From D&D to Voice Acting: a Q&A with atlas
About atlas and how he got started voice acting
Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got started as a voice actor?
Acting and, in particular, voice acting is something I’d been interested in for many years. Honestly, I think my love for it started to sort of expand exponentially when I started playing D&D. Getting together with some friends on a regular basis and improv, playing characters and exploring their development over periods of time, giving them voices and embodying their humanity as thoroughly as we could to tell meaningful stories. I think that woke me up to, “oh, I’m not just interested in this, I love this. And I think I might actually be good at it?” From there, it was during COVID that I saw voice actors working in games and animation suddenly forced to record for big, professional projects from home, and the industry making that work, and that made me realize a voice acting career might be possible without needing to live in LA. Hard cut to now, and I’m a man with a dream, slowly battling my way towards making that work.
What drew you to audio erotica specifically?
I truly just stumbled into it. I was looking for auditions online. I’d done a couple of NSFW animation projects already under a pseudonym, so when I saw one for a recurring NSFW gig that was offering better pay than most of the other things I’d done up to that point, I figured why not? That ended up with me being in the roster of “misters” for Silky Whisper for a little bit before they called it quits. I did a handful of audios for them, started to slowly see how big the space was and what was possible, and figured it’d be a shame not to at least try to take a run at it as a solo creator since I already had all the necessary skills.
atlas his work and creative process
How do you choose the themes or styles for your audios?
A lot of it depends on what writers submit to me, since I haven’t had the time to do much of my own writing lately. I do try to choose scripts that speak to me, personally, and I make an effort (though it doesn’t always work out) to switch up the vibe of my drops week to week to offer listeners some variety.
Do you have a favorite type of audio to create (e.g., dominant, comforting, fantasy, romance)?
I am notoriously terrible at choosing favorites. I really just try not to let things get too stale for myself as a creator. I try to do different things to keep it feeling as fresh as I can. And there are sometimes these audios that I feel are really unique or stand out, because they offered something special or out of the norm for AE, or provided some sort of challenge for my team and I as creatives that I felt like we surmounted and delivered well on. Audios like My Nightingale, The Accidental Plus-One, or The Nice List. Sometimes there’s just an extra level of flair or something special that can be tough to quantify simply, but that you can feel in every aspect of the project.
How do you approach creating an immersive experience for your listeners?
Care and quality control for every step of a project is the biggest one. As I’ve gone, I’ve put more and more weight onto choosing scripts that really feel right for me, or speak to me, or inspire me in some way. Writing that gets me excited is a very important step one, because that’ll make step two (the performance) way easier to nail. If I’m jazzed about a script, that translates to me being able to slip into a role more easily for a strong performance. After that, I get deep in the weeds on the edit (often with Dex or Neon Rose working on the sound design, these days). I tend to be pretty specific about a lot of the details in editing and sound design, which can sometimes be time consuming, but I think also leads to a really lovely final product that we can be proud to present to listeners.
atlas his motivation and emotional connection
What do you enjoy most about your work?
My favorite part of the process of creating it is the voice acting. Boy, do I love voice acting. It can be really challenging at times, but it’s so much fun, and it’s work that I enjoy and find fulfilling. The part of this whole audio erotica machine that I get to take part in that I love the most outside of my own processes, though, is what my work can do for other people. Knowing that what I’m making is helping people to discover themselves, feel empowered, explore their sexuality, spark or rekindle aspects of their relationships, heal from past traumas, and more is so incredibly gratifying and beautiful, and I feel so endlessly lucky to have stumbled my way into being a part of that in listeners’ lives.
Are there audios you create that are more emotional or comforting? Why are they important to you?
Absolutely, yeah. A lot of my audios carry over- or undertones of warmth and comfort that many listeners have told me they love about my work, but there are some standouts like Always and Lock It Down that have become favorites and regular listens for a lot of folks, despite having made some of them cry, because of how genuine, comforting, and affirming they are in a way that listeners seemed to really latch onto and identify with. Being able to give that to people is such a wonderful thing.
How do you hope your content impacts your audience?
AE can be so many different things to people. I try to serve different needs and provide different flavors so there’s something for everybody, and hopefully that’s felt by regular listeners. Whether it’s arousal, release, joy and laughter, hope and comfort, heartache and longing, healing and growth, or otherwise… I just hope my audience feels something when they listen to my work and that they get whatever it is that they want or need from the experience.
atlas his Audience & Platforms
Where are you most active online, and how can listeners find your work?
Most of my work is on Quinn, though I do also have a handful of audios on Reddit. I’m pretty active on Instagram and TikTok, and there’s also an invite to the Stargazers Discord server in my links for interested listeners.
How do you engage with your community or fans?
Social media and Discord, mainly! I don’t always have time to respond to everything, but I read all the comments and see stories and posts that folks tag me in, talking about my work and all that. Same with Discord. I don’t have as much time as I’d like to hang around in the chats, but I do try to get in there and mix it up a little on most days. Folks in the Discord also often get early tags and other teases for upcoming drops, which can often be pretty chaotic and fun.
Fun & Personal Touch
Do you have any memorable moments or stories from your journey as a voice actor?
Tons, yeah. A lot of the stories might be better suited to a podcast or something, but definitely so many memorable moments along the way. Sometimes I just need to stop grinding away at the work for a minute to take stock for perspective. That I started this journey about a year ago now and ended up getting into Quinn less than a month after I dropped my first audio is kind of wild. I don’t want to minimize what I did. I worked really hard over a long time to gain the skills necessary to make that happen. I put in an insane number of hours in the lead up to that first audio drop and I’ve put in insane hours to get from that Quinn debut to where I am now. Even with all that work, though, it’s not at all lost on me that there’s also some brilliant luck in the timing of it all that got me in the door. I’m so thankful for that and for the folks who’ve given me a chance to take on the role I have in this space and given me the room to grow.
Are there any surprises about your work or niche that most people wouldn’t expect?
I certainly didn’t expect the volume of admin work that I would suddenly have on my plate when I started on Quinn, so maybe that! What we do is essentially running a small business, which for many of us also includes subcontractors in the form of writers and editors, so between that and the socials content (which is, of course, voluntary work), there’s quite a bit of paperwork, communications, and little side jobs that all roll into the gig, making it a fair bit more complicated than my prior assumptions about how much of it would just be the creation portion.
What advice would you give to someone interested in creating their own audio content?
Just. Start. There is always going to be better equipment you can get, there will always be more you can do to treat your recording space for better audio quality, you’ll always be able to learn more about editing and sound design, you’ll always be able to continue evolving and growing as an actor. Don’t avoid doing it because you’re afraid of being bad at it. Nobody is good at all this stuff the first time. You won’t get better if you aren’t putting in the hours to develop the skills. So even if you aren’t putting everything you make out into the public at the beginning, just start making stuff.
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