Gabe Newell Confirms Practicing Throat Singing in Valve Office

Valve boss Gabe Newell is known to sing very loudly.

Recently, original Counter-Strike creator Minh “Gooseman” Le shared details about Gabe Newell’s unusual hobby during an interview with YouTube creator Indie Game Joe. According to Le, Newell practiced Mongolian throat singing for several months. His daily and very loud rehearsals reportedly did not thrill his employees, eventually leading them to start closing their doors:

Gabe watched a documentary about Mongolian singers and got really into it, so he started practicing and singing all over the office. And I remember a lot of people were annoyed by it because he sang quite loudly. He did that every day, so people started closing their doors.

After this story went viral in the gaming community, a user named tbaszt decided to verify its authenticity by emailing the Valve boss directly:

I sent Gabe Newell an email asking if it was true that he practiced Mongolian throat singing in the Valve office for months. And he replied.

Gabe Newell confirmed that he did indeed practice throat singing and still occasionally picks it back up. In his reply, he mentioned practicing “kargyraa” and “sygyt,” which are Tuvan-Altaic styles:

Yes, I discussed this with Paul Pena after trying to teach myself. I am completely self-taught, which shows. I worked on sygyt, kargyraa, and other styles, and reached a point where I started to genuinely… annoy the people around me. From time to time, I get back into it. It takes a couple of weeks to get your throat ready; kargyraa comes easily, but clean sygyt requires more time.

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