Speaker 1: Pushkin. Yeah. Well, like I said, let me ask you
Speaker 1: a question. Do you warm up before you do the shows?
Speaker 1: Of course not. I don't even know what that looks like.
Speaker 1: Well I'll show you because that is important, you know.
Speaker 1: And as I'm saying that, of course, the little voice
Speaker 1: at the back of my mind is saying, you don't
Speaker 1: warm up air. Why are you telling her she should? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you because you really should. Yes, no one
Speaker 1: I will do it. Say say this, say um seven
Speaker 1: times in a row. Go me may me, may me,
Speaker 1: may me, may me, may me, may me, may me,
Speaker 1: me me me me me me me me me me
Speaker 1: me me may good. So I would say to you,
Speaker 1: take a little bit deeper breath so you don't think
Speaker 1: about running out of air as you're doing it. So
Speaker 1: now do it again with a deeper breath. Me me
Speaker 1: me me me me me me me me me me
Speaker 1: me Hey, Slight Changers. That's Eric Fetro. He's a vocal
Speaker 1: coach to some of the most famous pop stars in
Speaker 1: the world, and you just heard him giving me some
Speaker 1: tips for how to keep my voice fresh. For a
Speaker 1: slight change of plans, Eric shares his secret sauce from
Speaker 1: making the stars shine on his new Pushkin show, Backstage Pass,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to invite him on to talk about
Speaker 1: the inspiration for his show. Eric, I'm so delighted to
Speaker 1: have you on a slight change of plans to talk
Speaker 1: about Backstage Pass, and I want to give you a
Speaker 1: little backstage glimpse into the first time that I heard
Speaker 1: about you. So we have a mutual friend Michael Lewis,
Speaker 1: and I was at his home for a dinner and
Speaker 1: he said, Hey, Maya, I'm I'm doing this really cool
Speaker 1: new thing for my podcast. I'm actually learning how to sing.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, Michael, stay in your lane, buddy, all right,
Speaker 1: Like come on. I was worried that he was having
Speaker 1: some sort of Michael Jordan basketball to baseball pivot. I
Speaker 1: was like, writings to Forte, you're crushing it, like whatever.
Speaker 1: But then he said, no, no, no no, no, this is
Speaker 1: like legit. I'm working with Eric Fetro, who has coached
Speaker 1: people like Arianna Grande and Shawn Mendez and John Legend
Speaker 1: and my ears Perkuck because I'm a pop star fanatic.
Speaker 1: But then my second thought is leave it to Michael
Speaker 1: Lewis for his first voice lesson ever in the world
Speaker 1: to be with the best voice teacher of all time,
Speaker 1: like of course, right, And so I listened to the
Speaker 1: voice coaching episode that you did with him, and it
Speaker 1: was enchanting. I mean, it was so delightful, first of all,
Speaker 1: to see my friend whose vocal abilities I had very
Speaker 1: much underestimated. No offense, Michael, he and I share poor
Speaker 1: vocal ability, but yeah, it was such a delight to
Speaker 1: see your petagagy shine through, you know. And I was
Speaker 1: so delighted when I found out that Pushkin was going
Speaker 1: to make this into a show, you know. So that's
Speaker 1: how I heard about you. And as you know, I'm
Speaker 1: a huge fan of your show. But I would love
Speaker 1: it if you could just share with listeners more about
Speaker 1: the inspiration for Backstage Pass from your perspective. Oh okay, Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, thank you so much for that intro,
Speaker 1: and you know, I would love to before I talk
Speaker 1: about Backstage Pass, just say to you your podcast is
Speaker 1: so brilliant and so important. I mean, I'll just tell
Speaker 1: you personally from me, I've seen a lot of people
Speaker 1: have to pivot in their life because something happens. And
Speaker 1: I know your story that you injured your hand, but
Speaker 1: that changed you from having a career as a violinist, right,
Speaker 1: And so I remember when I heard about your podcast,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, I have to listen
Speaker 1: to this. This is amazing. And when I went to NYU,
Speaker 1: I was a music major NYU. There was somebody at
Speaker 1: the music school who was just not a very nice person.
