I had just finished a script workshop, exhausted, and couldn’t wait to get home. It had been six excruciating hours, and we had reworked four episodes of the first season; we still had two more to go. I couldn’t wait to finish those two so I could get paid and get out.
I love telling stories, I really do; however, it’s just exhausting when producers want a story to go their way despite how ridiculous it might look. I know this is the pain for most writers. I was carried away in my thoughts when my phone chimed, “Are you available for a voice audition?” A voice audition? I could hear myself listening to my own voice and shaking my head. No! Definitely not this voice. What would make this guy think my voice fits for whatever he’s asking? I have heard my voice being described as different things over the years, and “amazing” isn’t one of them.
If I picked up a microphone at karaoke to sing, everyone might go home with their ears plugged. “You’ve got a voice as deep as a frog. You can’t even sing bass; how come you can’t modulate a normal song? You never did music in school? I could hear these and many more ringing again in my head”. These were the voices of people close to me who, at one point, had gotten to define my voice. I picked up my phone again and almost typed, “No, I’ll pass", but thanks for having me in mind,” but somehow, I found myself typing “sure, why not”.
“Send a 30-second recording of your voice,” the message came almost immediately.
I laughed again, but still, let’s see where this goes. I excused myself to the bathroom and did a 30-second recording on WhatsApp, and shared it. For whatever reason, I received a response within less than 10 minutes – a message with an address to the recording studio in Ikeja the following day.
Interesting as it was, I was ready to see this to the end, so I took a cab the following day and was at Ikeja. It was an audition for Google voicing – sweet. There were a lot of people, and I was told we were over a hundred; they needed just two people, a male and a female. I could see radio presenters, voice-over artists, OAPs – these were gurus in the field, and here I was, filling a form along with them as a talent. I almost scoffed at the word “talent”.
When it was my turn, I was asked to come into the studio and sit with the director while we waited for the artist to be done with her recording. My God! I was screaming in my head – her voice was superb, smooth. One thing I forgot to mention: we were recording in Yoruba. Yoruba! Do you know how crazy this is? With my Ondo accent and an almost repugnant spelling of the alphabet in the language? Well, I knew these things; I understood what my weaknesses were and likewise I knew my strengths, so I watched, learned, right there in the studio. I watched how she held the microphone, how she looked at the screener, the corrections, how she modulated her tone, and when it was my turn, the director asked, “Are you a voice artist?” “Yes,” I responded. “Isn’t that why we are here?” She probably noticed my studying and took a cue. She smiled, and I entered the recording booth.
With a headset on my head, one by one, word for word, I listened, improvised, read, listened to corrections, and iterated until I was done. Oh boy, it was a long day, and the director concluded that I wasn’t an authentic Yoruba man, and somehow, no one was sure if I would ever come back for the next stage.
But I did!
And the third, fourth, fifth times, until there were only two of us left, and they weren’t sure whose voice to choose.
God! That was an amazing experience.
While eventually the other person’s voice was chosen after we recorded two more times. I felt liberated, that people’s opinions about me could be wrong! I have done over thirty recordings after that, and over ten of them are for major movies you have watched, including Anikulapo, Jagun Jagun, and others.
What am I telling you? Well, let’s just say people’s ability to talk is God-given, regardless of age, gender, or relationship; your ability to step out of their view of you, try something, and keep forging ahead is also a God-given talent.
You have to try, even when people have said it would fail!
Until next time,
Dairo from the Junction ☺️