briefly, not necessarily to recap it, but I know Matt, we wanted to talk about one or two other things today regarding, you know, just how creative artists like that can be to mix these two things that you normally wouldn’t hear together. And so just the connection that you can make, right, between being an opera singer, any kind of a singer, and bringing those two things together.

Mike Elson: 38:55 And you wanted to talk about some parallels to the … you know, kind of the differences between opera training, musical theater training, and contemporary training. So you want to jump into that?

Matt: 39:08 Oh yeah. I forgot we had mentioned that we were going to touch on that. Yeah, no, I mean, I think that was great. Like you said, it’s … the great artists, they merge things together and that’s where that quote “steal like an artist” comes. You know, in the play. How he talks about exactly this. You take this one thing that you love and this other thing that you love and you put the two together even though no one has before and you discover something great. And so, he’s just like that perfect example of success coming from that mindset of openness and, you know, merging things instead of just staying myopic. Right?

Mike Elson: 39:43 Yeah.

Matt: 39:44 Like he said, that I thought was interesting, is just how much time so many opera singers take to get into their zone, which a lot of people just don’t realize, is that, as he mentioned, a bachelor’s degree is very normal. You could get a bachelor’s of vocal performance with music education. That’s what a lot of singers end up doing. Then you can get a master’s in music and vocal performance. A few places are doing opera performance as well. And then you can get a doctorate of musical arts and vocal performance, or what we offer a lot at Shenandoah is musical pedagogy. And that’s a very different path. That’s a long path. I mean, it takes some singers ten years to get everything lined up because you’re not only dealing with trying to sing in English, you’re trying to sing in Italian, which is essential, German, French, sometimes Russian, sometimes Spanish. There’s these Slavic operas as well in Czech. You know, there’s all kinds of repertoire out there throughout the world that these artists are studying and honing up on.

Matt: 40:43 Not only on top of that, he also mentioned the musicianship aspect of it. Making sure that you truly know the difference between Bach and Mozart, Handel, Puccini, and Verdi, and Wagner. Because if you don’t know those performance standards and you try to sing, you know, a Mozart opera like a Wagner opera, it’s just not going to click.

Matt: 41:01 You need acting training that gets thrown in there with it. Movement training. And one of my favorite parts in my performance degree was the fencing. Or, not fencing, but the stage combat and the swords. It was a lot of fun.

Matt: 41:15 You know, there’s a lot of parallels between that and what musical theater performers do. They’re just singing a different kind of sound. And one of the things that really separates the two is that thing we mentioned about microphones. Right, that opera singers are doing unamplified singing, whereas musical theater artists are doing amplified singing. And so they can, as he was talking about having to learn to do that stage whisper where you’ve got somebody nearby that you’re trying to talk to yet you have to make sure the people in the back all hear you. You know, in musical theater you’ve got a mic right up near your mouth so you can whisper like you would normally. And that’s where, you know, the training really kind of starts to divide, is we encourage those amplified sounds of the musical theater world versus in opera where everything has to project conclusively.

Matt: 41:59 You know, and then in the commercial world, everyone’s on mic all the time and it kind of just throws all the rules out and you can kind of do whatever you want.

Mike Elson: 42:08 [crosstalk 00:42:08] Yeah, I think he also made an interesting point because he mentioned he’s working on, you know, some recordings and stuff. Whereas in the opera world he gets one take. So he’s kind of excited now, he gets several different tries to work on things. So I think your point … you know, that point of some of the commercial music, where those singers they get a few different tries, right. And in the live performance, unamplified, right, acoustic singing, it’s just a higher demand.

Mike Elson: 42:34 So I’m not, you know, we didn’t have Babatunde on to advocate that everyone should aspire to become an opera singer. Right? Today we’re giving you guys that are out there watching that maybe aren’t familiar with some of this other more classical music, how some of it ties to, and I like the parallel that he made about his background being hip-hop. He didn’t come to opera until later on. But that he kind of draws that was his first musical language. So your first musical language could be almost any style of music, right? And there’s always ways that these languages tie together as you move to different genres or different performance feed. So I think that it’s kind of almost like a weird crossover mix that exists that he found. So it’s super, super cool.

Matt: 43:20 You know what, the other thing that was cool too, that I thought was cool about his story, is the fact that he didn’t take his first voice lesson until he was twenty. You know, there’s so many people … I find high school kids today, they’re like freaking out about what they’re going to do with their lives, and it has to all be decided now. You know, and so it’s kind of cool to hear him talking about how, you know, his first lesson was when he was twenty and then it just kind of took off. So it’s never too late to start singing.

Mike Elson: 43:44 Yeah. Absolutely. Couldn’t agree more. So do you have anything else you want to share on the show today? I know we’ve still got some people watching and tuning in. Thanks everyone who stayed to the end and I’m just super excited.

Matt: 44:01 [crosstalk 00:44:01] Yeah, absolutely. Like I said we have our senior musical theater majors at Shenandoah Conservatory doing their final performance tonight. So I’m going to have to move and go to that. Here in a few minutes there’s still time to sign up for our summer institute at Shenandoah if you’re looking for a place to do some additional training in functional and voice pedagogy, evidence-based voice pedagogy. Head on over to ccminstitute.com. You can check out the lineup, check out the dates and information about that fully.

Matt: 44:28 And we’ve also been working a little bit today on lining up some featured guests, so we’re excited that we’re going to have two speech language pathologists join us. They’re two of the most well-known speech language pathologists in the world. They’re going to come on here and we’re going to talk about vocal health in the coming weeks. And we also have a guy who wrote his dissertation about Cornelius Reid, who both Mike and I looked up to as one of the fathers, one of the people who really started this movement of registration-based training and evidence-based voice pedagogy. And this guy, Dr. Yarrington went into the archives and he looked through a bunch of Cornelius Reid’s teachings and actually started to notate out exercises and how he did the things he wrote about in his books. Because if you picked up his books, he doesn’t always tell you all those little teeny steps. So it’s really cool that we have somebody who, you know, took advantage of that time in his doctorate’s to do that work. And I’m excited to share that with everybody.

Mike Elson: 45:18 Yeah. Guys, we couldn’t be more excited about what’s coming up. We’ve got some cool things in store for everyone. Also I’ve mentioned a few times, we’re slowly dripping out parts of our new platform. We’ve had our first wave of teachers in on that. So we’re saying it’s not ready for primetime yet, but it’s coming for everyone out there. So if you’re interested I think we’re seeing an increase on our sign-ups and everything. So we’re doing these shows because, look, we care, we love you guys, we love singing. I love Babatunde’s answer about, if you’re going to be an opera singer, a professional singer, you really have to love it. Right? Because you’ve got to be able to weather some of those tough times, right?

Mike Elson: 46:02 So guys, we’re really excited about the future guests that we have coming on and what we’re going to be able to share with everyone. And so if you’re looking to learn more about singing, keep tuning in. We’ve got a number of great Q & A’s in the backlog now. Kind of in out video archive that’s on our Facebook page right now and we’re actually exploring different places to start publishing this content. So if you do have questions or suggestions, or … We’ve had a couple people chime in and they’re interested in being on the show too, so please drop us a line. We’d love to connect and make friends with everyone. And we really just look forward to servicing the community out there. All the singers, all the different types of singers that we have. And so thank you guys. I’m happy you’re here and we look forward to seeing you next week.

Matt: 46:52 Bye. Thanks for stopping by.

Mike Elson: 46:53 Bye-bye.