One of the first things that jumps out about Childish Gambino's adventurous new album "Awaken, My Love!" is the wide array of vocal styles that he employs throughout the project. On first listen, it sounds as though each song uses new vocal pitching techniques, but Donald Glover revealed that wasn't the case in a new interview with triple j.
"There wasn't a ton of vocal stuff done," Glover says. "I think people hear 'Redbone' and are like 'Oh, he pitched up his vocals,' but there was no vocal pitching on the album—I just sang differently."
The statement was confirmed by the album's co-producer (and longtime Gambino collaborator) Ludwig Goransson, who told Billboard, "I heard him sing a lot of stuff I'd never heard him physically been able to sing before. We didn't pitch his voice; that's all him singing. And a couple songs, like 'Stand Tall' for example, that was all one take with his vocals."
Glover also revealed that that the album wasn't the most enjoyable project to create, adding, “To be completely honest, it wasn’t a lot of fun, it was actually really hard. I was going through a lot and I also think in America we’re going through a lot right now with everything that’s going on, so I was just trying to play what I felt, but I was doing it with friends, so at the end of the day, that’s what matters.”
Listen to the full radio interview below.
