M Cross Tear Sheet

T H E H I G H LY A C C L A I M E D G U I D E T O E X T R E M E V O C A L S
VOCAL INS TRUCTION FOR A NEW BREED

Melissa Cross Vocal Studio ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522 251 west 30th St. Suite 11RE • New York, NY 10001 melissa@melissacross.com visit www.melissacross.com for more infoo
“THE BIBLE FOR ANY EXTREME VOCALIST.
DON’T OPEN YOUR MOUTH ‘TIL YOU’VE SEEN THIS DVD.”
Tom Beaujour, Revolver Magazine
“I’M TELLING EVERYONE ABOUT IT...”

Corey Taylor, SliPKnoT
“DON’T YOU WANT TO BE SCREAMING

LIKE EVERYBODY’S DEMON?”
Andrew W.K.
“Turn your vocal cords into power chords!

Raise your voice without shredding your throat.”
Mike Gitter, Director of A&R, Roadrunner Records
“She totally knows what’s up.”

Brian Fair, Shadows Fall
“At the core of her lesson is a fistful of breathing

and vocal exercises that definitely
aren’t on the Julliard curriculum.”
Entertainment Weekly
View the “Zen of Screaming” video shorts on MTV2!

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REVOLVER
#36 June, 2005
Entertainment
Weekly
#830 July 22, 2005
Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
251 west 30th St. Suite 11RE • New York, NY 10001
melissa@melissacross.com
visit www.melissacross.com for more infoo
KERRANG
Issue #1033, 2005
RHYTHM
BULGARIA
October, 2005
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PENTHOUSE
April, 2006
The Zen of Screaming

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
AMERICAN WAY November 1st, 2006
MAGAZINE
BEST JOB EVER:
‘EXTREME VOCALS INSTRUCTOR’
HELPS SCREAMERS PRESERVE
THEIR PIPES
02.15.2006 “I am the only teacher I know of who makes a concerted effort to
deal with extreme vocals," she said. “Once one of these artists is on
Melissa Cross’ clients include singers for Slipknot, my roster, they can call me whenever they need me. They don’t show
Thursday, Lamb of God, Shadows Fall. up for lessons each week, but they’re in my circle, and we commu-
Melissa Cross nicate about any problems they have. A lot of these guys are very
Photo: Ilian Penev busy, so I only get them when they’re in between tours and albums."
Name: Melissa Cross
Cross works side by side with her screaming students inside her
Age: 49 Manhattan studio space, and together — with a little ProTools help
Job: Extreme vocals instructor — they record a CD of each lesson that the singer can bring on tour.
Location: The Melissa Cross Vocal Studio in New York That CD serves as a pre-gig primer. “They’ll practice with it wherev-
er they go," she said, adding that she’s never taught any of her big-
Her Story: During the late 1980s, Melissa Cross was onstage at New York name students how to scream. “Most of the guys I work with already
club CBGB with her punk band Bibi Wa Moto ("woman of fire” in knew how to scream. I needed to teach them how to do it without
Swahili). With one bloodcurdling scream, she nearly destroyed her throwing out their vocal cords, so they don’t mess up their throats
voice. Doctors told Cross the damage to her cords wasn’t perma- when they do what they do."
nent, but they prescribed six months of vocal rest.
How She Got Here: Fed up after brief stints working 9-to-5 jobs
Cross, who’d received classical voice training at Michigan’s at record labels and in entertainment lawyers’ offices, Cross decid-
Interlochen Arts Academy and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in ed to give teaching a whirl. Despite being a fan of the genre, she
“MOST OF THE GUYS I WORK WITH ALREADY KNEW HOW TO

SCREAM. I NEEDED TO TEACH THEM HOW TO DO IT WITHOUT
THROWING OUT THEIR VOCAL CORDS.” — MELISSA CROSS
England, couldn’t believe she’d taken the techniques she had said she didn’t set out on a mission to revolutionize extreme-vocal
learned and tossed them in the trash with one passionate act of instruction — the extreme vocalists came to her.
aggression.
“It started in the mid-1990s, when the genre was smaller," she
The mother of one and lover of all things metal spent those six recalled. “It started with [Hatebreed frontman] Jamey Jasta. He
months away from the stage hitting the books. She learned all she never showed up for his lesson. He’d keep booking and then would
could about the mechanics of screaming, eventually discovering the get too busy and cancel. But somehow it got out that Jamey intend-
unique technique she’s been teaching to her students for more than ed to come." That word-of-mouth alone led a metal producer to call
a decade now. on her.
That technique, Cross said, has helped prolong the vocal cords — “He brought me Jesse Leach, Ian [Keeler] from Dismay," she said.
and thus the careers — of some of heavy metal’s loudest men and “He tells me about a guy named Brian [Fair] from a band named
women. Her students include Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Shadows Fall Overcast," who, these days, sings for Shadows Fall. “I was able to
frontman Brian Fair, Cradle of Filth’s Dani Filth, the Bravery’s Sam help these people not lose their voices in the studio. They only
Endicott, Thursday’s Geoff Rickly, Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow, played shows on the weekends, so that wasn’t an issue. The prob-
Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe and Underoath’s Spencer lem was they were in the studio and couldn’t get through one song
Chamberlain. Over the years, she’s repaired the pipes behind Every without trashing their voices."
Time I Die, God Forbid, Candiria, the Agony Scene, A Static Lullaby,
Madball, It Dies Today, H20, Bloodsimple, Ill Niño, All That Word spread fast about Cross within the metal community, and she
Remains, A Life Once Lost, Sick of It All and Unearth. She helped started taking on more and more clients. “Everybody knows every-
former Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach perfect his clean body," she said. “It’s tight-knit and I just love that.”
vocals, and Andrew W.K.'s got her on speed dial.
BEST JOB EVER:
‘EXTREME VOCALS INSTRUCTOR’
HELPS SCREAMERS PRESERVE
THEIR PIPES
You Either Have It Or You Don’t: Cross said that she’s had sev-
eral students come to her wanting to master the art of screaming.
But before she can do anything, there must be talent. The majority
of her clients were born with it: Like Fair, they’re vocalists with well-
established careers who’ve been screaming since the age of 15 but
continued
would like to stop spitting up blood after every performance. None
of the novices, she says, have gone on to make an impact on the
scene.
Others “have come to me with really clean voices and wanted to

add that heat but couldn’t because they were afraid or overly
trained," Cross said. She’s also helped artists who had been
screaming but stopped because of a vocal injury or out of fear that
they’d cause permanent damage.
“For instance, Geoff [Rickly] from Thursday had relegated all the
screaming to [keyboardist] Andrew [Everding]," she said. “He was
really pulling back. But he isn’t anymore — he’s singing, he’s
screaming, he’s out there. It’s a huge difference, because he’s com-
pletely confident knowing that he can turn, on a dime, from the
singing to the screaming."
Cross has a list of dream clients she’d love to work with — not
because they need help improving their vocal skills, but because
she’s a fan and would like to help them conserve their voices: Life
of Agony’s Keith Caputo and Mikael Åkerfeldt, frontman for Opeth.
What’s Next: Cross is putting the finishing touches on “The Zen of

Screaming 2," the sequel to “The Zen of Screaming," a DVD that
covers the fundamentals of vocal maintenance.
The second “Zen” will feature guest appearances by Rickly, Gossow,

Blythe, Chamberlain, Unearth’s Trevor Phipps, Phil Labonte from All
That Remains, God Forbid’s Byron Davis, Lou Koller of Sick of It All
and T.J. Miller, who fronts Still Remains.
“ ‘The Zen of Screaming 2’ is what everyone wanted from the first

DVD — it’s all screaming," said Cross. “Everyone needed the first
one for the basics. This second DVD will teach my technique as it
applies to screaming. Without the first DVD, we would have had all
these kids hurting themselves."
al cords."

