Suggest a Story: CanvasRebel is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Damon Alums a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Damon, thanks for joining us today. Do you have any advice regarding quality control and maintaining quality as your brand grows?

As far as I’ve come, it all comes down to me, the script, and that precious moment where meaning can be shared with the listener.

Damon, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a voice talent. Distilled to its essence, I talk to myself in a padded room. Described accurately, I represent companies and put them in their best light, embody characters in videogames and animated features, and bring life to authors words in audiobooks.

With a eye for human behavior, a performer’s lack of fear, and an actor’s craft, I can turn a humble page into an event. Using quality 21st century tools, I can make a human read a highlight, and send it to wherever it’s needed in the world.

I got started in 2017, when I had to rebuild my life from scratch. In the rebuilding, I looked all the dreams deferred and natural gifts I had that were essentially me. At the top of my inventory was my distinctive gritty voice, a fearlessness in performing, and a willingness to learn. From what I’ve found, the first two are advantages (not requisites) for voiceover, and the third is crucial for longevity and improvement. I started on my voiceover journey, and haven’t looked back.

There are many folks in the VO space with gritty baritones, but what I bring to the table is a keen interest in the other that helps me make intuitive choices that get the read to exactly what they’re looking for with a minimum of delay. As much lore as I’ve read from fables to classics, to today’s superheroes, I have a frame of reference that closes the gap between concept and manifestation even further.

The greatest feather in my cap so far has been using the sinister sections of my performance splashed with a bit of comedy to voice “The ‘Rona”, the insidious voice of Covid-19 for The California Department of Health. To know that my voice is motivating folks to do the right thing is highly rewarding.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to learn was actually what started me on my way. In an industry of “Hey, Look At Me!”, I am intensely quiet. It gives me a gift of keen observation, my emotional bird’s eye view, but it’s also a hiding place. As I was thinking of getting started in voiceover, a significant portion of that hard talk was preparing myself to divest in the tenet of my upbringing, “Ain’t nobody trying to hear what you have to say”. It is a process of daily unlearning, and more and more, I’m finding that folks are intrigued by what I say, and how I say it.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

This is another uphill hike for me. In an age of effusive SpongeBob extra, I am a sardonic single Spock single eyebrow raise. What I’ve done to increase my social media presence is focusing on the platforms that are most comfortable to me, in my case, Twitter, editing my feed judiciously by connecting NOT primarily with peers, but with the individuals making power moves in arenas I want to break into, and THIS MOST OF ALL, being myself. Speak stridently about issues of note, pass memes on the humor of the day, and support peers who are in the mix, doing their thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.urbanlegendvoiceover.com
• Instagram: @urbanlegendvo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UrbanLegendVoiceover?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/urbanlegendvo
• Twitter: @urbanlegendvo

Image Credits
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