Because the Valve CEO spent months practicing Mongolian throat singing in the office hallways, his developers took refuge behind locked doors. Now Newell has even confirmed this wacky story himself.
A deep rumble, followed by a shrill whistle, echoing unchecked through the hallways… Gabe Newell is known in the gaming world for many quirks: for creating Steam, his penchant for extravagant yachts– and for the fact that fans have been hoping in vain for Half-Life 3 for nearly two decades. However, Counter-Strike co-creator Minh “Gooseman” Le has now brought a particularly curious episode to light.
In an interview with the YouTube channel Indie Game Joe, Le let the cat out of the bag. According to the interview, Newell developed a very special passion several years ago: traditional Mongolian throat singing . The real problem for the team wasn’t so much the hobby itself, but rather Newell’s habit of doing his vocal exercises right in the office hallways.
Five Months of Constant Noise in the Office Hallways
According to Le, it all started with a TV documentary about Mongolian singers. Newell was so fascinated by the singing technique that he decided to teach himself how to do it. And anyone who knows Gabe Newell knows this: the Valve CEO rarely does things halfway.
Le still remembers the background noise from back then: Newell would walk through the hallways every day, singing to himself unabashedly. For the staff, who actually wanted to concentrate on fine-tuning games, the whole situation quickly turned into an acoustic ordeal. After all, the performances were anything but quiet.
To escape the din in the hallway, employees gradually began closing their office doors. For nearly five months, Valve’s headquarters—known for its open corporate culture—turned into a fortress of closed doors until Newell’s singing phase gradually subsided.
For Minh Le, the incident fit right into the picture. Newell tends to dive headfirst into new topics, soak up every detail, and then move on to the next project. Newell later displayed that exact same obsession when he took up knife-making and filled an entire office with swords and blades.
“That’s exactly how it sounds”
The story sounds almost too absurd to be true. A fan named Bas wanted to know for sure, so he promptly sent an email to Newell’s well-known address. As is well known, the Valve CEO often responds unexpectedly to fan mail, and he didn’t need to be asked twice this time either.
Newell confirmed the anecdote, demonstrating a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor: “I’m completely self-taught, and that’s exactly what it sounds like.”
I emailed Gabe Newell asking if it was true that he spent months practicing Mongolian throat singing at the Valve office
he fucking replied pic.twitter.com/tpew8hRp9g
— Bas (@tbaszt) September 23, 2026
Newell wasn’t entirely without expert advice back then, though: He consulted with the American blues musician Paul Pena. Pena was considered an absolute rarity in the field: The blind musician had taught himself Tuvan throat singing using shortwave recordings, traveled to Tuva in 1995 for a singing competition, and became world-famous through the Oscar-nominated documentary “Genghis Blues.”
According to Newell himself, he trained in two extremely demanding vocal styles: Sygyt, in which flute-like whistling tones resonate over a deep bass note, and Kargyraa, a deep, growling vocal style produced from the larynx. Looking back, this is his assessment of the strain it put on those around him: He had reached the point where he had become “really… annoying” to the people around him.
Incidentally, he hasn’t completely given up vocal training to this day. Every few years, the urge to do it strikes him again, Newell revealed in the email. To get his voice back in shape, however, he needs a good two weeks of preparation. Kargyraa comes easily to him, but Sygyt requires noticeably more work.
