Billionaire and Valve founder Gabe Newell confirmed the story about five months of throat singing in the office

Gabe Newell has seemingly confirmed one of the stranger stories to come out of Valve, replying to a fan who emailed to ask whether he really spent months practicing throat singing in the office – and getting a detailed answer back.

The anecdote came from one of the Counter-Strike creators, who shared it on the Indie Game Joe podcast.

According to the developer, Newell became fascinated with throat singing after watching a documentary, and started practicing it while walking the halls.

Minh "Gooseman" Le:

I remember a lot of the people in the office, they were kind of annoyed with this cuz, you know, it's kind of loud. He would do it daily, and people would just start closing the doors and it started to become quite a closed office.

Le estimated the habit lasted around five months before Newell stopped practicing it in the office.

A fan then went straight to the source, emailing Newell to ask whether the story was real. The reply came from Newell's Valve address, and the exchange later got shared online.

Gabe Newell writes:

Yeah, I had chatted with Paul Pena about it after I tried learning on my own. I am entirely self taught and it shows.

Newell added that he worked on the sygyt and kargyraa styles and at one point "got to the point where I was really... annoying." Sygyt is defined by a high whistling overtone above the main pitch, while kargyraa relies on a low, rasping sound produced by vibrating false vocal cords.

Newell hasn't given up the hobby entirely, either.

Gabe Newell:

Every once in a while, I'll pick it back up.

He also noted that getting back into practice takes a couple of weeks to condition his throat.

Paul Pena was an American blues musician who taught himself Tuvan throat singing. He later became the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary Genghis Blues.

It's not the first time a fan has gone straight to Newell's inbox and heard back. A Deadlock player previously got alpha access simply by emailing the Valve boss directly.