Speaker 1: He just was always angry. And at one point I
Speaker 1: realized he seemed angriest that people who played the piano,
Speaker 1: and that seemed odd to me. And one day I
Speaker 1: was talking to somebody and I said, you know, he
Speaker 1: is so nasty. I just don't like him. He so mean.
Speaker 1: And they said, well, you know after what happened to him,
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, I don't. I don't know what
Speaker 1: happened to him. He was on a real path. He
Speaker 1: was a very, very gifted pianist, and he was on
Speaker 1: his way to becoming a major concert pianist. And the
Speaker 1: irony of the fact that he was at his piano
Speaker 1: teach his apartment and there was an accident and the
Speaker 1: nerves of both hands were severed and he could never
Speaker 1: play again. And they said, so you just got to
Speaker 1: cut him some slack. And and I did, you know,
Speaker 1: have a lot of empathy for him. I couldn't imagine
Speaker 1: how awful that must have been, and how dramatic and
Speaker 1: all of that. But by the same token I used
Speaker 1: to always think in my head, but he could have
Speaker 1: turned that into, you know, being more empathetic to people
Speaker 1: and kinder to people and do something else. Why does
Speaker 1: he have to be so mean? So when I heard
Speaker 1: your show, it immediately brought I hadn't thought about him
Speaker 1: or that for years, but I thought about it. I thought,
Speaker 1: this is a brilliant show because it really shows people
Speaker 1: that sometimes we're spun into a different direction can be
Speaker 1: a much better direction that really puts our life on
Speaker 1: a much better, richer path. So anyway, my hat's off
Speaker 1: to you. It's really a great podcast and I love it.
Speaker 1: So I just have to say that, get it out
Speaker 1: the way saying that it's amazing. Yeah. Anyway, so backstage
Speaker 1: pass all because of our friend Michael Lewis. You know,
Speaker 1: I was talking to him one day and said, you know,
Speaker 1: I'd like to write a book and include some of
Speaker 1: my experiences with my students, what I've learned from them,
Speaker 1: what they've learned from me, but what we've seen that
Speaker 1: happens as you're going along in life, you know, because
Speaker 1: careers take on oh so many different aspects that you
Speaker 1: would never even dream of when you're just like a
Speaker 1: music student in school or taking voice lessons. You just
Speaker 1: don't know what's involved and building a big career and
Speaker 1: maintaining your voice and tainting the career. And he but
Speaker 1: I never wanted to write that because that would be
Speaker 1: an infringement on my personal relationship with them, you know.
Speaker 1: So I just thought, well, that doesn't feel right, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to go to them and say, can
Speaker 1: I talk about this incident or can I talk about that?
Speaker 1: And he said, Eric, everything you're talking about really should
Speaker 1: be a podcast. And I realized, oh, yeah, if they're
Speaker 1: talking about it and they're saying it, then it's okay
Speaker 1: because it's their choice, it's their words, it's their voice.
Speaker 1: And so that's what really got me excited about doing it.
Speaker 1: And the other thing was that each person I called
Speaker 1: said almost the exact same thing Arianna Sean Kabila. All
Speaker 1: of them said, Wow, I wish I had this when
Speaker 1: I was younger. I wish I could have heard pop
Speaker 1: stars that I looked up to, or artists of any
Speaker 1: kind songwriter as an artist talking about what it took
Speaker 1: for them to get there or what it is, you know.
Speaker 1: Just even John Legend talking about what he eats before
Speaker 1: a performance, that's really helpful to people to go, oh,
Speaker 1: let me try that, let me do that, you know.
