Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Chatsanami, a Scottish variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime in general en interest. Join me, your host, Satsanami, as well as the rest of our Chatsanami team for our takes on these very important pop culture topics. Sir, it's clearly a trap. I accept your place! That three times in the film. Every time that general goes, don't do this one thing, he goes... Do you know what I'ma do? That's exact.
Speaker: No! It doesn't work. She had the pointy teeth. What was that about? She looked like Bilbo when he wants the ring back. She turned into... I just want the lightsaber one more time. Parasite says, no, you will get back into your office and work. No, says the man in Zoom. yeah Trousers are for the working man.
Speaker: You're bursting into your hotel room. Honey, we need to go. Leave the kids. You can milk an Odish? Oh!
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Speaker: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of... Shatsunami. My name's Shatsunami and joining me in a first for the Shatsunami series on the first episode of Silent Hill Month is a very special guest. She is a voice actress, she is a podcaster, a musician, a writer, producer. Honestly, I think I probably spend less time saying what this person hasn't done. Today we are joined by none other than the absolutely talented verally there argue view was of course the voice actress for the original silent hills lisa garland desley welcome to chat tsunami it is an absolute honor to have you on well thank you for having me i'm honored to be asked to talk I know the feeling. So when people ask me on to podcasts, I'm like, but really? Me? What? I was saying this to you before we started recording there. It was like, I sent an email out to you thinking I'll send it out, see what comes back and everything. And then when you actually said yes, I was like, oh, this is really happening.
Speaker: Well, you know, you obviously got but the check from my mom. Oh, yeah. The PayPal donation came through. yeah yeah yeah Exactly. It's thrilling to be recognized for my voiceover work because voiceover actors are pretty invisible. And it's really thrilling to be part of this IP that is so beloved internationally. It's a shock.
Speaker: I can't believe it. And you're like, actually, I think you're one of the first podcasts who's reached out to me. So this is new. So yay. That is surprising. It is an absolute pleasure to have you on tonight because as I was saying before, yes, we are indeed kicking off November with Silent Hill Month, which for all the listeners who are wondering, why didn't we do it in October? That was probably poor planning on my part. And also there is a lot of conventions that we had to go to. So we were doing interviews at Epi. Highland Realms, as well as KoyoCon. So yeah, this is why it's coming out in November. But honestly, as I said, it's absolutely fantastic to have you on. And especially for, as I was saying, you of course voiced the original Lisa Garland in 1999's Silent Hill, which it makes me feel old saying that. Do you feel the same when people bring that up? Yeah, I'm fully like in middle age. And well, that was my very first video game I ever booked. Graduated college, theatre college in 96. started doing voiceover in 97, eight. And that was the first one of my first jobs. So um yes, it makes me feel. old but like i think getting old is awesome it's fantastic i feel so much less stressed out and anxious and panicked and it's cool to be in a property that's now retro i'm like oh my god i'm so old that the properties i voiced are retro right on i have to say that reminds me of when i went to and this was pre -covid but i went to a comic -con where they had a corner for quote -unquote retro gaming and then i went in and at the time they had an xbox 360 which was only like I don't know, five, maybe 10 years old at the time. And I was like, that's not retro. But yeah, when you look back on the games now and you're like, oh my God, that does qualify as being retro. Where have the years gone? Yeah, it is shocking. Time is a total mindfuck. Can I say this? Yeah, absolutely. yeah Like it's such a mind.
Speaker: And this is why Shakespeare wrote a billion sonnets about time, because holy shit. It goes fast and you find yourself, oh my God, I'm old enough to be retro. It's fantastic. I love it. Slap it on a t -shirt. Old enough to be retro. Crazy. Out of curiosity, and I'm sure this is a question you always get when asked about Silent Hill, but how did you actually land in this role? Because it is a very unique role. It's safe to say because, I mean, back then it probably, did you expect as well that it was going to be as big when you got the role? Oh God, no. I had no clue. No. No idea. Well, okay. So let me start a few things. So first of all, I am not a video gamer. I am old enough, like, I remember my little brother receiving a Nintendo for Christmas, like, in 1987 or so. And at that point, I was sort of a preteen. And the games coming out, Duck Hunt or, like, I guess Mario Brothers, just weren't that interesting to a 13 -year -old girl, right? So I never... I sort of like I'm a little too old to have really gotten into it. And also because and now I edit so much for my work that being on screen for recreation can be difficult for me because I'm just like, oh I need no screen. So that being said, we don't really know like gaming. Blinger! and like I don't know much about games. But here's an exciting thing for you and all the Silent Hill fans is I am an improviser and a performer and I'm launching a new YouTube show called Silent Chill, C -H -I -L -L, Silent Chill, where I'm going to investigate the phenomenon of Silent Hill and I am going to do a live stream playthrough of this game. Wow. I know, I know.
