Music Radio Creative’s Voice of the Month for July 2016 is Chelsea Bates! As Music Radio Creative’s Voice of the Month, all orders with Chelsea’s voice get her full session file as a Special Bonus – at no extra cost! Chelsea is a professional voice actor from Canada. She has worked in a radio creative department for many years and she has voiced countless announcer rolls for radio commercials and radio station imaging. Chelsea’s versatile voice can range from youthful and energetic to soft and sexy – hers is the perfect sound of positive and friendly. Listen to her in this demo:
Interested to learn more about Chelsea? We asked her a few questions to get to know her and her work better:
What is the most exciting project you EVER got to work on?
The most exciting and random project I ever got to work on was one for a Golf GPS system called Voice Caddie. I got a message on Facebook one day asking if I’d be interested in being the voice for it, I sent a quick sample audition and VOILA! I got the job right away!
What is the most exciting project you worked on in 2015?
The most exciting project I worked on in 2015 until early this 2016 is hosting a daily podcast for Social Media Examiner. I learned so much valuable information, and the team Kyran, Izabela, and I worked with have been absolutely wonderful.
Can you give us a short history of what you do?
Locally, I’m a Creative Writer for a radio station. Internationally, I am a Voice Talent, loaning my vocal chords for radio and television advertisements, podcasts, DJs, and web videos.
How did you get into voice acting?
I got into voice acting through writing, actually. Every now and then our Creative team would write various characters into commercials. This could be challenging for our Producers since we had a limited list of radio station Announcers at our local office. In order to get our commercials in before deadline, our producers would call on some additional voices throughout the office. Every now and then, they chose me. I started with a character line or two, and over time, started taking on recurring character and announcer roles. Later, my future boss would strongly encourage me to send out voicing demos…which led to an email from Izabela at MRC saying they’d like to try out my voice! That was a day / email I will never forget!
Who is your role model in the voice over/acting industry?
Believe it or not, I still have many people to discover in the voice acting industry. I got a crash course on some of them in the movie “I Know That Voice”, which I’d highly recommend to anyone. After watching it I felt inspired, uplifted, and ready to get to work. Since I work in radio, my role models are many of the the people I work with. Each have their own talents. A have a friend that’s incredible at theatrical characters. I have another who’s incredible at enunciation. I found myself admiring bit and pieces of their work to help influence my own. A few weeks ago, I reached out to a voice talent I’d been hearing for months and I just loved her sound. After a little research (thank you Google) I discovered her name was Erin Setch, so I wrote her a quick note just to tell her she’s awesome. I find it’s little things like this I draw the most inspiration from rather that one big celebrity voice over.
How do you warm up to record each session?
First I do some mouth /lip stretches, which sounds stranger than it is (although the way it looks would tell you otherwise.) I simply open and close my mouth a few times like a glorified yawn/scream…and large smile. Then, I’ll usually do some singing. Each day is never the same, but there’s always singing.
Depending on if I just woke up, or if my voice is already warm, some days require a little more warming up than others. Over time, you’ll know what your voice needs before you hit record. Also: Drink water, lots of water – always. And if you eat dairy before a voice session, I’ll tell you, it’s going to be a noisy one. At least, it is for me anyway.
What is your favorite piece of audio recording kit and why?
I love my little Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. When I first started, I was so worried about what to choose for equipment. There’s a whole world of it out there! I read blogs, Facebook pages, asked other friends and talents what they used – but it can all seem like tech garble. One day, my very tech inclined friend, Kyran, approached me and said “I think it will be perfect for you.”
The Scarlett 2i2 is an audio interface with 2 mic pre-amps and it’s compatible with both Mac or PC. Aside from my Mic and Adobe Audition audio program I use on my laptop, this is the only additional hardware I use. You plug it into your PC, select it in your audio program on your computer, and hit record. It’s small to pack, easy to use, and sounds awesome.
Could you tell us something about you that we could not find anywhere in your CV/Website/Social Media profiles?
Hmmm. This is a tricky one. I always like to ask people what their superpower is. I have a friend who doesn’t get mosquito bites. Another who call smell nuts in anything because she’s allergic to them… Mine is: I am double jointed in my arms, or so my Mother tells me. Meaning, I can hold my hands in the front, move my arms up over my head, twist my shoulders around while still holding my hands, and bring my arms around to the back of me. And vise versa – holding them behind me, and moving them to the front. Most people can’t do this. Fortunately, I haven’t had to use it for any kind of escape tactic as of yet.