Speaker 1: And I'm hoping that in their stories, even though it's
Speaker 1: about them in their career and it's a vocal career,
Speaker 1: that it's inspiring to anybody who's listening to go, well,
Speaker 1: if these people who have a lot of talent, let's
Speaker 1: face it. I mean, Arianna Grande was born with a
Speaker 1: beautiful voice. But if you find out that she is
Speaker 1: working at it so hard, so many hours, thinking about
Speaker 1: it all day before she goes on stage performing, she
Speaker 1: doesn't just wake up and sing, She really works at it.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that will be inspirational to everybody listening whatever
Speaker 1: their career is, to go, oh, I'm going to put
Speaker 1: in more time and effort into my own career. So
Speaker 1: I'm hoping it's inspirational on that level. Yeah, I couldn't
Speaker 1: agree more. And one thing that really resonated with me
Speaker 1: about the show is that it does transcend the specifics
Speaker 1: of voice and music. It's really about perseverance when it
Speaker 1: comes to achieving our long term goals. And it's so
Speaker 1: top of mind for me right now because actually the
Speaker 1: episode that will follow this promo for your show is
Speaker 1: an intern I did with Professor Angela Duckworth, and she's
Speaker 1: made an entire career out of studying grit and what
Speaker 1: it takes to really get to these elite levels. And
Speaker 1: what you find is that, like you said exactly, talent
Speaker 1: will only get you so far. The sustained focus and
Speaker 1: deliberate practice and attention and care and you know, Ariana
Speaker 1: Grande whatever taking vocal rests when she wants to be
Speaker 1: hanging out with her friends. You know, like just constant
Speaker 1: management of your faculties. I mean, I think that's basically
Speaker 1: a core part of every person who achieves world class
Speaker 1: levels and anything. And society is so seduced by raw talent.
Speaker 1: We we love the idea, oh she just has a
Speaker 1: special something about her. Oh he's got it. He's a natural.
Speaker 1: But then what your show is doing is it's pulling
Speaker 1: back the curtain and saying, Okay, sure they got a
Speaker 1: bit of a headstart because they've certainly, well they got
Speaker 1: a lot of a headstart because they've got remarkable talent. However,
Speaker 1: when you look at the grit behind the scenes, I mean,
Speaker 1: you will never say that they had an easy rise
Speaker 1: to the top, not at all. And to find out,
Speaker 1: you know, even like the episode with John Legend, you
Speaker 1: know he has been successful for so many years doing
Speaker 1: concerts and recordings and everything else. The fact that he's
Speaker 1: taking voice lessons now to improve and to be able
Speaker 1: to maintain his voice, to me, that's so inspirational. That
Speaker 1: says anybody in whatever field they're doing, we need to
Speaker 1: stay on top of it. We need to keep ourselves
Speaker 1: up with If you're a doctor, you want to keep
Speaker 1: up with all the medical advances that are being made.
Speaker 1: You can't just go, oh, I learned that in college
Speaker 1: and then that's it. I don't need to study anything
Speaker 1: else or learn anything else. And so that's what I'm
Speaker 1: hoping that it really anybody listening goes, oh, wow, these
Speaker 1: people are doing that and they're reaching that high level
Speaker 1: of success. How can I apply that in my own life?
Speaker 1: You know? You know, Eric, you have such an intimate
Speaker 1: relationship with these stars and it comes through in the
Speaker 1: vulnerability that they show on backstage pass And I want
Speaker 1: to know, what's something new that you feel you learned
Speaker 1: from some of your guests that actually had never come
Speaker 1: through in the friendships that you had shared with them,
Speaker 1: or the you know, the voice lessons you had had,
Speaker 1: but that only became present when you're recording the show.
Speaker 1: You know, there's not so much that I've learned as
Speaker 1: much as it's reinforced or reminded me of you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I'm so much in the present.
Speaker 1: I try to really stay in the present moment, what's
Speaker 1: going on, what's going on with someone's voice right now,
Speaker 1: that sometimes I don't think about the past. And so
Speaker 1: when I've been talking these people, you know, who are
Speaker 1: my students, and we've been through a lot together and
Speaker 1: they bring up things from the past, it triggers a
Speaker 1: lot of memories in me and I go, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we really have come a long way. So that I'm
Speaker 1: looking at them where they are right now, what's going
Speaker 1: on with their voice, and how to help them right
Speaker 1: now this moment for the future. But when they talk
Speaker 1: about things in the past, it's really renewed all of
Speaker 1: that feeling of oh, wow, we really accomplished a lot
Speaker 1: and did so much together. And it's such a great
Speaker 1: feeling because they'll say thank you, I couldn't have done
Speaker 1: this without you, and I always go, well, but it's you,
Speaker 1: your talent. Without your talent, without your dedication, without you
Speaker 1: working hard, you wouldn't have gotten here. But when they
Speaker 1: bring it up and say it, then it really it
Speaker 1: makes my heart sing. I really get excited by that
Speaker 1: because it's it's a wonderful feeling to know how appreciative
Speaker 1: they are. You know, Sean Mendez referred to you as
Speaker 1: his therapist first and foremost right and in the interview
Speaker 1: you did with him, And what do you think it
Speaker 1: is about the voice that ends up fostering such an
Speaker 1: intimate relationship between voice coach and student. Well, I think
Speaker 1: it's there's a couple of reasons why that happens. One
Speaker 1: is that you are vulnerable with your voice, you know,
Speaker 1: because especially if you're a singer or you're an artist,
Speaker 1: and you really that's what you want to do with
Speaker 1: your career, that's what you want to do with your life.