Speaker: ever played a video game like i played duck hunt and tetris so luckily i have some video game shaman guides to help through but this is gonna happen i can't even remember what your original question was but my point is is that i'm going to know a lot more about this video game and about video games you know maybe i don't know 30 hours is that how long it's going to take me to get through this game and then probably to be fair i'm the same i am terrible at getting lost in these games and especially with horror games i remember last year we did a resident evil month And the only reason was because I played one of the games. I thought, wow, this is a fun game. What's the rest of them like? Yeah, it was some of the most... terrifying gaming experiences I'd ever played. I played five minutes. I thought, yay, what a great game. Anyway, here's something colourful like Astro Bot. It's just like a kid's game, a kid's platformer. Yeah, I'll play that for a couple of hours, you know, play Resident Evil in between and everything. Yeah, that's kind of really what put me, and this might be sacrilege to all the Silent Hill fans out there, but that is kind of what put me on the pipeline to be like, well, I'm enjoying Resident Evil. What is Silent Hill like? You know, because it is one of these. Yeah, that was my experience as well. Yeah. Even going through, because I played the second remake on my own. And of course, my partner was behind me watching me going, what's this game? And I'm like, oh, it's Silent Hill, you know. Oh, ah. Had the curtains wide open, the sun bleeding in. And even then, I was pausing every so often, being like, the things I do for the podcast, honestly. But you'll be fine. Thank you, thank you. Yes, I actually also don't like horror. It's very scary. Oh, but I remembered what I... to say at the end of that big spiel I gave you was that a lot of the questions you're asking and that you'll be asking, I'm going to totally answer in this YouTube show, like along the journey, because I'm also going to have fans on the show who can also ask these questions. So, so I think that answers the question that you had, but yes, horror is frightening to me. I'm scared. honestly I don't blame you I mean I don't know how you react to horror but for me I get very talkative when I'm going through because I played the game years ago it was called Outlast it's one of these games where you've got no weapons all you have to do is use your feet to run as soon as you see something threatening and I played it to begin with and I'm like haha isn't this funny and you know by the end of it I was like crying going don't hit me again it's just amazing how you learn stuff about yourself when you play these games whether or not you're going to be talkative whether you're going to scream or be like oh god i love that i mean it does change you though i mean that in all the best ways like it puts a pip in your step as well
Speaker: Well, I think it's the great to do new things. That's how to be life. Try new things, say yes. So I'm excited. I get very stressed out with horror and I'm like, life is stressful enough. So that's probably why I haven't been into horror because it stresses me out. Yeah. This game is so pu - and people love it and people i meet who who've played or fans come and cry they weep they tell me stories of how this game changed their life and i feel like i have to you know i want to know what about this game touched so many millions of people let me find out yeah i'm actually wondering if you know the the fans because obviously you would have had diehard fans coming up to you in comic -con and things for silent hill but do you feel as if the deception see to your character lisa garland do you feel as if there's more people coming up to you nowadays and, you know, reaching out online saying that she's such an influential character. Yeah. I don't know what it is. I think it might be the TikTok world that has just, there hasn't been a massive explosion of Silent Hill fandom and people knowing about it and reaching out to me. I assume it's TikTok. It's gotta to be, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's huge. You know, I would get a fan letter, ah email maybe once or twice a year for 20 years, 25 years, and then 2024, 25. Did my first con and that's where it was like.
Speaker: explosion it's been great i love it it's amazing i'm so grateful i think the reason that i came across your socials was you'd popped up i think on instagram it must have been and you had a ukulele in hand which don't worry we will come on to later on but you're introducing yourself and you're saying oh this is the voice actress for lisa garland and everything and it was genuinely amazing to see and especially you know when you've done other interviews and been in other videos and seeing how positive all the fans are underneath it and it's just it's honestly amazing to see that even though the game is the diplomatic word being retro
Speaker: yeah it's just it's amazing to see how positive people receive that character yeah i'm so glad i mean what i've gleaned from what the fans have told me about the character is she's a beacon of hope and light for people who are playing and that's really my life's work is i endeavor to bring joy to humans this is hard stuff to be life wow is it hard and my entertainment comedy music storytelling is all to help
Speaker: people have a just like an hour or two of joy a break from the shitty shit of whatever one is going through because we're all going through shitty shit that's being life so you know my life's work is to help people shift have an energy moment a shifted energy moment of joy and laughter and a relief from this hardship it seems that lisa garland is that to a degree until of course she has her tragic ending which i do know about i keep saying honored and grateful but like i really am like honored and grateful to be able to bring joy to people's lives and help them through hard times bringing them a moment of relief from their suffering what a gift no absolutely although i have to say when i was doing the research for this episode it was such a tonal whiplash where it was like i've been researching silent hill and you know it's very famous for its psychological horror it's dark and dreary themes and everything of course as you said lisa garland being a very tragic figure and then i look on your website and your page and you just seem like an absolute ray of sunshine and happiness and things of it it's just it's such a contrast but i just i find that so funny being like that's the same person wow okay yeah you know i was saying the other day i had a realization that my race is muppet i was like oh i'm a muppet a muppet my man panion i go i live with he's like yeah duh we all know this so yes i come from the counterculture of san francisco and i come from i spent my whole life going to circus camp doing comedy and that is my world however and however and the most puffy happy joyful unicorn pony clowns also usually carry the most you know sadness and that's my medicine for sadness is being like as unicorn glitter pony joyful as possible and also like I love comedy and I'm a comedian and I like to make people laugh but you know I also I'm an artist and I feel so deeply oh my god and that's why I went to theater school you know so I was an actress went to theater school because you it gives you permission to like oh you can cry in class. In fact, we're going to give you an A if you can cry. you're like wo
