WEBVTT - Amy Landon 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.720 This is from Glenn and Doyle's Untamed. I burned the 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:07.560 memo that defined selflessness as the pinnacle of womanhood. But 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:10.560 first I forgave myself for believing that lie. For so 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.360 long I had abandoned myself out of love. They had 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:18.240 convinced me those memos. They'd convinced me that the best 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.960 way for a woman to love her partner, family, and 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.520 community was to lose herself in service to them. In 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.479 my desire to be of service, I did myself in 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:31.040 the world a great disservice. I've seen what happens out 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:36.240 in the world and inside our relationships when women stay numb, obedient, quiet, 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:41.120 and small. Selfless women make for an efficient society, but 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:53.400 not a beautiful, true or just one. Welcome to the podcast. 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.080 That's all about the voice, which means it's all about power. 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.959 Who has it, how we get it, how we say 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.120 sound when we have it. I'm your host, Samarave, and 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.800 this is permission to speak, where we can throw all 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.200 our best ideas about how to get ourselves heard into 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:22.920 the pot and start. Today's guest is Amy Landon. She 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.080 is a dear friend of mine, and she's also an 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:32.280 acclaimed audiobook narrator in super high demand. She's narrated, among 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.679 other things, White Fragility by Robin d' angelo, which I 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:40.960 mentioned last week, Ted Chang's exhilaration Verity by Colleen Hoover, 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:46.560 and a huge amount of well loved fantasy series as 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:51.280 well as erotica. I wanted to have Amy on because 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.160 as an audiobook narrator and a voice actor, she thinks 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.400 all day, every day about the voice as an instrument, 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.600 how to get across store and character and tone and 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.919 point of view when all you have is the voice. 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.160 And I love our chat about what it means to 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.800 sound sexy, which I mean she's got a surprising take on, 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.400 and also the practical side of taking care of our voices, 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:17.560 which is my way of saying she's got all the 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:19.919 goods on the over the counter cure alls when you've 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.440 woken up with a sore throat and you know the 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.400 show must go on. We also talk about that comment 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.080 from her past for many of our pasts about our 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.119 voice that we wish hadn't stuck with us, and yet 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.880 it did and really affected our relationship with our voice. 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.480 And also um what it is to not necessarily fall 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.080 in love with the sound of your own voice, but 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:46.480 maybe fallen alike with it. Anyway, this is Amy Landon. 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:56.880 How do you find your books? How did the How 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:01.320 does the book find the perfect narrator for it? Oh? Well, 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:03.800 there's a couple of different ways at this point in 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.760 my career. Usually publishers just match me up because they 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:12.120 know my voice, and so most big publishers have producers 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.360 that kind of do the whole kitten caboodle if they 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.000 cast it, they decide who they want to do their 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.520 perfect voices. They get it all lined up and they 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:21.200 take you through the whole and how do they differ, 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.040 Like how do they describe those voices? Like do you 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.760 end up seeing like an actual breakdown that's like we 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.600 want a voice that is low and calm, or like 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.440 how do they know? That's all on their end? I 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:35.920 have no idea. They just see whatever the descriptions are 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.160 and they think, Amy Landon, They read the book and 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.480 then they go, Okay, what do I hear? What do 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:42.640 I hear in my head? Whose? Whose voice? You know? 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:47.880 And you're usually matching to your lead character obviously, so 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.880 you're matching gender and age and that kind of thing. 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.760 Generally to the lead character of the book if it's fiction, 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:57.960 and if it's nonfiction, you're often matching to the author. Oh, 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.320 not to the desired audience, but maybe it's related related, 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.160 But usually if a guy writes a nonfiction book, a guy, 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.440 generally speaking, not always, but generally speaking. And why do 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.400 people pick you? Do you think because I'm amazing? I 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:15.640 mean obviously, but you know what do you what do 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.360 you think you're known for? Maybe it's an impossible question, 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.679 that's solid question. Um, I do a lot of thriller, mystery, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.200 horror kind of stuff I would have. I don't know 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:26.919 if that's just because I have a dark, dark soul 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:28.800 or because I have a dark, dark voice could go 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:33.240 in EA. Do you feel like when when it's that genre, Um, 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.080 you infuse in an element of drama to it? Or 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:41.760 do you think that you're uh even about it? And 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.120 it's not really you know that it's that you like 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:48.120 the content, not that you like manipulate the I think 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.760 it depends on every single book. So when I prep 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:53.400 the book, when I read the book, the whole point 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.360 is you're trying to find the author's rhythm, the author's voice, 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.160 the authors how they would do it. And some authors 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.960 are very like standing outside the story. It's very third person. 