From Classroom to Microphone: The Story of Peaches

From Classroom to Microphone: The Story of Peaches 

hi everyone 🙂 it's been a little while i had the amazing opportunity to work with Peaches. He did an interview with me on audio and I typed everything out so I know that this is a transcript of audio records. Have fun reading and make sure to follow Peaches and his amazing work.

About Peaches

Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got started as a voice actor?

I used to be a teacher, mostly teaching English, communications, study skills, and similar subjects. Before that, I completed an undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing, followed by a Master's degree in Creative Writing. I then earned a teaching qualification that allowed me to teach adults, primarily in colleges.

As for voice acting, I left teaching in 2020 and moved into content creation, mainly on the visual side. Then, at the beginning of 2022, I posted a video on TikTok that went viral. Many people commented that they really enjoyed my voice, and that was the start of the idea. However, I didn't seriously pursue voice acting until early 2024. So that's how I got into it.

Where is Peaches from, and how has his background influenced his work?

I'm from England in the UK. I won't say much more than that.

More than my location, it's my background in creative writing that has really influenced my work. When I first started voice acting, I wrote all of my own scripts. After a while, and especially after being accepted onto Quinn, I realized that writing two scripts a week, editing them, recording them, and managing everything else was a huge amount of work particularly since I was still creating visual content as well.

Because of that, I started accepting scripts from other writers. Generally, I only accept scripts from people who are already established or who have a strong social media presence.

What drew Peaches to audio erotica specifically?

To be honest, I didn't know much about audio erotica until people pointed out that they would enjoy listening to me talk. After that, I spent a lot of time listening to the genre myself and realized that, at its core, it's acting.

I've always wanted to act. Before I chose creative writing, my other option would have been to study drama in some form. So I thought voice acting would be a great thing to try, and it turned out very well. I'm incredibly thankful for that.

Peaches Work & Creative Process

How does Peaches choose the themes or styles for his audios?

Well, people, if I'm accepting scripts, I will, largely people write them with my tone or my voice in their mind already. I don't really have too many people just come along and say, "Hey, I've got this script, it's a script fill. I wrote it a long time ago." It's usually people who write things for me, which is lovely, very, sweet of someone to think of me to write for.

So I kind of go with those tropes because I love a challenge. I love a bit of character acting and trying different things, being imaginative, just generally being creative with things.

But my themes or styles for my own scripts, I generally stick to things that I either will enjoy in my personal life or that I've been interested in. So certain tropes. And I mean, certain things, the majority of my own scripts are very much me, but there are some which aren't quite me. You know, there's my sci-fi script on Patreon. There's various fantasy or historical things that I've done, which aren't really me and it's more character based.

So I just like to keep things kind of fresh and do different things, as well as return to my favourite tropes. And I think curvy worship is probably my favourite, so I tend to focus things around that sometimes with my scripts as well.

Does Peaches have a favorite type of audio he likes to create (e.g., dominant, comforting, fantasy, romance)?

Yeah, I think I may have just answered that. I love curvy worship. I love any kind of worship, to be honest. And usually that comes with comfort, support, kind of this gentle dominance.

And that's more my style than the hardcore dominance, which I haven't actually really tried at all in my scripts, so I would love to try it one day.

So yeah, we'll never know. There might be something coming. Not too sure.

How does Peaches approach creating an immersive experience for his listeners?

Well, I always just try my best to make the scripts feel realistic. So I'll read the script through once, I'll make sure I get the tone right for certain sections, and make it really feel like they're being talked to.

I think sometimes scripts can be read through and it just sounds like someone's reading off a page, but if you really want to kind of grab the listener, you've got to try and make sure that you yourself, as the VA, you're really trying to imagine talking to someone. You're imagining that these things are happening and it does come through as a lot more realistic.

In terms of full immersion, that really is a lot of it in the editing. So little things like footsteps, and if you're in a bathroom, adding an echo. If you're outside, adding birdsong or a lawnmower in the distance, you know, these little things kind of build that image in the listener's mind.

So, editing without editing, we wouldn't be nearly as immersive as we are.

Motivation & Emotional Connection

What does Peaches enjoy most about his work?