Speaker: So artists respond to the world. The art we make is a response to the world. So my role in Lisa Garland, which is super tragic and sad, like that's genuine emotion because that's certainly part of my life. I mean, only robots don't feel sadness, I guess. Maybe not. And I do find it funny. I was actually thinking this morning, I think, because I'd gotten some fan mail from, I got all these like wonderful fans who are, they're very goth and dark and they look sort of depressed. And I was thinking, God, I'm like an ambassador and bringing them some joy, like showing them another way to. life is like let's lean into the rainbows rather than the dark gothy sadness i remember years ago or rather even a few months ago when i was looking into you know the silent hill fandom and everything and a lot of people said oh this is my comfort series and you know on the outset you look at that and go really the horrors of silent hill but at the same time when you look into deeper you look into as you know a story of these particular particular characters overcoming their adversity facing their deepest you know horrors and things it's just so amazing to see the voice actors in this game yourself included of course but because when i was listening you know to your rendition of lisa garland that was and again i'm not just saying that because the paypal check has indeed yes um just checking right but seriously i was listening to it and i was genuinely blown away because the amount of games back then at least the kind of ps1 era there's always a mix of people who don't like i think because it was kind of a relatively new time that people were like oh how do i approach this character how do i present this character without sounding awkward but i mean you just nailed the landing for this character to be quite honest well thank you i was fresh out of theater school so fresh out of spending four years really feeling like that's what theater school is and i had a good director you gotta have a great director who can relay what they want we have to give props of course to the incredible sound design of that game i haven't played it yet but i've seen my scenes certainly and like the sound design is beautiful and sound design supports emotional arcs and journeys Yeah, you still like practice crying on cue at home in the mirror. I was a kid! Because I was, like, such a drama queen. Oh, my God. And that's why you got an A at theater school. I was, like, desperate to play Annie as a child. I never got to play Annie. I was always, like, chubby orphan number three or, you know, something like that. And just that desire to play the singing, crying orphan. Because I feel, like, I feel so intensely. It's hard to, like, go out in the city and see homeless people. Like, I get so emotional. I want to bring them all home. My man, Panian, was like, he had to tell me, you can't invite the homeless person in our park across the street to live with us. You can't do that. that. I know that, but I was also like, oh God. I want to. It's funny you mentioned when you were saying you got the kind of bit parts for certain roles, because I remember, and this is years ago, I don't know if I've ever brought this up on the podcast, so cat tsunami exclusive here. But when I was younger, I used to go to, it was like a theatre club kind of thing. They would do summer programs as well. And at the end, they would put on either a musical or a play or whatever. And I remember there was one year, I think this is when I decided to quit because I was putting my all into this. Again, it was like kind of amateur to you. but I was putting it all into it. But the last roll I ever got was a quote unquote, see if you've heard this one before, a forest protector for Hansel and Gretel. Oh God. Essentially boiled down to me wearing a green spray painted boiler suit.
Speaker: And just sitting at the side having one line. I went from the highs of being Mr. Tumnus one year to... Oh, Mr. Tumnus! Oh! To the forest protection and another. and I was like, yeah, that's when my career clearly peaked at the tender age of 14, 15. Oh yeah. You are speaking my language now, honey. Like that is my language. Like that is my life too, for sure. And by the way, I directed children's theater for years and I love doing it. And I know what that director was thinking is like a lot of kids auditioned for the show and there weren't enough parts. So they're like, oh, let's just make like a group of forest protectors. you yeah But yeah, I've been there. God, being Mr. Tumnus in Narnia, obviously incredible role. And then being forest protector number two or whatever. It's totally depressing. Forest Protector number three. Okay. I wasn't not high. I mean, I wasn't not talented. but You know, it's interesting. You cannot imagine how many rejections I've had in the theater and film and television world. Thousands. Every week I audition for probably 10 roles. And, you know, it's like 100 auditions to one role at the most. And I am somebody, I don't know what it is, but I really let my rage and vengeance fuel me. If I don't get a role or something, I'm like, wow home show you ah! And it just like fuels me to try harder. So that's why I'm still here after being countless fairy protector, forest raindrop number three, you know, orphan number seven. I mean, it's an important orphan to the narrative, to be fair. I mean, especially in the film adaptation. I clearly remember that character. oh I actually had a whole one woman show in my 20s. I was doing one woman shows and a whole show about a girl who's cast as the understudy of Annie and is like plotting the entire show to like kill Annie. so she gets
Speaker: Take the You're gonna lie, that does sound amazing. I mean, and honestly, it's based, it's a little bit based in truth. Okay, so like in Annie, there is a cutest orphan. Her name is Molly and she's like the youngest, cutest orphan. And I was cast as Molly's understudy. I was like eight, which is like absurd. Like this is ridiculous. And I honestly, I can remember befriending the girl who was playing Molly, the cute orphan, in hopes that I could get some, I wanted to get some candy and poison it and feed it to her so she would fall sick and I could take her role. You know, I'm beginning to see see why they hired you for Silent Hill.
Speaker: And I have never told anyone that story yet in a podcast too. So this is is definitely a special podcast episode. We're really getting into it. Oh, absolutely. But no, I know exactly what you mean. I do love hearing that though, that despite the, you know, knockbacks and things that you did keep going. Instead of poisoning the ass of Annie. I mean, I never had the opportunity and how, the group but besides the fact that that's wrong, that's just wrong. Don't do that, it's not good. But like, that's a ridiculous, it's a very cartoonish, overdramatic drama queen thing to even think you could achieve. Like that was not an achievable goal for an eight year old. I'm looking at the red panda lawyer in the corner. For legal reasons, we do both agree that is indeed a joke.
Speaker: Yeah, no, all joking aside, yeah, it is amazing to see how driven you are for these roles and things. Because, I mean, I know, obviously not to the same extent as yourself, but you know the way when it's like you plan to do something, whether it's a role, whether it's a project or something, you say, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to build upon it. And then all of a sudden so something kind of falls out of that and you're like... Oh, back to the drawing board. oh my god that's my life back to the drawing board over and over again but that's the journey of an artist of a freelancer of a creative is like it's constant and it's not about the achievement it's about the work on the way like just doing the work just continuing to do the work because you can't help it if you don't do the work you'll die that's me i mean in this day and age you gotta keep busy right Because if you don't, the hoarders will consume.
