

But I had never done any proper vocal warm-ups. I even knew what projection was - you sort of making the voice big and filling a room with it. So I was, you know, somewhat - I could carry a tune.


I played piano in coffeehouses in college. I had been singing since high school just kind of casually. Had you done any singing?ĬOLAPINTO: I had, actually. And the publisher, Jann Wenner, is putting together sort of an ad-hoc rock band for a big staff party and asks you to be the lead singer. Well, John Colapinto, welcome back to FRESH AIR.ĭAVIES: I thought we would begin with the story that you tell in the book early, when you're 41 years old, I think, working at Rolling Stone magazine. He's the author of the bestselling nonfiction book "As Nature Made Him" and the novel "About The Author." He joined me from his home in New York City last year to talk about his book, "This Is The Voice," which is now out in paperback. John Colapinto is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker. Colapinto argues that the development of our prehistoric ancestors' vocal structures may have been the key to humans becoming the dominant species on the planet. And he became interested in the voice, which is the subject of new book, "This Is The Voice." It's an exploration of the astonishing complexity of our vocal apparatus - how we form words, how babies learn to speak, how accents arise and how different kinds of voices affect us, which ones sound authoritative or sexually appealing or politically persuasive. Our guest, writer John Colapinto, has had his own experience with that, which you'll soon hear about. And in doing so, we can damage our voices. And we talk all the time - on the phone, in the office, on street corners. There are a lot of things we take for granted, and among them are our voices.
