As an update to the story, this was confirmed by Gabe himself: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/gabe-newell-responds-to-fan-asking-about-bizarre-valve-throat-singing-story-3412684/
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.
I can see that, unfortunately I have that curse of remembering pretty much everything. The almost 40 years I’ve been alive have been… very long.
That’s useful though! Do you have the ability to chronologically recall things?
I can remember distinct details, but I have almost no ability to remember when they happened without context clues.
I do and it actually gets annoying because as you get older you start to notice cognitive decline in friends and family. One day, they don’t remember what happened and then you realize there’s no point in making an argument over it.
Recently, my mom traveled where I lived for a bit with grandma. And this was over thirty years ago, the caveat is that I was roughly 3-4 years old when I lived there and I knew exactly where I was and how things changed over time.
I will say it was probably a weird conversation for my aunt because I could describe everything in the area and bring up old memories–some of which she didn’t remember.