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
visit www.melissacross.com for more infooo
FHM
Wednesday February 1, 2006
Circulation: 821,834

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
Cross: The genre is up and coming, but I'm
Coach Teaches not interested in the money. I'm interested in
Screaming to helping these kids to not hurt themselves,
because I see that they're doing a lot of dam-
Rock Stars age.
AP: How does what you do differ from a dia-

By JOHN CARUCCI logue coach?
Associated Press Writer Cross: I don't just focus on vowels and
speech production, I focus on the whole
NEW YORK (AP) -- Do rock stars really need
Associated to learn how to scream? It's doubtful Robert
Plant needed coaching to shriek "baaaaay-
Press beeeeey," or that Zack de la Rocha ever

needed a lesson. But regardless of natural
talent, Melissa Cross, the self-proclaimed
featured in "Queen of Scream," has developed a train-
ing program that teaches proper technique to
MSNBC a new breed of unrestrained rock singers.
ABC News Cross has a new DVD titled "The Art of the
The Washington TImes Scream" and a client list that includes Keith Self-proclaimed "Queen of Scream," Melissa Cross, is pho-
tographed in New York on Oct. 11, 2005. Cross' recently released
Buckley from Every Time I Die, Randy Blythe double DVD is titled "The Art of the Scream." (AP Photo/Jim Cooper)
Jam Showbiz of Lamb of God and Slipknot's Corey Taylor.
She spoke to The Associated Press about the machine. The breath support. The vocal cord
Recorder & Times makings of a good screamer. support. You know, how it works.
Palmbeach Post AP: Why do people have to learn how to AP: Who has mastered this new technique?
Beaufort Gazette scream? Doesn't it come naturally?
Cross: Corey Taylor from Slipknot is a master.
The Victoria Advocate Cross: So they don't injure their voices. Keith Buckley from Every Time I Die.
Basically, screaming is a part of a new up-
Montana Standard and-coming generation of real-life rock 'n' AP: What about the classic rockers like
rollers where passion and sincerity and reali- Robert Plant?
The Salt Lake Gazette ty is absolutely necessary and required. I
The Hub don't want to see them damage their vocal Cross: Robert Plant. That's a little bit different
cords. because there was never fire in Led Zeppelin.
Indystar.com It always had a note to it. He never
AP: What makes a good scream? screamed. With Robert Plant it was like, we
and over 140 publications still have to do music, we have to do notes.
worldwide. Cross: A good scream is when you can order So, Robert Plant: Amazing vocalist, but he
dinner afterwards, or call your mom. A good never did fire. He did heat and he did it real-
scream is one that has a lot of overtone, ly well. As well as Ozzy Osbourne and
October, 2005 meaning that it has a lot of highs and lows in AC/DC and Bonn Scott. This kinda heat thing
it. It has a spectrum of frequencies that is actu- has gone on for 20, 30 years.
ally pleasant to listen to. Well, that's all rela-
tive AP: So over time, screaming has become part
of the vocalists' repertoire?
AP: Do expletives enhance the body of a
ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
good scream? Cross: Absolutely. Like a lot of music, there's a
251 west 30th St. Suite 11RE • New York, NY 10001 movement that occurs in the underground
melissa@melissacross.com Cross: Expletives, if they have vowels in them, and it's a bunch of kids uniting under the ide-
visit www.melissacross.com for more infoo can make a big difference. Expletives that alism that music spawns. In the '80s there
are full of consonants and emotion that is ill was this aggressive music because kids were
placed (does not). In other words, a scream pent up, and they needed to get it out. So the
should never feel like it sounds. It should ultimate expression is to scream your guts
never feel angry. It should never feel aggres- out.
sive.
AP: Have you ever applied your technique in
AP: Is there much competition for the job of an argument?
Scream Teacher?
Cross: Someone took my parking space and
Cross: I don't know anybody else that has a I just lost it. And I started screaming, not at
specialty. There may be somebody in the act- her but in the car. And my throat was like
ing world that has concentrated on this. But in (makes a burning gesture). I stopped and
terms of the musical thing, I have yet to find regrouped and then I got out of the car and
someone. screamed at her the right way.
AP: Is scream training lucrative?

Singer&Musician Sunday, June 12, 2005
AMNY Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
Monday September 12th, 2005 visit www.melissacross.com for more infoo
New York
Daily News
Thursday, October 27, 2005

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
When screaming hurts
Rockers risk vocal cord damage with bad form
JOEY IVANSCO/AJC STAFF

