https://vocoffeeshop.com/episodes/f/episode-1---welcome-to-my-coffee-shop
Hi there. My name is Andrew Morrison and welcome to the Voice Over Coffee Shop, where we start out day with some of the finest names in voice over. If you’d like to know more about me, feel free to visit my personal website at www.voicebard.com .
In today’s episode, I wanted to give a little background to who I am and why I started this podcast in the first place.
I grew up as a kid consumed in entertainment from radio, cartoons, videos games, and was always the person quick to say “I know that voice! That is whats his face from such and such!” . The smoke and mirrors that go into those productions fascinated me and with each passing year, I wanted to learn more about how that works.
The thing is, until I picked up a microphone I always assumed it was a job. That these marvelously talented actors had somehow landed themselves on the payroll of companies like Warner Brothers or Funimation and unless I lived in those areas, my chance behind that microphone would be no more than a pipe dream.
Then one day, I discovered an advertisement online for a website that read “Get a job as a voice actor!”. I was sold and immediate clicked the “Order Now” button for a new Rode NT USB microphone. Ready to take this supposed job offer by storm, I returned to the initial website to finish the application process. Stars in my eyes, unsure what the “demo” section I left blank meant, I hit the submit application button where the seconds of loading felt like hours.
Then my hear sank into my chest as the $500 price tag pulled up to finalize my submission. $500 for a pay to play and $500 this young dreamer didn’t have. So I locked my phone screen, finished my lunch break and went back to work. But my mind didn’t stop running. This can’t be the only way to do this. There has to be another posting or another way to break in without investing the entirety of my minimum wage paycheck.
I clocked out for the day and went home to research everything I could about voice over. Sifting through the “Buy this course” and “you can’t do this without this specific microphone” I read between the lines that this is a business catering services to other businesses. Producers and designers have a problem. They have roles and jobs to fill and do so utilizing contractors known as Voice Talent. So I got to work. I built a website, made a little pretend demo, read a million and one blog posts, and began to completely re-market myself from being an individual to being an asset.
And then all the jobs started rolling in and I made a couple grand on my very first day…..
Just kidding.
I learned how volatile the market is and just how many people (especially since the beginning of the pandemic of 2020) wanted to be a voice actor. Does that mean that my shot was blown and the good jobs were already taken? Never.
That meant that more people were asking questions, a bigger community welcomed me in with open arms and congratulated me when I did start snagging roles, and more information on how to be a voice actor was available than ever before.
So I used that information, built a sound treated booth, got some coaching, got a shiny new demo, spent months of relationship building, and submitted audition after audition after audition after audition. Though my beginning months was fruitless in the monetary sense, I planted seeds that came back the next year and through connecting and marketing I began to land roles in commercials, video games, pilot episodes of animated series, audio books, and met people who I never would have dreamed of in another career path.
So how does that tie into the Voice Over Coffee Shop?
Well, it all started with a message. A zoom meeting. Even in establishing myself, I am always hungry for knowledge. A new perspective. A new light cast onto the shadow of a part of the industry because even the veterans of the industry don’t know everything.
It started with one. Coffee with a colleague of mine who co-starred in a video game with me. Then coffee with a coach. Then coffee with someone who has been in more anime and tv shows than I can count. As a man who was years ago on the other side of the glass, looking in at the magic of an actor, I was then sharing coffee with people I had watched growing up and their stories and insight was something I couldn’t keep to myself.
So I don’t want to drill interview questions into someone where the answer is a quick online search away. These wonderful people breathe life into the media we consume and I want to learn what inspires them, what lured them to the microphone, and what they themselves have learned along the way in this mighty journey we all share.
Though sometimes we cross paths on our pilgrimage, no two stories or minds or abilities are the same.
So welcome to my coffee shop.
Thank you for stopping by, and I look forward to sharing this amazing experience with you.
-Drew