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:04.560 It's like this happened, and then this happened, and then 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:06.720 this happened, and all the dramas happening in the dialogue. 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.640 And some authors everything is very like heightened and it 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.360 and it doesn't matter genres, genre by genre, every book 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:15.200 is different. So this is partly why I wanted to 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.240 have you in because you know, when we're talking about 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.080 audiobook narrating, obviously what we're talking about is spending time 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.400 in a booth and making your voice breathe life into 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.680 something that you didn't write. But inherent in that is 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.159 the element of like, how does language work? How do 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.800 you personally like put your feelers into a text and say, ah, 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.400 this is the rhythm or this is the spirit of 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.800 how this person writes. And it probably doesn't happen on 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.160 an intellectual level, But what does your prep look like? 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:46.720 Do you read it and do you think, oh, this 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:48.800 makes me think of this other thing or does it 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.440 feel like music or does it feel like like what's 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.880 what is that? I am an experiential trial and error 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.279 kind of girl, so I usually do my prep. I 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.599 read the book ahead of time, so I know what 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:01.799 this structure is the shape, that kind of what's happening, 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:03.599 who the main characters are. Take notes? Why you're doing that? 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:05.880 Are you just like take it in. It's usually just 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.560 at this point kind of sucked into my brain, unless 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:10.560 it's you know, there's a bunch of pronunciation things, and 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:12.920 then I've got notes on everything going on the side. Yeah. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.120 Nonfiction you're like, I don't know that God from the 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:19.560 second century BC, sumeria, no idea how to say that? Um. 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:21.360 And then I usually just get in and I will 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.640 do the first chapter until I've found the rhythm and 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.960 do it meaning over and over and over and over 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.240 until I found the rhythm. And some books you're just like, 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.960 oh great, this author they write like I talk. I 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.040 can do this falling off a log, by the way, 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.040 that's not that is definitely how I talk to all 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.679 the type guys. UM. And then some authors I really 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:45.839 like it is a battle. I'm just like i'm and I'm. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:47.600 I will get stuck on sentences and I'll go back 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:49.080 and I'll get stuck on sets that I'll go back 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:51.880 and I'll just do the first chapter until I'm finally like, Okay, 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.040 that's how this person talks. That's how this person writes, 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:58.400 and some people you can tell do not write to 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:00.240 have anything read aloud, and you're like, all right, here 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:04.719 we go, right yeah, and that's literally your problem to solve. 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.680 The biggest challenge for audio books overall, it doesn't really 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.160 matter what audio book you're doing is it's it's the 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.840 marathon of voice acting. So most voice acting you go 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:15.880 in and you're like, I'm gonna do this commercial. It's 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.080 two lines, it's three words, whatever it is that has 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.160 zone challenges, but it's super short pieces of text where 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:23.840 you're doing video games and you're just doing a bunch 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:26.480 of dialogue and then grunts and hits and blowing things up. 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.840 And so if you have maybe not great like voice form, 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.400 like you're not breathing or you're you know, hurting aspects 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:38.640 of your vocal apparatus, it doesn't really bite you because 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.240 it's so short. Right, you can go blow your voice 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:43.040 out for one day of video games and you're fine. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:46.200 But if you're doing audio books, it's a marathon. You're 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.560 doing usually six to eight hours a day in a 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.400 booth talking a new microphone, and if you're doing it 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.360 full time, you're doing that five days a week and 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:59.800 how does the eight hour feel. It's usually pretty brutal. Vocally, 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.000 you're tired and you can just hear it. But the 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.559 harder part is actually the mental So that's where finding 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.280 the language and the rhythm is. By hours six, especially 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:12.880 with complex sentence structure, your brain is tired, and staying 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.240 engaged becomes some of the bigger challenge sometimes when you're 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.080 that tired and you have to kind of I'll stop 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.640 and just go back and I'm like, all right, why 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.840 is this important? Right? Okay, what does this mean? Again? Okay, wait, 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:26.480 you just read an entire paragraph and you have no 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:27.960 idea what you said. Go back to the top and 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.320 do it again, because you're getting tired and right right 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.400 right your brain. And on a really really technical level, 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.120 like what we're talking about in certain ways is actually 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.200 like what word you lift to make sense of a thought, 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:41.800 which obviously is a lot of the stuff that I do, 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.160 especially when I'm working with English as a second language actors. 