Dr. Michael Johns, director of the Emory Voice Center at Crawford Long Hospital,
treats patients with damaged vocal cords, such as the ones in the image behind
him.
By NICK MARINO vocal overuse. Polyps look like red blisters or soft
masses. Cysts are bags of fluid within the cords.
Atlanta
Human beings are born screamers — before we can
walk, talk or recognize our names, we can wail. And nodules are like calluses. Sometimes, a single
killer scream gone awry can cause a person's cords
Journal-
We continue screaming as we get older. We scream to bleed. That’s called a vocal hemorrhage, an
when we’re frightened (like Janet Leigh in
“Psycho”) or when we really want to make a point
emergency that looks like someone poured ketchup
on dental floss.
Constitution
(like Howard Dean in the 2004 presidential Sunday, June 12, 2005
campaign). When roller coasters drop, when dreams Because screaming places extreme demand on a
turn to nightmares, when hammers smash our person’s vocal cords, screamers have a much greater
thumbs, we all know what to do. The sound we risk of cord damage than singers or talkers. And so
make ain't pretty, but it's over in a flash — for most a professional screamer — whose job is to sound
of us anyway. untamed — may require as much vocal training as a
sweet songbird or a polished speechmaker. Without
For hard rock singers, screaming is a way of life and it, screamers risk a lack of vocal control and range,
a meal ticket. It’s what crowds want and expect. On diminished vocal power, and permanent hoarseness
ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
a practical level, screaming helps vocalists rise as their vocal cords develop scarring.
above blaring guitars and crashing drums. On an visit www.melissacross.com for more infoo
expressive level, playing screamable music can help There’s a correct way?
unleash extreme emotion.
Enter New York voice instructor Melissa Cross and
“Singing something just to please other people is Atlanta doctor Michael Johns, who work at
just not interesting to me,” says Corin Tucker, who opposite ends of the vocal damage spectrum. On the
sings and screams for the post-punk trio Sleater- preventive end is Cross, who has spent the past
Kinney. “If it doesn't terrify them a little bit and several years establishing herself as a specialist in
scare them and challenge them, then I don’t think screaming technique.
I’m getting the meaning across, I guess, and it’s not
as exciting to me. I could easily be a folk singer — On the rehabilitative end is Johns, who in 2003
my voice is really like that more than anything — became the first director of the Emory Voice Center,
but that just doesn't describe what I need to say to a sleek new facility at Crawford Long Hospital.
the world.” While Cross tries to teach rock stars how to
scream correctly, Johns tries to diagnose and
As you might expect, however, screaming can cause rehabilitate the unfortunate folks who’ve already
problems — polyps, cysts and nodules. They’re damaged their voices.
what develop on your vocal cords after long-term
how to stay warmed up for a show — nothing too Even with severely damaged vocal cords, a rock ‘n’
insane, but, like, a bottle of cold water about a half- roll screamer may only feel hoarseness, not pain —
hour before the show. But that’s about it. That’s all I which is part of the problem.
do. I’m probably doing a lot of things wrong, but cool
people dig it.” “People have a tendency to sort of blow off hoarse-
ness,” he says. “They tend to think, ‘Well, maybe I
If he went to Cross, he would pay $150 an hour to overdid it last night. If I just let it rest, it’ll be
learn her screaming technique, which entails such OK.’And the reality is, it may not.”
vocal training staples as breath support and place-
ment. Although she advocates controlling vibrato (a Distinctive sound
tremble in the voice), she essentially teaches rockers
how to use their voices the way an opera singer does Another reality is that hardworking bands may not get
— but without sounding Wagnerian. an opportunity to rest. It’s not uncommon for bands to
tour relentlessly, all the while conducting interviews
“As a voice teacher,” she says today, “to me the good and chatting with fans. Pipes says 3 Inches of Blood
scream is the one that doesn’t scrape the throat. It’s recently did a U.S. tour with 30 dates in a row and no
the one with the least amount of raised larynx, offset
JOHN CLARK/SUB POP RECORDS
days off. The vocal strain is exacerbated if the singer
by movement in the diaphragm that takes away
‘I could easily be a folk singer — my voice
smokes or drinks, which Pipes says he does.
velocity of attack on the vocal cords.”
is really like that more than anything —
Johns considers alcohol a no-no because it can
but that just doesn’t describe what I need
to say to the world,’ says Corin Tucker If, however, a screamer’s poor technique attacks the dehydrate the cords, and he notes that throat-numbing
(left), who sings and screams for post- vocal cords to the point of damage, the battered lozenges and sprays can actually hurt singers because
punk Sleater-Kinney with Janet Weiss singer could end up visiting Johns at the Emory numbed artists won't necessarily feel themselves
(center) and Carrie Brownstein. Voice Center. doing further damage.
Earlier this year, in response to the growing number For screaming vocalists looking for nonsurgical
of high-risk screamers in the music business, Cross means of recovery, he recommends hydration, vocal
released a DVD called “The Zen of Screaming: Vocal rest and therapy or training. Of course, taking time off
Instruction for a New Breed,” which she believes is for serious vocal rest might mean canceling shows —
the first guide to extreme vocals. The video, which is something bands are loath to do.
available online and at the screamtastic Sounds of the
Underground Tour (which comes July 12 to Atlanta), The silver lining is that screaming rockers could end
features a crash course in screaming plus copious up benefiting from their vocal cord abuse. Certain
testimonial from rockers like Andrew W.K., whose artists — think Janis Joplin — have made a raspy
promotional blurb asks prospective viewers, “Don’t sound their vocal signature.
you want to be screaming like everybody’s demon?”
Johns says he once saw a professional singer in
The video has some surreal moments, like when the Nashville who elected to surgically remove a cyst that
bubbly, 40-something instructor hugs a tattooed had developed on her cords and to keep a polyp that
metalhead from behind to monitor his air intake. they believed accounted for her career-making rasp.
Later, she requests that someone lie flat on the
ground and pretend to blow just enough air to keep In those cases, Johns concedes, a seemingly
an imaginary feather afloat — an exercise it’s unwelcome growth on the vocal cords could amount
hard to imagine screaming vocalists doing on to a “million-dollar bump.”
the backstage floor.
No one ever said the music business was pretty.
A rock evolution
While it's true that pop stars have been screaming for
a half-century or more, dating back at least to
the moment Little Richard unleashed his first
lusty “wooooo,” the rock ‘n’ roll scream has
gradually evolved to piercing shrieks and guttural
death-metal growls.
LESLIE KEE/SPECIAL
Voice instructor Melissa Cross has
Classic rock singers like Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, released a DVD guide to extreme vocals.
Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Judas Priest’s Rob
Halford (and Sleater-Kinney’s Tucker) are known for A few tidbits about your vocal cords, courtesy of the
relatively melodic screams, a style Cross calls doctor: Healthy vocal cords are supposed to look
“heat.”Cross’ so-called New Breed vocalists are apt to white and stringy. They are shaped like a V and have
scream so intensely that notes sound distorted, a style straight edges. They vibrate 260 times per second
she calls "fire." singing middle C and 1,000 times per second at a
high C. They are covered with blood vessels and a
Of course, super-intense hard rock vocalists might delicate mucus membrane.
think screaming lessons sound oxymoronic — that is,
until they wake up one morning so hoarse that they “When you scream,” he says, “it’s very traumatic
can't order room service. on the vocal cords because they slam together
very violently.”
Untrained screamers are easy to find. Take, for exam-
ple, the falsetto banshee Cam Pipes, who leads the On damaged vocal cords, the edges of the V start to
theatrical Vancouver metal band 3 Inches of Blood. look misshapen or infolamed. If the damage is so bad
that a vocal hemorrhage occurs, the cords barely
“I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to teach vibrate. Johns says that about 25 percent of his Melissa Cross Vocal Studio
someone how to do this,” Pipes says. “I’ve never patients have problems with voice overuse
ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
and misuse.
taken any voice lessons. I’ve taken a few tips about

THE QUEEN OF THE Chicago
PRIMAL SCREAMS Sun-Times
BY THOMAS CONNER Staff Reporter March 2nd, 2006
The black-clad, tattooed viking of a singer stomps around the stage with a
microphone clenched against his spittle-spewing lips. Calling this guy a
“singer," you realize, is generous, a job title not quite accurate to the duty he
performs, which is more shrieking, roaring, growling and screaming. And The Zen of Screaming
whether you respect the catharsis of these “death metal” bands or shake your Melissa Cross Vocal Studio
graying locks at these kids today, you ask the same question: How does that ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
guy do that night after night and not completely shred his vocal chords? melissa@melissacross.com
One woman has the answer -- a short, cheery red-headed PTA mom in sub-
urban New York. Her name is Melissa Cross, but you can call her the Scream
Queen.
“I am not your mother," she says by way of introduction on her new DVD “The
Zen of Screaming: Vocal Instruction for a New Breed," though she is parent to
a 5-year-old boy. “He certainly knows how to scream," she added during a
recent phone interview from her home. “He’s imitating me all the time."
Cross, 48, is not a physician, but she’s the Dr. Feelgood for the latest wave of
hard-core bands tagged with such descriptors as “death metal," “death grunt,"
“grindcore” or “doom rock." She coaches these young men -- they’re almost
always male, though she just picked up a girl from the band Arch Enemy --
on how to communicate their passion without destroying their voices.
“They were getting hurt," she says of the bands she saw screaming their lungs
out onstage, “and as the genre became more popular and these kids were
getting picked up by major labels, I was suddenly the only voice teacher that
tolerated them."
High-profile clients
Those major labels sought to protect their investments, so they put Cross on
speed-dial. She now has a client roster that looks like the soundtrack to the
latest big-budget horror franchise, performers such as Andrew W.K. and for-
mer Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, and bands such as Lamb of God,
Shadows Fall, Thursday, Killswitch Engage, the Agony Scene and Sick of It All.
Many of these singers give testimonials in “The Zen of Screaming” (now in

