Narrator Interview with Seb Yarrick

Good Thursday morning to you!  This week we get a chance to chat with the newest narrator to join our merry band of romance recording readers, our friend, Seb Yarrick.  We're going behind the scenes on recording an upcoming release, and giving away a copy of his most recent. It's a great day to curl up with a good book! And also, cake. 


FSC: What is your coffee house beverage of choice? 

Seb: I have to confess, I quite often fail to remember the differences between all the different types. Usually it’s a simple latte or flat white. They’re warm and comforting. I’m not into particularly strong or strange coffee. I just like something warm, comforting, caffeinated and that tastes good with cake.

FSC:  Can you talk a little about your professional background? What are some of your favorite projects you've worked on?
Seb: I got started on community radio here in Scotland (though audiobook listeners will note by my accent I’m actually English) where I was thrown in the deep end with a five day a week chat show. I then went to do traffic and travel on national stations, and moved over to doing my dream show on radio playing rock. As for favourite projects, I really enjoyed working on The Missing Ingredient audiobook. It was my first time working with Falcon, and I was trying to learn a new DAW, Reaper, as I went. John and Jodi were so chilled and helpful with me, despite the fact I was struggling to get the correct settings on Reaper. They guided me through not only the Falcon process but also gave me loads of help on how to actually use Reaper. It’s the perfect example of how a working relationship should be, and I feel like I’m transatlantic friends with them because of it.

FSC:  How did you get started as a narrator? 
Seb: Guess what? It turns out doing traffic and travel radio is as brain-meltingly boring as actually being sat in it, especially when you’re doing the nightshift. I was having a dreadful time with it, so sacked it off. My partner had a friend who’d been on ACX and suggested I try that. I had the production skills and always liked to play with my voice and characters on the radio, so I took a crack at it. I got the first book I auditioned for, and a VO job on a fairly high profile advert the same week, and that really gave me the confidence to just leap into it full time.
FSC:  One thing that surprises many audiobook listeners is how long it takes to create an audiobook. What's the longest day you have spent recording? 
Seb:  A good solid 9 hour day. Which might not sound particularly excessive, but that’s a lot when you’re only taking a half hour break for food and talking almost non-stop. I had to recover for a few days after as I pushed my voice to breaking point.

FSC:  How long did your most recent project take you, and how long is the finished book? 
Seb: I time all my work on Toggl to help me work out how much future projects might take, so I know The Nerd and the Prince took me 25 hours, 32 minutes and 39 seconds. That includes going back through and doing my own quality control, which Falcon usually does for me. The final book is 5 hours and 19 minutes. I’d say this book took me longer than usual though, as there’s a lot of Italian in it, which lead to a lot of language and accent research.

FSC:  When you record, how do you break it up? Do you, for instance, read multiple chapters in one sitting?
Seb:  I work what I thought was the pomodoro method, which is traditionally 25 minute intervals, separated by 3 minute breaks, and after four of those, a longer 15 - 20 minute break. I only found this out after I’d started working for 1 hour, followed by a 15 minute break, but it really works for me that way. I do multiple chapters, and if a pomodoro is finished but I haven’t completed a chapter, I work through to the end of the chapter.

FSC:  How do you decide what kind of tone to take with each new book? What is it like reading different characters' dialogue lines? 
Seb: You can tell a lot about the tone of a book from the blurb alone, as that is specifically designed to convey it to a potential reader/listener. The overall book informs the tone though, but the tone can vary a lot during it. I’ve never come across a book that’s one tone all the way through and I’d think it to be pretty dreadful if I had. With characters, unless there are written signifiers, I just do the voice that comes naturally. I try to keep them pretty different and I use a lot of accents to make sure listeners can differentiate between them. I don’t randomly make someone who is probably local Afrikaans but I’m happy to make a minor character in London Scottish as I’m aware of plenty of Scots who’ve moved to London.

FSC:  What do you enjoy the most about narrating? 
Seb:  Just being able to tell stories for a living. I’m so privileged that I’ve been able to make this my full time job. I’ve always wanted to be a professional artist in a narrative medium, and this allows me to be so in my own time, in my own home, in my own studio. I love working with Falcon as well. It’s literally how all workplaces and relationships should be in any industry. It’s precisely why I can’t go back to the 9 to 5! And when I do my own QC nobody sees my mistakes!

FSC:  What can we expect to hear from you with a new book?
Seb:  I take a naturalistic approach with my dialogue, so you’ll hear my delivery more akin to what you’d expect in an audio drama or screen performance. If a character sounds like they’d be struggling with or fumbling their words, I’ll do that convincingly.

Warning: I’m about to get arty farty here; I also like to make unexpected decisions with my reads sometimes, just to make it a more compelling and deeper listening experience. I very much see audiobooks as their own artform, they’re not just an alternative, convenient straight reading out of the book. You could get a text to voice programme to do that. They’re an adaptation for a different medium, just like a film or TV show is an adaptation of a book, not just filmed scrolling text of the words. Audiobooks have the luxury of being able to stick incredibly close to the source material, but as an artist a narrator should be allowed to interpret a book their way and as such it makes for a more valuable finished piece. How’s that for arty farty?


FSC:  When is your next book coming out?  
Seb:  The next book is "The Nerd and the Prince," by B.G. Thomas. It's a modern fairy tale romance with secret identities included.  This should be releasing beginning of January from Dreamspinner Press. 



This week, we'll be giving away copies of Seb's first book with us, "The Missing Ingredient,"by Brian Lancaster.  What's your favorite, famous, oldest, or newest recipe? Tell us on Facebook for your chance to win!  

Find us on Facebook or at falconsoundcompany.com.
Check out Seb's narrations available on Audible. 

Happy listening!