Valve boss Gabe Newell admits his Mongolian throat singing phase was "annoying"

Valve boss Gabe Newell has responded to a fan asking about his Mongolian throat singing era, and he corroborates stories that it was pretty annoying.

Last week, Counter-Strike co-creator Minh "Gooseman" Le revealed in an interview that at one point during his time at Valve, the president and co-founder of the company decided to get really into Mongolian throat singing and would practice it around the halls of the Valve office. Le says Newell did this for around "five months," recalling, "I remember a lot of people in the office, they were kind of annoyed with this."

Twitter user tbaszt emailed Newell about this story, eager to find out if there was truth to it, and to their surprise, the developer himself actually replied. Newell recalls, "I had chatted with Paul Pena about it after I tried learning on my own. I am entirely self taught and it shows."

I emailed Gabe Newell asking if it was true that he spent months practicing Mongolian throat singing at the Valve officehe fucking replied pic.twitter.com/tpew8hRp9gSeptember 23, 2026

Newell explains that through practicing different styles such as Sygyt and Kargyraa, he "got to the point where I was really… annoying." However, despite the stories of it annoying his coworkers, Newell admits, "Every once in a while, I'll pick it back up" even if "it takes a couple of weeks to condition my throat."

Granted, Newell's interests have become internet folklore over the years, with him investing his money into yachts because he's a scuba diving enthusiast, as well as his "room full of knives and blades and swords," with the Steam creator eventually getting into smithing blades himself.

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