Tis I, Lord Podcast. Are you yearning to equip yourself with the confidence to record?
Elijah, the skilled podcast professional, is preparing himself for a tale of tools and
skill that only a mighty podcaster may employ in one's podcast journey. Elijah, I do believe
that we shall teach our weary wanderer the confidence that they strive to achieve. Shall
we start a podcast? We shall. It's settled. Let's start a podcast.
Oh, they're going to take a sip for the voice. Make sure the chords.
But of course.
The pipes.
Yes. Yeah. Always good to be very hydrated.
Let's start a podcast, shall we? Chris Tester is the voice of reason in my mind. Not what
you would think, but we're going to get through the day today with explaining the epic pivotal
point, the diarrhea commercial, explain what's in a voice, and then of course, the godly
figure. Not an accent, but the war hammer. Godly foes, I guess. The end bosses. How do
you get to that point and what in between? So thanks for joining. Thanks for having fun.
My pleasure.
And I'm glad you're here. You're just happy.
I'm glad you're here.
I want to talk about myself in true British fashion. It's lovely.
Obviously, yeah.
So the diarrhea commercial, I love 12-year-old bathroom humor. Anytime I can fit into a podcast,
here I am. So that wasn't in the past. I heard this on another podcast. I was being nosy
and wondered, is this a pivotal moment in your career, one of those things where you
got to work it out or is this something that you've kind of landed on? How did this happen?
I mean, we've all got to work out what our USP is and maybe our USP finds us. And so
I kind of feel as if I've self-actualized to the moment of voicing a series of diarrhea
commercials and how this particular product can solve all of your diarrhea problems. I
mean, in actuality, because although the campaign itself is going to be across all of Europe
as well as the UK, I didn't actually even realize what the product was for, what the
product was until the recording session itself. As is often the case with voice actors is
that you don't actually know what you're voicing until you're in the session and then you're
presented with the script. Because I think people are so petrified of people breaking
NDAs and this being incredibly important confidential information. I don't know how it works in
the diarrhea marketing circles, but I assume that this is all incredibly important and
vital information of how their medication works and all of this kind of stuff. But I
didn't realize what it is that I'd signed up to. I was given the details of these are
the territories it's going to be used. This is the length of the recording session. This
is the money. Is that okay? Fine. They like a demo that we already have of your voice.
So they know that they want you. You're the guy for diarrhea. But they didn't even say
that. So then I just kind of like, well, I digitally rocked up to this session. I clicked
on accept on Microsoft Teams or whatever. And suddenly I was there. And suddenly I was
presented by this very moving explainer video about all of the benefits of this particular
product, which I can't specifically name yet because it's not out in the wild as it were.
But yeah, that's just the nature of the job really. You just go, oh, okay. I'll run with
this. Yeah.
You talk a lot about the importance of branding and aligning to your network with people of
similar values. So does this concern you at all when you get into this thing where you're
flying blind, if I may, and just kind of going to be the voice and hoping for the best?
I mean, I think with something like that, that's pretty much, it's absolutely fine.
But there has to be obviously a degree of trust with the clients that you're working
with. And so for quite a lot of production companies, they'll ask you is the stuff that
you will do or won't do because stuff that's outlawed in the UK, for example, tobacco advertising
might not be outlawed in other territories. So are you willing to do a cigar commercial,
for example, in Dubai or something else like that? So there are all these kind of granular
in detail kind of things, even though we don't really do a lot of kind of political stuff
in the UK in terms of advertisements as such. That's obviously a huge thing in the US where
you've got the political attack ads essentially in that kind of thing. But even as a UK talent,
I've been signed up to a lot of US production houses. They asked me, would you do political
stuff? And I'm like, hell no. So that's always interesting. But yeah, because of confidentiality
clauses and stuff like that, you never know exactly what it is. Well, you rarely know
exactly what it is that you're stepping into. And even when you are presented with something,
it's a good lesson in not over preparing because again, you can start a session and they can
go, we've completely changed the script. So everything you've prepared and you've annotated
everything and you've looked up all of the words and the crazy way of how to pronounce
this Greek place, place name that you've never heard of, all of those kinds of things. And
then you go into the session, they're like, it's completely changed. All of the names
have changed and different as well. So let's learn those as we go, grit your teeth and
good luck. And that's and then being able to go, okay, that's absolutely fine. And it
won't affect my performance, but I just need to be able to manage the recording session.
