Eli Young Band spends a lot of time on the road performing live, and when they’ve got hard charging, vocally demanding songs like their latest #1 song, “Love Ain’t,” that they have to sing every night, it can take a toll on their voices. For lead singer Mike Eli, taking care of his voice is a top priority every day because he says, “I went through a really hard time a few years ago. I don’t think I was taking care of my voice the way I should have been. And then eventually I went and saw a doctor and got things figured out on how to do that. And then also how to stick up for myself a little bit and say, ‘Hey man you can’t send us out for 14 days straight, and for me singing in every smoky honky tonk. I’ve gotta take a break and I’ve got to be able to rest my voice.”
Once Mike figured out what was causing his voice issues, he incorporated daily vocal exercises and warm-ups, and he changed his diet to eliminate some of the things that were irritating his vocal chords, like, he says, The doctor said you got to stop drinking caffeine for at least six months and then you’ve got to stop drinking so much carbonation, which was weird to me. And then he cut a bunch of acid from my diet. I love tomatoes. I can’t eat very many tomatoes, unfortunately.” And then he says, “All of a sudden after months of doing the exercises and doing those things I felt a lot better.”
Fortunately, Eli Young Band’s latest single, “Break It In,” isn’t as raucous as some of their songs, and Mike’s voice is in good shape, thanks to the changes he made in his life.
Eli Young Band – voice care :52
Mike Eli – “Personally I went through a really hard time a few years ago. I don’t think I was taking care of my voice the way I should have been. And then eventually I went and saw a doctor and got things figured out on how to do that. And then also how to stick up for myself a little bit and say, ‘Hey man you can’t send us out for 14 days straight, and for me singing in every smoky honky tonk. I’ve gotta take a break and I’ve got to be able to rest my voice. So that combined with little things, like the doctor said you got to stop drinking caffeine for at least six months and then you’ve got to stop drinking so much carbonation, which was weird to me. And then he cut a bunch of acid from my diet. I love tomatoes. I can’t eat very many tomatoes, unfortunately. And then all of a sudden after months of doing the exercises and doing those things I felt a lot better.”