While listening to shortwave radio, Pena heard a broadcast of throat singing, the Tuvan art of manipulating overtones while singing to make higher frequencies more distinguishable, essentially making it possible to sing two notes at once. Pena, over the course of several years, taught himself to throat sing to a very impressive degree. He eventually attended a concert of throat singing and after the concert impressed one of the throat singers, Kongar-ol Ondar, who invited him to visit Tuva, a republic of the Russian Federation and a formerly independent country from 1921 to 1944 under the name of the People's Republic of Tannu Tuva and the home of throat singing, to sing in the triennial throat singing festival held there.