From Singing and Songwriting to Voice Acting with Mike Previti

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Hi there, and welcome to Vox Talk, your weekly review from the world of Voice Over. I'm your host, Stephanie Ciccarelli from Voices. Do you come from a musical background? Knowing how to sing can richly benefit and even fast track your voiceover career. Joining me today is Mike Previti. He's going to share how his background in music and singing open doors of opportunity in his voice acting career, and how you can use your musical skills to succeed in the voice acting world, too. Thank you for joining me, Mike. Welcome to the show.

Mike Previti:

Thanks so much for having me, Stephanie. I appreciate it. It's good to see you.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Good to see you, too. And I know we've spoken before, so it's kind of fun to kind of carry the conversation on here. And so I know that you're a musician, not just a voice talent. So can you tell us a bit about your journey as a musician and how did you get started?

Mike Previti:

Sure. So it's kind of the cliche story. Grew up listening to a lot of music. My parents played a lot of music around the house, et cetera. I grew up just kind of loving listening to songs and trying to kind of pull out what the guitar was doing, what the drums were doing. I don't know why, it just kind of happened and really caught, I mean at that same time because I was pretty young, I'm talking seven, eight, nine, I can remember. And then I got the acting bug. Loved movies. My dad watched a lot of, like, actually older movies, and so I got the acting bug. I was in an agency for it's like a modeling acting agency, when I was a kid, I did a couple of commercials, things like that. Just kind of loved creative all around. And then when I was about, I think it was maybe about 13, I started playing drums. I asked my mother if I could take drum lessons and, and, you know, initially she came to me and she says, ‘Well, why don't you try guitar?’ You know, she's thinking drum set in the house. Oh, my gosh. So I took guitar for I think it was two lessons and went home and I said, ‘I hate it, I really don't like it, I really want to play drums’. And she said, ‘OK, you can play drums.’ So I started playing drums when I was about 15. Met a friend of mine in high school who was a guitar player, and we started our first band, and I started singing shortly thereafter that. It was more so because we didn't have a singer in the band at the time, and so I just kind of started singing and realized, I think I might be able to do this. So I was kind of singing and playing drums at the same time in my band, kind of like a Phil Collins type of deal. So that's kind of how I started getting into it. And then was a singer songwriter for years after that and subsequently did play guitar and ended up playing guitar for a while.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah. Well, guitar is a really important instrument and I think a lot of lead singers do play guitar, so that makes a ton of sense. So you've been singing, songwriting, playing all kinds of different instruments, and along the way, somehow you fell into voiceover. So how did that happen?

Mike Previti:

I did so it was at a time; it was probably about ten years ago. I was writing with another songwriter, a composer, and we were we were doing a lot of songs. We had a publishing deal at the time in the UK. We were writing actually for a lot of, like, J-Pop bands, like Japanese pop, Korean pop bands. At the time, we were writing with a lot of people from all over the world and things were going well for us. And at one point he just I don't even know how it got brought up, but he said to me, he says, ‘hey, listen, he says, do you ever think about doing voice over?’ And I said, ‘No. I never thought about it. And he says, I don't know, I think you have a decent voice for it and you might want to try it. It could bring in some extra money, blah, blah, blah.’ So I proceeded to kind of research it a little bit and put a quick demo together just because I had the production skills in order to do that. Because I had been a singer songwriter for a long time and was using Pro Tools for years and certainly not an engineer by any means, but knew enough to do what I needed to do and put a demo together. Just kind of started sending it out a little bit and I started getting jobs right away. A lot of local Boston studios that I would just kind of go into and record and things like that. So started having some relationships. I did it for about a year, made a little bit of money, but it wasn't a priority at the time. Music was still very much a priority for me at the time, so I ended up just kind of letting it fall and then started getting back into it a couple of years ago.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

That's awesome. I just love hearing the whole history of the music and how someone will say to you, I think you could do this right? There's always somebody in the studio or I know Don LaFontaine's story, you're probably familiar with it too, but just one day, someone does not show up for recording session and they turn to the writer, the producer, and they say, ‘hey, why don't you take a turn here?’ And then all of a sudden you've got a career. So I think that's super interesting. But one of the other things we've talked about before is actually your jingle work. And so because you've come from a musical background. Obviously there's jingles and everyone here knows what a jingle is. You certainly have grown up hearing them, more than likely. But yeah, one of your more recent projects, I know you are really good at posting on LinkedIn and everyone knows this is a theme with me. If I see something interesting on LinkedIn, then I'm going to be like, ‘I'm going to contact that person and see if I can learn more or find some angle that could be helpful to everybody here with Vox Talk. So this project that you most recently posted about, it had some cute little look like hamsters or something and like a wheel, I can't remember, but it's yeah, I watched this.

