sassylich

[sassylich]

holy shit????? holy shit???

Genuinely wondering if you got any awards for your performance as Faulkner in ep 44, that was some of the best voice acting I've ever heard

oh my goodness, thank you so much 😭😭💕 i don't believe i won any awards for that season unless they were secret awards, but good news i'm gonna print this post out and frame it like an award

[sassylich]

man i need to make a non-picrew icon for my socials, this bad boy is OLD

[sassylich]

The End of Season 1.

As I write this, it’s Tuesday morning.

I always do my episode uploads on Wednesdays to allow the patreon cut to go up at midnight on Thursday, and the public on Friday. But today I plan to chunk out some recording, so I figured I’d record my credits and schedule my uploads now. That means that for me, today is the end of Season 1.

I did the math yesterday. I had the idea that would become Haven on January 5, 2024. 

(See screenshot of me saying that and kale being shocked at me.)

That’s a year and six months. 

I’m going to be really really mushy for a second. I think I’ve earned it.

2024 was one of the hardest years of my life. I spent months in a court battle. My (then undiagnosed) disability worsened to the point I could rarely walk unaided, and I could not find doctors who believed my pain existed long enough to treat it.  It was my first year as a full time podcaster, and I struggled to maintain a work life balance and cope with the loss of my original dream career to that loss of mobility. 

Haven was a bright spot in that darkness. No matter what was going on, every week I’d sit down with Jack, crack a cider, and write. We’d talk about our days, compare notes on our meat pods, giggle over our various failwomens antics.

I’d never written a podcast before. I’d written one off episodes for this or that show, but the amount I’d written before starting haven was under 5 episodes. I was intimidated by creating a full length show. I was convinced that most people wouldn’t like it- too weird, too experimental, too flowery. I had to make sure it was cheap as hell because I expected to lose money on it. I asked my friends to come on to help because I was sure I’d never make enough to pay them properly, but I could pay them SOMETHING and they might be willing to help out for love of me. Bless em, they all said yes.

When Episode 1 dropped and was well recieved, I cannot describe to you the weight lifted off my shoulders. The fact that so many of you enjoy and tune in every two weeks for my social commentary religious horror weird fiction meat podcast continues to shock me.

I’ve grown a lot over the course of this show as a writer. I think you can see the difference between episode 1 and episode 10. I’ve learned how to write much faster (from 200 words per session to 2,000.) I’ve learned how to more effectively use sound cues, where to provide direction and where to trust my wonderful actors. 

And thanks to you all, I’ve learned to trust myself. I’ve learned to believe that I AM a good writer, that the show isn’t succeeding in spite of me but that I am a part of that. I’ve learned that I can delve into the weird and write what inspires me and people will accept it with open arms.

I’ll post my individual cast and crew thank yous on Friday, as is appropriate, But I did want to thank all of you. Thank you for being with me on this unstoppable meat train. Thank you for taking a chance on the “woman has no contact knifeplay sex with her house” podcast. Thank you for the questions, the fanart, the memes, the theories- I live for all of it. I live to see how this show has affected people.

I’ve been making podcasts for five years. I won’t give you my exact download count in that time, but it’s in the millions.

So when I tell you that for every episode, the amount of actual response I see from listeners is a fraction of the hits it gets, I want you to understand I’m not being ungrateful for the listens. They matter, every one of them. But it’s something else to be able to see what people THOUGHT, what they liked, what moved them. It’s knowing that you’re not shouting into the void. Every one of those downloads is a person. And you’ve been able to maybe make their day a little better.

It’s a hard world. I stopped watching the news on the advice of my therapist. But it really helps get through the day knowing that someone, somewhere is having a slightly better day because of something you did.

Thank you all. I can’t wait to finish this chapter and embark on the next with you.

Daisy.