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:49.040 You know what word gets lifted if you're comparing two things, 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:54.400 for example, um matters to English. Years if we're gonna 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:59.080 actually understand sometimes a complex thoughts, sometimes a relatively simple one. 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.160 I mean, even if We're just saying, like, you know, 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:02.959 are you going to leave now or you're gonna leave later? 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.360 But if now and later are not being held in 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:09.000 opposition with each other in this thing that people call antithesis, 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:13.040 if you can background, then you know, I mean, if 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:14.960 you say you're gonna leave now or you're gonna leave later, 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:18.600 people don't understand why they don't understand it. And then 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:20.920 add into that that it's not TV and film. I 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:25.000 can't see their face. I have no context visually. They 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:28.000 can't your face or yes, they can't see my face. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.240 Either way, you can't see a face. There's no face. 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.200 There's a disembodied voice coming through your earbuds or coming 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.920 over your car radio. And so that is the only 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.079 way to make sense of what's going on is getting 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.600 that language right. And unlike working on a script like 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:42.640 a theater person, where you usually have worked on this 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.080 script for months and you have gone through and everything. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:50.440 I've got a book and going through and marking up 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:54.280 every single sentence is just not practical, So you really 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.160 are It is about staying on top of it and saying, wait, 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.719 did that make sense to me? Okay, we're having a 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.120 direc actor who's on the outside. They're listening like like 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.440 our lovely producers here are and they would be out 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.400 there and they would just stop and be like, Um, 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.480 you know, I don't understand what you just said. Can 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:12.720 we go major percentage of the work you do? You 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.040 do not have a director around. You're doing this alone 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.800 in your own and you're producing and directing your own Yeah, 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.600 so you're wearing all the hats at once. So here's 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.600 a fun fact about today's guest. Everything you've talked about 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:27.880 thus far is probably relevant to what I'm about to say. 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:36.040 But you secretly, relatively secretly, also do erotica. Oh yes, 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.000 relatively secret Um. So I wanted to talk to you 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:43.960 about sexy voice. What does that mean to you? I 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.760 think that's such a fun thing to ask about because 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.520 I think most women, when you when they see the 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.480 words sexy, have a very distinctive idea of what that is, 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.480 and I think it's often wrong, wrong meaning it doesn't 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.199 actually make other people turned on. Yeah, I think that 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:06.080 we have preconceived notions of this, like sexy voice thing. 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.320 I taught a workshop at an undergrad school for voice 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.920 over recently, and I deliberately picked uh, commercial audition copy 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.920 for the girls that, like almost every commercial audition, it's 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.440 going to be like, here's the breakdown, we need twenties 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.280 to thirties, blah blah, blast, straightforward read and somewhere in there. 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:25.400 At least for women, it almost always says sexy. And 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.200 that means that almost every woman is going to come 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.040 in and get on the mic and be like, I 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.240 really like this pig Mac. Oh my god, this pig Mac, 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.320 and I'm going to get like down here and I 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:39.320 get a little husky, and every single person that is 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.760 there like sexy voice, and it almost never works because 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.320 it's almost always put on. You're almost trying too hard, 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.400 unless you have a voice that is naturally kind of 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:52.080 husky and low, which minus, thank you very much, But 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.480 unless that's how you really sound, you sound like you're pushing, 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:56.520 you sound like you're trying, and then it's not sexy. 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:59.000 It just sounds like your cartoon character. Then it sounds 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:00.800 kind of awful. And so what I was trying to 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:04.200 teach these people is that what's actually sexy is your 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:08.880 natural voice coming through you. Having fun. Fun is sexy. 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.520 Confidence is sexy. It's less about a timbre and a 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:16.640 certain idea of sexy, and it's more just actually sounding 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.400 confident on the mic, having fun with the text, putting 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:20.720 a little bit of a wink and like a laugh 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:24.000 in it. Literally smiling while you're talking really helps. And 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.400 for erotica audiobooks it's the same thing. Sexy is actually 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.880 like you're in on the joke or you're in secret, 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:33.000 and if you're funny, that's that's so much sexier. And 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:34.800 even like in the sex scenes, it's not about like 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.480 I'm gonna get all sexy time now, it's about being 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:42.080 engaged and being confident and telling the story and engaging 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.040 with the idea of falling in love with someone. It 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:50.040 seems like a metaphor for literally the female experience that 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.800 we think there's a box that we should be fitting into, 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:55.959 and there are signs that that's right. But if we 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.000 all try to fit into that same box, we all 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.520 become so generic that are we know, we leave ourselves 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.320 at the door, and we can't actually, you know, become 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:08.000 self actualized humans until we figure out what makes us happy, Yeah, 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:14.520 and what makes you unique and lean into that vocally, Yeah, 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.280 I don't know if I can talk about everything else, 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.520 but vocally you can By the way, what makes someone 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.240 sexy on the mic is them sounding like them. It's 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:24.920 the weird, like quirky people that you're hearing commercials. You're like, Oh, 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.440 that's a weird voice. I really want to meet that person. 