That's part of, I think actually working with a professional comes in. Yeah. It's about
having a nice sounding voice. Yes. It's about knowing how to use that voice, but it's also
not being overwhelmed that lots of shit being thrown at you really, really quickly, both
metaphorically and in actuality with the diarrhea stuff. Yeah.
He loves a good pun, but you love a dream client. Have you had one? Have you worked
with one or are you waiting for that special day?
It's weird. Cause I mean, I didn't really, I didn't really set out with, because I was
never, I was never like, I wanted to be a voice actor right from the get go. I don't
know if there are that many people out there who do, but so I didn't have any dream clients
because I didn't really think about it. A great deal. I didn't, I had a huge lack of
imagination like when I, when I was an actor and I still am an actor, but when I was predominantly
focused on stage, I was like, I want to work at the Almeida theater. I want to work at
the English touring theater. I want to work at the national theater and the Royal Shakespeare
Company. I did two of those, but not four. But that kind of came quite naturally to me.
Whereas it was only really in the first year of running my business where, you know, I
paid to work with various marketing gurus and they asked that question. I was like,
Oh fuck. I should probably come up with some ideas. So in a long winded way to answer that,
probably games workshop this year, because that was, they do all of the warhammer stuff.
And I, as a teenager played a lot of warhammer and then I kind of put it on ice for about
20 years because I just didn't have the time. And then, and then I kind of like cottoned
on as it got more popular that there was all this law, all of these stories, all of these
books, all of these audio dramas, everything that had kind of popped up, you know, to that
kind of runs in parallel with the actual game itself. And so delving back into that and
also the, some of the video games that they do in the warhammer universe as well, that
became like one of my big things that I wanted to kind of like work with. So they are probably
a very prescient example of, you know, people I desperately wanted to work with and now
have, and hopefully I'm going to continue to. So yeah.
Across my toes, if it helps Chris. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Word out there. Hammer, warhammer, get
out there. Chris needs you. You need him. Whatever it may be. There we go.
Exactly. Exactly. But no, I mean, everybody that I've worked with, Black Library, which
is games workshops, audio book division, essentially has been an absolute delight. So you, because
well with the recordings for them, you actually go to their in-house studios as opposed to
recording remotely. So, you know, I went, yes, I went up to their headquarters in sunny
Nottingham for three days to record an audio book with them. And it was, it was, it was
great. It was really, really, really cool.
Do most people get you to do a straight read? If I may just, just read naturally or do they
put you expect to put on something, a little bit of a, a persona when you're doing the
audio books or is it all?
Well I mean with audio books specifically, even the narrator is a character because I
mean otherwise get, get an AI voice to do it. I mean, essentially because even if it's
not explicit implicitly, the narrator will have some form of take on all of the action
that's going on, even if they seem to be somewhat removed from the action directly. So as well
as doing the actual character voices, I think you need to have a clear idea of where the
sympathies of the narrator voice lies and be able to make choices. Cause I think that's
always going to be more kind of like interesting. So I mean, quite often I'll be asked to do
the majority of my work in my natural accent. And that's whether that's corporate stuff
or commercial stuff, most video game stuff, audio book stuff, but then with audio books
and with and with video games as well, you know, you need to populate the world with
other characters only just using your voice sometimes in which case or, well, or with
video games, you know, quite often the more characters you can play, the better it is
for the developer because it means they don't have to pay loads of different voice actors.
So that's a selling point for them in that way. And I mean, I'm currently working on
a Charles Dickens audio books, audio book, and there's about 35, 40 different characters
there. And I, like I said, I'm not an accent guy, but it's about making subtle differences
so that just people know without being too distracted by the performance, whatever it
is. Cause I think that gets, that can get boring quickly.
I've heard American gods, uh, audio drama is a audio book. If you're familiar, they
did the whole thing. Like they did the voice acting, they did the sound effects and immersed
you in into the experience. Do you find that's a little too distracting? Is it just a preference
that you have to be over the top?
