When most people hear my voice, it’s either through Atom Radio Breakfast, at Slough Ice Arena, or during a Jets game. But another part of what I do is voiceover.
Voiceover work is this fascinating world that combines creativity, precision, and sometimes even acting. It’s about more than just reading words on a page. It’s about taking someone else’s script and breathing life into it, giving it energy, tone, and personality in a way that makes sense for the brand, the ad, or the project.
Over the years, I’ve voiced everything from upbeat radio jingles and DJ drops to corporate explainers and podcast branding. Each project is different. One day you’re the voice of authority, guiding someone through a new piece of software. The next, you’re the voice of fun, telling people why they should tune in to a station, show up at an event, or check out the latest offer.
The challenge — and the joy — is that no two scripts are the same. You have to read between the lines before you read the words on mic. Who’s the audience? What emotion are we trying to spark? What should linger after the words are gone? That’s the craft, and when you get it right, it’s incredibly rewarding. Voiceover isn’t just reading, it’s presenting.
I think part of why I enjoy voiceover so much is because it ties into everything else I do. The DJing, the presenting, even podcast production — they’re all about communicating, connecting, and creating a mood. Voiceover is just another branch of that.
There’s two main parts of voiceover, where you just record and deliver a dry voice, and where you record and produce a commercial, DJ drop, podcast branding. While I enjoy both, I enjoy the second more as at the end of the job I can say that I created something. A gentle reminder if you’re taking on a job that’s of the first variety, leave the voiceover unprocessed so the eventual producer of the job that you’re voicing has the ability to produce the voice how they’d like for the project.
The downside of voiceover work, if you’ve ever thought of getting into it, is work is becoming more difficult to come by. No note of scare here but a note of reality, the technology behind AI speech to text is improving day by day. AI cannot replace a human voice, you can tell it’s AI but you only need to watch social media now to see the number of videos with AI voiceovers. There are even some commercials on TV that are now AI voiced.
The voiceover jobs that are out there still are the bigger paying jobs, the one where you need a good voice, a good microphone and a good studio. THe days of recording voiceover on Blue Yeti and selling on Fiverr are virtualy gone!
Voiceover might not be as visible as radio or live events, but it’s still a satisfying parts of my work. It’s also a reminder that your voice is more powerful than you think — and sometimes, it’s the unseen performance that makes the biggest impact.
