How can I sound more interesting when I sing? An unexpected lesson in musical storytelling from Ryan Gosling

I am a big fan of both Ryan Gosling and the Barbie movie. So hopefully I won’t need to explain how last night I ended up down a YouTube rabbit hole that consisted of watching behind the scenes footage of Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” approximately 50 times in a row. (If you haven’t seen the film, you can find the clip that I’m talking about here.)

I’m not entirely sure why I was so transfixed, but I think some of it can be explained by examining the following. When asked about his performance, the actor supposedly said "Ken sang that song. I never sang like that in my life. I don't know why or how that happened."

This quote got me excited because it reminded me of a regular topic of conversation that I have with my online singing clients. Often a singer will know they are hitting the right notes, that their voices sound great- amazing even, and their audiences are happy enough. But still they feel like something is missing. They know they have more to give, but they don’t know how to tap into it.

On the opposite side of the coin, we have the experience that Ryan Gosling described above, whereby he saw his performance as an almost out of body experience. He channelled something greater than himself, and produced a performance that surprised even Gosling himself, crediting it to the fictional character that he was playing.

I have experienced this myself and am lucky enough to bear witness to many of the singers I work with when they have those magical experiences too. When we hear our vocal imaginations realised in ways that we may not have consciously intended, in ways that embody something that we can’t quite put our finger on, but are experiencing on a visceral level. This state can seem hard to come by on an average Tuesday, singing over Zoom, or even in one of our more routine gigs, when we are painfully aware of our limitations and the mundane features of our everyday lives.

As a means of trying to put what they feel is missing from their performance into into words, singers will often ask “How can I make it sound more interesting?” And the answer is rarely simple. The truth is, when singers (and I am one myself so I am speaking about myself here too!) are trying to sound a certain way (interesting is a word that come sup a lot) they rarely achieve what they are aiming for. Instead we are more likely to come across as insincere, forced and to feel anything but a state of flow. No Kenergy whatsoever. Can you relate to this?

Going back to Gosling’s quote, there is so much to unpick here. Obviously it WAS him who performed the song. So what does he mean by saying it was Ken? And what can we as singers take from his statement of modesty and confusion?

You may have heard people on TV shows like X Factor use ambiguous terms such as ‘connecting to a song.’ or “Making it your own.’ And when we study peak performance we often talk about getting into ‘flow state.’ Many of us instinctively understand these terms on a theoretical level, but what does any of this actually mean in practical terms?

I did a little bit of research into Ryan Gosling’s acting style, and discovered that as a child he treated acting as an opportunity "to teach myself about myself.” Essentially approaching his work from a place of curiosity and learning and rather than from a place of already knowing, This to me is the difference between trying to sound interesting, and accidentally being interesting as a result of being interested.

Next time you’re singing a song and feel like something is missing, try considering the following elements.

1) Who?

Who is singing the song? The answer to this is a bit more complex than simply ‘myself.’ Of course it is you, but whose story are you telling? Is it Ken’s? If so, spend some time getting to know Ken in a bit more detail. How old is he? What are his likes/dislikes? Strengths/weaknesses? If we want to go really deep= what’s his attachment style? Myers Briggs type? etc etc.

2) Who?

Who is the intended listener of the song? i.e. Who is the above person singing to?Is Ken singing to himself? If so, what part of himself? The confident part? His future self? His inner child? If its not to himself, who is it? Is he singing to Barbie? What part of Barbie is he appealing to? The list goes on…

3) What?

Visualise what the person who is singing is actually doing while singing the song. Is it a live gig? Are they at home alone? Walking in the park? Adding a visual element will all give your brain helpful stimuli which will help it tap into more of the delicious subconscious stuff that we all carry around with us.

This process can be a little bit time consuming and if you are at all like me, your attention span probably isn’t great. In that case, I recommend starting with step 1. If you can’t figure out your WHO, try a few different people and cycle through them with curiosity. See what trying on different characters does to how you feel and what your voice does in response to that. Pick someone that feels totally wrong for the song and see what that feels like, and so on.

If nothing else, you will be taking your brain and your body on a sensory journey, which will open it up to doing new things.

Want to learn more? I am an International vocal coach who specialises in online singing lessons. Lets have a free chat about your singing and see if I can help you.