How Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmayluk Learned to Scream

Jinjer‘s Tatiana Shmayluk has quickly risen as one of the most dynamic and ferocious vocalists in modern metal. On the extreme side of her voice, the frontwoman is renowned for her deep guttural barks, which are presented with impeccable clarity, so asking her to star in an episode of ‘How I Learned to Scream’ was an absolute no-brainer.

Before finding out exactly what path she took in pursuit of perfected her screaming voice, we had to find out the first extreme vocal she ever heard. Although Shmayluk couldn’t recall the very first time her ears were graced by harsh vocals, she had a distinct memory of the very first time she heard a woman perform this devastating technique — Otep Shamaya.

The Jinjer vocalist was 15 or 16 years old when she was introduced to Otep’s music and, at the time, she was unaware the voice she was hearing was emanating from a woman and was stunned when she found out.

With newfound inspiration and on a night that was “15 degrees below zero,” her and the friend who had introduced her to Otep, she ventured to the outskirts in Ukraine to try it out. “I started just screaming at cars that were passing by,” Shamyluk recollected and noted, “I practiced one song — it was ‘Dig’ by Mudvayne!”

Just imagine that…

With Mudvayne and Otep as her foundation, Shmayluk branched out and expanded her vocal range in both the clean and harsh departments, taking influence from Guano Apes frontwoman Sandra Nasić while also practicing by screaming into a pillow, even though her parents weren’t home when she was skipping school to get some gutturals in.

The Jinjer vocalist is also understanding that the human voice is an ever-changing instrument and that the dynamics of her voice are not permanent — it’s something that has to continuously be developed and refined, especially with exhaustive tour schedules that, by the end leave her feeling like “an old ass lamb, ready to die.”

All that and more in this episode of “How I Learned to Scream,” which you can watch directly below.

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