This one is about my more creative flair, most utilised on the radio Network I broadcast across. The plan was working well, play the song and when there was the silent bit, pause song and play a random sound effect. Excellent fun! I kid you not, I even heard someone telling a colleague of theirs in River Island they had heard a random horse sound played in the P!nk song, Sober last night on the radio, ha ha.  So my plan continued, undetected by management (most importantly). That was until.... a few months into my secret plan. When, I made a school boy error. Great! I remember thinking every time I found out that P!nk Sober was on the playlist. (Contrary to belief, radio presenters don't pick their own playlist of songs).   What sound should I play tonight I wonder? Hmmmm? Oooh, I know, a fart sound, yesssss.  So off I went to research fart sounds available to download. Got one, plan in place, looking forward to continuing my random sound effect fun.  All was well, song played, sou

  Life, that is, don't you think?  Except we don't always realise or notice it to be fair. Tied up in our daily routines, and dealing with the extras life decides to throw our way, usually when we least need those extras most! Working out and choosing where and how best to use your valuable internal energy isn't always easy, and can depend on our moods, personality and external factors all happening at once.  You know what, it's ok to... stop. For as much time you feel aids you in re-charging, recouping and realigning your mind and body. (I know that sounds a bit deep, but it's true!). I feel we all fall victim of trying to give too much of ourselves sometimes, and this eventually and ironically can lead to not being able to give as much as we'd like to. Striking a balance can be really challenging and may even result in cutting some things out, this could be temporary or for a little longer. The phrase 'Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None' springs to my

For me, it's music! No doubt. Music is my mood changer. My secret weapon.  Something switches in my brain, depending on what type of song and of course what mood I may already be in. Some motivate me to get on with mundane jobs around the house, some motivate me into action... like writing a new blog post! And some provide me with the soundtrack to some Zen Time.   So as I write this I've been listening to Bon Iver - 8 (Circle). Check it out (great with headphones on or decent speakers recommended), all that detail in one song, amazing. Incredibly chilled and a great thinking song for me, and one that sparks memories of what I associate that song with. WARNING - sometimes this is not so good! Ha ha. I've made the best demos (radio) out of listening to some of the tunes I may have played on past radio shows. There's nothing better for me than standing in a radio studio, having those monitor speakers up loud with a tune playing that I absolutely love and getting lost in e

The irony is, the great ones, the ones that do it because that's what they do best, do not ever crave that 'shout out' or recognition. It's the success of those they mentor that provides them with the most fulfilling reward and self-satisfaction.  But I'm going to give that 'shout out' not by name, because again, that's the last thing they'd want! But by influence and how we crossed paths. So here's my nameless list of those mentors that have believed in me through my career, so far... First, at the very beginning. Hospital Radio, where I was paired with someone that was already a someone in media and that was gold dust for me. I listened and learned as much as possible. I remember being given a task of prepping something todo with the first plane flight, I really did over prepare for what turned out to be a 30 second on air piece, ha ha. That person also chose the song; You Say It Best - Ronan Keating as my theme on the show promos montage, tha

A question I get asked a lot!  So here's my definitive guide to...  1/ Help you get started. 2/ Decide whether it's actually for you. 3/ Guide your mentality for success. Let's start with  1/ Help you get started  (as A Voiceover Artist / Voice Actor). It's actually fairly simple and straight forward to set up your first little recording area. All you really need is: USB Mic, Laptop / Computer (that runs silently), recording software and most importantly the right recording environment. If you're more of an audio learner you may wish to listen to everything I'm about to cover here in the blog, in a recent podcast interview I recorded, where I cover all this and more.  For those of you reading on, let's get into it then...  So, you've got your kit. It really doesn't need to cost the earth and no I'm not going to recommend mics / recording software because that's really your journey. I personally have used Adobe Audition all my career and loa

  "Feel the fear" a wise man once said, standing on stage in front of me at a conference room in the media department of Thames Valley University, as I was about to embark on my first public reading of a travel news bulletin. “Who would like to feel the fear first?” The voice boomed again. I put my hand up, heart pumping, trying to concentrate on the words I’d so carefully crafted over the space of 15 minutes… Perhaps I should explain why I was there in the first place to give some perspective to all this.  A long term friend of mine that I presented a hospital radio show with, called me one day when I was on a bus journey (he'd remember the bus number, I can't) to say he knew of a way we could ‘get into actual radio’, a Travel News course he’d seen advertised. At first I slated his idea, as I felt it sounded like an extremely boring waste of cash, little did I know what the future had in store for me. I ended up changing my mind and booking onto this weekend course