Oh, I mean, I mean, with something like that, because it's all kind of done. Like for example,
we've got a company in the UK called big finish. I can't remember if they did American gods,
but they did quite a lot of Neil Gaiman stuff. Um, and, uh, yeah, I think they did. Uh, and
the way they kind of like produce that, uh, is exceptional. It's amazing. You know, I
mean, they get, uh, the cream of the crop of, uh, actors and voice actors involved as
well. Um, so very rarely, uh, is it, it's not like having a small ensemble of people
trying to do like 80 or 90 characters. Um, you know, um, and, uh, and the actual sound
effects, it's, it's incredibly, it's incredibly immersive and it's a really, really cool thing
to do. So, I mean that, although audio drama isn't necessarily my burning priority, uh,
just because I don't know enough about it, I'm not that well versed in it. Ironically,
despite being an actor, um, you know, it's something that I've had a few really great
experiences with. Um, it's just, it's, it's interesting cause it's completely different,
uh, in a lot of ways you do have to amp up some things, uh, because people aren't seeing
a face. So they, they're not being able to gauge things via an expression. So you do
have to be a little bit more distinctive in the voice. Whereas even with some video games
now, uh, although video games, uh, cause some video games tend to be a bit more heightened
just because of the worlds that they are creating and that kind of thing with mocap and facial
capture and all of that kind of stuff, in actual fact, sometimes you can get away with
very, very naturalistic and grounded performance in there. So, you know, it really just depends
suiting the tools to the medium as it were. Yeah.
Anything in particular that really helped you stand out in the voice world when you
decided, uh, it seems last minute, just out of a whim to be a voice actor.
Out of a whim.
Uh, I mean, I, I mean, I did an online course and that online course revealed to me that
being able to work from home as, uh, or being able to work independently as a voice actor
would, was, uh, uh, a thing at all. Uh, I mean, my understanding of it up until that
point was that you get a great, well, you get a voice agent, uh, any, anyone will do.
And then, you know, like any kind of acting work you, you, well, hopefully you don't,
but you, you wait for the phone to ring and then you get auditions and that kind of stuff.
And then you kind of like work it in from there. Whereas that was very much more kind
of like, no, you can, you can build, you can build your home studio. You can build your
own kind of like business and then you can actually reach out or post on social media
or, you know, network in person or all of those kinds of things and do it that kind
of way. So it was only doing that course, which was called the voiceover kickstart,
uh, by a guy called Guy Michaels back in 2016. I think that was the, that was the moment
that kind of made me want to go for it. And then, um, and then the work really, having
put all of that stuff out there, it was interesting to see what work found me as opposed to me
just kind of going, this is who I want to work with. Because as I've said earlier, I
wasn't sure who I wanted to work with, whoever, whoever paid me money, uh, which was a good
kind of like start. Um, and a lot of corporate work came my way initially, and that was just
through my natural speaking voice. So that became like the core element of my business,
certainly for the first three, four years of it anyway. Awesome. So what microphone
are you rocking for those podcasters listening to find what's in the voice? Uh, this is a
pretty kind of like an one of the industry standards, uh, a Neumann TLM 103, um, which
I got secondhand from a fellow voice actor about four or five years ago. So I got it
for about half the price. I think it costs around about a thousand dollars normally.
And I got it for 500. Um, uh, yeah, uh, I was pleased. Um, and it's kind of the thing
about it is, is that unlike a shotgun mic, um, which is one of those kind of like thin
ones, um, uh, which, um, can be great, uh, for e-learning particularly, um, and a lot
of kind of long form narration. Uh, the thing about this is because it's a dynamic microphone,
I can go slightly off axis to it, which when you're doing character work is incredibly
helpful and it'll still pick it up fine. Whereas, you know, with a shotgun microphone, it's
kind of focused here. So if you go off here to do something, it really cuts down in terms
of the volume and the gain. And as a result, it's all just seems a bit kind of like patchy.
