Chris
Patton (pictured) and Greg Ayres, friends, singers and actors whose careers have
been linked since their time in musical theater in Houston, find
themselves linked again in a couple of anime dubs that take a different
approach. Those dubs mean the actors seem to spend as much time singing
as speaking, something uncommon in any sort of 21st-century voice
acting. Patton and Ayres have traded roles in a stage production of the
Rocky Horror Picture Show, but it was nothing like their work in the
Daikon Bros. dub. About half of each Daikon Bros. episode is spent in
song, and every Japanese original has to be redone in English. "A lot
of people don't know that I sing," Patton said about fans of his dub
acting. Patton briefly sang as a bit performer in the Excel Saga dub, a
small preview of what he does in the Daikon Bros. dub. Beyond that,
there's the strange, subversive, often political humor in the new show,
something that amazed even Patton. "It's going to be surprising how
wrong it gets. It surpasses what I can say in about how wrong it's
going to become."
Both
Patton and Ayres (pictured) also appear in the dub of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad,
the animated version of the Beck manga from artist Harold Sakuishi.
Beck is that artist's homage to 1970's and 1980's rock music and its
world, and the animated version calls for many of its performers to
sing. While Patton takes much of the singing load in Daikon Bros.,
Ayres is Beck's lead. Both Daikon Bros. and Beck have rock music, but
Ayres said that "Daikon Bros. has a musical comedy feel to it, while
Beck is strictly rock and roll." Both experiences are rough on the
voice; Ayres expected to spend 25 hours in the booth working on the
second Daicon Bros. volume. And since singing can be more intense than
speaking, the work gets harder. While Daikon's performers get to work
with the original Japanese instrumental tracks, they also have to match
the lip flaps on the original Japanese animation as well. That means
that the actors have to sing to a rhythm that's doubly been decided in
advance, and that increases the technical difficulty of getting the
performance right.
Chris
Patton (pictured) and Greg Ayres, friends, singers and actors whose careers have
been linked since their time in musical theater in Houston, find
themselves linked again in a couple of anime dubs that take a different
approach. Those dubs mean the actors seem to spend as much time singing
as speaking, something uncommon in any sort of 21st-century voice
acting. Patton and Ayres have traded roles in a stage production of the
Rocky Horror Picture Show, but it was nothing like their work in the
Daikon Bros. dub. About half of each Daikon Bros. episode is spent in
song, and every Japanese original has to be redone in English. "A lot
of people don't know that I sing," Patton said about fans of his dub
acting. Patton briefly sang as a bit performer in the Excel Saga dub, a
small preview of what he does in the Daikon Bros. dub. Beyond that,
there's the strange, subversive, often political humor in the new show,
something that amazed even Patton. "It's going to be surprising how
wrong it gets. It surpasses what I can say in about how wrong it's
going to become."
Both
Patton and Ayres (pictured) also appear in the dub of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad,
the animated version of the Beck manga from artist Harold Sakuishi.
Beck is that artist's homage to 1970's and 1980's rock music and its
world, and the animated version calls for many of its performers to
sing. While Patton takes much of the singing load in Daikon Bros.,
Ayres is Beck's lead. Both Daikon Bros. and Beck have rock music, but
Ayres said that "Daikon Bros. has a musical comedy feel to it, while
Beck is strictly rock and roll." Both experiences are rough on the
voice; Ayres expected to spend 25 hours in the booth working on the
second Daicon Bros. volume. And since singing can be more intense than
speaking, the work gets harder. While Daikon's performers get to work
with the original Japanese instrumental tracks, they also have to match
the lip flaps on the original Japanese animation as well. That means
that the actors have to sing to a rhythm that's doubly been decided in
advance, and that increases the technical difficulty of getting the
performance right.