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:29.160 So okay, But I'm going to challenge you a little 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.280 bit on this because I also I think that ring 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.679 is so true, right, and we all understand that. You know, 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.920 we're living in a world where authentic is king or queen. 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.280 I mean, we all hate that word because it's overused. 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.560 It's overused, but it does mean what you're talking about, 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.640 that we find within ourselves something that feels real, not 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.040 something outside of ourselves that we're trying to play at 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.800 a and then be. But we all have a range 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:56.560 of us nous, So you know, one could mistake this 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.200 for like, well, then I should just come in whatever 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.240 voice comes out of my mouth is the only one 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.840 I have, and I shouldn't try to sort of find range. 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.880 But you work on so many different projects, from you know, 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:12.040 erotica to White Fragility and extremely serious book about social justice, 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.800 that you obviously do have various voices that are all 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.960 equally authentically you, but that you bring out different aspects 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.840 of yourself for different projects. Does that feel right? It does? 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:27.800 But I rarely am thinking about it technically, And it 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.360 really is more about what is the story. What is 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.120 the point I'm trying to make. If I'm narrating white fragility, 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:34.760 I'm not thinking like, oh, I have to make sure 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.480 that I sound like this when I'm talking about sex, right, 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:40.760 or I have to sound very strong. I'm just like, Okay, 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:42.400 I'm talking about this thing, and I have to make 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.400 this thought clear. And so I'm probably going to slow 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.720 it down and really think about it. But that's because 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.640 I'm dealing with complex language. It it's not about me 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.480 technically choosing. So the choices that we make about how 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:56.640 to sound in a moment, what tools from within us 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.960 we bring are should not be arbitrarily made. They should 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.160 be made based exclusively on the actual content that we're 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:05.680 working on. Yeah, and if you're really connected to the content, 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:07.840 I would say nine times out of ten that that 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.360 whatever comes out of your mouth is what it should 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.120 be coming out of your mouth, right, if you're really kind. 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.160 And there's and there's a there's an analogy here for 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:17.400 anybody who's thinking, I don't know how I sound because 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:20.360 I sound different in different situations. I mean, code switching 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.720 is real, and I talked about it in in last 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.440 week's episode. But all of us, all humans, have some 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.960 aspect of changing the way we sound based on the 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.240 environment that we're in. And so to think of that 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.280 not as like, oh God, I'm so inconsistent with myself, 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:39.600 but really just that we're bringing the authentic version of 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.160 ourselves to the moment at hand. And that actually sounds 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.840 like what you're doing professionally. Yes, if I'm doing it right, 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:48.840 and when it feels icky, you do the chapter again, 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.640 then you do the chet. You just go do it 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:54.680 until you get it right. I asked my husband for 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:56.320 if you had any questions for you, and what he 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.360 asked was, um, something like, um, do you make big 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:03.120 decisions about what characters what a character's voice is and 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:05.160 then you end up being like super wrong and you 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:10.080 realize like a way too late in yes, and it's awful. 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.200 It usually happens when you're doing book series because the 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:15.080 first book series you're like, oh, these are my leads, 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:17.760 it's gonna be great, and like Joe Schmo number three, 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.040 who has two lines, who you're like, I'm gonna make 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.440 him like a dude, and he's gonna what right, because 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:24.640 he's had two lines. He's the lead the next book 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:26.040 and no one told you that. And you're like, um, 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:27.840 so what do you do? What do you do? What 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.120 have you done? You? You slightly adjust him, you make 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:33.280 him sound a little less BROI, and you pitch him 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:35.800 up a bit, but you're like, I'm I'm lean towards that, 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.320 and then I'm also going to make him listenable. You 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.480 do do accents I do. And I've also had like 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.320 I recently did this. I have this lovely author who 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:46.760 writes a million characters in these fantasy series, and she'll 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:48.360 just give me general notes of like, oh, she's like 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:50.800 a sexy, strong woman. She'll be great, and I'm like great, 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:52.800 and I made her breath And then book three she's 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.240 like she's from Florida and I'm like, wait, but you 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.080 made her British well because it's set in Scotland and 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.000 there's wizards and there's like sure, there's people from all 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.360 over the world. You just make choices. It's not like 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:04.919 in a book. I mean, obviously, it's not like all 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:07.080 of us in a book reading where we're like God's 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.440 some sort of general sense of foreign Yeah, it was. 