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MixDown Magazine – February 2010
The vocal range known as baritone is the most common in males. Michael Hutchence was a baritone that managed to transcend the pitfalls of middle register that many baritones fall into by being creative and using the strengths of his voice. Unfortunately no one ever talks about the amazing vocal ability of Michael Hutchence. He was one of very few singers who had the ability to project like a tenor into the nose bleed seats without having the range.
Usually his strange death, drugs, and the whole Paula Yates bullshit is how people remember him. I say fuck that! He was one really amazing singer, who fronted one of Australia’s greatest ever bands. Amazing singers don’t always fall into the Aretha, Freddie Mercury and Jeff Buckley category. They are amazing for the various reasons. Michael Hutchence was a baritone. This basically means he couldn’t sing as high as Bono but sounded way cooler in a lower register and had that sex in his voice that guys like Steven Tyler can only dream about. Male singers with this kind of range will often struggle to find a key that can really project into a big audience. It’s hard to be constantly singing in their upper register song after song or to start a verse in an upper register and then take it up a notch for an even bigger dynamic shift in the chorus. This is especially hard when you’re singing in a dance/rock/pop/funk band and you need to make people move. Michael Hutchence and the songs of INXS really fucking made people move, just check out the Live Baby Live DVD from Wembley.
So, how did Michael Hutchence do this and what made him so good? It was a few things, complete vocal control, excellent vocal phrasing, great diction, a keen understanding of dynamics, amazing melodies, and singing with passion. He had amazing control of this whole range. Listen to his duet with Jimmy Barnes, Good Times. Hutch takes the low parts and Barnes is always screaming up in the heavens. Both vocals really work well with each other and their varying ranges are complimentary. A the song moves on Hutch starts to get right up there but all the while remains in complete control. When a singer with this kind of range is in his upper register and his vocal remains clean (with a bit of rock grunt) it’s difficult but the effect is amazing. It’s a huge full voice with a deep resonance that is rare.
He also had the ability to project his voice when almost only whispering. This was due to his great control and excellent phrasing. Listen to Need You Tonight, for most of the song he is singing at a low volume (almost a whisper) in a low register and at the end of each line he brings up register and volume to great effect. He was also fortunate to have an amazing band that accented any of the vocal hooks in his melodies which gave them that even greater dynamic effect.
Hutch had an excellent falsetto and great control when blending his falsetto with his full voice, a perfect example of this is Disappear. The falsetto verses are ethereal and angelic with an underlying muscle that transcend unnoticeably at the end of the verse into the big four to the floor chorus which leads back out to the do, do, do’s with perfection.
The man could also wail like a Diva and flow through scales with ease. He did this not to show off his amazing vocal abilities but he used it for the song and this always gave the songs that relaxed feel which never made them feel rigid or over rehearsed. This is a huge reason for their excellent shelf life and timeless sound. If you are having trouble breathing life into some of your band’s songs and give them that mark, a healthy dose of INXS should give you some tips.
Kostas Linardos
mixd...@beat.com.au
