VAM 006 | Interview with Wes Davis, Part 1
Welcome to the sixth episode of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. Also, the podcast is now available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
This is the first part of my interview with Wes Davis, a young and talented voice actor who was gracious enough to sit down with me and talk about his experiences breaking into the voice over business. I think you’ll find it useful to hear the challenges he faces today when approaching voice acting professionally especially in contrast to my experiences breaking in back in the late 1990’s. If you’d like to learn more about Wes, feel free to check out his voice acting website:
In this episode, I ask Wes a number of different questions including:
- What inspired you to become a voice actor?
- What has the journey of an aspiring voice actor been like?
- Have you ever been discouraged trying to break into the business?
- How did you first voice acting job go?
In the next episode, Wes and I will be discussing how he goes about finding voice acting gigs, his experiences with his agent and much more!
As always, I welcome your questions and feedback! If you feel inspired, please leave a comment on this blog post.
Thanks for listening!
Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #6 Here (MP3)
Wow! Sounds like an epic long journey. My kudos for sticking it out! This podcast helped with my reality check. I found myself really eager to get going but I need to be mentally prepared for however my voice acting road ends up.
So sorry for the delayed response. I was away all last week at the Burning Man Festival.
I’m glad that Wes’ story is giving you some perspective on pursuing a voice acting career. I always try to provide both useful and candid advice on the podcast.
Best of luck in your voice acting endeavors!
Wow… That certainly was an eyeopener. I really need to take one of your classes, Mr. Freeman. Sounds like they’re worth the money! =) If only I didn’t live 3,000 miles away.
It’s really interesting how he mixed his commercial and character reels. One would think never to do that. I only have a character demo at the moment. I’ve yet to work on narration and commercial stuff. Guess that’s my next big adventure. I have been reading a lot of stories, though. (College and reading seem to have that sorta thing with each other! =D)
Any tips on narration without sounding completely bored?
Thanks!! I look forward to the next half!
Glad you found the interview helpful!
As far as narration goes, you need to care about what you’re talking about. There’s no substitute for being emotionally invested in the subject.
Hey Crispin, This interview was interesting. I was shocked and amazed on how long it took Wes to break in the industry. It’s seems that it is true these days, that it will take 2+ years to get your first gig.
It also seems that taking a voice over class is recommended. Hopefully I’ll do this before the year is over or the beginning of next year.
The thing I also found interesting was the booth that he have made. Now I’m not too fond of making my room or my closet into a voice studio. It’s something that I’m planning on doing one day, however, I saw something at a con I attended 2 weeks ago. I discovered that you can buy a portable booth studio. It’s look like a size of a small tube tv, and there’s foam surrounding the inside of it and you can install the mic inside which I found amazing. It’s something I might just buy for my mic.
Anyway, thanks for this fantastic interview and I can’t wait to hear more of Wes’s story.
Crispin, i’ve wanting to ask your opinion on this, i had a lot of people tell me that i have a deep voice, just recently when i started school, a teacher told me to read out load, and even the teacher himself thought so. And i’ve been wanting to be a voice actor for awhile, what do you think i should do?
I don’t know. What are you inspired to do?
I think you should listen to episode 2 of the podcast where I answer this question directly. Here’s a link to episode 2:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/vam-002-7-most-common-questions-about-voice-acting-part-2
Hopefully that should give you some insight.
I really enjoyed the interview Crispin; it’s cool to hear from an up and coming voice actor and his experience in breaking into the business. I do have a question though. During Wes’ downtime, when he didn’t have any voice over work, what did he do in terms of a job? How did he remain financially stable during that time? I hope that isn’t too personal. I just wouldn’t mind knowing what kind of job or jobs is/are best for a voice actor to have while waiting for work and still remain financially stable.
Hey Terance,
Thanks so much for the question! Before I started studying voiceover I had already been working in retail for a few years, Target to be specific. While studying I worked my way up the ladder to a managerial role, first at Toys R Us later at Borders Books and Music. Though it wasn’t necessarily the work I wanted to do at the time, I needed income to both support myself and to support my budding career.
Initially voiceover was a rather costly career choice. Between classes, recording equipment, producing demos, and various marketing materials it demanded quite a bit up front. It wasn’t until very recently that I left the full time retail world, but I still work part time for a friends production company and do the random odd job to help cover what voiceover doesn’t, which is still quite a bit. At this point in my career I feel that I need a job that allows me to be available when I get a call at night asking me to record the next morning. Because I know that if I’m not somebody else will be able to. But this is quite a ways down the road if you’re only just starting.
I don’t know if I’d say that retail was the best job for someone just starting out, but it worked for me. For me it was something that I knew I didn’t want to do forever. And it was that dislike for what I did at the present that helped motivate me to work harder at the thing I did want to do in the future.
Hope that helps, and thanks for listening.
-Wes Davis
Wow, I wasn’t expecting a response from Wes himself. Thank you so much for answering my question and I wish you the best of luck in the future.
I know! Isn’t it great! Thanks so much Wes for posting such a wonderfully detailed response!
Many actors chose to wait tables or bartend in order to keep their daytime schedules free for acting work. I know one who works as a bookkeeper who comes to people’s homes to manage their finances. That way he can set his own hours and keep his schedule flexible. Everyone has their own way of balancing work and an acting career when they’re just starting out.
Hi Crispin. Your videos have helped me a lot. I’ve been planning on auditioning for some fandub videos for a long time and really didn’t know what to do. Since I’m only twelve and that I really don’t have the best webcam or microphone, what equipment do you reccomend? Most people say I sound perfectly fine with the webcam I have but, whenever I listen to myself. I always seem to have a really low or high voice that I expected. Is it me or the camera? If it’s me, how do I adjust my voice to make it sound the way I want to? I’m really sorry for asking you all these questions, I know you’re busy. But thanks for reading anyway~
Alice
I’m glad I can help.
There is a list of recommended microphones in the “Toolbox” section of the website here: http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/toolbox
Hopefully that will help!