Speaker: As they say, a very cheery tagline for Silent Hill month there. It's true. That's funny. As I was saying before, you did that. And you've also done a lot of really interesting VA work. And can I just say, this is going to sound probably the weirdest compliment you'll get tonight, but see your website. It is just so fun to navigate through. See the trivia bit in particular. It's like I was looking at it and I was thinking, all right, it's just going to be, you know, just random facts. Like, oh, I was in this game. I was in that. game and some of them I was genuinely clicking on going what the heck
Speaker: Yeah. Well, fun is my number one value, by the way. So everything I do needs to be fun. Even if it's work. I'm like, if it's not fun, I can't participate. Well, trivia surprised you. I mean, the major one, well, not major, that there were a lot of them. One of them was, of course, that you had voiced the teenage girl characters in Sims 2, which I thought, oh, that's cool. But then underneath it, it's like, oh, by the way, you also did it alongside the CEO of Patreon. And I was like, sorry, what?
Speaker: I know. That was like the best job I've ever had in my life. That job was eight years at Electronic Arts, you know, 20 days a year, 15 days a year. And it was so great. And yes, my partner in crime was Jack Conte, who he played the teen boy. And he, after The Sims, he went and created Patreon because he's an incredible musician. So he wanted a website where, you know, something better than YouTube, something better than Instagram, where his fans could actually connect with him. And Jack is the best, most wonderful person. And I'm so glad someone like Jack. Jack is playing in the tech leagues with billionaire douchebags of planet Earth. Because Jack is... awesome and super ethical and just like a good human so we applaud patreon and jack and if you want more exclusive content patreon .com forward slash chats and that well yeah we do have a patreon but
Speaker: As do I. like yeah I do agree. It's a fantastic resource to have, especially for indie creators, because I do agree there are a lot of, at least back in the day, there was a lot of kind of predatory monetization options, whereas it feels as if nowadays to have that option of Patreon to be able to do it yourself is absolutely fantastic to have. Yeah. There is one fact I want to ask you about, and it's about Samuel Jackson. Oh, God. Yes, yes. Oh, this is a good story. This is an amazing story. Yeah, please do tell because I'm racking my brains thinking, what project could this possibly be? yeah Well, I'm going to blow your mind even more because this story is related to Resident Evil, which is even more crazy. You're like, what? Okay, so one of the first jobs I had in LA was I booked a job doing the scratch track for a Disney feature film. And the scratch track is when a voice actor comes in, a journeyman, and does the entire script for the celebrity. They do it for the animators. The animators can jog. the characters, and they also, you know, tweaking the script. And then later, a celebrity steps in and does that role. I booked this lean role in a Disney movie. I freaked out. I was like, I've done it! Chuck! Like, yes! Ming it! It was like 2005, 2004. I moved to LA in 2004. I was so pumped. I was like, I did it. I've come to LA! I've made it! Made my fortune. I'm going to be famous. This is a war. I'm making money doing creative things. And I did a few like voiceover rec sessions at the Walt Disney Studios, which is one of the most exciting things you can imagine. Building is shaped like a big wizard hat, like Mickey wears. And it was just incredible. And I was paid well. I was like, oh my God, I'm paying my rent doing this. And then I did two or three sessions. And they're long. They're long sessions. And I was playing a canary. I was playing a little cartoon canary. And if I remember correctly, I was a detective. And this movie was called Freedy. Cat. And it was about a canary and a cat who were detectives together. I did a few sessions and then my agent called me. It was my first agent in LA. She was just the loveliest lady. She's still around and she actually represents the agency that represents actors for cons. So my agent, Pat Brady, called. She said, oh, Cecily, I'm so sorry. They really love you, but they're going to replace you. They've had a character change and they want to replace you as Samuel L. Jackson. I was like, what? Oh, my God. I'm a 4 '11", tiny girl, cutesy voice, and Samuel L. Jackson's not. And so that job went away. Okay, that job went away. Bye. Let's just skip ahead to 2025. Last year, I'm at one of my first conventions for Silent Hill. Silent Hill actors, Resident Evil actors, are often in the same convention because it's all in the same, you know, genre. And I befriend Joe White. Do you know who Joe White is? Oh, yeah. Is it Chris Redfield's actor? Yes. Joe White is lovely. He's also a voice actor.
Speaker: also plays ukulele he's an improviser we just totally hit it off we're like yeah we're new best friends yeah And then... At some point in the con, I don't remember how it comes about. We discover he was also in Frady Cat and he had been cast as the cat. He had been the cat and I had been the canary as the scratch track. And we had no clue. We couldn't believe it. Because by the way, this movie was shelved. Like it never happened. Disney like did all this work on it and then they shelved it. It never happened. And so nobody's ever heard of this movie because it didn't happen. And so Joe White was the cat. I was the canary. That is crazy. Genuinely. could have given me a million years to guess the ending to that and I would have never guessed it, to be honest. this We both couldn't believe it. I mean, I hadn't talked about that. I'd forgotten about that movie. I'd forgotten about that project because it was 20 years ago. I mean, I had to ask about it because when I was reading through the trivia and trust me, there is a ton of absolutely, you know, double take worthy stuff. Like you said that you played ukulele for Gene Simmons. Oh, yeah. A never -heard TV show. he was so nice he was really complimentary and was like you're really great you're a great performer it was a tv show called the jingle writing tv show and that was also on shelves it never aired they like shot this whole show and it was a reality unscripted show about jingle writers in a you know mansion i was one of the jingle writers and then for the competition you had to perform for the judges and one of the judges was gene simmons oh my god Yeah, it was great. It was great. That sounds amazing, to be fair. I was eliminated, but Gene Simmons was complimentary. But to be fair, that's all you want in the competition, isn't it? It's like, I don't care if I won or not. As long as I get a compliment from Gene Simmons, that is fine. I was glad I was eliminated because I did not really want to be in a mansion for six weeks without access to the outside world. Oh, yeah. See, when I see, especially in British TV shows, like Deal or No Deal or something like that, or all of these singing competitions where it's like, oh, I've gotten to know you throughout these weeks and everything, and oh, you're an amazing person. And it's like, I mean, I'm sure they're all lovely and everything, but how long have you been in this house? Are you okay? Is this like an umbrella Resident Evil situation? You're not allowed to leave? It's like, what is going on here? Totally. Oh, I can imagine. There is one other question, just in the trivia. Yeah, yeah, no, bring it on. It's fun. No one's ever asked me about this. I appreciate you having done your homework. Like it's fun. Oh no, absolutely. Because as I said, there's a lot of just double taking because I'll definitely ask you about your podcast work soon. But there's one here that it says that you paid your rent by whistling in a commercial. What is that about? I love that you are asking me these questions. I am like so overjoyed. Okay, so I am an incredible whistler. I'm amazing. I'm an amazing whistler. I'm less good than... I used to be, I used to be better because I'm getting like old and my like lips are getting like.
