What’s your name/age/job title? 

Michael Groth, 59, Voiceover Artist and founder of Big Mouth Productions Voiceover Training. 

Please give us an overview of your average day. 

It varies. Sometimes it involves going to a recording studio in London to do the voiceover and sometimes I record them at home. I look through the script a couple of times, make my notes, talk to the client to  find out what kind of read they want, then get in front of the microphone and start speaking! If it’s a home recording I then edit it, produce it up and send it off via email. 

What’s the most common misconception about your job? 

That it’s easy! People tend to listen to TV ads and think, “I can do that” but it’s actually a lot harder than you think. You have to be able to deal with pressure, take direction, and be natural in a very unnatural setting. One line of script can ask a lot of questions.

What’s the hardest thing about your role? 

Making the script sound real and not read from the page. It’s about “owning” a script – making it sound as though those thoughts are coming from you, not the written word. You have to give the client what they want very quickly – you’re booked for an hour so there’s little time for mistakes.

When did you decide what you wanted to do with your life and how did you set out to achieve it? 

At 11 I decided I wanted to be in a band, which I succeeded in doing for over 15 years. I then fell into presenting TV shows such as That’s Life and Hearts of Gold. Voiceovers were a natural progression from that.

What can you do to get a head start? 

First of all, practise reading out loud. You’ve got to be a pretty good sight-reader to do voiceovers. Try recording yourself on your mobile and see how natural you are at reading a script or a magazine article. Do you sound as though you’re reading? You shouldn’t! Maybe think about getting some training and eventually recording your own demo. When you’ve got a good demo you should try and get an agent, though these days there are a lot of online sites where you can get voiceover work without needing an agent. If you’ve got recording facilities at home you can do it from there. It’s relatively cheap to set up these days.

Could you describe the creative element to your job? 

There’s something very satisfying about doing a good voiceover. Whether it’s a corporate read or a TV commercial, there are so many ways to deliver a line – it’s up to you to find the best one. Which words to emphasise, how to sound more friendly, more convincing. How to give the client exactly what they want. I also love the whole recording and editing process – if I have a particularly complicated voiceover to produce at home, I love finding the right music or sound effects to go with it. The precision of a well delivered line – the difference between a good and bad take can be a fraction of a second.

What’s the one thing you wish you had known at the start of your career that you know now? 

The importance of listening to advice. It’s easy to think you know it all.

Which organisations/websites/resources do you think would be useful for people entering your industry?

Bigmouthvox.com for voiceover courses and training. Voicespro.com, Voices.com, Voice123.com for getting jobs online. Contacts annual handbook for Voiceover agents.

Michael runs introductory one-day voiceover courses and 1-to-1 voiceover courses in London and the West Midlands. For more information, visit the Big Mouth Productions website, and follow Big Mouth on Facebook and YouTube.

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