I was working with a client today on audio narration…he’s in the legal field, and he has one of those voices with natural authority, but he wants to be a voice actor – so he needs to shake it up a little. I suddenly remembered a trick I used years ago when I was struggling to find a vocal “fit” for a characterization. I just couldn’t find this voice – I was in my 20′s and the character was in her 40′s – a black blues artist: smoky and sultry and soulful – and here I was: white, suburban and…perky. I felt like I was planet away from where I needed to be with her. Finally – in desperation – I dug to the bottom of my CD collection and I found my inspiration…. Ma Rainey. 1930′s blues diva – big and brash and loud and soaringly soulful….I listened over and over and over until I started to get it a little – a rythm, a cadence, a different sense of style….as if her music had somehow entered in to my pores just enough to find that narrative voice. The voice I came up with wasn’t “perfect” but it was way closer than where I had started….I just needed a different door into that world.
So I started to play with the musical “world” of the books I was reading…..Pat Metheny’s “Wichita Falls” for Virgin of Small Plains a murder mystery set in the midwest, even some Radiohead for a sci fi book: Darkship Thieves. I’m not recommending this for every project, but music plays on our subconscious in ways we can’t quite explain, and it helps marinate us in the emotional tone of a narrative.
So I invited my client – and I invite you - to play with some music – just to see what might come of it – just for fun…..open some doors you may not have known were there and on the other side you might find the “voice” that has eluded you.
