Billie joes voice

[Schindi_25]

Do you think he could get his voice a bit deeper again if he trains a little bit?

[jengd]

The voice is an instrument which, while he has lots of control over, he needs to look after to be able to keep performing the way he does and changes with many reasons, age, health/fitness etc etc.  It does seem unusual that his voice is a little higher now but I’m guessing that’s where he’s comfortable seeing as he writes for himself.

[stories and songs]

I think his voice sounds awesome on Saviors — I’m sure it’s partially down to production, but I honestly think this album might be my favorite vocals from him.

I have no idea about the technical side of singing, but just as a listener, a lot of singers seem to lose a little bit of depth/dimension to their voice as they get older. One example of someone I listen to a lot is Chris Cornell — obviously he was really rough on his voice, but I noticed as he got older, his voice sounded a bit thinner and he lost some of that deep sound he had when he was young.

[Insomniac90]

I listened to most of the soundboard recordings for the Release show on YouTube. His voice gets better during the show (TADIKM was kinda weak), so for singing I like his voice but I miss his screaming voice a little bit. Maybe it was because of the small venue? I dont know. But yeah like jengd and stories said, he‘s almost 52 and Billie and his voice have a long story. Sure he sounded better even 2 years ago, but its still listenable live.

And for recordings/Studio Saviors is probably his best performance since 21st

[Flashback]

I think it's totally normal that the voice changes over the years. No 50 year old sounds like when he was 20. But by the way, I think some songs off Saviors could be straight off 21stCB or the Trilogy in terms of how his voice sounds.

[Lauren]

I like him singing in his upper register. It means I (a woman) can cover their songs without having to change the key!  

[Clockwise]

I love his voice throughout all eras. Also, I love that he’s never been a perfect singer. Give me those human moments of imperfection!

[ekim]

Sounds deeper on fever to me 

[lucky_stars]

I was thinking about this when I listened to the Irving Plaza show - he sounded kind of strained during the Saviors part of the set compared to the older stuff. I hope he takes care of his voice during the tour… just American Idiot sung through is a lot. 🥺

[TheMostExpressivePrice]

In every era his voice fits the music taste he and his colleagues represent in that certain era. Just amazing. Only "Father Of All" was not very good, but still he was pretty decent even then. Generally what harms his vocals is when the vocal filters are intense and literally obvious ("Nightlife", "Father Of All", "Meet Me On The Roof", "Stab You In The Heart"). In most other cases he is phenomenal.

i forgot to add "Fire, Ready, Aim". This and "Father Of All" (the song) were the only times in their discography i could not recognize him at all. Other than those 5 exclusions, i adore his voice, both pre-"Warning" and post-"Warning".

[redline punk]

Being a singer isn't for everyone; can you imagine singing in a concert for 2 hours without missing a note? (Imagine doing that every two days on a tour!) I can't even get through a song without burping 😅

I have a preference for his voice around 2009, but I really liked the adjustment in his voice in "Saviors."

In recent years, he's been struggling a bit to maintain the same pace, and I appreciate that.

For me, what matters is that they're still active and performing at a high level.

I hope he ages well and stays healthy to continue bringing us joy.

[Mato]

Again with the filters talk.. 🥱 People don't realize the fact that they cannot recognize Billie's voice has nothing to do with what they call filters. Those are just songs in which he approached his vocals differently. Falsettos, screaming etc. Also, depending on which key the song is in, the register he has to sing in also changes, so it may sound a bit different.

However, during last couple of years Billie's singing style has totally changed. It sounds like someone's holding his vocal chords, he's singing kind of 'gently' and nasally and it really lacks his recognizable power. It's really unfortunate. I think it started during Hella Mega tour and I don't think it has anything to do with his age.

Their recent Irving Plaza show has probably been the worst show vocally of the era so far. Billie's voice was straining and he was flat out of tune most of the show. 😕 I really hope this will change for the better on the upcoming tour, especially considering they're going to perform Dookie and American Idiot in their entirety, among the other songs. I'm curious to see in which order will they play it. They had a really bad decision on their last couple of tours with playing Jesus Of Suburbia at the end, because obviously it's been hard for Billie to sing in such high register after 2 hours of show.

[TheMostExpressivePrice]

27 minutes ago, Mato said:

Encore une fois avec la discussion sur les filtres..  🥱  Les gens ne réalisent pas que le fait qu'ils ne peuvent pas reconnaître la voix de Billie n'a rien à voir avec ce qu'ils appellent des filtres. Ce ne sont que des chansons dans lesquelles il aborde sa voix différemment. Falsettos, cris, etc. De plus, selon la tonalité dans laquelle se trouve la chanson, le registre dans lequel il doit chanter change également, donc cela peut sonner un peu différent.

Cependant, au cours des dernières années, le style de chant de Billie a totalement changé. On dirait que quelqu'un tient ses cordes vocales, il chante un peu « doucement » et nasillardement et il lui manque vraiment sa puissance reconnaissable. C'est vraiment dommage. Je pense que ça a commencé pendant la tournée Hella Mega et je ne pense pas que ça ait quelque chose à voir avec son âge.

Leur récent spectacle sur Irving Plaza a probablement été le pire spectacle vocal de l'époque jusqu'à présent. La voix de Billie était tendue et il était complètement désaccordé pendant la majeure partie de la série. 😕 J'espère vraiment que cela changera pour le mieux lors de la prochaine tournée, d'autant plus qu'ils vont interpréter Dookie et American Idiot dans leur intégralité, entre autres chansons. Je suis curieux de voir dans quel ordre vont-ils jouer. Ils ont pris une très mauvaise décision lors de leurs deux dernières tournées en jouant Jesus Of Suburbia à la fin, car évidemment cela a été difficile pour Billie de chanter dans un registre aussi aigu après 2 heures de show.

