I’m a home recording guy. I absolutely love starting a song from scratch, writing and producing, experimenting as I go. Singing, playing, crafting … and at the end, being able to release it to the world.
Last year I had a local gig scheduled one night. It was unusual because I’d put together a scratch band of actors; we were going to perform a set of songs (with zero rehearsal) and then present a play. Very cool, and the sort of thing you can only really do with a community theatre company.
But late in the day my face had started to hurt. A lot! It was an all-over, deep throbbing pain. I figured, correctly as it turns out, that it was a toothache. Lo and behold, my dentist came and sat in the front row! I thought I might collar her after the show but she scarpered immediately after the bows. Next morning I rang her office to discover they were on break for two weeks. Uh-oh! The scramble for alternative dentists – thin on the ground where I live – started, and within a couple of days I’d been diagnosed with a massive jaw infection and was taking antibiotics as big as my thumb. Then five days later I was minus one tooth. Relief!
But a few months later when I was recording vocals I started to notice a whistling noise when I sang. It took a while but I realised that my teeth were suddenly free to migrate a little bit around my jaw, with the unlikely but undeniable result that my front teeth were now whistling.
It was maddening, embarrassing and frustrating. I tried a lot of sibilance removal strategies in my recording process, but nothing really delivered as well as I’d hoped. Months went by. Single release dates were postponed. I tried different mics, different pop filters, holding my jaw oddly. Nothing worked – or if it did it made me sound weird. I even tried changing the shape of my front teeth with blu-tac!
Anyway, it’s been some depressing months in the adeyjordan camp.
This last couple of weeks however, I had a bit of an epiphany. I listened to a lot of different artists and heard a really wide range of sibilance. Some were downright muffled, some were hissing and sizzling all over the shop. Finally, I realised that I don’t even have much of an audience, so why am I getting angsty? If I can get people to listen to my songs it’s pretty doubtful that anyone will say “I’m not going to listen that sibilant guy”.
So … I’ve decided to not care that much, and just get on with what I’m doing. My heart is a bit lighter, and – bonus outcome – I’m actually not hearing the sibilance that much now. Which makes me wonder whether the real cause of the problem was a bit of OCD on my part.
I’ll let you be the judge of that.