Over the past several months, I’ve been looking for a way to offer the voiceover community something different. It seems like there are a lot of videos and online events that feature major names in the voiceover world. As interesting as these might be, I think there are a lot of unknown voice actors who have interesting stories to tell and backgrounds that can be as much, or more beneficial to hear as those of the celebrity talent.
So, I’ve decided to add video interviews to my occasional blog posts. The general idea is to interview an up-and-coming voice talent, who may or may not already have some established credentials, but who definitely has something to share and especially has an interesting story to tell. If you have an interesting story to tell, please send an email to info@voiceacting.com. I don’t have a specific schedule for these video podcasts, but I’m striving for at least one a month and I’d love to hear your story.
The first of these is one of our long-time Conductor’s Club members, Bill Johnston. Many of you may know that I’ve been hosting this weekly mastermind group since 2011. If you’ve never heard of Conductor’s Club, and you think you might be interested in participating in a weekly VO masters class, visit www.ConductorsClub.com.
In the voiceover world, Bill has chosen audio books as his favorite genre. He loves to tell stories and has a warm, comfortable voice and a compelling style. He’s not a “big name” yet, having only 8 published books to his credit, but his process and insights as to how he works with an author and a book are well worth hearing. Whether you work in audio books or not, I think you’ll find Bill’s process and observations interesting.
Bill also has an amazing background serving our Country as a U.S. Naval officer and Commander during the Vietnam War. His credentials literally cover more than a few pages, single-spaced! Some of his duties included missions that are still classified Top Secret to this day (which, obviously, are not included in his list of credentials). Bill is a frequent contributor to our often lively Conductor’s Club discussions and, almost weekly, introduces topics with which he is very familiar, including personal experiences with events and situations that have a direct relationship to some of the things going on in today’s world. The man is literally a walking encyclopedia of knowledge!
During the second section of this interview, Bill discusses some aspects of his role as a Naval Commander during the Vietnam War. However, the most interesting part of our conversation is a history lesson given by Bill, in which he talks about his personal experiences with Socialism during his military service and since. It’s definitely worth a listen.
You can watch the full interview HERE. Please feel free to leave a comment below the video. Or you can watch the interview by clicking on the video below.
Until next time.
James R. Alburger