Speaker 1: That's your instrument, and it's really valuable to you because
Speaker 1: it becomes everything to you. It's not only your way
Speaker 1: of communicating with your friends and family, but it's communication
Speaker 1: with the world you know, and your voice you get
Speaker 1: so because you hear it all the time. We are
Speaker 1: hearing our voice constantly, and people who perform hear it
Speaker 1: not only in their head but on recordings, They watch
Speaker 1: themselves on videos, so they're constantly aware of how their
Speaker 1: voice sounds and they want it to sound the best
Speaker 1: they can. So when they're working with someone who can
Speaker 1: help them with that and help them improve it, I
Speaker 1: think you become bonded in a way that they're not
Speaker 1: going to be bonded with everybody else. They'll be bonded
Speaker 1: with other people in different ways, but we have a
Speaker 1: special bond that they're not going to share with anybody
Speaker 1: else because no one will be as invested in their
Speaker 1: voice taking care of their voice and improving the voice
Speaker 1: as much as I am. And then I think also
Speaker 1: when you spend a lot of time with people, you know,
Speaker 1: some of these people I see quite often, like when
Speaker 1: they're on tour, I'll see them every single day of
Speaker 1: the tour on FaceTime, usually mostly on FaceTime, where we're
Speaker 1: not just talking about their voice, but what's going on
Speaker 1: in their life that's affecting their voice. You know, well,
Speaker 1: I had a hard day because there's such and such
Speaker 1: happened or you know, they're human beings and things happen
Speaker 1: to them. Breakups happen, arguments happen, fights, disappointments, all of that,
Speaker 1: and that all affects our voice, you know, it really does.
Speaker 1: You know, even if you have to tell someone, let's
Speaker 1: say you have to tell someone something very difficult, you
Speaker 1: might get that lump in your throat and it's hard
Speaker 1: to even speak. Well, they might have gone through that
Speaker 1: minutes before. Now we're warming enough to do a show,
Speaker 1: and so we have to figure out a way to
Speaker 1: get by it. So I'm always kind of talking and
Speaker 1: guiding them through that as well. And you become a
Speaker 1: listening board as well, which you know what therapist does.
Speaker 1: The therapist listens a lot, and then you know sometimes
Speaker 1: is able to offer good advice, helpful advice. So I
Speaker 1: think that's what really bonds us together. Yeah, our voices
Speaker 1: are so entangled with our our day to day lives
Speaker 1: and our emotional states and and everything we're bringing to
Speaker 1: the table um. You know, in my own life, I
Speaker 1: will say I I had always taken my voice for granted,
Speaker 1: never even really thought about it, And then I think
Speaker 1: it was just a couple of years ago, I started
Speaker 1: having a lot of vocal strain and um, I was
Speaker 1: getting pain in my vocal chords. I was I was
Speaker 1: struggling to talk. I was hearing some of the at
Speaker 1: times some of the rasp in my voice. And I
Speaker 1: saw and hear nose and throat doctor, and I saw
Speaker 1: a speech therapist and they diagnosed me with being so
Speaker 1: excited when I talk, I forget to breathe. So that's
Speaker 1: a thing. So I with with a therapist for weeks.
Speaker 1: Um I had to re train myself and learn better
Speaker 1: vocal habits, learn how to take breaths and pauses. And
Speaker 1: I learned so much about about my voice from that experience,
Speaker 1: and how my voice was something that actually had to
Speaker 1: be nurtured. And it's so interesting. It's like there were
Speaker 1: times where I couldn't speak at all. There are times
Speaker 1: where I had to be extremely judicious with what I
Speaker 1: said for the first time ever. Usually I'm just stream
Speaker 1: of consciousness, flow right, And for the first time ever,
Speaker 1: I had to be like, wait, is this worth saying?