Speaker: The musculature isn't quite there. But like, as a child, I was sent outside all the time. My mom would be like, side like you can't whistle in the house no whistling in the car i genuinely was researching going to the whistle off like there's a whistle off which i researched by the way and i am not good enough to go there the whistlers are incredible who go to the whistle off but i always had a dream to whistle i wanted to be the premier studio whistler of la that was like one of my dreams and i still like i'm still i mean i'm i'm available i'm available to whistle and i did get one job it was incredible i think it it was in the craigslist years because as an actor you hustle You're just like always applying for different jobs. Like here's my website, here's my thing. And it was a job. It was a commercial. This musician who was doing a soundtrack for a commercial needed a little good whistler and I got the job.
Speaker: It was so great. And I bought French fries and paid my rent and I bought like a huge amount of French fries with the, it was like 800 bucks. It was incredible. To be honest, loving the dream right there. I'm a multifaceted weirdo, like all people. I mean, that's the best kind of person to be though. I mean, if I call myself a weirdo, that'll be weird. But at the same time, it also leans into the fact, you know what I mean? And this is why I actually love the Silent Hill fans. Like everybody's really interesting and really like weird and my people. People are dark and gothy and I'm not really dark and gothy, but like people are really intellectual and smart and interesting. And I love that. That's my people. What a joy. Honestly, the survival horror community and things before I got into horror games and I use that very loosely when I say I go into them. It's like I'll get into them with the lights on and the windows open. Totally. Yeah, I'm not one for getting jump scared. But as I said, when people said, oh, this is my favorite franchise and everything. And it's only when you start to experience those. characters those stories and everything that you realize this is why you know this is why it's so important to so many people and the creativity that comes out of those particular fandoms is just absolutely insane whether it's fan dubs of their own whether it's cosplays or things whether it's art yeah i mean you must see that quite a lot yeah i love it it's incredible yeah i mean i'm an artist and all i care about is art so like it's incredible i love it people bring me artwork they've made people are wearing amazing costumes it's like the best i can't believe this is happening to me i dreamed of something like this i had no idea it would look like this this is a shock and it's so it's so awesome to be surrounded by these wonderful fans who are so totally creative and that this franchise infuses people with creativity that's great oh no absolutely yes Speaking of creativity, because you know we've talked about your voice acting work and the fact that you're an amazing whistler, of course. That's the main thing. I'm going to put that on the cover. Desley Lerner, amazing whistler. Should I whistle right now for you? Go for it. Yeah.
Speaker: You know, that is the first time anybody's whistled in chat tsunamis.
Speaker: And that was actually fantastic. This is an incredible conversation. There's a lot of firsts in this convo. Thank you. Exactly, yeah. First step episode of Silent Hill, man. First video. Honestly, this is fantastic so far. But speaking of conversations and podcasts, I was surprised to learn that you, of course, do your own podcast, which is just fantastic to see the work you've done. And am I right in saying it's under the name Rainbow Valentine Studio? Yes, that is my podcast studio. and rainbow Valentine is my podcast alias and I will.
Speaker: tell you why. So I changed my name to Rainbow Valentine when I was five years old because I thought it was like the prettiest things in the world. I was like, ah, a rainbow and a Valentine together. Yay. That was like, you know, my childhood, five, six, seven. So the first podcast I made, I made a narrative podcast called Disorganized Crime Smuggler's Daughter. And I made this podcast, basically I was driving in Los Angeles and I saw a billboard for POTS. It said, text 573 for pot. And I couldn't believe that the kids today are just texting for pot when essentially I grew up in a world where most of the people were pot smugglers and it was the most dangerous time in history to be pot smugglers in America. And in 1986, Ronald Reagan changed the laws in America and it was targeted at hippies and black people and it was meant to fill the prisons. And it did. And my community was destroyed. And I found out that my parents were pot smugglers and I had no idea. So I made this podcast. My parents agreed to tell their stories. After I saw this billboard, I was like, holy shit, people are just texting for pot. And they don't know people's lives were destroyed. And people risk their lives so people could have this privilege. And so I asked my parents if they were ready to tell their stories because they quit smuggling in 1992. And they agreed. And so we all had to be under alias because they weren't ready to share their names. And I chose an alias as well. And then after this podcast, the pandemic happened. And I come from the inner circle of the counterculture of San Francisco. Those are my people. I went to circus camp. I still go to circus camp with Wavy Gravy, who was like an original beatnik hippie icon. He's kind of responsible for the ethos of hippie on planet Earth. One of the people responsible and elders I grew up with have crazy stories. And so I started recording them and I made a podcast with Wavy Gravy, his life story, which is unbelievable. He's a psychedelic Forrest Gump. And then I made Dr. Patch Adams life story podcast. He's the doctor from the Robin Williams movie. He's my friend's dad and he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. And so we wanted to find out how. a suicidal misfit, which Patch had been in his teen years, went to becoming a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. And then the whole time since 2016, I was recording and archiving the stories of the psychedelic women of the counterculture. That's like my mom, her friends, my friend's moms. Because their stories are crazy because like these are the first women on planet Earth who had access to the pill, LSD, and rock and roll. And they took advantage of them and it changed the world. And their stories are nutty. For example, the very famous fur hat that Janis Joplin is always photographed in. She's always photographed in this white, fluffy fur hat. Well, that was my mom's hat. Yeah. After I did American Prankster, Wavy Gravy's Life Story, I did Disorganized Crime, Smuggler's Daughter. It was a huge hit. Then I did American Prankster, Wavy Gravy's Life Story. I did Patch Adam's Life Story. And then I started releasing psychedelic women episodes last year. And under that umbrella, I have another show called Smuggler Family Album. And these are just really, you know, it's a highly edited podcast with contextual narration. And it's about the history of the people and places