stores from, appropriately, Loud Mouth). One confesses, “We’re no
Pavarottis."
Corey Taylor isn’t, either. But his band, Slipknot, just won the Grammy for best
metal performance. Taylor trained with Cross last year.
Learns to warm up
“It was such a revelation," he said of Cross’ vocal techniques. “It’s all about
movement, warming up the muscles as well as the voice. A lot of times you go
out onstage and you haven’t done anything with your body, so even if you
have a voice that night it just feels dead. Practicing all this stuff all together
before I go out lets me hit the stage with everything, ready to go."
Taylor told of an earlier vocal injury, which he suffered after screaming too
hard onstage. One of his vocal chords swelled; the injury looked more serious
than it was, and for a time Taylor feared his meteoric rock career would end
prematurely. A second “Zen of Screaming” instructional video is already in the
“I would just scream and get the craziest sound I could to vent the works. This first installment, oddly enough, contains little actual
emotion. It was destroying my voice," he said. “I’ve lost a lot of screaming; Cross promises the sequel will have more. After that, it’s
range from doing that, actually. It kind of bums me out." “The Zen of Speaking” -- tips for “stock traders, aerobic leaders,
tour guides, anyone who has to speak loudly for a living."
Cross led her own punk band while training in Shakespearean the-
ater and opera at school in England; she even opened for Black
Flag and X. But when she got back to the States, a friend began
introducing her to many of the new hard-core bands he was pro-
ducing as the styles emerged in the mid-'80s. By 1990, she was
teaching classical voice full time.
But the rockers kept asking her questions about technique. She
decided to turn her infoormal lessons into something bigger.
Word of mouth
“I had the education to deal with it, so I took them on. They ulti-
mately became well-known -- one called Overcast, one became
Shadows Fall, another one went to All That Remains. I had Killswitch
Engage back then. One client was from Hatebreed, and he never
showed up to his lesson. But he told a bunch of people he was com-
ing, and word got around." Melissa Cross reveals her secrets for helping
singers who abuse their voices onstage in her new
Cross has the definition of a sunny disposition. Rosy cheeks, fair
DVD “The Zen of Screaming."
skin, and she has lots of tapestries and crafty things lying around.
Into her cozy studio walk these hulking tattooed guys.
“Ironically, most of the kids are very soft-spoken and, I would say, EARTHY TONES
repressed," she said. “That’s why they do what they do. They’re up
there screaming because they have to. Their lives are so messed up, In the video “The Zen of Screaming: Vocal
and they need the release. Most of them are very humble, polite Instruction for a New Breed," voice coach Melissa
and idealistic -- not the monsters they play onstage." Cross knows how to speak to her young rock ‘n’
roll audience. A sample of some of her vocal tech-
They come to the Cross studio not so much for technical training but
niques, which probably aren’t in the conservatory
for behavior modification. The key, she said, is to teach them how
to channel their emotion -- which is the key in these genres -- curriculum:
through different physical processes.
THE STRAPLESS BRA
“There’s always a light bulb moment," she said. “I see it every day. In explaining how to expand the rib cage for maxi-
It’s a change in the imagery, the ability to divorce the emotional mum air supply while singing, Cross tells a female
aspect out of the throat. It’s like an acting gig: You feel something, student about the “Strapless Bra” posture. “You
but you have the control not to let it permeate the muscles you need know, if you have one on that’s too big, and you
to do the work and make the sound. You dissociate somewhat. You have to expand your diaphragm to hold it on while
feel anger and passion, but you don’t make it feel like it sounds. So
you rush to the bathroom?" Strike that pose.
you can still be in the moment but utterly in control of your instru-
ment."
‘ABOVE THE PENCIL’
The passion is what draws her to this music, anyway. Cross places an ordinary pencil between the teeth
of her students, teaching them the difference
Enjoys passion, power between projecting the voice seemingly over it and
under it. Over it is the goal, and the difference is
“I like any music that has integrity. I’m not exclusively a fan of this clarion.
stuff. I like opera and Beethoven and the Bulgarian Women’s Choir.
What I really like is the honesty of a performance. This music is full THE DUMP
of it. It’s theatrical, Shakespearean. At Shakespeare plays they used
Or “the brown note," a colorful term for the flexing
to throw blood and guts from the stage. It’s reality TV onstage. But
it can only move you if the performers have what they need to per- of a certain group of muscles also employed dur-
form -- over and over and over. No ing, er, gastric evacuation. Is that diplomatic
artistic voice deserves to be silenced just because they felt things too enough?
strongly."
HHHH
MELISSA CROSS / ANDREW W.K
ZEN OF SCREAMING [DVD}
Label: LOUD MOUTH
Submitted: 12/12/2005
Reviewer: Alan Sargeant
www: http://www.melissacross.com
‘Don’t open your mouth ‘till you’ve seen this DVD’ boasts the cover.
You might also want to add, ‘Don’t open the box until you’ve read
CRUD this review’.
MAGAZINE Self-styled ‘Queen Of Scream’ Melissa Cross is a sincere enough

lady. Whether she’s talking about taking a dump or singing over the
pencil, this feisty, flame-haired rock siren really does have your best
December 12, 2005 interests at heart. You see; there’s a way to scream and a way not to
scream and this hansom DVD/CD combination pack offers a com-
prehensive and accessible 2 hours or so of instruction on HOW to
scream without shredding your vocal chords; handy if you’re trying to
order a take-out on the phone directly after a gig and want to get
exactly what you ordered and without being accused of making nui-
sance phone calls. The layout is simple enough; a series of easy to
follow lessons and step by step exercises. And the whole thing is ably
The Zen of Screaming supported by a charismatic cast featuring Andrew W.K, Lamb of
Melissa Cross Vocal Studio God's D. Randall Blythe, Shadows Fall's Brian Fair, Every Time I Die's
ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
251 west 30th St. Suite 11RE • New York, NY 10001 Keith Buckley, God Forbid's Byron Davis and erudite pleasure-puss,
melissa@melissacross.com Melissa Auf der Maur; each offering candid interviews and moments
visit www.melissacross.com for more infoo of true perspiration. Also included is an Audio CD & Booklet with a
clearly itemized vocal training program for each range covered by
Melissa.
For those hoping for a salacious and titillating rock documentary, this
may be something you wish to avoid. But for those looking for some
kind of pain relief, musical enlightenment, tool maintenance, some-
thing surreal and ever so slightly absurd, then grab one for yourself
and as well for your croaky old band mates.
Who needs Strepsils when you’ve got Melissa?