"Hella Mega" was a hell of a disaster. It was too expensive for average fans, offered nothing new in an already "God's Favourite Band" type of setlist and also made Billie Joe gradually harm his voice.

i wish "Saviours" tour is not the same story.

[Rumpelstiltskin2000]

Didn't Billie say he's had Covid twice. I hope that isn't a contributing factor

[Dysfunco]

As someone said, it's gone downhill since 2020-2021, which to me seemed a bit surprising (when I first noticed it) after all rest the pandemic caused. One would think the voice would have been in better shape than in a long time, when they began touring 2021.

Whatever the reason might be, ever since he started screaming so much every concert from American Idiot era and forward (I mean all those unnecessary "allriight!", "here we go!", or "So rally up the demons of your soul" in 'Know Your Enemy') in a sort of throaty, almost growling fashion. It's a whole different thing to his classic "hey oh!" which is uses proper singing technique to pull off.

I've always thought this was doomed to affect his voice negatively in the long run, and wondered why he insisted on keeping doing this, considering the risks and the fact that it's honestly more distracting than fun when that kind of thing interrupts the "flow" in pretty much every song (especially 21st Century Breakdown era, and perhaps some of the Trilogy tour too).

Why he always sings in such a high pitch nowadays is a different matter though (including new songs), but I believe it would be a good idea to lower the older songs live. I think his voice would atleast sound closer to American Idiot era if the songs from that album was lowered, simply because your range lowers with age (not the same as getting worse = just lower, over the whole spectrum). 

A proof of this is that Homecoming seem to be in a lower register than most songs these days, perhaps because it's adjusted to be comfortable for Mikes and Tres parts or something? Therefore Billies little "Here they come marching down the street" part (the whole thing, not only that sentence) brings out a tone in his voice we rarely hear these days, and I happen to love. My favorite voice era is the late 90's and early 00's, and to me this clip kind of reminds of that - albeit being a "Billie in his 50's" version of it  

 

 

Edited January 27 by Dysfunco

[Slave To The Network]

3 hours ago, Dysfunco said:

A proof of this is that Homecoming seem to be in a lower register than most songs these days, perhaps because it's adjusted to be comfortable for Mikes and Tres parts or something? Therefore Billies little "Here they come marching down the street" part (the whole thing, not only that sentence) brings out a tone in his voice we rarely hear these days, and I happen to love.

Wow, if you hadn't told me that was from this era I would have 100% thought it was during AI or something. That's so nice to hear! I've been missing that! 😭 I hope that Billie will continue sing like this more in a way that works for his voice and can be sustained into the future.

[Ross_19]

Now we know he's had issues with alcohol again in recent years I wonder if that also is a contributing factor. Granted he's been drinking throughout his career but it surely has to have more of an impact at his age. Does he also smoke? I've heard him mention smoking on some recent podcast appearances but not sure what exactly he's smoking. I thought he sounded great during the RevRad tour, very good during Hella Mega (saw them in the UK) and I'm hopeful that now he's sober again he can be on top form for this tour. I've watched bits and pieces from all the promo shows as part of Saviours and there's been points where I don't think he's sounded fantastic, but then again I've had moments of thinking that during previous eras and then when the tour comes around he puts my worries to rest. Maybe he just gets into the rhythem of it on tour

[Rumpelstiltskin2000]

5 hours ago, Ross_19 said:

Does he also smoke? I've heard him mention smoking on some recent podcast appearances but not sure what exactly he's smoking.

If I remember correctly he said cigarettes 

I agree about sometimes Billie kind of not sounding the best during promo and warm up shows but then on tour sounding absolutely fine. I put it down to it sounding better when you're there in person 

[Miko]

5 hours ago, Ross_19 said:

Does he also smoke?

He smokes yeah. He mentioned about it in one of these Saviors promo interviews

[Little Boy Named Booze]

Yeah he said that when he's going in a bar with friends he drink Heineken 0.0 and go outside to smoke cigarettes.

[stories and songs]

48 minutes ago, Rumpelstiltskin2000 said:

If I remember correctly he said cigarettes 

I agree about sometimes Billie kind of not sounding the best during promo and warm up shows but then on tour sounding absolutely fine. I put it down to it sounding better when you're there in person 

I also feel like for promo, it’s largely down to the mix and how you’re hearing it? For example, I agree the XM radio recording for the Saviors songs didn’t sound great (later in the show he sounded good IMO), but then watching videos from people who were there, he sounds totally fine because his vocals aren’t so isolated.

[Dysfunco]

20 hours ago, Little Boy Named Booze said:

Yeah he said that when he's going in a bar with friends he drink Heineken 0.0 and go outside to smoke cigarettes.

He could also be one of those who basically smokes only on occasion, when hanging out with friends over a drink or that kind of thing, rather than being a everyday smoker.

[jengd]

I thought it looked like he had a vape in his hand in some recent pics.  Not sure that would help his voice or not.

[Vintage Disciple]

2 hours ago, jengd said:

I thought it looked like he had a vape in his hand in some recent pics.  Not sure that would help his voice or not.

He did have a vape in a couple of the promo pics and also was vaping with Corey Feldman also.

[Verycool99]

I feel like he sounds pretty great on a lot of the older songs from Irving Plaza? 2000 LYA, One Of My Lies. Sounds a lot stronger than the newer material