So for my purposes, this suits me really well. And it's been, you know, basically the hub
of my entire business for about five years. Brilliant. I'm working the stage mic that
you'll see at SM 58. I think it's what it's called. And a lot of people will just go like
this, the rock stars, but I like it because it's indestructible. It feels like, and when
I was, you know, going around remotely to doing different podcasts with friends, bringing
my equipment, it needs to be robust. Yeah, that's the thing. It works, but you got to
get right in there. And someday I'll get to the, the industry insurer, which is, you know,
the ones where those microphones were Michael Jackson sang into and stuff. And that'll be,
then we can go toe to toe microphone wise, you know, it'd be great.
I mean, I mean, for the sake of something like podcasting, it's trying, it's trying
not to overcomplicate it because it's, it's really marginal gains. But when you're, I
mean, when you're recording like big, expensive kind of commercial stuff or video games stuff,
especially, then you need to be rocking things at a certain level. And then, you know, I
mean, the, the, the, the upper limit is ever, you know, there's a U 87 or whatever you're
talking thousands and thousands, but it's kind of, I mean, sure, it'll be, it's a nice
to have, but not a must have. So I'm very much in the technical aspect of like, I got
geeky for a very short and concentrated period of time, but then, you know, it can become
overwhelming because then you're always looking for the next upgrade and it can become insatiable.
Whereas when I kind of moved house and set up this studio itself, and it was all kind
of like custom built for me and everything. That kind of scratch that it's good and proper
as it were. So now I feel like I'm set. I'm good to go. There's not really anything else
that I want to iterate or upgrade on anytime soon, as long as everything is running. Because
as soon as you change one thing in your audio chain, there are whole other things in the
back end that you can fiddle with as I'm sure you're aware. So it's just like, uh, if it's,
if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's kind of my, that's kind of my outlook on it right
now. Beautiful. If someone wants to level up their game and doesn't want to necessarily
spend on the equipment, but they want to spend on Chris's delicious voice, where do they
find all the demos and information that they need to find you at?
Uh, I mean, they can just Google my name, uh, Chris Tester. And I think I'm the first
person that comes up, although there is another Christopher Tester out there who is also an
actor, uh, but based in the U S and he doesn't do voice work. Uh, or, uh, my website, which
is naturally rp.co.uk, uh, the RP being for receive pronunciation and, um, it kind of
rule one-on-one, uh, for voiceover websites is that all of the demos are there, both combination
demos and also single tracks. And it's all downloadable. So if people do want to kind
of like download specific things, just so that I have them on file, then great fine.
Or if they just want to bookmark my website and then completely forget about me, that's
okay too.
I was looking, you're, you're, you're not just overselling it. I was going on the Google
and I was like, wait a second, that's a completely different website for Chris tester. And this
is when before you had a beard. And so you've been doing this a long time. It's kind of
cool.
I felt well. I've been hanging around a long time. Well, I graduated from a drum school
in 2008. Um, so, so been acting and, um, I think the very first voiceover gig I did
was in 2012. Um, so yeah, 11 years ago, that was for dark souls to the, that video game.
So kind of like started out on, on the big end one, like a AAA game, uh, completely unknowing
at the time about what I was getting into, but it was, it was, it was very, very cool.
But yeah, I mean, continuing to hopefully build on the experience.
When you get somebody that creates a different experience for you, like myself to says, I
have a creative idea. I don't really know how it's looking the opposite of this dark
souls to polished big, big time studio. How do you kind of inject ingest that information
to kind of make the best product possible to give that first impression? Kind of walk
me through the Lord pop roll if you could.
Uh, I mean, I mean, from a voiceover perspective, I mean, it's, first of all, it's just asking
the right question. So, I mean, very actory questions. Sure. Like who am I? Who am I talking
to? What is it that I want? What is it that I want them to be buying into? Because they're
buying into something one way or the other. Um, uh, what is it that you want the audience
to feel is also a kind of like a great start. Cause quite often people will start with the
sound and that's perfectly legitimate, but then it becomes very technical. Uh, and if
I don't know what's justifying that sound, what's running underneath that sound, if you
want me to be really breathy and low and all of this kind of stuff, that's fine. But like,
why is it because we're trying, is it because there's visually kind of like a viewster and
we want to create a sense of awe and wonder, or is it suspense and danger because it's
technically, you know, it could be the same voice, but doing very, very different things.