The Boston Globe Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
December 18th, 2005 visit www.melissacross.com for more infoo
THE SCREAM
the scream is an ideal of total expression, total authenticity, that
comes more from punk rock and hardcore than from metal.
Pantera's bazooka-throated Philip Anselmo, who in the '90s took
the scream out from the underground and into stadiums, was
OF THE CROP
In a new DVD, a voice coach teaches
more often compared with Black Flag-era Henry Rollins than he
was to the breast beaters of the old school. Heavy metal had
changed: The singer's job was no longer to raise the rippling
flag of his voice over a war-torn medieval landscape, like Iron
heavy metal stars the art of roaring Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, but to tell you extremely urgent things
about himself, his mind, his pressing need to beat you up.
By James Parker, Globe Correspondent And yet the scream has its own virtuosity: Anselmo's remains the
gold standard, a flayed roar, almost chordal at moments, in
The origin of the ''tortured throat scream" or ''angry hell voice" is which words are somehow distinctly enunciated and melodies
as hotly contested as anything else in the history of heavy metal. carried. In the Anselmo-scream, the metalhead's urge to disap-
Does it derive from the ''death grunt" -- the subhuman ultra-low- pear into the textures of his music, to be consumed with heavi-
frequency belch developed by Florida bands such as Death and ness until all he can do is belch pure noise, met the bark of
Morbid Angel in the mid-'80s? Or is it an importation from hardcore's self-affirmation cult.
hardcore punk, whose unskilled ragings were funneled into All of this is present in Cross's pupils, and she -- a small, red-
metal by Metallica, Slayer, and their brethren? haired woman dressed in flower-patterned silks -- seems to
On these matters there will never be tribal accord. understand the tradition that she is working in. She has grasped
What is beyond dispute is that the scream is now part of metal's that the primary interest of the screamers is not technique but its
official language. For the modern metal vocalist, the ability to absence. So she bases her teaching method not on the applica-
scream like a fiend night after night is just part of the job. And tion of lessons, but on the removal of barriers.
Wednesday
so we come February
to ''The Zen 1, 2006
of Screaming" (Loudmouth), an instruc- ''I'm not your mother," she warns, ''and I don't have a bunch of
tional DVD for ''extreme singers" presented by voice coach rules about singing and screaming. . . . What I've got for you is
Circulation: 821,834 a way to be in the moment with your voice."
Melissa Cross. Her clients are the cream of the scream scene:
Lamb of God, God Forbid, Shadows Fall, All That Remains . . . Singing is singing, of course, and even the gruffest metalhead
Even the maverick Andrew W.K., whose thunderous party music must warm up his pipes with an exercise called French Doorbell.
sounds like ''Bohemian Rhapsody" performed by British skin- Still, Cross's emphasis is on ''being who you are."
heads, is a devoted follower of Cross. To this end, she has evolved her own jargon. Students are
''Don't you want to be the best you can possibly be?!" he roars at encouraged to sing ''above the pencil," with an imaginary pencil
the camera. ''Wouldn't you do whatever you possibly could to in the mouth, using the bones of the face and skull as a reverb
improve your voice, to improve your screaming?!" chamber. (Randall Blythe, of Lamb of God, complains that a
Testimonials from satisfied customers are an important part of humming exercise is making his ears itch. ''That's good!" says
this product: Intercut with the lessons are a series of gruff Cross.) She teaches them the ''by-the-way" breath, a quick sip of
encomiums (''She's a genius, man . . . a vocal genius") from air (as opposed to a huge, drawling gasp) to keep the lungs --
today's hardest-working screamers, worn out and wild-eyed those bellows of metal fire -- topped up.
young men, greasy with road-funk, filmed backstage or on the She also distinguishes between ''heat," which is putting ''a bit of a
tour bus or -- in the case of Mike Ski from the A.K.A.'s -- crunch" on a note, and ''fire," which is the shaggy, atonal blurt
hunched in a small padded van. You can smell the sweat. much used by, say, Slipknot. And when necessary, she deploys
In 50 years, students of metal will be able to watch ''The Zen of common sense: ''If you're hoarse, you need to shut up." For the
Screaming" for a precise understanding of the currently prevail- screamers, it seems to work like a charm. ''Ever since she told
ing conditions. me how to do it right," testifies Phil Labonte from All That
''You have to have control of your pipes at all times," glowers Remains, ''I haven't lost my voice ever."
God Forbid vocalist Byron Davis, '''cause that's your livelihood, So now they can do it night after night -- but how long will their
and if you don't, it's gonna show. Doin' this [expletive] every day, services be required? Might we soon tire of the scream? Albert
playin' shows every day, if your technique is wack, you're not Mudrian, author of ''Choosing Death: The Improbable History of
gonna have the endurance." Death Metal and Grindcore" and editor in chief of Decibel mag-
''For a long time," Ian Christe, author of ''Sound of the Beast: The azine, has detected the beginnings of scream-assimilation.
Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal," says via e- ''Across the board," says Mudrian, ''there's a lot more screaming
mail, ''screams were a generational thing that split the newer than there used to be. The interesting thing is that you can now
bands from the old-timers like Dio or Judas Priest who sounded hear it in pop songs. It's fairly common -- in half of the verse, or
like opera singers." the bridge, there'll be some dude just lettin' it rip! So the scream
Opera is not the word that would be invoked to describe today's has permeated the culture to that extent."
screamers. Indeed, on the DVD, Freddy Cricien of New York's The wheel turns, and the vast natural cycle of heavy metal
Madball declares, ''We're no Pavarottis," with a mix of defiance throws up its phenomena. A return to more overtly ''technical"
and rue. (The meekness of the huge-armed Cricien before the singing may be overdue: Look for ''The Zen of Long, High Notes"
petite Cross is one of the DVD's highlights.) But contained within somewhere around 2008.
The Boston Herald Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
December 26th, 2006 visit www.melissacross.com for more infoo
VICE
Volume 12 #3, 2005
Punknews Melissa Cross is a vocal coach, but she is not showing her students how to
crack glasses or generate endless vibrato. Instead, Melissa caters to the
crowd that wants to scream their lungs out. Over the course of The Zen of
Screaming, Melissa goes through plenty of simple exercises that seem less
December 2nd, 2005 about becoming a better vocalist, and more about controlling what you
already have. Melissa teaches how metal and hardcore singers can keep
from damaging their vocal cords or consistently losing their voices.
Her lessons are interspersed with first-hand commentary from singers such
as Brian Fair of Shadows Fall, Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die, Phil
Labonte of All That Remains, Andrew W.K. and Thursday keyboardist
Andrew Everding. You quickly learn why these guys keep coming back to
ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522 Melissa; she makes them comfortable, is not overly technical, and is not
251 west 30th St. Suite 11RE • New York, NY 10001 attempting to make them into traditional singers.
If you are not looking to become a front-man anytime soon, this DVD will
probably bore you. There is not much infoo on Melissa herself, and only a
few seconds of live footage. The bonus features are merely medical
footage of vocal cords, and more commentary from clients labeled as
“bloopers” and “what they are saying.”
Still, if you would like some instruction, and a practice CD without having
to shell out a ton of dough for lessons, or you just want to see Freddy
from Madball doing vocal warm-ups, then I’d suggest checking this out.
THE HARVARD The Zen of Screaming
ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
INDEPENDENT December 8th, 2005

By Ben RichardsonMedia Credit: Ilian Penev, Girlie Action reasonably be assumed, could not have existed
fifteen or even ten years ago?
In her new DVD The Zen of Screaming: Vocal Instruction for a
New Breed, Melissa Cross, a classically trained actress and What created the market for the DVD was actually the
opera singer turned voice coach, guides aspiring vocalists damage that was done to the vocal cords by artists who were
through a series of exercises designed to increase the face- making a living producing the screams. Once the
melting intensity of their onstage excoriations. Cross describes underground movement of metal became a commercial
and demonstrates - with the exuberance of your favorite venture, these artists were required to show up and scream on
elementary-school art teacher - an extensive repertoire of a regular basis, and it was impossible to do it without some
vocal techniques that seamlessly combine classical wisdom, help. Primarily because, to do it correctly, you have to disasso-
new-age philosophy, and her own personal innovations. ciate the emotion from your body. If, to scream, you use the
Breathing techniques are tagged with charming nicknames tension that you ordinarily would feel if you were actually
that make it easy to remember their intended effect: "Strapless angry, or feeling, shall we say, "murderous," you use tension
Bra" breathing mimics the specific pulmonary manipulations that causes too much velocity on the vocal folds, which will
required to keep a too-large strapless bra from falling down, lead to swelling and hoarseness. I tell my students, "You must
and "Dump" breathing…well, I'll give you three guesses. Levity never throw the plate," and what that means is if your
A METHOD TO THE MADNESS OF

MUSICAL SCREAMING
Screaming expert teaches heavy metal to sing its heart out - without losing its voice.
notwithstanding, Cross's approach seems to do the trick: the grandmother passes down an heirloom, a very expensive
DVD abounds with testimonials from her better-known clients, plate, and you put it on a shelf in your room, and then later
all of whom praise her effusively for enhancing the potency of you trash the room, you throw everything except for that plate
their bellows without destroying their ability to speak. Aspiring - you just don't go there.
screamers, vocal-cord fetishists, and anyone who would like to
see heavily pierced and tattooed metal singers doing jumping What implications does the popularity of scream-
jacks: this Zen's for you. What follows are excerpts from a driven music have for the future of the rock vocalist?
telephone conversation between the Independent and Cross in Will the screaming grow inexorably more intense or
her New York City studio. more pervasive, or are we to expect a dulcet-throat-
ed backlash sometime in the future?
Most of the readers of this interview will be Harvard
students, and therefore their musical taste will have I think there will be a backlash if there's too much of a glut of
an extremely predictable (if not extremely limited) the "scream thing." Like anything, if there's a glut, there's going
scope. Could you describe the appeal of bands that to be a backlash, but I think that ultimately the screaming thing
feature screaming in a way that would make these is going to evolve into melodic singing and the melodic
narrow-minded Ivy Leaguers interested? singing is going to evolve into screaming, so there's going
to a be a mixture, a kind of "anything goes" situation. The
I think I would put it in a more aesthetic sort of sociological operative thing is that you cannot be contrived, you cannot
context. In this age of reality TV and video games and kids make it sound like you are singing, because that immediately
living the way that they live - these are kids younger than dates it; as soon as you sound like you're making something
Harvard students - it's no longer good enough to be sad in a artful, or attractive, or self-conscious in any way, like, "Look at
beautiful way or angry in a beautiful way. In other words, me sing," "Look at me do this," that doesn't fly anymore. It
there's no point in contriving anything anymore. If it's not real, doesn't work. It's so against the ethics of this musical subcul-
and not straight-to-the-bone reality, it doesn't fly. There's a ture to be parading around acting cool. You have to be real.
hardcore realism emerging in art in general and in You have to be violently real.
performing arts in particular that's the expression of some very
upset adolescents. Some bands feature singers who switch off between
singing and screaming, often in the same song or
What do you make of the rapidly increasing success of even in the same line of a song. Do you approach
these bands that feature almost no "clean" singing? these students differently?
What created the market for your DVD, which, it can
I try to teach all my students to be able to switch back and forth
- that's my desired goal: to teach them an alternative to the
kind of "good cop, bad cop" vocals which involve switching
very artificially between singing and screaming. I believe their
singing should have much more dynamic and much more
textured and much more interesting changes within a five-
minute period. I like to teach them that variety, and I think I did
a very good job of this with Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die.
Corey Taylor, from Slipknot, has always been very good at this.
He already had it down when he came to me.
Do you think the artifice that you enable singers to

