On his Versatility, Voice, and Role Models
Yentob: How have you...You've been very versatile in using your voice. How have you gone about that?
Bowie: Again. I didn't have one role model when I was younger. How did I want to sing? I wasn't really sure. I wasn't that comfortable as a singer, because I was never that sure that my voice was really that good at any level. But I knew I could probably project a character or an emotion, or I could tell a story with my voice, if I could find the right tenure for it. But again--I was influenced on one part by Little Richard, on the other part by people like Tony Newly(?), Scott Walker, Elvis Presley, Jacques Vorell(?), and I knew that I was none of those. So I thought the best thing for me to do was just sort of use different stylings for different songs. And it seemed to make sense as I got more and more into what I did as well. That that's also how I wrote and it's how I did evertthing. It was a question of some rather mutant ecclectasism going on. That's kind of what I did. And that's what I did well. And it's what I really enjoyed. I think there's a kind of a voice in there somewhere. I think songs like "Wild as the Wind" is probably as near to a real voice.
I'm no longer looking for a voice. I'm quite happy with the way that I work. It's kind of like...
Yentob: You've got such a repertoire, why should you worry?
Bowie: I have such a pallette of things that I can draw from and use. And funnally(?) enough I can now see that some of them are actually mine. And I'm reusing techniques and processes that, you know, I've used many times before. And that they're really...it's all really rather interesting and useful to put work together like that now.
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