So if I can understand the why in any, in any kind of like shape or form first off the
bat, that would be great. Um, but for the first thing is just kind of working out, you
know, where is it going? Is it going on TV or online or is it on radio? Um, B because
that in itself will massively affect, you know, how I use my voice because with radio
where it's audio only, as I touched on before, you know, the voice has to do a lot more work
because apart from the music and the sound effects behind it, it's, it's the message,
it's carrying everything. Whereas if there are visuals to go with, then rather than thinking
of voicing over those visuals, you're kind of voicing under them because it's a supplementary
thing. You're not working in isolation. So if I understand, uh, or I'll say like, do
you know, uh, have you got, uh, a lot of clients will maybe have a work in progress thing.
They might have stuck a temporary voice in or an AI voice in as a guide, or they might
have some work in progress visuals or just some music, which may not be the music that
they, um, that they're actually going to end up using, but like, this is the kind of energy
then that's really useful because if I, you know, stick that playing through my headphones
as the same time as I'm recording, that will naturally, you know, affect the read, um,
and kind of like take it from there, but you've kind of got to keep on your toes because you
know, one client will start out with a whole monologue about the, um, the companies or
the clients, you know, dreams and goals and how inspiring this thing will be. Uh, the
other one will kind of come in and say, it needs to be no longer than 30 seconds. That's
it. I need you to do it fast. And you're like, okay, fine. Uh, and then your kind of your
voice acting, Spidey sense will have a look at the page and immediately go, that's impossible
or that is possible, but it's going to be too fast. Can we take out a few words or yeah,
okay. That's absolutely fine. And so therefore you've got to kind of cultivate these other
weird, uh, kind of skills of like, not consciously, but subconsciously you get a kind of like
a sense of the timing. If someone says, I need you to knock half a second off that you
can't kind of mathematically work it out. You've got to kind of feel your way to it,
uh, but you've got to do it in a take because time is money.
People on a budget starting on a podcast, time is money for them too. Right. So do you
have any principles or ideas or just basic fundamentals to get that voice, right? To
create a sense of confidence and first impression and, and, and something that I want to listen
to, even if it's long form 30 minutes, do you have any?
I mean, relaxation, which is, it's kind of like, um, it's a bit like telling people not
to think about the, the elephant in the room really. Um, yeah, just be relaxed. Uh, uh,
don't get stressed. Okay. Um, but I think people in our underwear. Yeah. Yeah. Then
that's absolutely fine. But I mean, I think some form of very basic kind of like breath
work, even if it's just focusing on, you know, uh, breathing out for a count of three, just
to get some kind of like deep breathing in there, because when we get tense, the breathing
kind of like locks up again, physically, because the physicality as ever affects how the voice
works. So start with the body. And if you're breathing from the chest or from the neck,
uh, for most of the time, then your breath is going to get shorter. You're going to get
sound a bit more panicked very, very naturally and all of those kinds of things. So just
even just focusing on breathing, you know, from the tummy as much as possible, not necessarily
from the diaphragm, darling, because you don't need to project because there's a microphone
there, but you know, just kind of like trying to connect to that breath and taking the time.
Uh, and I would say also not being afraid of pauses because quite often in the audio,
uh, sphere where it's so desperate to be able to fill that space and be aware of the dead
time in it, we can therefore fill everything with all of this incidental mucky kind of
like stuff, which is horrible to listen to as well. So, you know, it's just about finding
that kind of like balance, but I think taking a moment to just doing to connecting to your
breath, I think is a really important thing. I won't go as far as saying meditate because
I don't meditate, but you know, being able to connect to that breath and how your full
body is kind of working, not overdosing on caffeine too much is probably a good step.
No, no monster drinks or energy drinks. The ones that give you, I mean, I, I, I mean,
I personally have like, uh, they affect me really badly, really severely. Like they give
me heartburn and palpitations and that kind of stuff. So that's a definite no from me.
