Source: www.speakup.com.br
Language level: Advanced
Standard: American accent
RICH JONES
The Art of Voice (no audio)
Imagine words rolling out of your mouth, as if they were minded in gold. This Midas tongue is no myth. Just ask a professional voice artist – one of those men and women we hear in TV and radio commercials, animated cartoons, and movie trailers. Their vocal chords earn them a great living.
Canadian voice artist Rich Jones, 52, studied Radio at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and has spent over 30 years riding the airwaves. He has recorded for clients such as McDonald’s, Motorola, Sony, and Diet Coke – and many of his spots have won prestigious media awards. Currently living in São Paulo, Brazil, Rich stays connected to recording studios in North America through an ISDN line.
Speak Up talked to Rich about his career, his competitors, the English Language, and h desire to communicate: (no audio)
When did you start paying attention to your voice? (audio available)
I was ten in 1964, The Beatles hit, you know, and I went…I remember my friend and I said, “Well, let’s have a party and let’s invite some girls!” And then, me or him, I don’t remember, said, “Well, we need some music.” And I thought, Jesus, music. That’s a good idea! So we got on the bus, ten years old. We went downtown in the city of Victoria, which is not a big city, but…we went down, we went to the Eaton’s store, which had a music department, and I remember asking the guy. “Umm, do you have any songs that girls, will like?” at ten years old! And he said, “Yeah, there’s this new thing, “Yeah, Yeah, Year or something, you know. You might like that.”
So I bought She Loves You by Beatles. 45. She Loves You and I’ll Get You on the flipside. And then I bought All My Loving and Whatever was on the flipside of that… one or two others. and I went home and I put that thing on, and I lis…I must have listened to it a thousand times over and over and over. I saw the movie A Hard Day’s Night ten times consecutive, like just…and it was like a li…something went off in my head. This idea of music, of entertainment, of something. And so I would put headphones on and tape myself singing. And I remember when I listened back to it I thought, “Oh My God, that’s absolutely terrible.”
So how did you end up becoming a voice artist?
In my high school years I started to think about what am I going to do for my career? And I was doing a lot of acting in school, and in the drama club, and public speaking and stuff, and my girlfriend said, “You should go in for radio and television.” And I walked into…when I applied at the university to study, and I got in…I walked in to the studio and I felt like I was home. I can’t explain it any better that that. I was like I had arrived somewhere. And then I started to really listen a lot to voiceover people, guys reading commercials, and I remember thinking. That’s something I would like to do.
Let’s talk for a minute about your competitors. I mean, who are some of your favorite vice artists today?
There’s this one guy named Don LaFontaine out of Los Angeles who does moive trailers eight hours a day. Movie trailers, that’s all he does (Now can you do the movie trailer voice?) Well, yeah: ‘He’s there, he’s waiting for you, he’s looking, he sees you, he doesn’t know what he’s going to do…coming soon.” It’s that kind of…and you listen to the take on their voices. The other guy I love for voiceovers is Donald Sutherland, ‘cause he’s got such a sardonic, ironic, style. It’s absolutely terrific. There’s a guy in Los Angeles who started as a writer and he does a real sardonic kind of, um, “You’re going to McDonald’s, and there you are. You don’t know what to do, but there it is. Completely uncharacteristic of the voiceover guy. I love these kind of guys! The guy who does Homer Simpson, Dan Castellaneta, I think, out of Chicago…unbelievable voice guys. Liquid with their voice, you know?
You’re Canadian, and I’m American…but our accents are very similar. What accents have you run into in the places you’ve lived and worked? Different accents?
In the United States you have a lot of regional accents. You have that typical Midwest, Minnesota sound, which is the David Letterman, kind of standard…this flat kind of “no accent.” Then you have a Boston accent, you have a New York accent, you have a Texas accent, a lot of those accents in the South. Even in the West… California. We don’t have so much of it in Canada. We have an East Coast accent…Quebec, of course, French Canadian. Central Canada, and a bit in the West, but it’s not as…as sort of obvious as the United States. And in England you can go across the street and hear a different language!
So how do I identify Canadian? I mean, if I meet a Canadian in Brazil how do I know if he or she is Canadian?
How are you doing, eh? Do you want to get a beer, eh? Let’s go down and get a beer. I tell you that hockey game with Gretzky, that was incredible, eh? I saw that guy and I thought this guy’s great, eh! Hey, give me another beer, eh! I tell you it was unbelievable. That’s Canadian.
So I’ll know they’re Canadian if they say “eh” and ask for a lot of beer?
Yeah, that’s right! I’m giving you the wrong impression, aren’t i? I’ll tell you that, the Canadian, yeah we like our beer, eh. And we like our hockey.
Besides working as a voiceover artist, you’re also an English teacher and a public speaking coach. Now, what is the best advice you can give Brazilian English Students who want to improve their speaking skills?
I see so many people, they’re like neurotically trying to figure out in their head. They’re studying all the grammar books and they’re getting all the grammar figured out, as if that they can get all the grammar perfectly organised in their brain. There it is, there’s present perfect, there’s present perfect continuous, I got the past perfect, I got it all there, okay, now it’s there, all there, ready to use, now I just got to find the opportunity to use it. But you’ll never use a language on the at basis. Never. Like when you’re a kid, when you learn to speak a language you start to speak, you make mistakes, people laugh, you know, you say stupid words, you get the word wrong. It makes no difference ‘cause you’re making an effort to make a connection to communicate. If people could understand that, could do that, they would develop in the language so much faster. Grammar is secondary. The desire to communicate is what you need to have. If you have that, you’re well on the way to developing in English. and I’ve seen people who are not very good in English who communicate extremely well to people in English. and people look at them and go, “Wow! That’ guy’s speaking so well!” and I say, “He’s making ll sorts of mistakes, much more than you!” he goes, “No, you’re ki (dding)!” “Yes! But he’s not afraid to speak. He has the desire to communicate, and you don’t.
And that’s what’s stopping you.” So all of my training, all of my coaching, all of my teaching is based on that principle. The reasons we don’t communicate are internal reasons, not external. It has nothing to do with a language, very little to do with the teacher, actually…and I’m a teacher, and I’m saying that…very little to do with the grammar books that you study, or the material that you’re studying in the class…much more to do with your desire to communicate. And obviously a good teacher can help your enormously, but these are secondary concerns. You desire is what will…will get you there.
“In my guest to prove that the Diet Coke break is the perfect work break, I’ve been testing various work-related stimuli. Today, sounds. O look for sounds that are refreshing, rejuvenating, and just plain happy. For instance, it was determined that the moo…(moo). Thank you. The moo is the Switzerland of sounds. However, the phone ringing (ring) is hardly rejuvenating. This in sharp contrast to the speaking of an ice-cold Diet Coke. (pop) Very happy work break. Then there was yodeling (yodel). All right, that’s enough. But little tiny bubbles of Diet Coke fizz bouncing about? (fizz) Most refreshing then we listened to a jack hammer (hammering). Uh, no. and finally, the first crisp sip of a Diet Coke. (sigh) Positively off the charts. Well, it looks like the ears have it. You should take a rejuvenating Diet Coke break, especially if you’re a yodeling, jack-hammer wielding cow, close to a phone. (moo) Somebody get her out of here! A Diet Coke break is calling. Hear that?”