Mike Previti:

It was something like that. Yeah, absolutely.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

It was super cool. And I don't know, they did like racing or you could connect laps or yeah, so but anyway, for this commercial spot, not only did you sing, but you also did the voiceover work. So I know there are a lot of people out there who think I would love to be able to sing and do voice work in the same spot, even. How do you even come across a job like that? And how would someone know that you can do both of those things?

Mike Previti:

So the funny thing is when I started taking voice over really seriously and started kind of making it everything, so to speak, I really didn't want to do singing at the same time. I just was like ‘I did it for a long time.’ I mean, I had a record deal at one point. It was a really bad record deal, but I had a record deal at one point. I toured and did that whole thing and I just said, I don't think I want to make that anything, but I spent a long time singing backup, singing lead, all that good stuff. And I just said, why don't I kind of incorporate this? I'd be stupid not to, really, because I know I can do it well. I have experience doing it and I felt like I had something to offer with it. So I ended up I have a ton of songs that I've recorded over the years. So I just put a quick, maybe one one and a half minute demo together, and along with my voice reels, my commercial, my character voice reels, all that that I put on my website. I also put the singing demo up there. And the company that actually hired me to do this commercial for Loopers is what the toy was called, they actually got in touch with me. They're a company from Spain and they got in touch with me. Just, I think they found me through my website. They found me somewhere and so they got in touch with me and I've actually done a few different projects with them and it was a lot of fun. And initially they just hired me to do the vocals for the jingle, for the commercial. And then after that they said, hey, would you like to do the voice over too? And I'm like, oh yeah, that'd be killer. So I ended up doing that. And it's really a lot of fun to do something like that when I can use both things that I really love to do and incorporate them into one thing. It's great.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah. There are a lot of people, I think, who can relate to what you said about having the musical skill, being able to sing, wanting to do voice work, maybe not even realizing you can do both together. One of the most common examples, I think, that would come to mind for most people of this sort of marriage of singing and spoken word would be like an animated film. Like cartoon characters, they sing and speak and it's rare that you'll find someone isn't doing both, although that does happen. I think that there have been different singing voices and the speaking voices in various films that we've seen. But more often than not, you want to have that continuity. And so I don't know if that plays into jingles the same way as it does in a character voice setting for that, but you can always tell a client, I can do this. You can write in your bio or your profile anywhere that I have these extra skills. And it's just so wonderful to be able to put that education to work. Because I know a lot of people, they come out of a music program, for instance. And like, I went through a music program myself in university and I know that there were so many people who were piano majors. Maybe they were a violin string major, kind of, or they were in theory and composition and their instrument was something else, the brass or whatever. But they had amazing voices and they could use them effectively because they understood just the language of music, the dynamics, whether you want to build up to something, anticipation. All of this is so useful in voiceover. So when you have come from a background where you have some training in the disciplines of music, it just seems to have transferable skills that serve you quite well in voice over, so what would some of those have been for you?

Mike Previti:

Well, it's interesting because when I talk about voiceover, a lot of times I'll reference my singing background. It's very interesting. There's a lot of transferable skills when you're a singer. If you've been doing it for a long time or enough time, you know how to use your voice. And that right there is a plus if you want to get into voice over because you know how to use your voice, you know what works, what doesn't work. And even when it comes to characters, I just by nature have a kind of higher tone to my voice and that allows me to do, I love doing character work and it allows me to do a lot of character work. And some of that character work, like if I get sent auditions from my agents, some of that character work will include singing. And so for me, I'm like, well, that just kind of puts me in a different bracket because I can offer that. It's like another tool in your tool belt. It is very transferable. And even in the marketing aspect, when I used to be looking for publishing, licensing, record companies, I was emailing, doing a lot of email marketing and cold calling to try to get myself in the door with that. Which is exactly what you need to do when you're marketing as a voice actor as well. So it is very transferable in that way.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

So much good news for people who have come from other fields. I can do this, I'm a good communicator, I can anticipate, I have rhythm, I have whatever it might be. It's all very helpful in the world of voiceover. I can write because there's a lot of scripts out there sometimes that come through and they need a little help in an audition via for flow or the wrong word was used or whatnot. So, all very good. I know everyone listening is probably thinking, okay, well, I've come from some other background, but this, I could use this and apply it in my voice acting career too. Absolutely. So I want to just return circle back to jingles a bit because it's an area that we don't often talk about really, because it is something that voice artists do, but it's not voice over, right, but it can be near and around voice over. So in your opinion, what is it about jingles that makes them so effective? I think that it's the shortness and the sweetness of a jingle because when you hear a jingle and it could be anywhere from a commercial jingle to the opener of an animated series. As a matter of fact, that company that I did that looper's job for, I actually just did another project for and it was in the opening song for an animated series. But you know, they're all very short, you know, and very catchy in one way, shape or form. And that could be from your melody to your lyric to really hopefully it's both because I think that's what makes a better jingle. And really, even if you're just writing, if you're writing a full song, it's melody and I mean, song is king, right? So it's melody and it's lyrics. So I think an effective jingle, it's really how memorable can it be? And there are different reasons that something becomes memorable. So I think that's really what it is. Something quick, something that you don't have to think about too much and just kind of stays and stays in your head.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Stays in your head. Oh, I know, I've got jingles in my head from over 30 years ago. You know, as a child because you hear something on the radio or TV and all of a sudden like, you know what? You drive by a place in town. I was just driving by somewhere a couple of days ago and this jingle came into my head from a radio ad that that company had done when I was a child. And I'm like, ‘Wait a minute.’ And I've never set foot in that store, but I know the name, you know, it is stuck.