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:12.760 She made her britt and I was like, oh, she's 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.320 from Florida. So I just hit the author up. I'm like, 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.520 all right, so here's your choices. I can make her 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:21.119 American in this book and we can just pretend she 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.040 wasn't there in the first book, or you can change 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:25.960 where she's from. What do you want to do? She's like, 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:27.159 just make her American? And I was like, all right, 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:29.760 this is your call. And in real life, even if 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:31.440 we're not doing an accent, right, if I'm in a 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:36.600 really emotional moment of my life, weird sounds come out 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:38.840 of you, you know what I mean, Like you say 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.120 words and ways that you would never say them normally 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.000 because your your heart and your brain and there's you're 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.080 just a mess, and sh it just comes out and 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.040 you don't you don't always sound like yourself, And all 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:51.600 of a sudden, you have this devil voice that comes 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:53.480 out of me because you're so angry, or you get 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:55.920 really hype, Like all of a sudden, I'm like high 0:17:55.920 --> 0:18:00.240 pitched in ways that I never am. And like part 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.480 of what's gorgeous about how human communication works. We think 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.840 about words as being these discreete. You know, units of meaning, 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:10.080 and we pull the right one out at the right 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:11.639 time and we throw it to people, and then if 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:13.320 the right one doesn't come out, we feel really bad 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:16.720 about ourselves because we were inarticulate at that moment. But 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.720 I'm a huge fan of like the human experience is. 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:21.680 We're having all the stuff going on on the inside. 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:25.200 We're trying to make connections with human beings outside of us, 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.480 and all we have are like whatever word comes out 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:31.920 at the moment based on all of the stimulus that's 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:34.239 like moving around in our body. And all we can 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.920 do is just have like grace around that. And we 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.520 use words. We humans use words in weird ways. I mean, 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.560 sounds uh can shift, and the way that we'll say, 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.879 you know, I'm not sounds different in eight different scenarios, 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.800 eight hundred different scenarios, which obviously comes up when I'm 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.399 working with um, you know, actors who are trying to 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.040 be perfect and get it right, and it's like, you know, 0:18:57.640 --> 0:18:59.600 at the end of the day, right can mean so 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:04.000 manyferent things, and we're inconsistent. Isn't it beautiful? I say either, 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:06.000 I say either, I say I don't know. Words just 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.199 come out. I'm inconsistent with how I pronounced words in 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:12.480 my daily life, so why would I not be inconsistent 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.400 in an accent? All right, we're gonna take a break. 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:27.480 We'll be right back. We're back with Amy. So, um, 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.720 how is work being affected right now? Well, it's a 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.679 It's interesting. I've been talking to the narrator community a 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:38.240 lot because we weirdly have been weathering this whole coronavirus 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:40.480 thing fairly well for most of us because we already 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:42.640 had home studios. Um, there are a few who didn't 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.480 have had to really make shift home studios. It's pretty impressive. 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.199 I've seen pictures of narrators who have built a studio 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.600 in their parents car, in their garage, and they have 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:52.760 a full set up in the back seat of a car, 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.480 and they're spending six to eight hours a day the 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.960 back seat of a car. I mean, I get, I won't. 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.159 I did some pickups in the in my car and 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:06.800 then Kat was in hers. Uh for our last week's episode. 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.280 We feel we're all joking. We're like, oh, we've been 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.199 training for We've been training for Lockdown for years. We narrators, right, 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.080 we work from home anyway, we have a full setup. 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.040 We're kind of an isolated industry and all the people 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.640 doing post tend to work from home, so a lot 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.000 of it hasn't changed. And I was talking to a 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.040 fellow narrator and he's like, you know what, it's like, 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.960 It's like weird fish in a fish tank, just watching 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:33.000 while the house is getting robbed. And I was like, 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:35.959 oh my god, that's perfect because our life hasn't changed. 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:38.639 We're just like doing our little thing and everything's fine. 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.119 And meanwhile you look out the glass and you're just like, oh, 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.960 the world is exploding, and so you it's a weird 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.560