of the San Francisco counterculture, which impacted the whole world. And I tell these stories because I want people to know what hap - and how we got here because all of this current festival culture and any culture that's not, that's counterculture now today in 2026 is because of the counterculture of the 60s from San Francisco, which is my mom and her friends and my dad and like his friends. And the stories are amazing. So I try and put out two episodes a month. There's a lot to listen to. And if you like 1960s history or culture, women's history or counterculture, art history, music history, drug history, comedy history. That's what these podcasts talk about. Crazy shit, man. Honestly, I think it's absolutely fantastic, the work you do for podcasts, because that, to me, at least, is what podcasting should be about. You know, it should be about telling people's unique experiences, their stories, and I'm sure you've seen this all over the internet, where you get those slightly less -than -savory people, you know, that they go on and they talk about a load of rubbish that is completely... Yeah. It's just like brain rot. No one really wants... to listen to these particular types of people just spewing hate and just negativity as a whole. But as I was saying, for your podcast to tell these stories, and I mean, I'm someone who used to study history in university. Of course, not that particular history. So it's been very informative. It's just so cool to see you take your voice and yet to be able to bring this history to life, to be able to tell this story, to give it your unique perspective and everything. It's just fantastic. is really what I'm saying. Well, thank you. You know, it's a joy to tell the stories and I'm really grateful to my elders who are sharing their stories with me. And one of the reasons I started telling these stories is because, first of all, there's so much true crime podcast out there that's just murder and rape and it's disgusting. We've got stories that are true crime that are hilarious and there's no murder and rape. Hooray. But there is a lot of... crazy shit because that's crime. And I set off to make Wavy Gravy's Life Story American Prankster because I heard the Mr. Rogers podcast. And I was like, oh my God, Wavy needs a podcast like Mr. Rogers because he's a very similar kind of a person. He's just a living Buddha, a human. I can't believe that he's actual genuinely like a peace worker. And for me, storytelling is a tool. I use it for peace work. I use it for, we've got to combat the hate. It's really easy to hate and it's really fun. Oh, it's so fun to hate. We can hate together. Yippee. Right now, we are enough. Time on planet earth with the internet and the conspiracy theories and people's joy of hating and it's dangerous and scary. And my work is all about combating that. Love is a weapon.
Speaker: I'm just imagining you with the multicolored baseball bat being like, I will hit you with love, I swear to God. That's right. I'm angry. I'm pissed. I am enraged. And I use storytelling as a weapon for good, and just like my elders do, and because I am all about peace, love and rock and roll. And we will. That is more powerful than hate. I'm not just saying this because you're on, but genuinely, the world needs more of those kind of stories and especially that positivity as well. Because as you said, the world is. i'm just gesturing generally in the background like yeah pick your poison here there's a lot to pick up apart but at the same time i also love how creative that's made a lot of people that they've been able to say right i'm gonna create music i'm gonna create podcasts and everything i'm gonna spread my voice and do something a lot more positive rather than as you said contributing to the negativity because it is so easy right now to you know sit here and say oh i didn't like this or oh i didn't like this because as someone who i love my fair share of video games but i'm also acutely aware of how easy it can be for people to be so negative just to have a moan right it's not like they're adding anything constructive or saying i don't like this game because of x or y they're just saying i don't like it it's like very or behavior. I don't like this. And then pushing that away and you're like, right, okay, are you going to stop talking about it? No, I'm going to tell everybody. And you're like, okay, thumbs up. Sierra, you like history. I like history. It's because we want to know why. Why are we here? And what we can talk about, okay, so people don't know why they hate things because they haven't been taught to be critical thinkers, right? Because when you have a society of critical thinkers, you're going to have people rise up against the billionaires. Okay, that's going to happen. We're not all going to be your tool slaves. And so we live in a civilization that has... as countless people who haven't been taught to critically think. And hate brings you together with others. We can all hate together and we're in a community and we're in a time of like super isolation with just the internet and we don't meet in person and people, young people went through the pandemic. Everyone went through the pandemic and people didn't learn to socialize in person. And humans are like super social creatures. We like to be together. We're like around a campfire. And we have a choice. Every human has a choice. What am I going to do this morning? How am I going to spend my day, my time? And we have a choice to be warriors of hate. hate. We're warriors of love and peace. Everyone has a choice and there's a community for everyone. So again, I will just say that like we're these meat suits of feelings. We're meat suits of feelings and people don't know what to do with their feelings. There's so much hate and sadness and anger and it's a lot easier to hate than to go to therapy and unpack your hate and sadness and shame and be like, oh, I'm going to under understand my feelings and gain control over them so I don't have to live in this place of negativity and I can be a warrior for peace. Oh my God, I'm off my soapbox. No, thank you. No, no. This is what podcasts are for. that I totally agree with you there. The thing that really annoyed me when I was studying history, especially in school and maybe not as much in uni, because in uni, it's people who wanted to be there, you know, so it wasn't as prevalent. But the amount of people that I've met in my life that they say, oh, history is just the learning about dates and telling funny stories. And it's like, I mean, objectively, you're technically right. but not really because it's like you can learn so much and again it's not just like oh you can learn when the Battle of Hastings was or you know when the Jacobites did their uprising right that's boring that's boring I'm a history nerd too like I'm obsessed with archaeology and it's exciting and I wanted to just chime in and let you know that like I've been saying lately you know we've got this really that political situation in America and that's affecting the entire globe. And I just keep saying to myself, consider Sumeria. Consider Sumeria. Or consider the Mayan Empire. This has happened before. The rise and downfalls. And history is helpful.
