Yo Nagaba: How are things in Franklin Park, Il? I grew up in Chicago.
With regard to your question of UP FRONT VOCALS:
I don't know what you use to record but, #1, you might look into a mic preamp to boost the headroom of your vocal (s).
Next, you might try recording a vocal on TWO TRACKS, or if in digital, you can bounce a one track vocal and make it two tracks. Thus, you will have two vocal tracks to tweak and "push up front" during mixdown.
Watch out for using FX for the background or using too much FX for the background/or vocal. This will give you a rumbling echo but you'll lose the "up front" quality.
Lastly, you will need a good vocal mic to achieve all of the above.
Keep twiddling those dials and I used to work at the Como Inn @546 N. Milwaukee Ave. And, man, that's a long time ago but I'll bet the food is still great.
Green Hornet