Speaker 1: And so that was a filter that that my thoughts
Speaker 1: had to go through. But then secondly, when I was speaking,
Speaker 1: I was speaking in this like very meditative calm way.
Speaker 1: My voice was a little bit, you know, slower paced,
Speaker 1: and I felt like there was this doppel ganger version
Speaker 1: of Maya out there that was roaming the streets that
Speaker 1: everybody was misunderstanding. They were like wow. People would say like, Maya,
Speaker 1: you have such a calming presence, like you're you seem
Speaker 1: so grounded and centered, and I was like, no, I'm not.
Speaker 1: This is just me practicing my voice therapists preaches, and
Speaker 1: so it also helped me realize how foundational the way
Speaker 1: that I'm able to express myself to the world is
Speaker 1: in terms of conveying my personality and my natural exuberance
Speaker 1: and what have you. So it's been a struggle. I mean,
Speaker 1: I still have issues with vocal fatigue. I'm not a singer.
Speaker 1: I'm not operating at high levels of anything, but my
Speaker 1: voice is really something that I need to protect and
Speaker 1: take care of every day. It's this beautiful gift that
Speaker 1: I've been given. Yeah, well, first of all, we need
Speaker 1: to do a lesson so I can help you with
Speaker 1: some of those things, because you shouldn't be experiencing pain
Speaker 1: or anything else. So we'll do that. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that the key and all of it is you know,
Speaker 1: I always say to my students, let's work on your
Speaker 1: technique and our lessons and then all of our warmups.
Speaker 1: But when you get out on stage, I don't want
Speaker 1: you to think about any of that. You work on
Speaker 1: the technique before that, you know, so that it just
Speaker 1: gets in your body and then you don't have to
Speaker 1: think about it when you're actually speaking, because that is
Speaker 1: going to be a hindrance between you and your audience
Speaker 1: if you're thinking about it. You know, Oh, I better
Speaker 1: stay a little more calm, speak a little lower, take
Speaker 1: a deeper breath. You know, listeners know that is not
Speaker 1: my style. Yeah, I'm a listener, so I know that.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much to Eric Vitro for coming on a
Speaker 1: slight Change of Plants to talk about his new show.
Speaker 1: I wanted to leave you all with a preview of
Speaker 1: backstage Pass. In this clip, singer songwriter Sean Mendez talks
Speaker 1: about getting out of his own head and letting go
Speaker 1: of his anxiety. I think the hardest part of singing
Speaker 1: is getting out of your own way, is dropping the
Speaker 1: ego and like just being a kid about it. Like
Speaker 1: when you're a kid, you just sing. When you're an adult,
Speaker 1: you're like singing, but at the same time also like
Speaker 1: critiquing and judging and like afraid. And one of the
Speaker 1: most amazing leaps we made as a duo was the
Speaker 1: day I was like realizing. I was like, not letting
Speaker 1: you tell me what the real objective thing was because
Speaker 1: I was so afraid and so anxious, and I was like, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, yeah, yeah, I don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear that. I wasn't listening to
Speaker 1: my teacher. I was like, I just have to get
Speaker 1: through it out of so much anxiety. And then you're like,
Speaker 1: I really think you should trust me. That was not
Speaker 1: long ago, I know, And I feel like once I
Speaker 1: really like started to just like trust you and trust
Speaker 1: the process and trust me, and my voice started to
Speaker 1: open up more. Not only your voice, but don't you
Speaker 1: feel better as a human being? I mean, like I said,
Speaker 1: it's parallel to like to life in general. I love
Speaker 1: when we are just like cruising, Like I think for me,
Speaker 1: it's become a meditation too, because I put my phone
Speaker 1: down for an hour, I just basically have headphones and
Speaker 1: I can only hear you in the piano, and I
Speaker 1: can be so focused on just the notes and my
Speaker 1: breathing and very present in my body, and you and
Speaker 1: I are very just zoned in and calm. It's a
Speaker 1: beautiful experience. I find a lot of the time I
Speaker 1: end up leaving the vocal essent calmer. The whole thing
Speaker 1: was a very zen moment, even in the silence when
Speaker 1: we're breathing. I love those moments because that feels like
Speaker 1: the only hour of the day where things move that
Speaker 1: slow and carefree. Oh wow. Yeah, when people can let go,
Speaker 1: it makes all the difference in the world. And like
Speaker 1: you said, be able to open your mind and go
Speaker 1: all right, So tell me what to do and I'll
Speaker 1: do it, and I'll trust it. Because if you can't
Speaker 1: trust your teacher, then who can you really trust totally?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think singers are so emotionally attached to
Speaker 1: their voice that sometimes we'll be backstage at an award show.
