Switched on Pop - B Side: Singing With Mama Jan

Episode Date: February 18, 2016

What do Usher, The Band Perry and Bieber have in common? They all sing with Mama Jan, one of the best vocal coaches and producers in the music business. On this mini episode, Mama Jan talks about what happens backstage before the biggest performance of a lifetime.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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share lists, follow editors, and book right in the app. Download the eater app at eaterapp.com. It's free for iOS users. Welcome to a mini midweek episode of Switched on Pop. There was so much happening last week that we just couldn't fit it all into one piece, but we had this one really fascinating interview that I wanted to share with you. Typically, when we break down a song on the show, we focus a lot on the music and then frankly miss out on what most people are actually listening for, The Voice. On previous episodes, you've heard us talk about some of the best singers in pop music, and I was surprised to learn that two of my favorites, Drake and Justin Bieber, actually share

a secret ingredient, one of the best vocal coaches in the industry. My name is Jan Smith. I'm known as Mama Jan to the industry at large, and I own an operate Jan's in the studios in Atlanta, Georgia. Mama Jan is a vocal coach to someone the biggest stars, and with the Grammys happening last week, we were curious how pop stars prep for such a big performance. Mama Jan was gracious enough to share some of

her secrets, and her technique might surprise you. She focuses on the overall health and tension of the body as much as the voice itself. For Mama Jan, prepping to sing is as physical as training a horse before a race. It's about being a good jockey to pace that horse so that you can win the race, not just

blowing out at the front end of the race or, you know, making sure that you cool the horse down really good so that they don't, you know, they don't collic in the stall and you have to shoot them. I hope that doesn't happen to any of your singers. So this is some serious business. When do stars start training for a performance like the Grammys? Well, certainly not the day of the show. I mean, you know, very typically, um, the artists that I work with who've either been on the show already or who are slated to be on this year have already been in rehearsals and tours, you know, tour preps and things like that so that the material that they're going to be doing is not going to, you know, be totally new to them.

So singers are definitely prepping for months in advance for their show. But what's happening the day of backstage? Right before their performance, I'm usually backstage getting people warmed up and ready and focus to walk out and do what they've got to do. So if you're backstage getting ready, what's the first thing you would do? I would stretch out your body first. I think that it's their amount for people to, you know, feel their whole body relaxing and opening up and then doing some some, some,

basic stretches that helps to open up, you know, the chest wall and all the little scalings that, you know, kind of hold the rib cage and the lungs, and everybody gets nervous, so they've got a lot of tension. So helping the body to relax and open up is the first thing I would do. I mean to extend the metaphor too far, but you really are stretching people out just like they're getting ready for a race. What kind of exercises do you do? Something aerobic in nature. Jumping jacks are really good. I have most of my clients doing that. Jumping jacks are good because it gets your heart rate up, it gets the blood flowing, and also pumps a lot of oxygen through the body

and helps to carry that same oxygen and blood flow to the vocal cords. I definitely did not expect that you'd be doing calisthenics backstage to get warmed up for vocal performance. But again, no, it makes sense. So what's next? Then I would start working on routine warming up. The breathing stuff, getting the air started flowing really good. So helping people do like a hissing sound,

just literally taking a big breath and... Just a long hissing sound kind of helps to set up the right style of compressive breathing and getting them calm down enough to where they're really centered diaphragmatically. Doing some, they call them lip trills or buzzing tones. That kind of easy in vocal routines on the voice to where you're not, all of a sudden just going through the song. People like to sing songs on the way to their gig or on the way to the stage. You're basically, that's like running the track before you run the race.

You're wasting vocal energy doing that. So it sounds like a lot of your technique is really trying to loosen people up and get rid of a lot of that nervous energy. What do you do if you encounter somebody who just can't loosen up and they've got stage fright? They're not ready to go out. Well, first of all, I don't really believe in stage fright. I think if you're afraid to walk out on a stage and do what you do, then you should probably go home and be a plumber or do something different. it's pretty nerve-wracking backstage and all the activity and all the stuff that's going on around those artists prior to them walking out to do their few minutes. So the performance anxiety is a very real thing.

So getting people to focus on the physical body, squeezing their hands in really tight fist, squeezing all of the muscles in their body and tightening up and being very focused on that. And then shaking all that out allows them to feel the actual relaxation process. You want to get them lathered up. You want to get them warm, you want to get them, you know, prep for the race, but you want that energy still to be on the edge for the actual performance or the actual race. You know, it's a matter of education and knowledge is power. Yeah, and I guess what I never knew was just how physical this whole process really was. It's super fascinating. Thank you, Mama Jan, for sharing some of your techniques and backstage stories with us.

Thank you, Charlie. I appreciate it, and you can call anytime if I can be of help. Thanks, Mama Jan. I'm not sure I could afford it, but I'll definitely keep it in mind. If you want to follow Mama Jan, you can find her on Twitter. Twitter at ATLVox, and you can find more of her work on her website, JanSmith.com. This episode of Switched-on Pop was produced by me, Charlie Harding, Luke Harris designed our logo, and a big thank you to Mama Jan for joining us on the show.

We'll be back next week with our normal routine, breaking down some songs, and we'll obviously catch up with our missing co-host, Nate Sloan. And as always, thanks for listening.