Creativity, I think, is very high on the list.

I’ve done various jobs in the past where I could be creative. You can be creative as a teacher. I’ve also done jobs where I wasn’t creative at all. I used to pack boxes in a warehouse, and there’s something quite wonderful about that because there was so little pressure. But in that work, I was really missing that creative element.

That freedom of being creative and being my own boss comes with its difficulties, but also having the creative freedom to literally do whatever I want with these audios while keeping the audience in mind, of course, because I want to create stuff that people like. That's a gift. It really is.

I’m so thankful to be in this position, to do something I love every single day. Well, five days a week. I’m not going to work seven days a week.

Are there audio Peaches created that are more emotional or comforting? Why are they important to him?

I really like doing things for mental wellbeing, like sleep stories and meditation audios, because they’re the ones that people comment on with such emotion and empathy.

They’re also the ones that people come back to a lot and say, “I listen to this when I’m having a bad day.” Just the thought of helping someone through a tough time is so incredibly rewarding.

In a way, it’s almost funny because it’s a selfless thing to create one of those kinds of audios with the thought of helping someone in mind. But then feeling that joy from seeing people comment and say how much it’s helped them is also a selfish thing, so it’s such a good back and forth.

It really does make my day better when I see that it’s helped someone in that way.

And, you know, being in a community that is so supportive, while also always yearning for more, it’s a great thing.

How does Peaches hope his content impacts his audience?

With the spicy ones, I mean, I think it’s obvious. I want my audience to kind of feel what I hope they’ll feel.

I want it to be this ,I can’t really put it into words very well. I want them to emote. The idea of audio erotica is for it to be erotic. I want them to feel turned on. I want them to explore those feelings.

The amount of people who have contacted me saying that their journey of self-exploration, of finding their sexuality again, began with audio erotica whether it was mine or someone else’s is amazing.

And if someone is at the height of their confidence in their sexuality and they’re just enjoying it, then I want that too.

Maybe there’s a more eloquent way of saying it, but I don’t know.

Audience & Platforms

Where is Peaches the most active online, and how can listeners find his work?

So I'm most active on Instagram and TikTok. My links to everything are in my Instagram highlights because social media doesn't really like what we do. So if you want to find anything, you can also go to www.just-peaches.com and that'll have all my links to my socials and to my subscription pages.

I don't answer DMs on my Instagram or TikTok because that became very overwhelming. So I only answer DMs on both my OF pages. One is VIP all-inclusive. The other one is a regular page where you pay additional for videos.

And then I also have my audio subscription on Patreon, which is $5 all-inclusive. You can listen to every single audio there's ever been. That's not going to change. It's always going to be $5.

You can DM me on there as well. I often have script writers who DM me on there because it is quite hard to contact me.

I am in the process of making a work email, but I'm just trying to figure out the best way to go about it so that it can be filtered for professional emails and not just fan emails because that's not what it's for.

We also got Quinn and there's Quinn exclusive audios on there. But you won't find any of my Patreon work on Quinn. Quinn exclusives are exclusive there. Patreon exclusives are exclusive there.

However, my ramble vlogs do have video versions on my OF as well.

How does Peaches engage with his community or fans?

So I have a private Discord which can only be accessed if you have been a Patreon subscriber. This is purely for security reasons and it's gonna always be that way.

And my moderators are fantastic at what they do. They keep it safe. We've had a couple of issues in the past and they've, you know, knuckled down and they've sorted it. So we haven't had any issues for a long time, which I'm very, very thankful for.

Otherwise, I reply to people in comments on my videos. And if people want to DM me personally, I also have, you know, my OF, my Patreon.

If people want personalized videos, whether that be for a birthday or a pep talk, anything like that, I have my Cameo, which also has a DM feature on there too.

Fun & Personal Touch

Do you have any memorable moments or stories from your journey as a voice actor?

The moment that I realised that I was actually a voice actor, an audio erotica actor and narrator, was when I was contacted by K.C. Craven, who’s a fantastic author, and asked to be in one of their novellas, which has now branched into a series, The Witch’s Almanac.

