An Interview with
Wayne
June
SLM: Thanks
for doing this interview.
Before we get to the audio
books, I'd like to
cover a little bit of your background. I
understand you started out as a musician, singing and playing drums in
rock
bands.
When was this and what kind
of
rock music were you playing?
WJ: Well, I
had my first band with regular paying gigs
when I was 15 yrs old, touring regionally playing bars and school
dances… we
were doing the “FM Rock” of the day (basically the
FM Radio playlist): Led
Zeppelin, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Deep Purple, that kind of stuff;
that was
the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Never looked back and
I’m still playing regularly
for a living today.
WJ:
Great
question! It really is like learning another language.
In moving from one style or genre to another, a drummer has to be aware
of the
different functions the drums have in the various styles.
It’s really a matter
of necessity; if you expect to work full time, you can’t
limit yourself to one
style of music unless you’re a star. That means you might be
playing with a
rock band one night and a jazz trio the next. If you get a call for a
country
gig or a soul band it’s a financial loss if you
can’t cut it. And you’d better
know the difference between the way a drummer serves a Motown tune vs.
a Big
Band arrangement or a Classic Rock tune if you want call-backs and
future
paychecks.
SLM:
You
toured with Johnny Winter and recorded with him on his I'm
a Bluesman
(2004).
What
was that like?
WJ: Really
cool. First of all Johnny was an artist I’d seen perform live
dozens of times
when I was a kid. I had several of his albums and he was just really a
guitar
hero, right up there with Clapton or Hendrix. I was with him for almost
seven
years and in that time we traveled the world: All over Europe and the
SLM:
You
started doing voiceover more than ten years ago. Among
the advice on your website for those
interested in doing voiceover, you recommend training.
Did
you go through training yourself? Or
did you find that your experience
performing and recording music had already prepared you for much of
what was
necessary?
WJ: Some of
the musician’s skill-set gave me a leg up:
Knowing my way around a recording studio, for example, but I did a lot
of study
and training, too: More seminars, workshops and classes than I can
count. Voice
work starts with the ear just like the music biz, and there are
stylistic
distinctions to be made in learning VO as well: Commercial voiceover,
Corporate
and Industrial Narration, Documentary Narration, Promos, Audio Theater,
Audiobook Narration, and each has its own set of rules. If you try to
deliver an
audiobook like a radio spot, or a commercial like a corporate video
presentation, you’ll never get hired. There
is a range of delivery styles within any given niche as well.
You’ve got to
know the marketplace and make those decisions reflexively and be able
to switch
gears at the drop of a hat to give a director what he wants to hear.
SLM:
Three
or four years ago, you started recording Dark
Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft for
Audio Realms.
This is an extensive
project—so far, 6 sets of 3-4 disks each. Was
this your first time recording audio
books?
And how you did you happen to
get
involved with Audio Realms?
WJ: Not the
first by a long shot. First
of all I’d been an audiobook fan and listener
“forever” before I ever
considered production or narration. By the time I started testing the
waters
I’d had years of listening under my belt, and as I said it
all starts with
listening. Can you imagine a person wanting to seriously study to
become a
guitar player, for example, who hadn’t spent a significant
amount of time
listening to other guitarists? Ridiculous, right? Same thing applies.
SLM:
You've
said that you've been a fan of Lovecraft since you were a kid. How
strange was it coming back to his stories
to read them aloud, not to mention pronouncing the
unpronounceable—for
example, some of the utterances from "The Dunwich Horror":
"Y'bthnk . . .h'eyhye"?
WJ: (Laughs)
Yeah, the pronunciations
were a challenge… pretty much a matter of working it out
phonetically and
rehearsing it to death until I was satisfied. I’m hoping I
got it close enough
to fool a native speaker!
SLM:
And
you'll be doing The
Case of Charles
Dexter Ward next in the Dark Worlds
series?
(After a recent re-reading,
this
story has become a favorite of mine.)
WJ: Mine,
too, great story. Yeah, we’ve talked
about that being next.
SLM:
When
you're recording a book of 3 or 4 disks, how long does it take to get
done?
And if something has to be
corrected (because of misspeaking, a hitch in the voice, etc.) is it
redone on
the spot or is there a review and editing process at the end, when
corrections
are punched in?
WJ: Ideally,
a 3:1 or 4:1 production
ratio is desirable. That is to say 3 or 4 hours work to end up with 1
hour of
finished audio. The best method by far is to “edit on the
fly.” That means to
stop, back up a paragraph, punch in and continue. I’ve used
other methods that
are considerably more time consuming and had much higher production
ratios, but
I’m striving to maximize my efficiency without negatively
impacting my
effectiveness on the artistic level.
SLM:
You've
mentioned that you listen to quite a few audio books.
Do
you find that you become familiar with or
follow certain narrators?
For me, George
Guidall's Collected
Fiction of Jorge Luis
Borges and the several books of
Wodehouse read by Alexander Spencer are
particular standouts, although I admit I haven't yet looked up their
other
recordings.
WJ: Great
stuff. Yeah, personally, I
listen to audiobooks a minimum of 1 hour every day, (often more);
it’s part of
my daily routine. It’s an indisputable fact that a narrator
can make or break
any production. The best material performed imperfectly will be less
than
satisfying. It’s like listening to a wonderful song played by
poor musicians,
or seeing a great stage play performed by a bumbling cast. So, yeah,
I’ve got
my favorite narrators, and there are literally dozens of them. I learn
something from them every day, too. I listen purposefully, with a
critical ear:
Why did he use that inflection, why the change in speed or volume or
pitch or
whatever. How is the reader handling the emotional tone of a given
passage… or
a given character over time, or the emotional dynamic between the
characters? And,
you know, it’s an interesting thing to note that the best
narrators will eventually
succeed in foiling my attempts to analyze their performance and so wrap
me up
in the story that the story becomes the star and I forget about the
storyteller. Now THAT is the highest level of skill. There are a
handful of
readers out there whose stuff I will buy no matter what
they’re reading. We’re
not alone in that either, the best narrators have a loyal fan base.
SLM:
It's
been a couple of years since you started your own company,
AudioBookCase.com.
You've got three
audio books out—2 in the Poe series Into
that Darkness Peering as well as
Stevenson's Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
With the celebration of Poe's
bicentennial this year, will you be doing
more Poe or moving on to other writers?
WJ: Well,
AudioBookCase is experiencing
growing pains and I find myself having to give it a back seat and often
consider
it my neglected child, but my updated and “course-corrected
intentions” for
this year include expanding the Poe series and stepping up production
on the
other titles as well. I don’t want to be any more specific at
this point, but I’m
optimistic about seeing a growth-spurt over the course of the next 12
months.
If you’ll let me, I’ll be pleased to keep you
posted.
And speaking of which,
I’d like to thank you
for devoting the time and your valuable space to the interview here.
SLM:
One
last question:
If, by the rubbing of a
lamp, you could hear a recording of anybody reading anything,
what would you
choose?
WJ: That’s
a tough one! I’m tempted to
say, “Me, reading the next million seller.” But to
answer for real: How about
Alexander
Scourby reading anything by Charles
Beaumont? Scourby was the
consummate voice actor with a simply magnificent voice and
Beaumont’s work in the
fantastic and macabre has literally kept me awake on more than one
occasion. I
imagine the combination would be discomfiting. Where can I get my hands
on that
lamp?