[sassylich]

just started the gospel of haven. took me a second but then i was like "B?????" isiah is awesome he is so problems love your work as always

aaaaaa thank you!! 💕💕 i'm so glad you found the gospel of haven, it was SUCH a fun show to record (shout out to @stardustshimmers for writing a fabulous show) and boy howdy isiah really is going through it the WHOLE time

[sassylich]

Genuinely wondering if you got any awards for your performance as Faulkner in ep 44, that was some of the best voice acting I've ever heard

oh my goodness, thank you so much 😭😭💕 i don't believe i won any awards for that season unless they were secret awards, but good news i'm gonna print this post out and frame it like an award

[sassylich]

(i really hope you're not tired of answering voice acting questions!)

do you do warm-ups/exercises to help with your voice acting? (if so would love some suggestions!) or do you just take classes? and how do you avoid vocal fry?

hi!! i'm not tired of answering voice acting questions at all, i'm glad i can help y'all out a bit!

yes to your first two questions! i definitely do warm-ups/exercises, and i super recommend doing them in general. it's important to warm up your voice before a performance, but it's also just good to do them to maintain vocal health and expand your range!

which ones i do depend on what voice i'm trying to do, but i always recommend sirens, lip trills, and straw phonation (i don't have resources ready to go for these, but if you search for them specifically as vocal exercises, you'll get lots of vocal coaches explaining them in great detail)

also, i'm very pro-taking-classes, i've learned SO many good techniques from them, just make sure you vet the teacher (look for current industry professionals or well-regarded specialist coaches!)

for the vocal fry thing, that's a bit harder to explain because i'm NOT a teacher. i figured out what it felt like to make the vocal fry sound in my throat/mouth (kinda crackly and vibrate-y), then figured out how to make that sound on purpose, THEN figured out how to stop making that sound. but also, vocal fry isn't bad in my opinion! it's just a tool, like any other cool mouth noise we can make

[sassylich]

Submit questions for our Q+A

Hey, just reminding y'all you have LESS THAN 2 WEEKS to get your questions in for our S1 Q and A!

Get after it!

[sassylich]

Twitch.tv/tonyplusone

we are LIVE with ☄️BLISTER CITY☄️!! come watch me play The Nasty Man Itself, earwig, and my beautiful beautiful friends simon sez, ronnie kix, and brick

[sassylich]

come ask your meat questions!!

Well, our normal upload is on Friday, but that’s a holiday, and I’m damned if I come into the office. So why not get it out a bit early?

The truth will not save you.

Chapter 9: Unity. July 2nd on Patreon, July 3rd for everyone.

Isiah Whitlock was played by @sassylich

Rebecca Moore was played by Janine Bower.

The Chorus: -Katrina Pecina, Devin Steffens, @jessylostherpen, @starplanes, Jack Fulmin, @wastedarkcell, Ashlee Jones, Loggerhead, Alex Povey. 

Additional voices by Daisy McNamara, Derrick Valen, Bailey Wolfe, Kayla Temshiv, and Nasim Benelkour.

Written, edited and produced by 

@stardustshines.bsky.social

SD by Derrick Valen

Music by Dana Creasman

Theme by 

@sealsapocalypticmusic

Art by 

@kalgalen

A production of Eelsong Studios and 

@bdisgusting

Check out Jesse's Lockbox Anthology https://open.spotify.com/show/0z7GtgcZE7y1SvKXto2rqk

[sassylich]

Well, our normal upload is on Friday, but that’s a holiday, and I’m damned if I come into the office. So why not get it out a bit early?

The truth will not save you.

Chapter 9: Unity. July 2nd on Patreon, July 3rd for everyone.

Isiah Whitlock was played by @sassylich

Rebecca Moore was played by Janine Bower.

The Chorus: -Katrina Pecina, Devin Steffens, @jessylostherpen, @starplanes, Jack Fulmin, @wastedarkcell, Ashlee Jones, Loggerhead, Alex Povey. 

Additional voices by Daisy McNamara, Derrick Valen, Bailey Wolfe, Kayla Temshiv, and Nasim Benelkour.

Written, edited and produced by 

@stardustshines.bsky.social

SD by Derrick Valen

Music by Dana Creasman

Theme by 

@sealsapocalypticmusic

Art by 

@kalgalen

A production of Eelsong Studios and 

@bdisgusting

Check out Jesse's Lockbox Anthology https://open.spotify.com/show/0z7GtgcZE7y1SvKXto2rqk

[sassylich]

Too many rich people buying medieval castles and then renovating the interior to look like a completely normal 21st century house. Sorry but if you're going to live in a castle you need to commit to the bit. If I lived in a castle I would restore it just enough to be barely liveable and pretend I was a poor but prideful nobleman in his crumbling estate, still clinging to the last vestiges of his family's fading name.

