Gary Numan used to think his voice was a “weak link” in his records.
The synth-pop pioneer admits he’s never seen himself as a singer and confessed he would mix his own vocals discreetly with backing singers on previous records because of his insecurity, until his wife, longtime Numanoid Gemma, drummed it into him that his fans love his “distinctive” voice.
Speaking to Classic Pop magazine for their Gary Numan special issue, he said: “I still don’t see myself as a singer, not in the classic sense of having range or control.
I don’t have any of that.
“When I met Gemma, she made me realise my voice has a distinctive sound that fans like. In my previous few albums, l’d minimise my vocals, getting in backing singers who were much better singers than me. I thought that was doing justice to the songs. I’d mix myself quietly to disguise myself, and Gemma taught me that was a mistake.
But it was hard for me to accept my voice has a unique quality, and we had many arguments about it. Honestly, I saw myself as the weak link in my records. I thought my songwriting was good, but my voice, the lack of musicianship, the way I played I thought that was the weakness and that I thought I was letting my career down by being in my own songs too much. That’s a very odd way of thinking when you’re a solo artist, and Gemma helped me to come through that. I haven’t come out of it thinking I’m anything special. I still don’t think I’m a great player or a great singer. But I accept that what I do is unique to me, and that made me start to use it: “This is what you’ve got, so do it as best you can.”
What’s more, the ‘Cars’ hitmaker says doing a fully acoustic tour boosted his “confidence”.
He continued: “What helped my confidence as a singer a lot was doing an acoustic tour last year.
With nothing to help me, I knew that every wrong note would be noticed. And that tour was fantastic. We barely put a foot wrong throughout the tour. All of us felt very exposed and vulnerable, so our concentration was 100 per cent every night.”
The 66-year-old musician can’t wait to see how his voice turns out on his new album – which is “devoted entirely” to artificial intelligence “and how it might impact humanity” – now he has more confidence.
He added: “Stripping everything back, all that was left was the tunes and the singer. For it to work the way it did was amazing for my confidence. I haven’t made an album since, so let’s see what it does for my voice on this record.”