You would think writing a short script for an intro and outro would be short and sweet. More than likely it is, however it took me way longer than expected to finalize it. Today, though, it finally was completed and was sent off to the voice over actor I had in mind during my whole search for that one voice. For those who are not aware of this, I’m attracted to accents and singing voices.
Xenophile – an individual who is attracted to foreign peoples, manners, or cultures.
Unfortunately, there’s no such established word to describe someone who is a lover of accents and melodic vocals. So, xenophile is the closest one which is pretty accurate of me as well. I love people from other countries. As soon as I find out someone is from another part of the world, I try to engage in conversation to learn more about where they’re from and what is it like over there. Other times, it’s just to make them talk so I can listen to their accents. What can I say? It’s like honey to my ears! Some people are more focused on physical features of people, or their personality, while I’m drawn to their voice. You can’t see it, but I’m totally shoulder shrugging as I wrote that.
Anyway, so as I searched for vocals that were professional, yet laid-back. I wanted someone who didn’t sound stoic and emotionless. You can sort of tell who has been around the voice over block and who’s getting started. It’s all in the comfortability. And, as you might’ve guessed, I intentionally looked for those who had non-American accents. Because most people get intrigued when they hear a voice they don’t often come across in their area. I didn’t exclude Americans, however I had a voice in mind that I knew probably wouldn’t be easily replicated. My podcast will be covering sports so, every Sunday in the Fall, you’ll find me watching NFL on television. Been doing it for years, and there’s been one voice I love to hear during promos. That voice belongs to Tia Texada, which you can listen to here. The sultry way of talking about sports, I thought about using for my podcast as well. The thing was I’m sure I could’ve hired her services to do the voice over but, for someone who’s had many national features, I knew it was going to cost a pretty penny. And when looking on Fiverr, other similar voices I felt would go overboard with the tone. That’s not the direction I want the podcast to go, as I want it to be light-hearted and energetic.
So, the American voices took a backseat to the rest of the world once again. I searched for those who specialize in podcast voice overs and listened to their demos. There was another national sports voice that I love to hear, whom I drew inspiration from in my search. While Tia Texada was a voice I was familiar with in American football, there was another football personality I looked forward to seeing on Saturdays when football (aka soccer) would come on NBC. I even had the pleasure of meeting her when the cast and crew of NBC’s Premier League Weekend Show came to Austin, TX for a live broadcast back when I lived there for some time. Her name is Rebecca Lowe.
Maybe it started when the Harry Potter craze began all those years ago, but the British accent is up there on my list of favorites. In the same vein, the Australian accent is paired with it on that list since they are similar in certain ways such as expressions (e.g. saying “Cheers” as a greeting/goodbye). When it comes to native English accents, the top 3 are American, British and Australian. Since I’ve taken the American accents off the table, basically, that left those two other options. While I did search for other accents including Spanish, French, Italian, and more it seemed that most focused on their native language. It’s understandable, however I did not want to pay for revisions should they have issues pronouncing things on my script. So I focused on only British and Australian accents. And I said earlier that there was one that stood out to me, and throughout the search, I knew I was probably going to collaborate with this one. In the end, I chose Lucy Dwyer. . .
She will be the voice you hear at the start and end of my podcast. Accent aside, the energy was great in the demos and sounded very natural. The script was sent this morning, and the finished product should arrive around midweek; just in time before Thanksgiving holidays. I’m excited to receive the audio file, as well as see what background music she chose to go along with it. I put a request as to the style of music I’d like, so hopefully she has something like it or reaches out to discuss it more. It’s a relief to have that done, and I’m sure I’ll love what she sends me to use. Now I can fully focus on my podcast, and producing content for it! As well as focus on my other posts I have for y’all on here. While my nephew continues to take up a good chunk of my time, his stay may be shorter than expected as my sister talks about coming home earlier. She misses him a lot, and mentioned maybe trying to come back after Thanksgiving. I think her goal is to be here before his birthday in mid-December, so we shall see if they make it back in time. Regardless, he’s been a joy to have here (when he’s not having tantrums) and he will definitely be here for my podcast debut. I wanted to try to start last week, but the anticipated start looks to be this Friday or Saturday. Stay tuned here on my blog, on my Twitter, and on Instagram for more updates. Are y’all ready? Let me know what you’re most excited for in the comments!
Novatourist 