5 Questions for a Professional Voice-Over Talent – Peter Bishop

Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Peter Bishop, a professional voice-over talent based in Bellport, NY.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

I was pretty late to the game. I have no long history with voice work, but have always been active on the technical side of audio production. My father was an engineer, so it was almost pre-ordained that I would follow that path with an apprenticeship and college for electronics and telecommunications. I was able to transfer my “professional” skills over to my passion, which was working in and around the local music scene. That part started back in the seventies when I started producing demos, driving mixing desks and generally doing as much as I could to be a part of the local scene without actually playing (I just didn’t have the musical chops), but a guy with a Revox and a four-track could be very useful back then! Apart from working with the bands, I used to produce my own stuff as well… all a little esoteric… Musique concrète loops, textures and the like… I became quite adept at building the electronics and manipulating tape. I’m certainly no stranger to the splicing block and china-graph (grease) pencil! I have fond memories of twenty-foot tape loops wrapping themselves around microphone stands and door handles as I built ever changing (and ever-decaying) loops and “aural sculptures”. I walked away from my “hobbies” when my company moved me to the US about fifteen years ago.

As a Brit in the US (especially when not in the big city) you get used to people commenting on your voice and can become quite dismissive about it. It took my partner to convince me that it wasn’t just the accent that was being remarked on… but my timbre, delivery, vocabulary and all that other good stuff. She convinced me that what I had was a saleable commodity, and as I was reluctant to climb back on any type of corporate horse (I’d run screaming from the corporate world in 2004), maybe there was a path here. To be honest, she was keen to get me out of what had become a post-corporate malaise and lack of focus. God bless supportive partners!

So, I launched forth in late 2009. My technical background and familiarity with the tools, both hardware & software, made it a relatively easy option to start up with a P2P site… and my experience from being a training officer and a corporate presenter used to ducking and diving in front of a big room was going to get me lots of work… right? Well, not exactly, but that’s when my journey really began. A couple of technical narration gigs gave me the impetus to push forward.

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

When I started I didn’t understand the market properly. Educational work was fairly straightforward as I was able to draw on experiences from my years of writing and presenting course material… I had no problems with technical subject matter, but I seemed to be getting nowhere with other work. I was either delivering clearly and concisely, or stretching too far. I had no middle ground. It was listening to other VOs via the on-line community that helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses. I began to understand what was saleable, and what wasn’t… and where I needed to concentrate my efforts, both in honing my saleable skills and developing my shortcomings. It’s all about playing to your strengths and not trying to be something you’re not. I’m now happily resigned to the fact that I’ll never be asked to read “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday” or “In a world…”

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

Currently I have a reasonably healthy repeat client list for educational and narration work, but have had limited exposure on the commercial side. Like every other Brit in the US, I’ve done the standard Jaguar dealer spots as the “sophisticated” Brit, and a fair amount of success when anyone’s looking for a Michael Caine or Jason Statham type, but this is an area I really need to work on. Since last year, I’ve been getting some success with audiobooks, but I feel that I really need to work on my accents. I still am very unhappy with my American accent, which is a little surprising as I’ve lived here fifteen years! I can generally be comfortable with regional British, European or various world accents, but my American accents still sound pushed and false. The remedy is practice, and getting over being too self-conscious in my delivery. That, and acting lessons!

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

I think I have developed an ability to picture my audience. The whole issue about who I’m supposed to be talking to… one person, a small group, a boardroom or whatever. Once I’d embraced what I was doing wrong, it started to fall into place. I try to keep a picture of my audience in my mind during a read, and it helps a lot.

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

This one’s difficult to answer. It’s impossible to single out any one person or piece of information as making the difference… there are so many who have been helpful. The main aid to my development has been the community of VOs that have welcomed me. It’s too easy to be insular and locked away in your own world, but once you start to relate to peers and share, the effect is astonishing. To this end, the greatest community “enablers” for me are DB Cooper for all her work with the VO-BB… without which I would probably never have launched my career, and Amy Snively, the driving force behind Faffcon, without which I probably wouldn’t have been able to go completely full-time last year. To be with peers and learn from them is invaluable. I have found VOs to be the most helpful and sharing group of people… we are not in competition, but follow the ethos of “a rising tide floats all boats” with a passion.

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