Today we’d like to introduce you to Erikka J.
Hi Erikka, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been singing since I was about three but didn’t realize that I was good at it until I was in 8th grade. I was a very insecure young teen and was caught humming by some girls in the locker room. They told me I was talented, and it was just the spark I needed. From there I auditioned for and was accepted into the show choir at Eastern HS in DC where I was born, and later the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. I suddenly had to move to Alexandria VA in 11th grade and finished out my high school years singing in various talent shows, sending my confidence to new heights.
I had taken an interest in the military while in Marine Corp JROTC in high school and went on to Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA on an Army ROTC scholarship. I ignored friends that pushed me to pursue music, thinking that I needed to pursue a more “secure” career first. I performed some in college but stopped singing after getting into a serious relationship, moving off-campus and working full time while in school full time. I graduated with a degree in Communications but wouldn’t get back on stage for nearly eight years.
By the time I ended that long relationship, I was in my late twenties with two young kids with a great career in project management. I still missed music and started attending some open mics in Richmond, VA where I had since relocated. That led to meeting other artists, starting to write and record my own music and even joining a corporate band where I performed on weekends. As a single mom to two young boys, a project manager for the federal government by day, and writing/recording/performing music on weeknights and weekends, I worked a lot!
I wanted to find ways to spend more time with my young sons and overheard someone mention that they were going to a studio to do some voiceover. I had no clue what that was, but I was interested. I dove in headfirst learning all I could online, contacting studios, and getting small jobs through casting sites. That was in Sept of 2016. By the summer of 2017, I was ready for a change, got a new job in product management in the private sector, and moved my family to Atlanta thinking the city would be great for my music career. However, it turned out that voiceover became more of my focus. I had some small success but couldn’t break through a plateau. Then, the pandemic happened.
I had already been working two days a week from home but now I was home full time after COVID. My sons were teens and mostly self-sufficient, plus I had support from my partner that I now lived with, so I spend my extra time training heavily in voice acting as well as networking with the VO community on social sites. In the two years since the pandemic started, I’ve grown my voiceover business revenue into the multi-six figures, won multiple awards, and am represented by some of the top agents in the country. This growth has afforded me the pleasure of having voiced everything from national commercials to TV narrations to video games. My client list includes Google, Facebook, Apple News, Black Lives Matter, Peterbilt, Microsoft, and many more. It’s been a crazy ride!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
My mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when I was eight. A single mother at the time, her progressive disability put me in a position where I had to grow up quickly to care for her, myself, and my younger brother. There were some hard years financially and we moved around a lot. Looking back on those years, I’m grateful for how they shaped my work ethic and determination to succeed no matter the circumstances.
I had stopped singing for nearly eight years while in an abusive relationship with a person that didn’t like me collaborating with male artists. While I’m grateful to have come out of that situation that could have been far worse, at times I felt I’d lost precious time building my creative career – I didn’t get serious about pursuing music until my 30s, which in entertainment has conventionally been perceived as past a woman’s prime. Nevertheless, it all seemed to work out as voiceover is an industry where I can still create art using my recorded voice, and participate in some musical projects, but avoid the less desirable parts of the music industry grind that had really started to burn me out.
Currently, voiceover is going very well, but I am still balancing a full-time career as a product leader, having a family, and am now expecting my third child in November – at 40! I also battle hyperthyroidism and anxiety so being tired is an understatement, but it’s also taught me to better prioritize my self-care. Therapy has been an invaluable tool in my ability to cope with these and other challenges.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I work in most genres of voiceover: commercials, corporate narration, TV narration, political, animation, video games…. just about everything other than audiobooks. Starting off as a singer/songwriter I already knew how to record myself and had a home studio but quickly learned that voiceover requires gold standard audio that was far superior to what was required for recording songs. The unique thing about voiceover is that to be successful, you really must be multi-faceted – business savvy, tech-savvy and a creative artist/performer. It’s so much more than just talking into a microphone – it is acting – but with the challenge of conveying nuanced emotion and telling stories with nothing but your voice. It takes hard work, but I truly love it.
Besides voicing fun projects, I recently returned from a voiceover retreat in Barcelona, Spain and did another one in Dublin, Ireland last fall. Having that kind of opportunity to travel, learn from the top coaches and agents in the industry, and build comradery with others in your field that truly understand the level of commitment that this work takes was one of the most enriching experiences I’ve ever been a part of.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
My aunt Sally was a singer too, writing and recording her own music and working in a band. She would babysit us often and was my first vocal coach (informally). I remember looking in the mirror in the bathroom while she pressed quickly on my belly to simulate vibrato. I had no idea what I was doing but I was surrounded by music, and I loved it. My parents had very diverse music tastes, so I heard a lot of 80s pop, some R&B, etc., but I found my own love of hip-hop as I entered my teenage years in the 90s. My grandmother played a lot of jazz and I loved hearing it fused into hip-hop soul records that were more relevant to my time.
I was also in church A LOT 🙂 My mother and grandmother sang in the gospel and more formal chancellor choirs, and I would always learn and sing along with the songs while playing on the floor during their rehearsals. I remember begging for them to let me join early, bragging that I could sing from soprano to tenor, but they said that I was too young, so I was limited to the children’s choir. I still remember one woman that sang in the tenor section, and I thought it was so cool that she could do that.
My love for music grew along with my confidence when I joined school choirs and got accepted to Duke Ellington School of the Arts in DC for my 10th-grade year. My mother had a bad fall that year that landed her in the hospital so when someone in our apartment complex reported that my brother and I were living alone for a few days, we got taken out of our mother’s custody and sent to live with my Aunt Sally. I was devastated to leave Duke but found a home with performing artist community and friends at Mount Vernon High in Alexandria.
My childhood wasn’t the easiest, but it taught me how to be resourceful, gritty, tenacious, and hard-working. I found my voice in those years and I truly believe it saved my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: erikkaj.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/misserikkaj
- Facebook: facebook.com/misserikkaj
- Twitter: twitter.com/misserikkaj
- Youtube: youtube.com/misserikkaj
- Other: vimeo.com/erikkaj
Image Credits
Slingshots ATL
