Name: Theo Bleak
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, composer, producer
Nationality: Scottish
Current release: Theo Bleak's new EP Bad Luck Is Two Yellow Flowers is out via Polymoon.
Recommendation for Scotland: I would recommend someone to visit Broughty Ferry Beach, specifically next to the lifeboat house. The view over to Fife and the Tay Bridge is like nothing else.
Topic that I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: Philosophy- I have two degrees in philosophy, mainly interested in Phenomenology and the study of perception/experience. I just find any internal questioning of absurd concepts so comforting.

If you enjoyed this Theo Bleak interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her on Instagram, Medium, and Soundcloud.



When did you first consciously start getting interested in singing? What was your first performance as a singer on stage or in the studio and what was the experience like?

I started singing when I was so young. I used to copy songs I heard around me.

I became more serious about it when I was about 8 or 9, asking to join a local theatre group. I played Gretel in a production when I was around 10 and that’s the first time I sang in front of people.

Then I played in bands and things at school, but I kind of hated public performance for a long time, mainly because I worried I was uncool.

If you're also playing other instruments, how does the expressive potential of these compare to your own voice?

Nothing, for me, compares to singing. Maybe piano, if I can lose myself in it.

Sometimes when I’m singing and playing guitar I feel a bit of a frustration between the two and I can’t fully let go.

Singing is an integral part of all cultures, and traditions. Which of these do you draw from – and why?

It is a direct expression from one’s body.

It is not an extension of your emotions, it is your emotions.

What were some of the main challenges in your development as a singer/vocalist? Which practices, exercises, or teachers were most helpful in reaching your goals – were there also “harmful” ones?

I guess I listened too much to external influences. As in, I wanted my voice to be different than what it innately was, but as I’ve got older I’ve embraced the sound.

I also damaged my voice a bit by smoking when I was younger. However, I like how it is now, a bit dulled.

What are the things you hear in a voice when listening to a vocalist? What moves you in the voices of other singers?

Pain, rawness, imperfection.

How would you describe the physical sensation of singing? [Where do you feel the voice, do you have a visual sensation/representation, is there a sense of release or tension etc …]

I feel my voice in the front of my forehead and sometimes in my chest. I see it like a candle light.

We have a speaking voice and a singing voice. Do these feel like they are natural extensions of each other, ends on a spectrum or different in kind?

My speaking and singing voice feel so different to me.

I’m actually more shy of my speaking voice, which I cannot stand to hear.

As a singer, it is possible to whisper at the audience, scream at the audience, reveal deep secrets or confront them with uncomfortable truths. Tell me about the sense of freedom that singing allows you to express yourself and how you perceive and build the relation with the audience.

When you sing for people, when you’re lucky enough to, that is, it doesn’t feel silly to be brutally honest.

No feeling could compare to singing, to letting go of everything through my voice.

I'd love to know more about the vocal performances for your latest release, please, and the qualities of your voice that you wanted to bring to the fore.  

My more recent releases have definitely been more vocally maximist.

This was an unconscious decision but it aids the suppressed feel to the lyrical content.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

Yeah, I definitely think we paint meaning with delivery.

And in regard to songs of others, we interpret their words uniquely. I think sometimes I am left unsatisfied if I didn’t sing it as I intended it to be said.

How has technology, such as autotune or effect processing, impacted singing? Has it been a concrete influence on your own approach?

It’s influenced the general public’s ear way too much.

Real vocal performance has a lot of dynamic flux to it, and there are naturally imperfections. I worry people’s ear are pretty tuned into flawless takes now because of modern production techniques.

Vocal processing is of course important for recorded music but it can be done more organically.

Motherese may have been the origin of music, and singing is possibly the earliest form of musical expression, and culture in general. How connected is the human voice to your own sense of wellbeing, your creativity, and society as a whole?

My own voice, and the voices of others are my main source of comfort.

I think we can veil and portray ideas with singing that one might not otherwise say in daily life.