Working With Vocal Coach, Brett Manning
Nashville Beginnings Moving in at the Top
When working in Nashville and anywhere else in the music business, one name that always comes up when speaking of vocal coaching is Brett Manning. He has trained many well-known music artists including Taylor Swift, Hayley Williams (Paramore), Keith Urban, Leona Lewis, Poppy, Luke Bryan, John Michael Montgomery, Lauren Mayberry, Miley Cyrus, TJ Harris, Wes Hampton, and Rob Chapman; just to name a few. Brett has also coached several Grammy and CMA Award winners, as well as recent Broadway casts of Les Misérables, Jekyll & Hyde, and Elton John’s Aida.
I was fortunate enough to have been able to work with him with one of my vocalists. My in, was a country crossover song I wrote, produced, then recorded in New York and LA, utilizing some of the guys from the American Idol Band in Hollywood. Bummed when I was told to release the track in the United Kingdom, I thought, “Well, that’s about all there is to that.” I thought that was their way of burying my music.
Then, remarkably, the track, If I leave, enjoyed success. It climbed to #1 on UK independent charts, which immediately gave me the extra piece of notoriety I needed to interface with someone like Brett. Sometimes success comes in the most unexpected and interesting packages. Speaking of interesting packages, let’s just identify the female vocalist on the track as someone I had to personally “untrain” from a Jessica Simpson Karaoke singer to someone with an original authentic voice. But I knew I could only train her so far. She would need a real vocal coach. Little did I realize I would get her introduced to one of the best in the country.
The song and self-produced Demo video appear below.
Brett, who does not just take on any clients, had no problem at all setting up regular sessions after speaking to me and hearing and in this case, seeing the track/video.
“Brett’s a really nice guy and very motivational,” I thought to myself.
And, you know what, he’s even nicer in real life. While living part-time in Nashville, the sessions with Brett continued and you meet some of the most interesting people along the way; Taylor Swift, Hayley Williams, Miley Cyrus, etc.
While in sessions we would often talk about other projects. Some of his current projects that I was lucky enough to get a glimpse into his training with Taylor Swift and Hayley Williams of Paramore. He was also “the guy” responsible for turning the hardcore Aussie, Keith Urban into a country boy from the South. His coaching remains nothing short of amazing.
But one of the most memorable was his work with Hayley. Here is Paramore’s music video, Decode with lead vocalist Hayley from the movie Twilight. Listen to the second verse especially, how she owns and trademarks the phrase, “boiling in my blood”.
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