“If it makes a sound, we can do it. I do a lot of voice recording. I would say 95% of everything I do involves the recording of voice at some point along the line, whether that’s my own voice as a voice actor or someone else, or cleaning up a voice recording someone else has done, and putting that into the production,” Sutherland says, speaking to Media Update at his Craighall Park offices.
Sutherland’s career began in a CD shop, where he worked while studying his diploma in Sound Engineering at Allenby Damelin, graduating in 2003.

“At the time, I was more interested in going into music production and band recording. That never happened. I kind of developed a passion for post-production and TV media rather than music. I wasn’t much of a musician myself, although I do play some guitar and didgeridoo, odd things really,” Sutherland says with a smile. “TV and film was always an interest, sound effects, not necessarily movies in general, but the way sound makes such a big difference in the story and how it’s told.”

His start came in 2005. Sutherland had finished his diploma, and having no luck in the job market, did refresher courses through the Academy of Sound Engineering to “keep learning and keep up to date”.

It just so happened a classmate of Sutherland’s had been offered a position at Chilli Pepper Studios, which he was unable to take as he had already accepted an offer from somewhere else. He suggested Sutherland contact them, and during the ensuring phone call, was virtually hired on the spot.

“I went for an interview with Warren, whom I’d spoken to, about a week later. He wanted me to start straight away because he was so desperate to have somebody to help him out, he was so busy,” Sutherland says.

Sutherland worked at Chilli Pepper Studios for about a year. Several other media-orientated companies were in the building, and towards the end of that first year, those companies came together to form Bigmouth Productions.

“It was Mike Wood and Ralegh Greenwood’s idea to form a single company. Mike owned Bigmouth Ventures at the time. That was his underwater videography and production company. Ralegh was an experienced video editor and owned One Minute Edit. We created a media hub that did everything from filming to production, editing, final mix and audio post, voice recording, all the way up to station placement.”

In 2010, Wood was offered a job by Ogilvy & Mather in Cape Town, which he accepted. Sutherland was given the opportunity by Wood to purchase the audio side of the business from him, which he took.

“That’s where Bigmouth Studios came from. Between Mike and I, we mutually decided to keep the Bigmouth name and logo, because we had built up that brand. It was in both our interests to keep it.”

Sutherland inherited a few clients at the time of the switchover, which gave him a revenue base to work with, though Sutherland thought he would need to do a lot of marketing to attract more clients. However, it turned out Sutherland’s existing clients indirectly did marketing for him, through word of mouth and recommendations, with Sutherland having to do very little actual direct marketing himself.

“It’s been more my reputation and quality of work that’s really kept new clients coming in. I work with about 80 clients now, almost doubling up year-on-year. Not all of them need audio post every month, although I do have a lot of regular clients that I work with daily. That’s really been the big business driver, recommendations and referrals from people who love the work I do for them,” he says.

Beyond audio post production, Sutherland has, over the last five years, also worked as a voice artist, with the last two years being especially busy. If you did not know it, Sutherland is the voice of Comedy Central Africa – channel 122 on DStv.

“I’ve got some regular international clients that have been using me for voice work for a couple of years. It’s great and the market for voiceovers will never disappear. Voice acting is something you can do your entire life. I’ve worked with kids as young as four-years-old to celebrity voices in their late 80s. You’ll just sound a bit older the longer you do it,” he says.

Given the steady growth of Bigmouth Studios over the last few years, it is very possible Sutherland won’t be a one man band for much longer.

For more information, visit www.bigmouthstudios.co.za. Alternatively, connect with Sutherland on Twitter.