Mike Previti:

And it's just good marketing. I mean, it's just good, you know, if you can remember a jingle, it's just really good marketing.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Music just has a way of tugging at your heart or making you think of something else from the time or whatever it was. And I like how you also mentioned the animated series and like, doing a show opener because those stick in people's heads, too, like the theme song from a show. Yeah. So jingle work is important. I know that it's maybe not as much as there used to be in past decades, but maybe you can correct me, I might be wrong. Are you seeing jingle work regularly or is it kind of it comes and goes?

Mike Previti:

No, it comes and goes. Voice over is kind of my main thing. And when the jingle work comes in for me, I kind of consider it a bonus when I get the jingle work. And I love it. It's one of those things that when it comes in and I also market as I market to video production companies and the like for voiceover, which is something I do every day. I've also done that for music production companies, you know companies that are writing music for whatever, because you never know. And the good thing is you can kind of market to both. When I market, I'm mostly marketing for voice over, but I also mention that I'm a singer as well. And then if people go to my website, you can hear all the demos. So you'll know I'm a singer because I have that singing demo there, too.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yes, singing demos have demos of anything that you can do. Wonderful. Yeah. So I know we touched a bit earlier on just how the transferable skills from singing to voiceover are really, really easy to use. In fact, it's the same instrument, it's the same mechanism for breathing. But what kind of advice would you give as we leave everybody here, Mike, today? What would you tell musicians who want to add voice acting to the repertory of skills?

Mike Previti:

I would say to definitely try it because I think it's one of those things that you again, it's another tool in your tool belt. Even if you wanted to, even if singing was kind of the main thing and voice over was just another part of it, for me, it's the other way around. But even if you wanted to do that, I just think it's something if you're a creative person and you have a couple of different things that you can do well, why wouldn't you use that? I would say if you don't know a lot about voice over to research it a lot before you kind of dive in. And I think what any singer will find is that there are transferable skills and that if it's something that you are interested in, you will have just as much fun doing that as you do singing. I know I do anyway. And so I would just say, look, if you have it, use it.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Couldn't have said it better myself. We've all been equipped with an instrument you're created to do what you're here to do. And if voice over is part of that journey, then you got to be using your voice and jingle singing and you could be a memory for somebody years and years in the future. Because I know that I remember so much of what has been put to music. I can imagine everyone listening to has that as well. So thank you for sharing your experiences with us, Mike. It was really cool.

Mike Previti:

You're welcome. Thank you.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah, and I'm just wondering, because obviously we keep in touch on LinkedIn fairly regularly and you put a lot of videos almost daily. I would say you have some neat little takeaway. It's usually about two minutes long of something from your day and it's very useful for everyone who's listening here. But yeah, so they can find you on LinkedIn, that's one place, but where else can they go to learn more about you and what you're doing?

Mike Previti:

So my website is www.MikePrevitiVO.com. They can also find me on, like you said, LinkedIn, Mike Previti VO, Facebook, Mike Previti, Instagram, Mike Previti VO and the same with TikTok. I am a TikToker.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh, my gosh.

Mike Previti:

Yeah, I am on TikTok. Yes. And I usually have to ask my kids how to when I first got on, I'm like, hey, can you just show me how to do this type of thing? But, yeah, so I just try to get stuff out there when I can. And like you said, Stephanie, it's really stuff that I'm going through my day and it just kind of puts me out there. So that's where you can find me. I appreciate that.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah, wonderful. Well, thanks again, Mike, and hopefully we'll see you on LinkedIn sometime soon.

Mike Previti:

Absolutely. Thanks, Stephanie.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

And that's the way we saw the world through the lens of Voice Over this week. Thank you very much to Mike Previti for joining us from his studio today. I hope that this conversation you've heard with singer songwriter, musical voice actor Mike Previti has helped you in your journey today. So for Voices, I'm Stephanie Ciccarelli, the host of Vox Talk. Vox Talk is produced, as always, by Geoff Bremner. Thank you again for listening and we'll see you next week.