Speaker 1: We'll spend you know, fifteen twenty minutes warming up and
Speaker 1: then another forty minutes just talking about the heart and
Speaker 1: calming down and getting into the right frame of mind
Speaker 1: to be a to do this. Even in our lessons,
Speaker 1: you end up accomplishing more when you're in the right
Speaker 1: frame of mind than doing an hour worth of scales,
Speaker 1: stressed out and frustrated, and I think being a vocal
Speaker 1: coach it's much more than going through scales with someone.
Speaker 1: I always call Eric my vocal coach slash therapist, because
Speaker 1: you're never like just doing one thing. That's what you are.
Speaker 1: In my phone. Your bio is voice teacher's last therapist. Well,
Speaker 1: someone did say in an interview once I was their
Speaker 1: vocal life coach, It's true, you really are. I love
Speaker 1: that phrase, vocal life coach. I thought that was one
Speaker 1: of the biggest compliments I'd ever gotten, because my lessons
Speaker 1: aren't always about vocal placement. Sometimes the most important thing
Speaker 1: is helping a student get mentally ready for a show.
Speaker 1: Something that helps me a lot is that I say
Speaker 1: to myself before vocal lesson. I say to myself before
Speaker 1: a performance at the Grammys that this is just play.
Speaker 1: It's art, this is music, is love, this is something
Speaker 1: that was created to make people feel. It sounds crazy,
Speaker 1: but sometimes the pressure and a vocal lesson that I
Speaker 1: put on myself is equivalent to the pressure backstage at
Speaker 1: the Grammys, and it's because they're the same thing. To me.
Speaker 1: You've got to sound perfect, working on that on kind
Speaker 1: of toning that perfectionism down has been a really big
Speaker 1: part of my life. Yeah. I would actually say, you're
Speaker 1: more nervous Dan our voice lessons than you are at
Speaker 1: award shows. Yeah, totally. At an award show you kind
Speaker 1: of have no choice. But at a voice lesson, I
Speaker 1: can be like, I can't do this, I can't do
Speaker 1: this today, and then I get more nervous. I can
Speaker 1: psych myself out a little bit more. I'm already I'm
Speaker 1: even sitting here right now being like I'm talking too much.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be tired for our vocal lesson in
Speaker 1: an hour. So I find even if I'm doing a lesson,
Speaker 1: the thing that helps me the most is that if
Speaker 1: I'm three warmups in and I'm starting to feel myself
Speaker 1: get that perfectionist kind of vibe going on, my tunnel
Speaker 1: vision is going in, I just kind of shake my
Speaker 1: body like crazy and I go I'll start like whatever,
Speaker 1: like to like laugh, to get myself out of that
Speaker 1: little thing. It's like snapping myself out before I go
Speaker 1: into that perfectionist place. I say to myself in that moment,
Speaker 1: it's just fun. This is just play. Let's just have fun.
Speaker 1: You know. That was a clip from Backstage Pass with
Speaker 1: Eric Vitro. You can listen to more episodes of Backstage
Speaker 1: Pass wherever you get your podcasts. By the way, I
Speaker 1: broke my car, my own card no rule this morning
Speaker 1: by having cream in my coffee, which always causes a
Speaker 1: lot of phlegm and mucus. And I did it to myself.
Speaker 1: But it was a little bit Eric. It was worth it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it was so good and coffee too
Speaker 1: this morning. And me is I have cream in my
Speaker 1: coffee every day? Well, I do way too often. I
Speaker 1: have way too often.