Before then, I struggled to see myself as a voice actor, and it may seem silly, but I think that is something that creative people go through a lot when they find success in what they do. It’s hard to believe.

And even though you’ve got lovely comments from people, even though you’ve got people telling you that you’re doing such a great job, as someone who has struggled with imposter syndrome in the past, being asked to voice a book, being asked to be trusted with someone else’s work in that way it’s the same thing with people asking me to voice their scripts it is hugely validating.

It’s one of those things where you think, “Wow, okay, so I am actually good at this.”

In the past, which is why it took me a couple of years to get started with this, I never believed in myself as an audio erotica creator, a voice actor. I never truly saw that as what I do. It’s a difficult thing to get your head around, and I think it’s a very individual thing as well.

But it was that moment when I was asked by K.C. Craven to voice one of their books that was the moment. Very memorable.

Are there any surprises about your work or niche that most people wouldn’t expect?

I think if you’re a listener and you haven’t seen the ins and outs of what goes into the actual recording process, I think people would be quite surprised.

A lot of creators now are showing their recording setups and their own makeshift booths and stuff. What you tend to see is people sitting in these recording booths and they look very professional, but really every VA starts with a blanket over their head or a duvet.

My makeshift booth is a desk, two flagpoles with a blanket draped over it, a bit of sound dampening on my back wall, and I have one of those collapsible room dividers behind me that I’ve stapled felt to.

So not every VA’s booth is a fancy one.

I think that would probably be quite surprising to a lot of people. Some people literally just stick their heads in a soundproof box and record that way. And my assumption would be that they get very sweaty doing that too.

Unfortunately for me, I get quite claustrophobic, so I need to have a little bit of space, a little bit of breathing room.

And that’s where editing comes in. So if there’s any kind of echo or anything, then you can just edit that out. 

What advice would you give to someone interested in creating their own audio content?

I would say, one person’s cringe is another person’s cool.

That is something that helped me get past doing all of this. I think one of the big reasons I didn’t do this sooner was because I used to get comments on my videos all the time saying, “This is cringe, this is cringe,” and I would delete those videos because I was so worried about being seen a certain way.

But the majority of the comments I would receive would be positive. We always focus on the negative, and that affects what we put out there.

So be cringe. Do what you want to do. Make the content. Make the audio that you want to make. Ignore all the trolls and all the hate, because you’re going to get an overwhelming amount of support and love, and they’re the people that matter.

They are the people that you’re making the content for. You’re not making it for the people that want to bring you down. They’re in their own little world. We don’t need them, We don’t need that negativity. What we need is that positivity.

But just don’t let it get to your head. Be realistic. Don’t develop this ego to think, “Oh, everybody loves me.”

Stay grounded. If you become popular, if you start to get hundreds of comments and all this stuff, don’t let it get to your head. It’s a really important thing.

There have been people in the past who have been swept up by this, and then they develop these god complexes, and whenever they get the tiniest amount of critique, they crumble.

So just stay grounded and be realistic. You’ll be fine.

Just to add to this, if someone does want to make their own little recording studio and you’re not sure what to do or what equipment to get, my advice with hardware would be:

Get a laptop that doesn’t make much noise. Get a good pair of headphones.

If you’re trying to test this out, don’t go all the way and get an audio interface with a condenser mic because they’re very expensive.

I would try something like a Blue Yeti, which is usually around £60–£80, probably around $100 or so.

That mic will be your best friend when starting because it still picks up your voice really well, but it’s not going to break the bank.

It’s something that you can get used to recording your voice with, and if things go well, fantastic.

But if you buy all the kit, if you buy one of those fancy booths, and then suddenly three months later you think, “This isn’t for me,” then you haven’t lost too much. And you can still use the mic for other things as well.

So don’t go buying a fancy booth either.

You can easily make your own little booth by putting a duvet over your head. Get one of those clothes horses, hang a duvet over it, sit underneath it there you go. You’ve got your recording booth.

It may not be comfortable, but it will drown out a lot of the noise. You won’t get much echo off the walls, and that’s all you really need for this.

A lot of VAs still do that. I know people who use old saunas. I know people who use cupboards with lots of clothes in.

Anything that’s going to dampen that sound, that’s all you need.