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10 Questions with ... David Britton
November 3, 2020
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1. At what age did you know that you were musically inclined?
Growing up my family was very musical, and I recall singing together as early as 3 or 4 years old, eventually learning harmonies and singing quartets. I grew up on an island where my parents were Christian missionaries, and we didn’t have TV, or much other entertainment, so we created our own entertainment with a lot of music, both at home, at church and in the local community. The truth is it was only later that I realized that not everyone’s family sang!
2. What role did your unique upbringing play in the way that your life has unfolded?
Once again, we’re all born into circumstances that are beyond our control. I’m incredibly grateful that, while I was born into a missionary family with no financial wealth to speak of, I was exposed to a very rich and diverse set of experiences, languages and cultures, being born overseas, and living outside the US until I was 18. These international experiences undoubtedly shaped my world-view and my musical view. The rhythms of the island, the classical music traditions of Europe and the musical influences of harmony and choral singing in the church all have had a significant role in forming what my musical style is today.
I went through high school hoping to play in a rock band, came out of college with a desire to sing opera, and ultimately ended up creating this “orchestra rock” style. I’m constantly reminded that I could never have planned this journey on my own and am incredibly grateful to God for leading me on this crazy adventure!
3. You’re described as a “World Class Baritone.” That’s not something that can be taught. What was it like when you figured out that your voice was a special instrument?
Yes, marketing terms aside, I fully acknowledge that I really had no part in creating the physiological instrument that God decided to embed in my throat. But I understood from an early age that to do something well required real dedication, time and curiosity. I was blessed along the way to have voice teachers and coaches that above all else, didn’t damage the voice. And, like in any other field, there is only so much you learn from those around you, and much more that you learn by stumbling through difficult challenges on your own.
In some cases, it took stepping away from singing for a long period of time, to reset the approach to singing, to correct some bad habits, and to figure out better ways that worked for my own voice. And in truth, you never really “arrive” at a point of excellence, but rather, all we can do is keep chipping away at the errors and trouble spots, until at least the audience perceives a level of excellence. Most artists I know are actually rarely satisfied with even their best performances – there’s always room to improve – one of the great gifts of the arts is that you’re never done!
4. In addition to singing opera, etc., you’ve also played in bands along the way and rocked out. What has that versatility meant to you and your career?
Those early years of playing drums and being in bands and touring ensembles, growing up singing the traditional church hymns, along with playing trumpet in orchestras really forced an exposure to a very broad base of music. And I’ve enjoyed each opportunity I’ve had to go deep on each of those genres and outlets.
As I was singing opera, I loved the language, the melody and the dramatic expression of these incredible stories. I loved working with orchestras, which bring an incredibly rich palate of colors and a depth of complexity you don’t find in other genres. Having said that, I also recognized that opera and the pure classical music was often inaccessible to the broad audience.
So I decided to fuse these genres, and it became a natural progression to start to create music that borrows from each genre to build a new sound. It’s been really invigorating to be able to marry up the full orchestral sound with hard-driving guitars, a full rock band and occasionally a gospel chorus. The overall result is one that has a tremendous number of layers and complexity, supporting singable melodies. And then of course, it’s not appropriate to use the full operatic vocal technique in the more rock-oriented style (it just sounds weird). But rather I like to leverage the heft of the voice from the classical vocal training, the emotional articulation that comes from that genre, with the license to “affect” the voice with straight tone and vocal slides that are directly out of the rock vocal portfolio. We’ve also taken that approach as we’ve done covers of some popular songs to create the ‘orchestral rock’ version of songs.
5. You’ve performed on some of the most legendary stages in the world. Can you describe what that’s like? And if you could pick “the most special” one what would that be?
It’s always a very humbling experience to step onto a stage that the world’s great artists have occupied, knowing that some of my heroes have sung in those same spaces. In some of the larger venues, just staring out into the audience can be both overwhelming, but also can be extremely thrilling. To know that the audience has come to enjoy and participate in the event always encourages me to try and create a special experience for them. When it comes to special places to sing, Carnegie Hall was a spectacular venue – just walking through the artist entrance, and being backstage surrounded by the history of that great venue was thrilling.
At the same time, some of the most moving performances I’ve been a part of have taken place in very small venues with audiences that were completely engaged. In those moments, the audience becomes as much a part of the show as the artist themselves – that’s magical.
6. Why now for “The 12 Songs Of Christmas” album?
Actually the “12 Songs of Christmas” is a collection from my two different Christmas albums, “David Britton Christmas”, and “The Spirit of Christmas”. My management team, Peggy Iafrate and David Perl, were the ones who come up with the idea of taking the best selections from those albums and build out a compilation songs that covered both the big popular carols, as well as the cozy Christmas classics. As a baritone, it’s nice to be able to try and channel Bing Crosby on those great tunes. We felt that making these specific selections available via All Access might give the radio program directors a wide variety of choices as alternatives to the traditional favorites we hear every year.
