Brandi Carlile Quotes

I've been singing properly every day since I was about fifteen or sixteen, and I have never had any problems with my voice, ever. I've had a sore throat here and there, had a cold and sung through it, but that day it just went while I was onstage in Paris during a radio show. It was literally like someone had pulled a curtain over it.

I started having a lot of problems with my voice in my mid-30s.

I've been diagnosed with what's called vocal tension dysphonia. The muscles around my vocal chords kind of constrict my vocal chords from doing what they should do. It's kinda like being a body builder and you have muscles that are so large that they don't allow you to have flexibility, if that makes sense.

I've had problems with my throat over the years, playing with loud bands for years, and I've had bruised vocal chords and nodules.

I had an explosion on my vocal chord.

You have to be so careful with your voice, especially when you're using it every day.

When I was on the air a lot my throat and vocal chords got tired. If you don't vary your tones you can't get pretty tired of your own voice.

Well, I've been lucky. I've never gotten a voice polyp. I've never gotten nodes. But I do get sick, usually every tour, and to varying degrees. Sometimes it's a sinusitis.

I think that if my voice for some reason changes - because your voice does change - then it's time for me not to sing.

Something like Deckard Cain is great; it doesn't ruin your voice. But games that involve violence or battle or mutating and stuff like that really does take a toll on your voice. And I've even had to start to go to a voice guru kind of guy to do exercises to try to save and get back some of what I lost.

You can't abuse your voice by yelling and screaming.

Dysphonia is not a singing problem. It's a voice box issue in the muscle on the voice, very different from having a nodule on the vocal cords, which I've never had. I'm lucky that I've never had that. It needs a long renewal time, and even today, I am still addressing it.

Here's the breakdown: alcohol dehydrates you and stimulates acid reflux. Then, when you sing on dry, irritated vocal folds, your folds swell. When your folds swell, they cause hoarseness, which makes you feel like you have to push harder to get a sound out.

I've had cysts on my vocal chords.

The vocal cords are a muscle, and like any other muscle in the body, they can be strained. So you have to warm up.

I lost my voice. I'd never had to cancel a show before and I had to walk around with a pad and a pen, writing things down.

I blew my voice out and the doctor said, don't even talk for a week.

The way the vocal folds work is that they can get inflamed and in pain, but actual tears in the folds are somewhat rare. I've never torn anything. Been too strained plenty of times.

I don't sing anything that hurts my voice.

I don't really strain my voice.

Screaming is bad for the voice, but it's good for the heart.

I lost my voice for the first time. I was so bummed out, but it happens to every singer at some point in their career. I don't think most people understand, but I sing every night and sometimes we do five shows in a row, which is really bad for your voice.

Crying is really bad for your vocal cords.

You know how bad my voice sounds - well it feels just as bad.

I had really bad polyps on my vocal cords, and I've had them since I was a kid, but the bulimia made it 10 times worse. They were bleeding constantly, and it was straining on my voice. And just the lack of nutrition - my vocal cords couldn't keep up because I was so unhealthy.