employ somehow inevitably lessens the emotional
intensity of their screams, even if they avoid sounding
"contrived"? You've been quoted as saying that you try
to "bridge the gap between 'good' technique and 'real'
technique," but don't you think the appeal of the
original screamers was that their approach required
no "technique" at all?
The sound of that lack of control is not pleasant. It was a nov-

elty when it got going in the early '80s, because no one else
was doing it, but now the genre has had to move up. If there's
too much tension going on in the throat, it doesn't sound
good, and it doesn't translate well to recordings. You simply
cannot survive a tour screaming without any technique.
Before, when it was an underground thing, these kids were
doing it once or twice a week. Now we have Ozzfest and
Warped Tour, and these vocalists have to scream night after
night. They can't do it without some kind of understanding of
technique. Regardless of whether it takes the "reality" out of the
former voice clients, in this universe, are now your
screams, it's a necessary evil.
actors. Which plays do you pick for the coming year,
and who among your actors do you cast in the title
I was surprised when watching your DVD by how
roles?
many of the techniques on it could apply to any kind
of singing, in any kind of musical genre, or really any
Wow! That's the best question that anyone has ever asked me!
context in which the use of the voice is involved.
Well, let's see…I'm going to take Randy Blythe [from Lamb of
God] and put him as Macbeth. I'm going to put Bob Meadows
The only way that I could have any credibility with these
of A Life Once Lost as Hamlet, and Keith Buckley [from Every
vocalists was to couch the teaching I provide in terms of
Time I Die] as his understudy. Keith's an existential dude - he's
"screaming" instruction, even though the lessons could help
reluctant, and he's anxious. Corey Taylor [from Slipknot] would
anyone. These guys weren't going to show up for a vocal les-
be great in The Taming of the Shrew.
son from someone who is teaching her other students how to
sing Tosca, or even how to sing a Kelly Clarkson song. These
How about Andrew W.K. ?
guys are very purist. But I have all kinds of students. I have
clients who work the trading floor on Wall Street. I've had peo-
Wow. Now that's a very interesting person. That guy's a genius.
ple with lisps, I've had stutterers, and I'm not a licensed speech
Let's see…he is mighty…he is so righteous and so mighty, but
pathologist, but I am an imaginative teacher, so often people
also very, very controlled, and moral. Andrew is so upstand-
will bring me clients who don't respond to more conservative
ing. I don't even know if Shakespeare wrote an Andrew W.K.
kinds of speech therapy; I'm such a wack-job that I make it fun.
He's one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. I'll have
I've even taught kids how to prepare for their bar mitzvah. This
to call you back on this one. [She later does, after having
kid's voice is just [makes surprisingly accurate adolescent-boy
decided that Andrew would best be suited for the part of
voice-cracking noises], and he was just terrorized by his voice
Prometheus, in Greek tragedy.]
changing. We worked with the Torah, and I'm not even Jewish!
I don't even speak Hebrew, but we did it, and his bar mitzvah
was rockin'!
Moving from theology to thespianism: as a student of

Shakespearean acting, imagine this. Suddenly you
awake in an alternate universe. You are no longer a
successful voice coach but instead the head of a
renowned Shakespearean theater company; all your
Music Details
Melissa Cross
Who / What:
Rock & Pop

Music Genre:
“Rooowwwrrraaaarrrrrooowwwwrrrrr!” A guttural growl straight from

the deepest pits of Hell has just emanated from the throat of Melissa
Cross, who follows it up with a giggle.
"See, that didn't hurt at all," she says. "But you should see the looks I
just got!"
PHOENIX That's because the chipper, red-tressed, late-fortysomething voice

instructor is screaming — er, speaking — via cell phone from a train
NEWS TIMES between her native Manhattan and Long Island. She's trying to illus-
trate that there's a right way and a wrong way to howl, a lesson she
attempts to impart to the dozens of extreme metalcore, screamo, punk
and hard-rock singers who come to her studio looking for ways to
Februarry 2st, 2006 bellow bloody murder without shredding their vocal cords.
Trained in London as a classical singer, Cross was drawn to punk rock

in the late ‘70s and began fronting a string of bands, opening for the
likes of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks. In the mid-’90s, a friend in
Connecticut who was producing a number of underground metal acts
Melissa Cross Vocal Studio implored Cross to teach her pioneering techniques to some of the
ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522 singers he was working with who were destroying their larynxes.
251 west 30th St. Suite 11RE • New York, NY 10001 Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta was slated to be her first student. He didn't
melissa@melissacross.com show up, but once word got out that Cross was the guru of growling,
members of Slipknot, Sick of It All, Thursday, Shadows Fall and even
Andrew W.K. and Melissa Auf der Maur eventually showed up at her
door.
Cross is one of a small handful of vocal coaches in America working

with this kind of clientele, and by far the most prominent and sought-
after. “In the beginning I was a little frightened," she admits with a
laugh. “I felt like a little old high school teacher around a bunch of
hoodlums, and I thought they were gonna make fun of me, but it was
never like that. They're absolutely the nicest guys I’ve ever met —
they're pussycats.”
Her myriad vocal and breathing techniques (which bear names like
“The Dump,” “Strapless Bra” and “Over the Pencil”) appear on her
new, self-produced DVD, The Zen of Screaming, which is entertaining
as hell, especially if you wanna see the burly dudes from the hardcore
band Madball doing “Eee-e-e-e-yah” warmups while seated along-
side the piano, or Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe doing tongue
exercises that might make any potential groupie wriggle with excite-
ment.
“Most of her clients are roughneck, tattooed metalcore dudes like

me," says Blythe, who began working with Cross two years ago to
expand his range and protect a scream he once figured was inde-
structible. "But she has this very nurturing thing that sets you at ease.”
“Some of them walk in and they're kinda scared, because they’re

