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.
The anecdote came from Counter-Strike co-creator Minh “Gooseman” Le, speaking on the Indie Game Joe podcast.
Gooseman says the office started closing its doors
Le said Newell became fascinated with throat singing after watching a documentary, and started practicing it while walking the halls.
“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,” Le said. “He would do it daily, and people would just start closing the doors and it started to become quite a closed office.”
He estimated the habit lasted around five months before Newell stopped.
A fan then went straight to the source, emailing Newell to ask whether the story was real. In a reply shared online, sent from Newell’s Valve address, he provided more detail.
“Yeah, I had chatted with Paul Pena about it after I tried learning on my own,” he wrote. “I am entirely self taught and it shows.”
He added that he worked on the sygyt and kargyraa styles “and got to the point where I was really… annoying.”
Newell says he still hasn’t given it up entirely. “Every once in a while, I’ll pick it back up,” he wrote, adding that it takes a couple of weeks to condition his throat.
Pena was an American blues musician who taught himself Tuvan throat singing, later becoming 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 by emailing him directly.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
