Fresh off latest single ‘Scared of Me’, Eon Awa shares years-old snippets showcasing the progression of his now-powerhouse vocals.
We simply couldn’t get enough of Eon Awa’s single ‘Scared of Me’ upon its release last month.
A feel-good, self-empowering anthem, the dance track saw the Switzerland-based artist revel in being at the peak of his game, but the journey to get there was a long one.
Below, Eon Awa swings by Happy to share with us the journey of his voice, from his high and bright tones at the age of 13 to his arrival in full form in 2024.
For extra measure, Awa even shared a new cover exclusively with us to showcase the development of his powerhouse vocals. Catch that vocal journey below, and scroll down to listen to Eon Awa’s latest single ‘Scared of Me’.
The Journey of my Voice
Dear reader,
I’m Eon Awa, artist and singer from Switzerland and I didn’t want to start this article by telling you that since I was a little child, I’ve always been singing non-stop and that it’s always been my way of expressing and processing my emotions.
Because that’s what every singer says when they get asked. But it’s true. So here we are. But of course, there is much, much more to my journey and relationship with my voice than only that – and I’m here to talk about it.
I want to talk about the voice as a muscle and as a very technical instrument, about the changes it goes through and how they affect us as singers.
This is a quite rarely discussed topic, taking in account how incredibly important and defining vocal anatomy and condition is regarding vocal capability, range and vocal health.
I would go as far as saying that the things we praise most about the greatest of singers, are almost entirely shaped by the condition or/and the anatomy of their vocal cords.
Being a cis-man and going through puberty I experienced first-hand how drastically vocal condition and anatomy influences the way we’re able to sing. And I’m not just talking about range.
Of course, due to puberty, my voice got lower. But it was way more than just my vocal range that changed. In a way, I had to completely re-learn my own voice.
Before I get too nerdy about this, let’s make it more tangible and take a listen to a 13- year-old me singing “Let It Go” from Disney’s “Frozen”:
As you can hear, my voice was high and bright. I never really faced any vocal issues, and I was easily able to tap into the whistle register even. It was very reliable. Head and chest voice were one.
I was free to play with melody and range as I pleased with seemingly no limitations. Mind you at that age I’d never had any kind of professional vocal training. At around 16 years of age my voice started to change.
For some guys, it happens quickly, one week and their voice goes from boy to man. In my case the transformation took almost three years to fully complete. My voice gradually got lower and lower.
There were times when I was recording a song in a key that fit, and then two weeks later it was suddenly too high, and I had to lower the whole arrangement.
Slowly my head voice started to get thinner, and I started to adapt some questionable vocal techniques because I wasn’t ready to give up my heights.
My voice started to get quite unreliable, especially in the upper register. One day it was easy to sing the highest notes, another day almost nothing came out.
Of course, most of these issues were caused by my voice constantly changing due to hormones, you all know how kids sound during puberty.
The “Let It Go”-recording you already heard was the first ever song me and my friend Ben recorded and released together. To honour this and to see much we’ve grown as musicians, we recorded an updated version in 2016. I was 17 then.
In the 2013 version the verse was LOW for me. In 2016, that same verse was too high for me to sing comfortably so we changed the key. That’s how much my voice had already changed.
What I noticed the most was that the transition between my head and chest voice had changed completely. It now had this harsh break, and I couldn’t smoothly blend my high and low notes anymore. In 2019 I took my first voice lessons.
I have to say, I don’t think my teacher and I were a match. And admittedly I probably gave her a pretty hard time because I didn’t really trust her instructions.
I used to be able to do pretty much everything with my voice, so how could my technique suddenly be that oH? But she did me a favour by recommending going to speech therapy because she thought something was wrong with my voice.
Aside from my vocal issues, I constantly had pressure on my ears and after finally going to an Ear Nose Throat Doctor I found out that I was allergic to dust, pollen and cats.
We have two cats at home… Additionally, the doctor detected a Vocal Cord Closure Insufficiency, meaning that my vocal cords weren’t closing properly. He too recommended speech therapy to work on this issue.
I took the advice. It helped me a lot. After around one year of speech therapy, I found a new vocal coach. With her, I started to rebuild my thin and unreliable head voice from scratch.
Two years of vocal training later I felt well prepared to continue working on my voice by myself again. In 2023 I found a new vocal coach and I’m now taking lessons occasionally, while of course constantly working on my voice on my own.
If you made it this far, my dear reader, I’ve got a little surprise for you. I recorded a 2024 version of “Let it Go” exclusively for this article and for myself, to see how far I’ve come since 2016:
Thank you so much for taking your time to read my story, I sincerely appreciate it! I wish you the best on whichever journey you’re on right now and I hope to see you someday soon in one of my videos, my music or maybe even at a live show.
