We were lucky to catch up with Eric Hollaway recently and have shared our conversation below.

Eric , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative path profesionally a few times. After leaving the military, I came back home and started my career in the Manufacturing Industry. Eventually, I climbed the ladder to be a plant manager. As a side hustle, I was doing a few things that I was good at creatively which included Graphic Design, buildiing Websites, Singing, and Voiceover.

When the rececssion of 2008-13 hit, I was eventually “downsized” from my position and decided to re-invent myself doing only those creative things I was good at and make that my permanant source of income. After three years of higher education, I needed to supplement our income so I started working again. This time, voiceover became my only sidehustle and I only had time to do it nights and weekends.

When I started earning more through voiceover than I was at my full-time job, I had a decision to make. So in 2016, I made the leap of faith to walk away from my “secure” job and pursue voiceover full-time. It’s been the best experiance of my life as well as the most financially rewarding.

Eric , 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?

Hi! I’m Eric Hollaway. I’m a husband of 34yrs to Traci. We have three kids and four grandkids. Two of our kids are now Army Officers, and the third is the creator of the children’s bookstore, Cultured Books (www.culturedbooks.com) and The Cultured Books Literacy Foundation here in St Pete. I affectionately call my grands “The Pookies,” and they affectionately call me “GP,” short for Grandpa.

Growing up, my voice was pretty average until I hit puberty. It was then, at the age of 12/13, that my voice dropped. And it’s been falling ever since.

I started singing in church at the age of 5 and have been singing all my life. When stationed in Germany, I helped form an all Army, a cappella group called “Just Us.” We wowed audiences over there. After getting out of the service, I returned home here as a newlywed, and my wife and I started our family.

During those years, singing remained a big part of my life. I became a local wedding singer, helped form a capella group “One Soul,” continued singing in church, and joined the St Pete Junior College Community Choir as another outlet for my singing. After the first rehearsal, I was approached by Dr. Marilyn Michael-Evans and Dr. Janice Buchanan (Swartz) and was given a Voice Scholarship on the spot. It was there that I was introduced to the world of Opera, Opera Workshops, Music Theory, Recitals, Competitions, piano, and also learned to sing in German and Italian…all while working a full-time job and raising three little ones.

After a couple of years in college, the load became too much, and something had to give, even though Dr. Evans and Dr. Buchanan encouraged me to train in Europe because of the gift I had. I chose to put my vocal ambitions on the back burner and raise my family. Then I met local Dj Legend, the late Tedd “Teddy” Webb. Tedd was a colossal karaoke fan and transformed his living room into a soundstage for singing. He fell in love with my voice the first time he heard it, and I quickly became a favorite of his at his parties. This wasn’t anything like karaoke I’d ever heard of or seen. This was like a who’s who of Tampa Bay, and everyone could and loved to sing! Those karaoke parties became a regular thing for me. It was there that I met Mark Dawson, who is now the lead singer of the Famed Rock group -The Grass Roots. At the time, he was the lead singer of The Streetlites. They needed a Bass, and Mark asked if I’d like to join them. I said yes, and we performed all around central Florida for about a year. During that time, Tedd took me under his wings and introduced me to the world of voiceover. He had a studio set up in his garage, and occasionally, we’d get together there, and he would teach me about setting up my own DAW, mic technique, voiceover websites such as Voice 123 and voices dot com. I was determined to use my voice to make a living. That eventually happened in 2016 when after talking it over with my wife and praying for guidance, I took a leap of faith and left my job. (www.erichollaway.com)

I’m now represented by some of the top voiceover agencies in the world and am contacted almost daily from companies and individuals inquiring about my services. Currently among others things, you can hear me as the voice of the Fabletics Men ads with Kevin Hart, reading sleep stories on the Slumber app, helping bus riders find thier way as the voice of the Birmingham/Jefferson County Transit Authority in Alabama, Narrating in the movie “Je Suis Auto” starring Chase Masterson, set to be release later this year, as well as a friendly voice on On Hold messaging systems at companies all over the globe, and I am a respected Oktavist in the world of deep voices. (www.oktavism.com)

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist and creative is being able to do something that I love, something that I’m good at …for individuals and brands that want what I have to offer and are willing to pay me for it. That still blows my mind and I’m so thankful that I’m not a “starving artist”.

How did you build your audience on social media?

As for Social Media, each platform has a different nuance, and I didn’t want to have the same content spread across each one. As a Brand and a Business, I knew I needed to be on Social Media, but it’s sometimes a love-hate relationship. Lol! I have a small following on YouTube of those who love my deep voice singing. I have another small following on Instagram where I show other sides of myself besides just voiceovers, like my love of cooking ( I’m a foodie), travel, and photography. My Facebook is like the family newsletter. My Twitter is still a work in progress, and then came TikTok.

I had a few videos on TikTok but really couldn’t figure out the platform. I challenged myself to change that this year, beginning with consistency. Three weeks ago, I started adding at least one new video to my TikTok daily, and it immediately made a difference. While still trying to figure it out, I was praying specifically for creativity to help me introduce myself to the world. No one will hire you if they don’t know you exist. I stumbled onto a TikTok feature called “duets,” where you can instantly collaborate with another TikTokers’ video. I saw a particular format for how singers duetted and created videos designed for others to join them in building harmony videos.

In my short time of being a daily uploader on TikTok, I saw many contemporary songs being duetted, but nothing representing the classic R&B harmonies that I grew up with. So I thought to myself …why not me? Then I thought about the multi-tracking videos I did on YouTube for many years, covering 3, 4, or 5 part harmonies with only my voice. So instead of joining someone else’s creation, I wanted to create something that others could duet with me, with them singing lead and me providing all the backing vocals or harmonies. I multi-tracked the background harmonies to My Girl by The Temptations, my favorite group growing up. Side note – I had a plan to replace Melvin “Blue” Franklin when he left the group, but he never did! Sadly, when he passed, I wasn’t in a position to replace him. We were still raising three toddlers.

I believe deep down, everyone thinks about being a lead singer. So because I enjoy harmonizing, I gave the spotlight to whoever wanted it. I started with the question, “could you be a lead singer?” with a smile that acts to both challenge and reassure at the same time. I set up the videos in Premiere pro after singing each part into my cell phone. As part of my flair and attention to detail, I did an outfit change for each voice, including my glasses and hats from my collection of both. I sized everything up in Adobe Premiere Pro and added the lyrics there. That’s it. I uploaded it, hoping that people would duet with me and have fun. It snowballed from there. In 3 days, it had over 1 million views and even grabbed the attention of Smokey Robinson, the music icon who penned this classic song. What started as just another video upload has become a sort of phenomenon. I see parents holding their girls as they sing. I’ve seen young boys singing the lead after seeing their dads sing in their video. I’ve even seen parents singing together with their little ones. Some even played instruments as the lead. However, what touches me most are the many, many comments that have expressed how unexplainably happy they felt singing with me. Some had never done a duet before but said they had to do this one, and they enjoyed it. Others expressed being in a bad way and said how this video helped lift them regardless of their current circumstances. A few made me cry. You could spend hours watching these duets now and what you’ll see is a representative of almost every nationality, young and old, singing their hearts out with me and asking for more.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.erichollaway.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatbassvoice/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eric.h.sr/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erichollaway/
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9337226/ https://www.tiktok.com/@thatbassvoice