I bark my voice out through a closed throat, pretty much. It's more, perhaps, like a dog in some ways. It does have its limitations, but I'm learning different ways to keep it alive.
I didn't change my voice for 'The Boondocks.'
Accents are very tangible, blessedly, and if you have to do one, it's a way of getting into character. I can read it through a few times and pretend I know what I'm doing!
I had to change the shape of my own voice. It was quite hard to pull off and so once I had it, I stayed in Hitchcock's voice all day on set.
I remember Pavarotti telling me, 'Oh, Neil, after seventy, the voice is going to go.' But I've been lucky. You almost have to learn how to sing all over again. You use your diaphragm more. You have to choose the notes and pace yourself.
I'm getting used to the singing part but not the talking part.
Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing. And you start talking yourself out of the bold melody and start wanting to arrange it in another key or something. Maybe I just never learned my harmony part, because what everybody says sounds odd to them sounds perfectly natural to me.
I just didn't have time to deliver a Buffalo accent in a day, so I didn't even try it.
I don't like to hear myself sing. So to get comfortable hearing myself sing, I sang in another accent.
I don't ever sing classically when I am singing a contemporary score - I kind of try to fit in whatever needs to happen.
It's not really difficult to go from one voice into the next.
I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.
I know that composers know my voice type and what songs will suit me. I have been able to mould my voice according to the nature of the song given to me, be it rock, pop or jazz.
In the end, to do a good accent, you just have to be a good listener.
