"Take Five" Q&A with Sirintip!

Q1: What's the best music gear or app purchase you've made recently? 

I recently got this pedal from TC Helicon called the PerformVE and it has completely elevated my solo looping game. Now I can basically do everything I hear from reverb/delay to playing drum grooves and involving more complex harmony with the vocoder feature.

Q2: What's your funniest or worst gig story? 

See #MyWorstGig story here!

Q3: What's one concert you've attended that has had a lasting impact on your life? 

Probably Bobby McFerrin live at some New York venue the first time I visited the city in 2010. The way he uses his voice to translate his musicality will forever be my biggest musical goal. He totally changed the game of what a singer’s role is meant to be.

Q4: What's a specific skill/exercise/technique that has taken your singing to the next level?

Composition and arranging. Developing my composing skills has helped me in all areas from knowing how to arc my solos to understanding harmony and grooves on a deeper level than when I was just learning other songs. When you’re composing and in charge of everything, you really need to understand how different harmonic structures connect with each other and what effects the interval of a melody has by itself and in conjunction to the harmony & rhythm. Now when I improvise, I have a clearer understanding of what outcomes I want to have and how to achieve them just through my knowledge of composition. Improvisation is just sped up composing after all. 

Q5: If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self entering the music scene?

To have fun! I was so caught up in how much I needed to practice and grow. Often times this lead to forgetting to practice the playful side that’s necessary in music and taking music waay too seriously. Now I always try to find a balance between practicing technical things, fooling around and making sure my body is healthy. Crazy enough, this makes me more productive even though I spend less hours in the practice room.