Speaker: Reminds me of that Simpsons clip. It's like a flashback to when Homer was younger and he's making fun of his dad's grandpa Simpson. And he goes, oh, you wouldn't understand this. You're not hip. You don't know what's in. And he's like, I used to be hip. I used to be in. And it'll happen to you one day. And that's what it feels like when people criticize history being like, ah, yeah, it's not important. But it teaches you all the fundamental skills. Please stop using chat GPD. No. Legal reasons, that is a joke. That would be one hell of a twist there. Silent Hill worthy twist, yeah. Oh my God. Maybe I might set you off here and apologies, but yeah, what are your thoughts on, see this whole wave of AI voices, especially coming in? Because I'm going to be honest, I'm very much an indie podcaster, you know, but it terrifies me to think that people would rather listen to someone say, ha ha, today I went to the shop and I did not study. history rather than people with real voices, real stories. They want to listen to a prompt here. Over to you.
Speaker: Yeah, all right obviously it's horrible. ah AI in every single industry. I guess I'm just like a relentless optimist because I don't think people are going to be able to deal with this. I personally, so I love, I love archaeology. And me and my mom often will like go on YouTube and we we love archaeology documentaries. It's like our favorite. And there's a lot on YouTube that aren't on the other premium streaming platforms. And so we'll watch them. And anytime it has an AI voice, no matter how interesting the subject matter is, we cannot watch it. For example, we wanted. to watch this archaeology doc about, I believe it was, I can't remember, so maybe Ethiopia. It's an archaeological site with just a million phalluses, giant big phalluses. And the archaeologists, the documentary was about finding out why they were there and what was their purpose. It was a graveyard, by the way, P .S. We couldn't watch the doc because it had AI voiceover and it was torturous. Torturous to listen to. I feel like AI is coming. It's inevitable and everyone needs to... do a little pivot to prepare because everyone's job is it's already in jeopardy i have already seen the you know everything is falling apart in my industries that i work in and it's coming but it's also i think there will also be the backlash of this sucks i want real people we'll see i don't know buckle up man we're in the i do feel the pandemic ushered in the dystopian robot future and we're in it and it's totally uncomfortable yeah i don't like this i don't know i feel as if they watched terminator and thought Wow, that was a great documentary. Anyway. yeah
Speaker: Absolutely terrifying. I've done a two -part episode on AI and the only reason it was two parts was because the person that I did it with, shout out to Marie, by the way, if you're listening, and we did it and we spoke for about four hours and I was like, there is no way anyone's going to be listening to me for over three hours. it So I thought, okay, I'll split it up because at the beginning we talked about the, and I use this very loosely, like the good applications of it. So for medical science, for... conservation work and things. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can see why in some industries it's used for a benefit, but nobody is talking about that when they say the benefits of AI. It's whenever they say, oh, the benefits of AI, and it's the worst thing you have ever seen generated before your eyes. And then it's people underneath saying, oh, Hollywood's, you know, shaking in their boots. They are.
Speaker: Hollywood is shaking in their boots. They really are. Everyone's freaking out. There is so little, like the work has dropped. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. It's bad. People are shaking in their boots. Everybody. I mean, I work in animation, right? like um like You know what? Everyone's shaking in their boots. Coders, programmers, clerks at grocery stores, everywhere. All humans. And if you're not, you're not ah aware of what's coming. Prepare. Buckle up. And I am an optimist.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, that was the positive take of that. I'm just saying. Don't c - complain. Pivot. and figure out what to do. Slap that in the t -shirt. Oh my god. ever Yeah, I think the one that really threw me through a loop this week, I think I just sat for a good 10 minutes staring at my ceiling after I watched it. And it was, you know, that AI actress, and I use that so loosely, you can't see I'm doing the air quotes, an AI generated person. And they were interviewing it on the news as if it was a real person. And I was like... What are we doing here? yeah you Might as well be interviewing Kermit because at least Kermit is a... Kermit?
Speaker: My boyfriend?
Speaker: Kermit the Frog? Oh my god, my boyfriend. My boyfriend. I mean, he has a soul at least. Like, this machine does. He he has a deep soul. Yeah, Kermit has a deep soul. Yeah, I have been tricked by AI on Instagram. That is something I've noticed. You know what I - a positive thing to say about ai which is surprising i have a dear friend who got diagnosed with parkinson's and he's an incredible artist he's just the most extraordinary artist and he hasn't been able to draw because his hands aren't working and he's been using ai to express himself to create ai art and it saved him you know what i mean and that's not a story we've heard about it's definitely got its applications but it does feel as if it's the wrong attention it's a bit like podcasting it's like Like it's always, when you think about it, it's always a negativity that surfaces up. It's never, yeah right you know, underneath the positivity that it can bring and things to that. This is all about the billionaires getting more and eliminating a human workforce. That's what it's about. What's going to happen when the human workforce has been eliminated and no one has a job? It's happening here. America is, I don't know what's going on in Scotland, but in America? It's not looking good for the job market. Like, it's pretty shitty. Well, we have our own problems of data centres potentially popping up all over the place. Oh, us too, yeah. Yeah, it's like I woke up one day and all of a sudden they're saying, oh, you know this quaint Scottish village? You know, it's got the rolling green fields and ah absolutely was scenic. I'm sure but William Wallace drank out of that creek over there. Yeah, anyway, we're going to build a huge data centre here. Ugh. nightmare.