7. Most of the songs on the album are in the traditional holiday vein. But you do a great job getting into “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch!” What was the impetus for that?
I’ve always enjoyed using my lower voice to emulate Thurl Ravenscroft on the original version of the song, not that anyone can really do his voice justice! (Incidentally, he was also the voice of Tony the Tiger). And it’s really a great song about a really terrible character, that has actually become a real audience favorite. It has also however, caused me some literal pain!
Whenever I do a Christmas show, I like to include a section with some audience interaction, with some sing-alongs, and other bits of goofiness, mostly as a break from the big songs and to offer some good comic relief. So when I was putting together a show a couple of years ago, we decided we needed to have a moment of complete absurdity and created this bluesy-jazz version of the Grinch. And in the show I threw on a terrible Christmas Grinch sweater complete with green fur, and stomped around the stage harassing the band. It turned out to be one of the audience favorites, so we decided we needed to record it.
Incidentally In one of the subsequent shows the following year, in the middle of the Grinch song, I decided to run into the audience to harass them, and I slipped and completely wiped out – severely dislocating my shoulder! I was able to finish the concert (in fairly significant pain), and ended up requiring surgery, so the Grinch certainly showed up that night!!
There is a bit of an “Easter Egg” in the last verse, where I decided to quote my daughter who was feeling carsick and yelled out, “I feel vominating”. So I figured that went well with the “nauseating” verse of the Grinch, and added that as an homage to my girl.
8. Your versatility doesn’t “limit” you to holiday releases. How do you put together your more secular projects?
As an independent artist, it’s been great to essentially write and record songs that I’ve felt inspired to create. And it’s been a really wonderful exercise to try and create songs or arrange covers with strong melodies from the rock and pop genre and to add the orchestral arrangements and big vocal pieces to bring out a different sound.
I tend to be drawn to songs that express the hardships of life, often through stories, but that have a pivot toward optimism in the end. These tend to lend themselves naturally to over the top orchestration and big vocal lines. As such, even creating my arrangement of The National Anthem, The Warrior and God Bless the USA, from my American Glory album, or songs like Love Will Never End, Refugee, or Final Battle from The Storm album, have been songs that take a look at the challenges of the world around us, recognize that life can be so difficult, but then offer hope and a sense of strength to the listener. The world is often filled with so much hurt, it is my hope that my music might bring a sense of peace and joy to the audience.
9. Traditional ways of promoting new music is out the window in our present state of pandemic world—how do you plan on connecting with radio programmers and their listeners?
Yes, clearly this year hasn’t gone the way any of us expected! And with performances not happening the way the normally would, it’s been our strategy to work on building up digital content, music videos and social media engagement to expand the audience. And of course, putting together a radio promotional strategy that will hopefully introduce my music more widely than we have done in the past.
We felt that this collection of 12 Songs Of Christmas was a great way to offer radio programmers some optionality this year as they pull together their Christmas rotations and playlists, to change up some of the classics, with versions of the favorites that aren’t too far afield. Still keeping very much in line with that “cozy Christmas classic” genre, across a wide selection of options.
10. In addition to all of your musical endeavors, you’ve got an amazing ‘side job.’ Please explain your role as one of the very first fraud investigators in that field of work.
Yes, as I mentioned previously, the journey of my life has certainly been an adventure, with a wide variety of experiences. And as is often the case with artists, we tend to have times that are lean and others that are bountiful. It just so happens that when I was just finishing up my formal classical vocal education at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, I found myself needing a day job. And of course if you were living in the Bay Area during the early days of the dot-com era, you can hardly avoid the tech industry. So I landed a job doing internet fraud investigations for a startup retailer (I convinced them they needed a “real creative type”), finding fraudsters that were using stolen credit cards and login credentials online. And I began to develop strategies and systems that could help businesses detect when fraudsters are attacking a business.
Over the years, particularly when our family was very young, I prioritized that career over music in order to pay the bills. As a result, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to now find myself with this dual career, where I can split my time helping businesses around the world figure out strategies to mitigate fraud and security threats, while also being able to continue to do music. In fact, my career in the fraud prevention and strategy space has really been the enabler to help fund my musical career. During really difficult economic crises, it has been a literal God-send to allow me to provide for my family. I believe that God has authored the story of my life, complete with highs and lows, and it is my desire that this music that I create might be one small way I can bring Him the glory. As J.S. Bach wrote on each composition: Soli Deo Gloria (To God alone be the glory).
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