We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jaren Cerf. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jaren below.

Jaren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

I love this question. In a time where many of us are in therapy to deal with all the ways we believe our parents failed us, looking for the ways they succeeded feels almost unnatural, but totally necessary for deeper healing.

Afterall, hindsight is always 20/20. Many of the things I experienced as an undiagnosed neurodivergent child I decided I would never pass on to my kids. Until I had them.

“I will never raise my voice.”
“I won’t swear in front of my kids.”
“I won’t be a single parent/part-time single parent.”

Uh huh. Right.

As a self-employed creative artist who was raised by separated parents – one a nurse, the other an entrepreneur, here are 5 things my parents absolutely did right:

1) They let me talk. And boy did I love to do that. I had stories for days growing up, which also earned me the nickname “Queen of a Thousand Excuses”, but that’s beside the point. The fact is, we were able to remain fairly close, even during the rockiest of my teen years, in part, because I was allowed to have an opinion, even if they didn’t like it – something some of my more religious peers struggled with.

2) They let me be. Maybe a little too much – I’m still working that out. But one thing I know for sure is that even if I was dating someone they didn’t care for, they would respect my decision and they wouldn’t interfere so long as I was safe. When asked about this later, I was told that they trusted I would set my own boundaries based on the sassy pants they knew me to be as a kid. They didn’t NOT care – they trusted I would figure life out through making mistakes. As an adult, I really appreciate this.

3) My parents taught me how to be capable. My dad taught me how to paint offices, fix windows, replace locks, do some basic car repairs, how to grate gravel roads, run tractors, and my favorite – he taught me how to drive at the age of 7 (because we were living on a ranch). Was it all fun and games? No. I hated a lot of it, but he always said “One day you’ll thank me.” And I did. I was 19, living on my own in Los Angeles and I called him when I was able to repair a sink at work, making me a standout employee, even though I was the new hire. My mom, the nurse, taught me that you can use the hair on your head to act a stitches to close head wounds when your little sister cracks it open by hitting you in the head with a doll. Practical AND economical.

4) My parents taught me it’s okay to fail. Albeit I only recently learned this – as my own personal business was really struggling in 2024 due to AI and who knows what else. I called him in tears, ready to give up. He has always been an entrepreneur with big ideas and has always made mountains move, from my point of view. But he told me that wasn’t always the case. “You have good years and bad years. That’s life, kid.” Somehow that simple sentence lifted a whole lot of pain and expectation from my shoulders.

5) Finally, my parents taught me not to fear being alone. Both have had relationships on and off throughout their lives, but being alone isn’t really a factor in their ability to be happy. In fact, if anything, it gives them more time to follow the bazillion or so interests they both seem to have. I tell you, life is much easier to live when you don’t mind your own company. I sure love mine. Ha!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Jaren and I’m a Montreal-based voiceover artist, originating from the U S of A.

Some will know me from my 15+ year career in trance music as the singer who sings Man On The Run, one of top trance tunes of all time, and Unforgivable, with top DJ Armin Van Buuren. In addition to working in trance music, I also wrote and recorded two folk albums, more than a few dance albums, co-wrote a song for the Sochi Olympics (for Canada), and started my entire crazy career as a competitive country singer and yodeler. Talk about genre jumping!

To date, I have published more than 300 song titles and have written for recording artists all over the world.

In 2015, I was hired to play Celine Dion, Joni Mitchell and Sylvia Tyson in a big Canadian production about top Canadian recording artists up until the 80’s. This is when I first started singing like other people on a professional level.

In 2019, after having left the music industry, I decided to try voiceover work. I already had the gear and I knew I could mirror anything I hear on tv and radio, so I took a course from Peter Baker, the creator of VoiceoverMasterClass, and decided to give it a whirl!

In 5 years, I collected over 615 credits for clients big and small. To say I found my niche was an understatement.
I have voiced everything from commercials for Ramada, T-Mobile, Walmart and Nestle, to product trailers for Tony Robbins, Canon, and Deloitte. I love narrating, creating animated character voices, and playing the quirky, off-beat millenial in humorous commercials. Because of my western upbringing, I also love playing the female Sam Elliott.

Last year, I learned that I could combine both my love of voiceover with my ability to sing like famous artists ranging from Mariah Carey to Alison Krauss, Tori Amos, Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton. This is exciting because not every voiceover artist out there can sing. So this opens up my list of product offerings! Need a jingle AND a VO? I’ve got you covered.

To hear what I’m talking about you can click here:
www.jarenthevoiceover.com

What I’m looking forward to in 2025:
More stability in the world of AI!

Last year was rough for a lot of self-employed creatives. Learning how to work with AI in the age of AI is a challenge! But one thing I learned is that the human voice carries power. It’s much easier for creative directors to direct a human than to try to reshape an AI voice. We humans can adapt quickly and efficiently in directed sessions, and boy do I love a directed session! Connecting with clients, getting to understand what they want to FEEL when they hear/see the final spot they’re working on versus what they want to HEAR, is what drives me. I want my voice to call to something in the client’s soul (and ultimately the audiences).

My singing voice has been described as being haunted by angels and demons alike.
My spoken voice has been described as trustworthy, authentic, and down-to-earth.

If you’re looking for any of those things for your next project, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I can best illustrate this through a few short experiences I’ve shared with others on my artist journey.

For me, the ultimate reward is connection.

Once, at a show in Los Angeles where I was scheduled to perform one of my more successful tracks, the staff shut down the event right as I walked onto the stage. They cut the power and closed the doors because the promoters hadn’t paid them. Fans were coming from all over to this event, and I didn’t want to leave them hanging, so I decided to sing for them acapella style. I sat down at the end of the stage and we ended up singing a few songs together. It was one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had in my career because it showed to me the power of music. I had no idea who anyone was but they knew the words and we shared the song together in a moment of real connection.

When someone likes your work enough to tattoo your lyrics on their body or risk getting in trouble because music is illegal in their country and they’ll sneaking away to listen to your songs – the gravity becomes more clear. I am in awe and appreciative to everyone who has found some sort of truth in my work.

Recently I connected with a family who lost their daughter. I had co-written more than a decade ago a song about a child who passed away and one of the commenters told me how much the song helped them deal with the loss of their own. We now keep in touch.

So as up and down as the creative arts can be – the one thing that will always make up for the lack of stability is the profound connection and feedback we get from strangers who’s lives have been touched dramatically. It’s hard to fathom.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I have started over from scratch many times in my life. When I was 18, 22,31, 33, 37, and now at 41. From leaving home to live in the big city, to a breakup I thought would end me, to a divorce than nearly did, to sharing a bedroom with my two children for years until I could find better paying jobs, to learning a new language in order to work in my new home country, to getting diagnosed with AuDHD, to quitting the music industry and leaving behind my old life for the corporate world, to leaving the corporate world because of constant burnout, to starting a career in Voiceover, to now – redesigning my approach to the industry as it changes in the time of AI – I have learned 3 major things:

1) When you need help, ASK FOR IT.

2) ACCEPT help when it’s offered.

3) INFORM yourself. If you’re struggling, ask others what they might do in your situation. Sometimes a different perspective is all you need. Maybe that means you need to do some research, collect more information, etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jarenthevoiceover.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarencerf/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SingwithJaren

Image Credits

Greg Doherty Photography
Two Dudes Photo