Gabe Newell's throat singing at Valve's office was not a joke – in his email reply to a curious fan, he revealed that he was, in fact, practicing his sygyt and kargyraa during office hours for several months. Newell added that despite trying to master throat singing on his own, he talked to Paul Pena at some point, since Pena was a self-taught throat singer himself.

The revelation from the Tuvan throat singing enthusiast came out of the blue. A fan emailed Newell asking whether the story about him practicing khoomei at Valve's office was true. To their surprise, Valve's president did not hesitate to answer the question in detail. He explained that he worked on different throat singing styles in the office, which got to the point where he became "really... annoying," to quote Newell himself. 

Newell's throat singing first became a hot topic when Minh Le, the co-creator of Counter-Strike, mentioned it in an interview with Indie Game Joe. "He would venture off into really interesting hobbies. At one point, he got into Mongolian throat singing. He was doing it throughout the office, and so basically you would hear him try to sing with his throat as he was walking down the halls," Le said.

Not everyone at the office appreciated the new background music, and people started to close their doors just to be able to continue working. It only lasted for a few months back then, but now, it turns out, Newell goes back to his musical practice every once in a while. Because throat singing is a physiologically demanding task, though, it takes him a couple of weeks to condition his throat for some of the Tuvan styles.

Both kargyraa and sygyt mentioned by Newell are the more challenging throat singing styles that take months of regular practice to master. Since he is still picking those up from time to time, seems like there might be more whistling and growling coming Valve's employees' way. 

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