For this week's episode, Alexa is joined by a vocal coach, singer songwriter, vocal producer, arranger and artist developer who has worked with the likes of Justin Timberlake, the Dave Matthews Band, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Lizzo, Kelly Clarkson, and Kelly Rowland. The list goes on. Robert ‘RAab’ Stevenson is on Singing Teacher’s Talk.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Robert came from a family of singers, his sister and his mother sang in the Florida Mass choir. Anytime the family would show up or visit a church, people would recognize his mom and the audience would ask her to come up and sing and she would be the one who would set the atmosphere for worship.
He started the industry professionally as an artist back in 1993 when he released a couple of singles and an album that did really well. After briefly leaving the industry, RAab came back, to be a part of this group called 9 1 1, where a friend of his, Darrell Adams had got a job. The band ended shortly but RAab was still signed to the label.
One day Justin Timberlake was in Virginia Beach, working on his album with Pharrell Williams. Justin was looking for a few background vocalists to go on tour with him and through his former band mate Darrell Adams who was friends with the mix engineer, RAab got the call.
As a vocal coach, RAab believes that when singers stop training and think they could just wake up and go and sing, they start to develop bad habits and then bad habits come with singing with bad technique, which causes them to start to sing what RAab calls ‘survival mode’ by any means necessary to get the notes out. Then next thing you know that confidence starts to drop really quickly, and then they start dropping keys of songs.

 
BEST MOMENTS
 ‘I used to call her the vocal magician. She was able to do all kinds of things with the voice’
‘They might think I might be harder on them or easier on the big pop star. Nobody gets a break’
‘Sometimes they'll be like I don't have time for a voice coach. They go back out and repeat the same thing, then they come back to the same doctor with the same problem only worse’.
EPISODE RESOURCES
BAST Training
Guest Website:

kimadproductions.com

Social Media:

@robertraab

Relevant Links & Mentions:

The late Robin Lee Wiley
Clayton State University: https://www.clayton.edu/
Brandi Carlisle & Joni Mitchell: com/watch?v=4aqGjaFDTxQ
Mercy by Trey Anastasio: https://open.spotify.com/album/41lEQWwC9dVwn7bA8Puzjl?si=ZUX1geZ4QemBnQEO6Svj8Q

 
ABOUT THE GUEST
 
Vocal coach, singer, songwriter, vocal producer and artist developer, Robert “RAab” Stevenson has worked with some of the most famous voices and producers heard on pop radio today. Among them are Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, The Dave Matthews Band, Zac Brown Band, Ne-Yo, The Lumineers’ lead singer, Phoenix’s lead singer, Kelly Rowland, and more.
RAab started working for Justin Timberlake in 20o2 and is still presently working for him. He has coached Justin and his backing vocalists for the likes of world tours and their 2018 ‘Super Bowl’ halftime performance, and has also toured with him as a background singer, vocal arranger and vocal coach.
RAab started coaching Lizzo in 2020, preparing her for upcoming performances, and has coached singer/songwriter Charlie Puth since 2017, amongst many others.
In 2010, RAab partnered with vocal coach Mindy Pack, to create “Voice Tutor”, a vocal coaching app for the iPhone and iPad.
Check out www.kimadproductions.com for RAab’s full profile!
 
ABOUT THE PODCAST
 
BAST Training is here to help singers gain the knowledge, skills and understanding required to be a great singing teacher. We can help you whether you are getting started or just have some knowledge gaps to fill through our courses and educational events.
Website: basttraining.com
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Link to presenter’s bios: basttraining.com/singing-teachers-talk-podcast-bios
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