afraid I'm gonna be a stuffy voice teacher that's gonna tell them not to
do what they're doing or to get rid of their vices," Cross says. "But I'm
not a Nazi about their lifestyle. I don't care what they drink, eat,
smoke, whatever. I say, 'You wanna scream? Here's how you do it.'"
Opinion Journal Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
Wall Street Journal February 2nd, 2006 visit www.melissacross.com for more infoo
The term is considered derogatory by some hensibility of the lyrics, which in most cases explosion of force that comes from the
metal fans, but it’s an apt description. is absolute. Given the subject matter, that’s belly through the throat. I would do a day
Issued like machine-gun fire, death-metal probably for the best. Carcass, a band fea- of it and my normal voice would be a half
vocals are low, guttural and aggressive, turing vocalist Jeff Walker, sings in graphic an octave lower.” (During our conversa-
with no subtlety, no melody and very little detail of disembowelment and the tion, Mr. Oz demonstrated the Cookie
modulation. But unlike the garbled sound mechanics of the autopsy. Bloody annihila- Monster voice. The sudden force was star-
emanating from the lovable and occasion- tion is another popular theme among the tling and the volume so loud, I had to pull
ally frenetic Cookie Monster, death-metal groups. For most death-metal bands, the the phone from my ear.)
vocals seem to come from a dark spot in a gorier the better, and few gruesome details
troubled soul, as if they were the narrator’s are spared.
voice on a tour of Dante’s seventh circle of Alas, the Cookie Monster school of death
hell. Cute and funny they ain’t. “If you want to make music that’s terrifying, metal is dying, says Mr. Conner. In the late
you have to sing about ripping people’s ‘80s, popular death-metal bands like
It’s not easy to determine where and how heads off,” Mr. Conner of Roadrunner Sepultura, Obituary and Deicide sold
Cookie Monster singing actually began. Records told me. “Singing about puppies about 100,000 CDs, not a bad total for
Early death-metal bands such as Death and kittens isn’t too cool.” bands on the musical fringe. Today’s
and Morbid Angel that emerged from bands that play only old-school death
Florida in the mid-’80s helped cre- metal are lucky to sell 15% to
ate the musical template that char- 20% of that figure. “I stopped
acterized the blasting sound as well signing death-metal bands in
as that of its Satan- and occult- ‘93 or ‘94,” Mr. Conner told me.
obsessed sibling, black metal: fast, “The glory days have long ago
relentless drumming often featuring passed.”
two bass drums; grinding, rapid-fire Part of the reason is a reaction to
chording on guitars; squealing gui- a natural instinct among pop
tar solos; muted electric bass; unex- musicians: a desire to expand
pected sudden tempo changes; and the audience. Death-metal pio-
a sense of theatricality that’s neers Entombed now leapfrog
inevitably threatening--”a horror between the sound of their clas-
film put to music” is how Monte sic ‘89 album “Left Hand Path”
Conner, a vice president at (Earache) and more traditional
Roadrunner Records, sees it. heavy metal. Fear Factory’s
But while the vocals in early death metal Death-metal singing takes a toll on vocal- singer Burton C. Bell modified his Cookie
are low, raspy and aggressive, not unlike ists, according to Ms. Gussow, who joined Monster vocals that were prominent on the
the vocals by, say, Lemmy Kilmister of Arch Enemy in 2001. She says that despite band’s early work in time for its ‘99 release
Motörhead, that extreme degree of the characteristic rock-salt-and-razors “Obsolete” (Roadrunner), which incorpo-
Cookieness is missing. growl, the sound doesn’t originate in the rates melodic or “clean” vocals, rap and
throat. It gets pushed up from the metal singing without the Cookie Monster
To be a true Cookie Monster vocal, said Mr. abdomen. edge. The lyrics, clearly decipherable, tell
Conner, who signed some of the sub- the story of the war between man and
genre’s biggest bands, including Sepultura “If you use the right abdomen muscles, you machines. “Obsolete” sold more than
and Fear Factory, “it’s got to be really, real- get a lot of power,” she says. “It’s a primal 500,000 copies, significantly more than
ly guttural. It should sound like they’re gar- form of vocalizing, but it’s also a very con- any of the band’s previous albums.
gling glass.” trolled style of singing. You can get weak if
you don’t have muscle power.” Led by 20-year-old vocalist Matthew K.
Nic Bullen of Napalm Death can sound Heafy, who counts Metallica and Pantera
remarkably like the Cookie Monster; his She does vocal exercises to keep fit, some as major infoluences, Trivium also blends
performance on the band’s 1987 debut of which she learned from Melissa Cross, a almost-Cookie Monster guttural singing
“Scum” (Earache)--which contains 28 New York-based voice teacher whose with melodic vocals. The music of the
songs, 11 of which are under one minute instructional DVD “The Zen of Screaming” Orlando, Fla.-based group echoes classic
in length, including “You Suffer,” which is a favorite of extreme vocalists. death metal, but has elements of other
clocks in at less than two seconds--is a vir- heavy-metal schools. Mr. Heafy says: “I
tual Cookie Monster tribute. Frank Mullen “We’re on tour, sometimes, for 2 1/2 can’t even do Cookie Monster vocals. It’s
of Suffocation, whose 1991 album “Effigy months,” the German-born Ms. Gussow kind of a limited style. You can convey
of the Forgotten” (Roadrunner) is consid- said. “I can’t miss even a day.” much more emotion with other types of
ered a model of death-metal music, singing.”
sounds like an especially malevolent Mr. Oz agrees that making Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster. sounds is an arduous occupation. “I never Mr. Fusilli, a novelist and critic, covers rock
trained for it and I blew my pipes out,” he and pop music for the Journal.
The term also signifies a level of incompre- told me. “It’s completely unnatural, an
“
them to speech - and then, again, apply them back to music.”
W hen people ask me what style of singing I teach, I say,
‘Anything passionate’”.
At first, Melissa kept the technique to herself. In fact, it inspired
her to quit her day job (working for major record companies
and entertainment law practices) and follow her heart, even if
Melissa Cross talks a lot about emotion and letting things hap- it meant playing the street. Which is actually where her talent
pen naturally - about avoiding contrivance at all cost. So it was first appreciated - not only by those interested in recording
should come as no surprise that what brought NYC’s most for- her as a performing musician, but by other artists
ward - thinking voice teacher to her profession was not a con- interested in learning from her. A singer was so impressed after
scious decision, but the same path that led to the development hearing Melissa in a club that she became her first client.
of her innovative technique: personal experience.
That she went on to become so ‘in-demand’ as a vocal
The journey began when Melissa made a teacher for major label artists as well as on-the-
move from years of traditional rise stars requires little explanation. The simple
truth is Melissa's vocal technique is unique
and it works. “My frustration with having
MELISSA
CROSSthezenofscreaming
music study at the prestigious learned in a very ‘contrived’ way and not
Interlochen Arts Academy and the finding this helpful to what I was doing
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in
allowed me to build the bridge between good
England to a career as a performing
rock artist. All the years of perfecting her technique and real technique,” she explains.
voice through classical training suddenly “They need to be the same.”
made little sense.“My voice lessons had absolutely no
context in rock,” she remembers. “They had no relevance to Melissa is more than thrilled at the way things have worked out.
anything I was doing. I was basically screaming and throwing “I love my job and I love teaching vocalists with a passion for
technique out the window to get a sound that felt real to me.” the cutting edge, for the rebelliousness of letting it all go.
It was only through a long process of figuring out how to real- But I respect the importance of control in getting across that
ly deliver those raw, heartfelt rock vocals without holding any- passion without sounding contrived. I know what it’s like t
thing back - and without damaging her voice - that Melissa o want to be the best that you can be, and I see
Cross discovered the technique that she teaches her personal transformations. And pure joy when my
students today. “I found the missing link between rock and students are doing it well and doing it straight from the heart.
classical vocal training,” she reveals. “I was able to extract It’s a great thing.”
the essential aspects of classical technique, apply

ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
melissa@melissacross.com visit www.melissacross.com for more infooo
Melissa Cross is vocal coach who holds the monopoly (meant to evoke the feeling of expanding one's middle
on an odd niche. Singers from bands like Lamb of to hold in air) and “the ‘T’" (we'll leave the origins of
God, H2O, and Every Time I Die come to her with their this term to the imagination, but let's just say it involves
voices in tatters, ready to learn the proper way to the activation of certain crucial muscles in the nether
scream without damaging their valuable vocal equip- regions). The alternate terms for boys are “rotunda”
ment. Though with her rosy, apple-shaped cheeks and and “the dump” (actually a term, Cross tells me, bor-
shock of curly red hair, she might sooner remind you rowed from the master Luciano Pavaratti himself, and
of a favorite quirky aunt than a healer of the hardcore means exactly what you'd think).
set, screaming coach to the stars. Although much of Cross's teaching repertoire overlaps
I recently visited Cross in her studio to get a real-live with the basics of conventional vocal training — the
taste of her tricks. I had already encountered Cross’s development of a strong breathing technique based on
teaching onscreen, on her newly released DVD, The exercises designed to strengthen the diaphragm —
Zen of Screaming: Vocal Instruction for a New Breed, there is something fundamentally intuitive, unscientific,
which brings her sanguine face into the home of any and inexplicable about screaming. This is why, I sus-
would-be screamer. Part prolonged voice lesson, part pect, Cross uses so many images in her lessons. A
homage to Cross by her devoted students, the DVD is unity of image and action must take place; you think
comprised of lessons interspersed with the earnest tes- rainbow and you produce an arching, colorful sound.
timonials of dozens of grateful, long-haired rockers — And like anything that is intuitive, it takes a lot of prac-
confessions of their past vocal sins and florid expres- tice to be a really good screamer. Cross may be friend-
sions of thanks to Cross for helping them change their ly, but she is tough. Her students must repeat her exer-
lives. For her followers, Cross may be as much of a cises over and over again so that the difficult task of
therapist and a life coach as she is a vocal coach. As opening their throats, pushing out their diaphragms,
it turns out, the now Zen-like Cross was a punk/hard- and singing from somewhere deep inside becomes a
core singer herself beginning in London in the '70s second nature.
right through the glittery New York '80s. Having been “I really believe in what these guys are trying to do,”
through the grist-mill of extreme performing, Cross is Cross says, explaining that today's hardcore scene
very familiar with the hardcore lifestyle and its unfortu- reminds her of when she was growing up in the '60s
nate side-effects; she badly damaged her voice on the when there was a lot of unity, a lot of common out-
performing circuit, and developed her vocal technique rage. “This kind of music is passionate. These guys
as an attempt to heal her own injury. have a disdain for artifice. It's all about being raw,
During the course of my screaming lesson with Cross, being real," she says. I wondered how her students
I began to understand why her work is so meaningful respond to learning vocal technique that involves rigid-
to her students. She stops at nothing to communicate ity, repetitiveness, and form. Cross is conscious that
an idea, gesticulating and metaphor-making wildly many of her students approach her warily, afraid that
until the screamer finally gets it. Like most seasoned she will change their sound. What she is trying to do is
teachers, she has a routine that is tried-and-true, stock to help them scream with the most strength and the
phrases and images that encapsulate the meeting least amount of damage to the voice as possible. The
point between an abstract concept and a concrete hope is that in the end they'll sound more like them-
series of actions. selves than less.
Healthy screaming happens at the intersection
Over the pencil” is the most basic of these coinages, between cold, hard technique and heartfelt passion,
an image/technique designed to help the student proj- inward control and outward release. Cross takes the
ect the voice from the cavernous, vibrating space in the weakened screams of rockers, and perfects them so
top of her head. She asks the student to hold a pencil that they are better able to communicate a deep sense
between her teeth and try to make the correct, vibrant of soul and outrage. Under her tutelege, hardcore
sound. There is also (for girls) the “strapless bra” music is elevated to a high, but very earthly, art.
Sprin
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Issue
Contact Information
ph. (212) 736-3789 fax. (212) 868-0522
email- melissa@melissacross.com
visit www.melissacross.com for more info
THE ZEN OF SCREAMING
In the early ‘90s, a passionate and unrestrained new breed of rock singers began a journey to the extreme limits of the human voice. Heeding the call
of this army of screaming warriors, forward-thinking vocal coach MELISSA CROSS developed a training program for the pioneers of the genre to
preserve their vocal cords without compromising an ounce of their trademarked passion. Combining solid voice technique and a groundbreaking
vocal workout with tour-bus humor and backstage commentary, the Zen of Screaming is as entertaining as it is infoormative. This DVD is
the first of its kind and a must- have tool for the modern vocalist.
CREATOR OF THE ACCLAIMED “THE ZEN OF SCREAMING” INSTRUCTIONAL

DVD, MELISSA'S CLIENTS INCLUDE:
A Life Once Lost (Ferret) Ma yl ene an d the So ns of Di sas ter (Fe rret )
A Static Lullaby (Columbia) Melissa Auf der Maur (Capitol)
Adam Green (Rough Trade) My American Heart (Warcon)
Aiden (Victory) N e c ro ( P syc ho L o g ic al -)
All That Re ma in s (Pros thetic) Nora (Ferret)
Andrew W.K. ( Island) #12 Looks Like You (Eyeball)
Anterrabae (Triple Crown) Patent Pending (WPO)
Arc h Enemy ( Cen tury Med ia ) Sanctity (Roadrunner)
Armor for Sleep (Equal Vision) Senses Fail ( Vagrant)
Ben Lee (Wind-Up) S ha do ws Fa ll (Atlan tic)
Bloodsimple. (Warner Bros.) Shai Halud (Revelation)
Candiria (TypeA/Red/Sony) Sick Of It All (Abacus/Century Media)
Chimaria ( Ferret ) S liP Kno T ( Roadrunner)
Cradle o f Filth (Ro adrunner) St ill Remains (Roadrunne r)
D aryl Ha mmond (S atu rday Ni gh t Li ve/N BC ) Stone Sour (Roadrunner)
Dead Poetic (Tooth ‘N Nail) Strength In Numbers (Ironbound)
Diamond Nights (Kemado) Stretch Armstrong (WPO)
Early Man (Matador) The A.K.A.s (Fueled By Ramen)
Emanuel (Vagrant) The Agony Scene (Roadrunner)
Every Time I D ie ( Fe rret) The Audition (Victory)
The Bleeders (Universal/New Zealand)
From Autumn to Ashes (Vagrant) The Bravery (Island)
Full Blown Cha os (S tillborn ) The Showdown (Mono Versus Stereo)
God Fo rbid (Century M edia) The Waiting Hurt s (Virg in )
H20 (MCA) 36 Crazyfists (Ferret)
Haste the Day (Solid State) T hro wd own (Trustkill)
Ill Nino (Roadrunner) Thursday (Island)
It Dies Today (Trust kill) Trivium (Roadrunner)
Ki l ls wi tc h Enga ge (R oad ru n ner) U nd eroa th (To oth An d N ai l)
La mb of God (S ony / Ep ic) Unearth (Metal Blade)
Madball (Roadrunner) Young Love (island)
www.melissacross.com toll free 888-900-DUMP
© MMV Loudmouth Inc. All rights reserved.

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T H E H I G H LY A C C L A I M E D G U I D E T O E X T R E M E V O C A L S

VOCAL INS TRUCTION FOR A NEW BREED

“I’M TELLING EVERYONE ABOUT IT...”

“DON’T YOU WANT TO BE SCREAMING

“Turn your vocal cords into power chords!

“She totally knows what’s up.”

“At the core of her lesson is a fistful of breathing

View the “Zen of Screaming” video shorts on MTV2!

Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

The Zen of Screaming

“MOST OF THE GUYS I WORK WITH ALREADY KNEW HOW TO

Others “have come to me with really clean voices and wanted to

What’s Next: Cross is putting the finishing touches on “The Zen of

The second “Zen” will feature guest appearances by Rickly, Gossow,

“ ‘The Zen of Screaming 2’ is what everyone wanted from the first

The Zen of Screaming

The Zen of Screaming

AP: How does what you do differ from a dia-

Press beeeeey," or that Zack de la Rocha ever

AP: Is scream training lucrative?

AMNY Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

JOEY IVANSCO/AJC STAFF

taken any voice lessons. I’ve taken a few tips about

Many of these singers give testimonials in “The Zen of Screaming” (now in

MAGAZINE Self-styled ‘Queen Of Scream’ Melissa Cross is a sincere enough

Who needs Strepsils when you’ve got Melissa?

The Boston Globe Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

The Boston Herald Melissa Cross Vocal Studio

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A METHOD TO THE MADNESS OF

Do you think the artifice that you enable singers to

The sound of that lack of control is not pleasant. It was a nov-

Moving from theology to thespianism: as a student of

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“Rooowwwrrraaaarrrrrooowwwwrrrrr!” A guttural growl straight from

PHOENIX That's because the chipper, red-tressed, late-fortysomething voice

Trained in London as a classical singer, Cross was drawn to punk rock

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“Most of her clients are roughneck, tattooed metalcore dudes like

“Some of them walk in and they're kinda scared, because they’re

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CREATOR OF THE ACCLAIMED “THE ZEN OF SCREAMING” INSTRUCTIONAL

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