We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael Vale. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael below.
Alright, Michael thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?
So way back in the day, I started out on my local college radio. I used to plug my iPod into the studio aux cord, and run off the latest indie (new to me) songs I had found on whatever websites I was trawling around on back then. I loved doing it, and my station manager actually was a retired DJ himself. He recommended I look into a local internship at an AM station nearby, which I jumped on immediately. I learned the ropes of office and administrative management, time-work balance, and basically the social skills you need to survive in the modern workplace (holds true post-COVID too!), all in one shot.
From intern who filed papers and answered phones, I got a break to do small announcements in between MLB and music portions of the station, which eventually caught the ear of the station manager. He thought I had a great voice, and we were in the middle of a recession at the time, so jobs were cut. Let’s put the unpaid intern to work, they probably thought at first…little did they know it would become a part-time job for me, paid and all! In between my days on and off at college, I used to sit in the early morning chair and do weather and traffic (like 5am-6am, when if I screwed up it wouldn’t be a big deal!), and that was just a blast to get a chance to do so. People always told me I had a ‘voice for radio,’ which until like ten years later, it didn’t really click.
I miss working in radio, and it’s a shrinking medium for sure, but I’d love to get back into it given the chance. Talk radio is something I wish I had the chance of doing, but I suppose that’s what podcasts are for! Honing a voice, a cadence, and most importantly, a nice (almost accentless) announcing/broadcast tone were all skills I brought from that small station in Upstate New York to my current voice acting presence today, and I couldn’t be more thankful for it.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Mike Vale. I’m a voice actor from New York City! I used to work in AM radio, and now I work in marketing as my day job. I started voice acting in 2020 during the pandemic, partly to fulfil a passion project want, and partly for something to do. I could have never imagined back then I’d grow into the situation I find myself in today – actively acting on projects of all shapes and sizes, with folks from all corners of the globe, with presences bigger than I ever could have imagined.
I’m always open to working with new VAs on post ideas, a video (dub, parody, abridged, whatever) idea you may have, or a new project. I’ve been fortunate in my time voice acting to have voiced in videos that have multi-million view counts, in audiobooks and podcasts, in video games and built-from-scratch game modifications – projects like Cabin Tales, a tour-de-force horror anthology podcast by Thom Halle, where not only have I been so lucky to voice act in, but also write and co-produce, are opportunities I would have never even expected to know about when I started back in the day, and for that I am so grateful, and I am very excited as to what comes next!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
PAY YOUR ARTISTS. I know far too many ultra talented artists from all walks, in all fields, who work for credit or for free. I’m guilty of working pro-bono on projects – I want to help where I can, and I also feel guilty at times for sending invoices, but at the end of the day, we’re all trying to put food on the table.
It feels, and I’m putting a positive spin on this, that opportunities continue to shrink, that funds are never available for a project to reach a maximum, and that unfortunately shortcuts are continuously taken to short change artists. Generative AI, for instance, is one of the worst things that’s ever happened to the creative industry. There is no replacing the artist who paints a scene, there is no substitution for the passion in a voice actor’s delivery, and there most certainly is no room for the plagiarized script in the world of film and television!
Technology is a burden and a boon. Very erudite of me, I know – calm down Socrates. But seriously, I love being able to send massive files from an hour recording session to a client in microseconds. I love live direction and Discord/Zoom calls, I love remoting into a studio around the world. Social media is an amazing tool, and one I’ve used to connect with players in all industry. But at the same time, how many times have you shared a repost, where the original artist never gets the credit they deserve? JacksFilms has a wonderful video about this, literally the War on Stolen Content – I’ve personally had (and been thankful for) posts that have done millions of views, thousands of likes, only to be badly screen recorded, reuploaded to TikTok and go doubly viral – I am not alone – but, I guess that means the internet likes it.
Give credit where credit is due. Be kind to your fellow creatives. We’re in this together!
How did you build your audience on social media?
COLLABORATE! Find like minded people like you and boost your presence. I am so thankful to have a fantastic audience who likes the stuff I put out there – I’m equally thankful to have a slew of collaborators and creatives I get to work with, who are just as passionate to make it to the next big thing. They keep me going towards my own goals, and along the way, we’ve been achieving them bit by bit!
Social media is strange. Twitter feels the most social to me. I’m not on Facebook, and YouTube is very fickle but fair at times (except when it isn’t). I was never a Tumblr kid, but I was on MySpace back in the day…I mean really back in the day. Instagram is like homebase for me, and even that can be a little wacky at times. IG’s algorithm can really be demoralizing for content creators, and I’ve seen far too many people I’ve worked with just drop it all together because they’re getting zero reach or engagement.
I think keeping at it best you can, and just remembering to make it for yourself first, audience second, will always keep you engaged and entertained. Once this becomes just another job, it’s game over. Stick to your guns, and make the stuff you want to see – that will help you grow, and the benefits will come later. I wouldn’t be working on the projects I am currently, and have worked on, if not for my start on Instagram and YouTube. It’s wild to think how far I’ve come in 4 years (2024 at the time of writing) and how much more I can still offer – you can do it too!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13732901/?ref_=hm_rvi_nm_i_1
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voiceover_requiem/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-vale-327962305/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/voiceover_req?lang=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VoiceoverRequiem
- Other: https://ko-fi.com/voiceoverrequiem
Image Credits
QurpleCat on Instagram and soupninjaha_ on Instagram