No, no, no. What's going on for 24? What, what are you planning on? Are you getting more
Bentley commercials in or, or maybe another video game planned or it can,
uh, I mean, I mean, I, I mean, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Um, I mean, I mean,
it's both the blessing and the curse of the gig is that you have no idea. You have no
idea what, what, what it's going to be like. Uh, I mean, I mean, unless you're in, uh,
a huge video game project, which would be potentially long form, in which case sometimes
they're recorded in a couple of weeks. Sometimes they're recorded over a number of years, but
that's a very select few number of people who actually kind of deal with that. So very
often it's kind of like you're one and you're done. Uh, I've, I've just literally wrapped
on a video game project, which is released in December. And that's, um, I was recording
that part for a year, but I, even from my first session, I didn't know how long the
whole process was going to be. They don't tell you even your, you, uh, you, the protagonist
or are you a companion character or are you an NPC who gets killed in the first level
and that's it? You're dead. You just record a bit and then you record a bit more and then
you're brought in for another session. You're like, okay, from the kind of things that I'm
voicing, I guess that I'm quite a considerable character in this game. And then suddenly
a year has passed and you've done like 20 sessions, but you didn't really kind of like
realize it. Um, so quite often you might be booked for something thinking that, you know,
it's just going to be one and done. And then it just kind of goes and goes and goes. Um,
but for me, um, I mean, I used to run a, like a voiceover to voiceover accountability groups.
So with other voice actors, uh, and you know, goal setting was obviously a very big thing
because, you know, for, for freelancers anyway, I think you need to choose what kind of direction
you want to be aiming at. Um, and for me for this year, I didn't know that I was going
to get started on audio books at all, but I have, um, and I'm now on my sixth or seventh,
I think. Um, uh, so that's been an unexpected thing. Um, and the whole like social media
thing being a thing in my, in, in, in my business was not again, something that I expected this
time a year ago, I think is when it kind of like really properly kind of kicked off before
that it was something I was like, as we all do, I'm experimenting, throwing a lot of shit
over the wall. I don't really know if anything is really working and I'm spending far too
much time on it. Whereas now it's kind of the main source of work that I get. Um, so
that was not something that I planned. I mean, projecting what I want is I want to be in
the next Mass Effect game. I know it's coming out at some point in the next couple of years.
I kind of know the companies that are probably, uh, you know, or in, uh, involved in the casting
of it. And I've reached out to the people that I know that I can reach out to who haven't
responded to me, but you know, I can say there are like, there are certain franchises or
developers that I can go, I want to work with them. Maybe. Um, but, uh, I'd say they were,
I, I, I would say that I'd be limiting myself because I don't know what is out there, um,
as well. And it's like, I don't, for example, don't, I don't just want to do lots of video
games because a lot of the video game stuff out there, I'm not actually that interested
in doing, uh, you know what I mean? Um, yeah, there's very particular types of work that
I'm interested in doing. Um, and so I think it's about being more and more particular
and really zoning in on that kind of stuff. Um, that's actually corporate. Um, I mean,
I mean, corporate pays the bills and corporate is always interesting, you know, in a different
kind of like way. Um, but it's that, that's something that I will continue to put myself
out there. Uh, I feel as if I've got a great deal of experience and I can offer a lot.
Uh, my priority would be to kind of like, is there any more kind of like room to freshen
things up in the corporate sphere whenever kind of possible? Cause I feel, you know,
otherwise things get quite flat and stale and boring very, very easily. And if you wear
too much scent or not enough to nature to send you home anyway. So I just have to get
the sweet spot. Yeah. Yeah. No, indeed. But, but I mean, yeah, I generally, I'm, uh, I
I've got, you know, a couple of loose kind of like goals, but mainly it's, you know,
it's it's just managing the day to day, keep doing what I'm doing and be, be open to those
opportunities as and when they come really. Um, so if you have an idea for Chris, the
amazing voice actor, if I may just throw them an idea, see if it sits, it fits, see if it
sticks, see if it happens. And then we go from there and you can kind of roll the dice
and see what comes at you. Cause you never know what people are going to have in mind.
Exactly. You never know. Yeah. No, exactly. I'm, I'm, I'm always happily surprised, but
you know, it's, it's the stuff that you least expect that actually ends up usually igniting
something within you. Yeah. The least expected. I'm just going to end because I could talk
forever. Chris, this has been amazing. It's been great. And I love how you put your glasses
on at the end, even though we're listening to this on audio, like you're smarter. Just
want to call that out for people listening. So they go to your website and check you out.
My pleasure. Appreciate that very much. Let's start a podcast.