An interview from beyond the void

Today I’m turning over my blog to my son, Maxwell Cantrell, so he can talk to the narrator of his new audiobook. Take it away, Max!

Many audiobooks exist, yet few contain such glorious vocalizations as A Tale of Gods Mortals and Jell-O Shooters as voiced by Christopher J. Mayer. Behold below the thoughts from the voice of Lacerto, Gordon from the Dream of Empty Crowns saga, Ian and Rayne from the Weir Chronicles, and many, many others who would otherwise be silent. Now the voice behind the voices gets a chance to speak as I interview my talented audiobook narrator.

One of the first lessons I learned was be very careful about voice selection and characteristics.  You might be able to do a gravelly or scratchy voice, like a smoker or Louis Armstrong or something, but sustaining that voice for hours is something else entirely.  None of the characters were particularly difficult on me.  Lacerto’s voice is my “monster voice” that I’ve been practicing since I was a kid, just shy of a Cookie Monster imitation.  I pulled him out occasionally as “Grogolothgar, the Demon Lord of the Nine Hells.”  In another book I’m just finishing up, though, a couple voices have “a slight squawk” to them, slightly parroty.  That little subtle scratchiness really wore on me.  I think you can hear some of that in one of the Librarian’s voices.

I actually didn’t, that I can remember.  I come from theater and comedy improv, and I’m very good about not breaking while performing.  I did, however, have to stop several times while editing to laugh.

When you record these things, you just do it.  There is a lot of stopping and starting, yeah, but you don’t really stop rolling for a change in dialog.  You may pause a little longer to make sure you change cleanly, and then that gets tightened up in editing.  Editing took anywhere from one to five minutes of dead air out of each chapter.

Not to toot my own horn, but I’m a pretty funny guy (but looks aren’t everything).  I was influenced from childhood by the Muppets, Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, the Three Stooges…. it’s a big list.  So when I started doing theater, I pretty much had it down already because I was just doing what all the greats were doing.  It was almost like second nature to me from being brought up watching all these great comedians.  I don’t do stand-up myself because I have stage fright and can’t write my own jokes, so shutting myself in a booth reading books was a natural fit.

I’m still a rookie, actually.  I only just started doing this a couple years ago, still part time with that pesky day job, and haven’t even finished my First Ten, though I’m close.  My first fiction book is a fun little mystery, but the detective’s a robin, and it’s all animals.  I’m doing The Weir Chronicles, by Sue Duff, the fifth and final book of which is being written and should be out either at the end of the year or early next year.  I’ll be starting book 3 of that series soon.  I’ve been really enjoying it and can’t wait for the last book as a fan, myself.  Finally, there’s a pair of YA fantasy novels that form the first two books in the Chosen King series, by Mike Sewell.  They were delightful to do.  (Plug alert!) You can find all the books by searching “Christopher J Mayer” on Audible.  I put the middle initial in because it makes me sound like I know what I’m doing.  Two initials is really the way to go, but I think that’s mainly for authors.

Practice.  You sort of hit the nail on the head.  When people want to “go into audio books,” some of the best advice is sit down and read out loud for six hours.  Commercials are a sprint, Audio Books are a marathon.  I usually go for about an hour at a time, then take a small break (with no talking).  Sometimes less in the summer when I have to turn my air conditioning back on or melt.  At the moment, my stamina is about three to four hours a day.  And it’s not just vocal stamina.  This is an acting job, and you’re performing every second of that time.  It’s mentally and sometimes emotionally draining, as well.  I pushed myself last week to get the last couple hours of a book finished (which translates to about four-to-five hours of recording) and I was wiped out the next day.  It was the exciting climax and emotional denouement of the book and that really took a toll.

Thank you for the shameless plug opportunity.  I can be found on ACX.com by searching for “Christopher J Mayer,” or you can email me at chris@chrismayervoiceover.com.  That reminds me, I need to update my samples on ACX.  chrismayervoiceover.com has all the latest demo sample goodness.  You can also find me on Facebook as Chris Mayer Voice Over.