What's my voice like then?

Natural, friendly, chatty, guy next door
Warm, reassuring, caring, welcoming
Playful, fun, comical, sarcastic
Over the top, quirky, zany
Bright, bubbly, excited
Emotional, heartfelt
Cool, chilled, real
Relaxed, calm, peaceful
Informational, straight, corporate

What do I work on?

Explainers
Commercials
Corporate narration
On hold / voicemail / IVR
Video games
Promos
Apps
Podcasts
Toys and games

I've felt the need to be creative since I was quite young, but didn't know how or where to express it.

In my early teens, I went to my first gig and immediately knew that playing guitar and singing was the perfect outlet. I remember telling someone at a party I was going to be a famous rock star. Let's just say, what he said turned out to be correct.

For the next 15 years, making music was my absolute passion. I was lucky enough to play shows and festivals all over the UK and even had a teeny tiny bit of Radio 1 airplay! I always took a camera with me and that developed into a keen interest in photography, capturing special moments in a single frame.

During that time I started to volunteer at a community radio station, playing tracks from local bands and live engineering them in the studio. This was my first taster of being a "voice".

How I got into voiceover

Martin Whiskin playing guitar on stage in Bristol

Martin Whiskin playing a toy guitar on Sunlight Radio

Not content with playing in a band and being a DJ's sidekick, I still needed another avenue to create in. I started writing, filming and editing comedy sketches (HILARIOUS). This pushed me towards telling stories and I started to write screenplays and short tales with twists and turns.

When I finally started to reign back my hectic music schedule, it gave me time to try something else. Jokes (HILARIOUS). This became a bit of an obsession, writing thousands over a couple of years and producing content for several Twitter accounts.

After being made redundant from my 'proper' job in 2018, I decided it was time to do something real with this creativity forever burning inside me.

Enter voice over...

I dipped my toes in the water after watching a webinar with Peter Dickson and Hugh Edwards, two stalwarts of the industry.

I was fascinated by being able to produce so many different and complex emotions with my voice and not just stupid noises like I had done for the previous *cough*ty five years.

This seemed like a challenge - and I was up for it.

And that's the tale of how I got into the voice over business. So here I am...taking my love of storytelling into yet another medium.

If you'd like to follow my ongoing journey, you can read about some of the things I get up to in my voice over blog.