[sassylich]

ANNOUNCEMENT: Our merch store is LIVE!

You asked and we delivered: we are now offering merch for the Gospel of Haven over on Redbubble. In need of a mug to sip your broth from at the end of the day? How about a notebook to scribble a map to your underground hellscape in? We have all this and more: stickers, shirts, mugs, bags, you name it we have it. 

Also revealing our first official character art of Rebecca and Isiah by the fabulous @kalgalen. These stained glass saint icons come separately or paired and with or without text. If you love Haven and you want to rep the show in style, head on over to https://www.redbubble.com/people/EelsongStudios/shop?asc=u. Tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell your priest!

[sassylich]

Hi! Since this seems to be 'Ask About VAing' Hour- when you were first auditioning for things, where online did you look for roles? How did you choose which to audition for? Are there any roles that you didn't get that you would have loved to take a crack at?

i looked a twitter back in the day, tumblr, discord servers, and casting call club! now i obvi don't use twitter much, and i don't care much for casting call club's whole format, but i still use tumblr and discord servers! (also bluesky).

man i think i'd love to try some of the deeper-voiced characters again, i hadn't done voice training yet and couldn't get very deep or rumbly, but boy i think i could do some of the evil scientists a LOT better now!

but, honestly? if i didn't get the role in the first place, i feel it was meant for someone else, so i wouldn't GENUINELY want to take another crack at any of them 💕 whoever got them was who they were meant for!

[sassylich]

i think i'm gonna start streaming again soon 👀 (read: in a couple of weeks, after i host some very dear friends), i miss chat and doing silly voices for y'all

[sassylich]

How did you initially get started voice acting? Did you send in auditions and hope for the best? Take some classes? I always wonder how some folks get into it!

hii! i did literally just send in auditions and hope for the best! i was completely untrained, and didn't take classes until i had auditioned for (and been cast in) quite a few productions! then i started taking classes in areas i felt needed improvement, which helped me out by literal leaps and bounds. honestly, that's still how i operate!

[sassylich]

Hi! I wanna try out for the OSHE casting call but I literally have no experience and no gear… can you talk about the gear you’re using? What microphone, what software, any additional interfaces and hardware stuff that you bought?

Thanks and I love Faulkner sm xx

hi!! i talked about low-cost beginner equipment here, but i wanted to answer this ask separately because you asked about my current equipment specifically! i'm gonna preface this by with saying that i've been voice acting professionally for years now and do NOT recommend starting out with this gear, but we don't gatekeep in this house:

AT2035 large diaphragm condenser microphone, my beloved. i love this thing, it's perfect for my particular vocal tone and set-up (mics are a very ymmv situation)

SSL2 2x2 USB Audio Interface. incredibly reliable and really precise gain control, which is great for me because i am riiiiiiding that gain knob for most recordings

ATH-M20x headphones. so comfy!! so good keeping sounds (fellow actors, excited directors, a discord ping because i forgot to mute it) from bleeding onto my audio track!

Audacity and iZotope RX 8 Standard software. i refuse to give up this clunky free program, because it's very easy for me to record in, but editing in iZotope RX 8 is a game changer i tell you what

last but not least, my 600+ lb baby: a StudioBricks ONE VO Booth, which could block out the sound of an oncoming train. literally this thing is GREAT, but has also been my biggest career investment

you genuinely don't need any of this to start out! there's a HUGE sliding scale of quality equipment out there, from stuff more affordable to stuff that's way more expensive, and it all has its place! please try out for OWHE no matter what equipment you end up getting, it's such a good show and jon and muna are lovely to work with!!

[sassylich]

Heyyy I was the person who said I was gonna draw Earwig, and I just figured I'd ask if you wanted to give me like a written description with any more detail. Otherwise I'll just go off the stream!

omg i totally missed this ask 😭 follow your heart and draw that nasty lil critter however you want!! i've just been picturing them junkrat-esque with so many pockets, other than that it's an amorphous Creature to me