We were lucky to catch up with Ethan Cracauer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ethan, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

learning how to do metal vocals is an entire journey, unlike a lot of hobbies and skills harsh vocals are still being researched and figured out in time with the rising popularity and demand for harsh vocals. the journey of learning metal vocals is filled with so much misinformation its like going through a mirror maze your constantly hitting a roadblock you didn’t see coming, i had learned how to do the vocals originally through an expensive vocal coach who i later found out teaches through dangerous methods and i later had to go back and relearn a lot to get to where i am now, if i had a chance to go back and tell myself one big thing to learn vocals would be to find a coach who teaches through throat singing into screaming rather then someone who focuses on quick results that lead to shoddy technique and bad basics. the most essential piece i ever learned was a Mongolian throat singing technique called dag Kargyraa using this you can get a solid base for your control over your false chords and good diaphragm support and can Segway into more difficult techniques because of the solid control you learn. another huge skill is not ever being happy with where i was and always pushing myself to the absolute limit i would have entire weeks where I couldn’t talk because of how hard i would push myself practice and figure out my limits, knowing my limit and always pushing myself to that limit while painful led to me being a much better vocalist. I’ve been asked a few times what the hardest things about learning vocals is and the answer is two things, while many things stand in the way and cause issues nothing is worse then these two, the first is the mental block it takes months to even start to get a solid base to go off of because its like playing a flute you cant see or feel its extremely frustrating and getting over that is so much more difficult then you would think and is the cause of a majority of people giving up and moving onto another hobby. the other big one is the horrible cesspool of misinformation out there. so many people say different things on what works and what the best way to learn vocals is and majority of it is wrong or even dangerous in the long term. it takes so much time to figure out what actually works for you if you asked 100 different people for advice on a roadblock you hit you will often get 100 different answers and only a small handful are even useful

Ethan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

as someone who struggled a lot in school and with fitting in socially i would always hop from one hobby to another and give up each time when it got hard. after what felt like an eternity of jumping around trying to find something I enjoyed I started listing to deathcore and other heavy and more niche music after going to some shows i felt a click and decided i wanted to be a harsh metal vocalist after a long and painful journey of learning the craft through discord i had found some people who needed vocals on some tracks i started a project called ArcticSlaughter and i started writing my own lyrics and songs, after some trial and error i found an Australian musician who when by blackbird and released my first single shadow of a star i still work with blackbird and although we make fairly niche music being a blackened deathcore project with some EDM music inspiration we have found some mild success with our current biggest release Ov Torment and misery and we are now working on even bigger projects with now plans on slowing down anytime soon, i also came across some local artist in Colorado called wings of demise that where looking for a vocalist. while i didn’t get in the band for a few months as i still needed improvement at the time i managed to impress the band with my fast progress and my ever building skillset even showing them some vocal techniques that they have never heard of before we ran into some roadblocks with our bassist causing a lot of drama after our first show but we have landed with an amazing line up and have headlined a few local shows at the black sheep with a local magazine called the riff rag

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

when i first saw some success with my music i was having a lot of issues at home, being 17 at the time and having to often be out all night to work on my music it caused tension at home with my parents not liking the people i would hang around and the lifestyle i was getting into. the tension had gotten bad enough that i decided to move out and resolve it while staying elsewhere while it was eventually be resolved and the tension now removed partly due to me being 18 another issue arises while i was living out of home. i had moved into what was basically a frat house with my ex bassist who i will keep anonymous to avoid any further drama. during this time was when i had joined wings of demise who he was the current bassist for so i had pressure to keep him in my life. while living with him i had learned who he really was. a raging narcissist. during the month i stayed there i had to deal with a lot of abuse from him from body shaming to borderline physical abuse as well and witnessing him do the same to his girlfriend at the time. this period was extremely stressful and i put up with the abuse for a few months to stay in the band before he inevitably leaked that side of himself to the rest of the band and got kicked out

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

as a metal artist the rise of AI threatens a lot, while i think music will never be truly able to get replaced by AI because of the intense human emotion that can be put into it in ways other art forms cant its a huge threat to people who do digital art and animation. a huge issue is fake artists using AI to create art and take business away from people who have real talent with it, the biggest thing we can do is make sure we don’t support these AI “artists” even though they are much cheaper and sometimes you can barely tell that i was even AI art

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arcticslay3r/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARCTICSLAY3R/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArcticSlaughter378
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5AHILMTnyaLEpVyjlUg7Ri?si=1YbDPoVfTBeZoLpfEIeYuw