Photo Credit: Denise Grant
Hiromi Goto’s acclaimed debut novel Chorus of Mushrooms is a feminist examination of the Japanese Canadian immigrant experience. Focusing on the lives of three generations of women in modern day Alberta, Goto uses their stories to examine the impacts of privilege and cultural identity on Asian Canadian immigrants.
What is the most challenging part of recording an audiobook? Conversely, what is the most enjoyable part?
I found having to stop (to be word perfect) while on a roll while reading the toughest part to accept. This is because I enjoyed being able to immerse myself in a character’s persona. The longer I read, the more I can become the character. Another challenge is the length of the reading which prohibit learning and memorizing, something most acting requires.
How did you prepare to record this audiobook?
I read over all the parts for the next day, so as to not get caught up with things like run-on sentences, different speakers and accents, while also being able to convey meaning and subtleties while doing the recording. My pages are marked up a lot with marks to remind me to breathe, to change thought, rhythm and mood.
What was your first audiobook, or the first audiobook you fell in love with?
Chorus of Mushrooms is my first and only audiobook and I loved the original book 25 years ago when I read parts on CBC Radio, so doing the audiobook made a lot of sense.
What was your favourite part of this book?
There’s a section at the end of the book where my character, an 86 year old, tiny Japanese woman rides a bronco in the Calgary Stampede as a mysterious masked rider. It’s so bizarre, physical, and wondrous to picture myself, white-haired on a wild kicking horse.
What did you learn while reading or recording this book?
I learned how to do a southern U.S. accent, a fair amount about Japan even though I’m second generation Japanese Canadian, and about mushroom barns. I also learned I love to read aloud to entertain.
What advice would you give a new audiobook narrator?
Be prepared, well rested, and hydrated. Make concrete decisions about who you are when reading, what you want, where you are, who you are speaking to, and why you are talking. All the same acting questions, but using the words to further everything.
Tell us a fun fact or anecdote about your experience recording this.
I was impressed when my director was able to give me the exact dialect to use as another character in the book. It took a little work but with her help, I was able to take on another persona in one section. I laughed out loud when she demonstrated it.
What made you want to become an actor/voice actor?
As I had never recorded an audiobook before, it helped that I had read Chorus of Mushrooms on the air. I was thrilled to be asked to do it. Also, one of my favourite artists was a reader named Frank Muller who read all of the famous authors in the U.S. (and England) from Stephen King to Ludlum to Dickens and I always loved his facility with characters, his ease of reading, and how he could suck you in from the first sentence. I suppose I always had an ambition to do the same.
Who do you think this audiobook would appeal to?
This is a classic Canadian work. Anyone who loves to listen to great writing, great literature, or a good story filled with interesting characters. Japanese Canadians embraced the original book, as well as those born in Japan.
What is the most challenging part of recording an audiobook? Conversely, what is the most enjoyable part?
The most challenging part of recording an audiobook is stamina. I’m usually recording characters for animation so I’m used to doing shorter bouts (a few hours, max, of performance), whereas when recording this book, I was performing often for more than four hours at a time. Also, keeping my pace slower was difficult for me. I would constantly be speeding up to a more animation-style pace of delivery.
The most enjoyable part is exploring the more subtle nuances in narrating. It’s a big step away from my usual animation roles and I feel like working within the subtleties of audiobooks is a good way to keep both avenues of my voice performing fresh. It feels like a good exercise in both my artistic creativity and my stamina.
How did you prepare to record this audiobook?
I read through the whole book, at the same pace I was going to eventually be recording it and adjusted the punctuation wherever I felt I would need to in order to nail it in one take — which was always the goal but of course we would have to do multiple takes of certain sentences here and there. Some notations, for example, would be: spots to take breaths, for emphasizing certain words, for making big, sudden changes to emotion, pronunciation.
What was your favourite part of this book?
The fact that it hit so close to home. I am second generation Japanese Canadian and an only child, so it was nice to hear another Japanese Canadians’ perspective on growing up in Canada. I especially enjoyed the many interactions the main character, Murasaki had with her grandmother, Naoe as I did not get to know my grandmother well growing up since she lived in Japan. It was nice to imagine our relationship being quite similar to that of Murasaki and Naoe.
What did you learn while reading or recording this book?
This was my first audiobook, so I actually learned how to perform for an audiobook as I went, with the amazing help of the audiobook’s Voice Director, Laura Kyswaty. I also learned a few interesting Japanese traditions that I was never exposed to, such as the popular ritual of a Japanese mother cleaning her own child’s ears with a tool called a “mimikaki” which I found both shocking and intriguing.
What advice would you give a new audiobook narrator?
When you review the book for the first time, read it aloud, at a very slow pace and mark in all the punctuation you will need to nail in one take. Also make sure you don’t slurp your tea because it will create gas bubbles in your stomach that the sensitive microphone will pick up!
Tell us a fun fact or anecdote about your experience recording this.
As above, I got really in touch with the inner workings of my digestive system working on this book! Haha. It would always be about an hour or after I had swallowed air from sipping my tea that I would hear the gas bubbles emanate from my lower abdomen and get picked up by the mic.
What made you want to become an actor/voice actor?
The love of experimenting with personality while pretending to be someone else. Also, in school when I was young, I always enjoyed reading aloud (but actually hated public speaking — if it was my own writing) when we would read things together in class. And the comedy of The Simpsons. I loved that show so much. Still do!
Who do you think this audiobook would appeal to?
Anyone trying to get a glimpse into the life of what it’s like to grow up in Canada with a foreign heritage. The book was also very beautifully and poetically written by the author Hiromi Goto, so I could see it appealing to anyone who just appreciates a beautiful story of a young girl’s experiences growing up and exploring her identity.