Speaker: What are we doing? And then that was the thing. A lot of people were trying to make the argument of, oh, but it's clean, green data centers. It's like, what does that mean? What does that mean? Before I wrap up and talk about your music career, I've just got to ask you one quick question. See about your podcast and see this one about Mark Ruffalo calling. What is that all about? Yeah, yeah. Mark Ruffalo called. Oh, God, that was so great. What a nice man. What a national treasure. I made this podcast. podcast Disorganized Crime Smuggler's Daughter, and I made it with iHeartRadio. So it had a huge fan base. It got like 3 million downloads. It beat out Oprah's podcast one year, at one week on the podcast charts. I was like, holy shit. And the goal was to, I want to tell that story. And I wanted to tell that story on TV and film. Yeah, Mark Ruffalo called to see if he could play my dad.
Speaker: Yeah. When his wife heard the podcast, they really loved it. And they called me and they really wanted to option it and do this. And Mark wanted to play my dad, which was unbelievable. It was so surreal, surreal, surreal. It didn't happen. They didn't, for personal reasons, they chose not to move forward with the project. And I ended up optioning the show to Village Roadshow, optioning my life story to Village Roadshow. And I did develop a TV series about that story for a couple of years and we pitched it and nobody bought it. And then I put the show away. Like I put it over here. It's like, okay, that story's over here. And then actually this summer, a documentarian, and reached out to me and said, hey, do you want to make a documentary? And I asked my parents and they said, yes, we're ready to be on camera. My dad's 80 and my mom's 85. And the documentarian was lovely, basically lit a fire under my ass to do it. Like, well, I have a camera. I don't have a budget or distribution. So I was like, that I can do it myself. And I've stepped into this new role as a documentary filmmaker and I just finished shooting it with my parents. We shot a bunch of days in the Bay Area. It's going to be amazing. And now I have to learn to edit. That's my neck. That's the Mark Ruffalo story. So this story about discovering my parents were huge pot smugglers my entire childhood which i did not know growing up is now going to be a documentary feature and i don't know how long it's going to take me to edit but people can follow me to watch that journey and you know i have diverse content right like i've got silent hill stuff now the silent chill show i've got the ukulele stuff my music and comedy and i have the rainbow valentine counterculture podcast stuff and documentary stuff
Speaker: Honestly, you seem to be keeping really, really busy. I'm so busy. I'm like too busy. So I mean, it's like ridiculous, but I don't have children. So this keeps me busy. And in a way, my art projects are my children. And as a closing point, before we wrap up, I do want to just touch on your ukulele. I love that. Thank you. I love that name, by the way. Genuinely, it is so good. But yeah, you were in the band Kitten Tenders. You know, as I said, you've done the ukulele stuff, which is honestly, is fantastic so yeah tell me a bit about that well thank you i love to sing i love to sing and the ukulele is the singer's instrument and um in college my comedy partner in college gave me a ukulele and i had taken opera lessons and singing and violin and piano and i sing but no instrument had stuck and the ukulele was like ah
Speaker: This is it! This is it! And actually, it's funny you bring up the name The Ukulele because I had forgotten until now is my friend Paul Middleton named me The Ukulele. And Paul Middleton was the audio engineer for Leapfrog Toys, which during the time I did Silent Hill and The Sims, I was in the Leapfrog Toys recording studios twice a week, recording like dozens and dozens and dozens of their games. And my audio engineer named me The Ukulele. And I have eight or 10 albums. I can't stop writing music. And I have a band with my friend Gabby Lala, who is amazing. And she plays sitar and she does the theme song for Psychedelic Women. She used to tour with... les Claypool of the Primus and we write songs together and play and she's also a writer and so I'm going to release an album of Silent Hill themed songs that is coming up I'm so excited and one of the songs is going to be produced by Dave Wise who did the music for Donkey Kong he's a fellow UK person and I also have an album sitting there I need to put out called Southern Discomfort I'm a weirdo I write songs a song can be 15 seconds and I'm a comedy musician like I do comedy music and hard on a sleeve music and I also do like I'm a comedian I can't stop putting on costumes and like wigs and glasses and doing improv characters i just it's how i express
Speaker: my rage planet earth or whatever so that's the ukulele that's my comedy and music and i'm excited to like combine silent hill with the ukulele and let whatever silent hill fans want to discover the ukulele go down that path with the silent hill album well of course it's gonna be fantastic like whatever you put out because as i said and i mean this in all sincerity that when i was scrolling through instagram and i'd seen you and you were all very bubbly and you had your ukulele and then again when she said oh this is a of lisa garland and i was like silent hill lisa garland okay it's just like what a whiplash but honestly the music is absolutely fantastic and it is just such a breath of fresh air to see again i'm not saying all music is miserable because it's not but it is just cool to be able to see you know the joy that you seem to be having with it because you do you can see it for all content creators and especially for yourself you can see how passionate you are about these things and how much you enjoy them so it's honestly it's an absolute blast and I cannot wait to see what you do with that in the future and who knows maybe Konami will be ringing up saying we need ukulele for the next game I hear they're supposed to be doing a yearly Silent Hill game so wow could happen yeah I love to sing love to sing humans love music and i think aliens do too by the way right you hope so i'm thinking that's gonna be our language our shared language is music music and math yeah i love to sing i am always singing and singing little like earworms and you can't stop me from doing like i can't help it so oh god the ukulele i did hundreds of shows in la when i lived in la i tried to sell a kids show with ukulele i just i pushed her up the hill for so long and nobody really cared which is fine you're right i do it for the pure joy like i am gonna dress up and sing and wear a ridiculous outfit and sing ridiculous songs if i have an audience of puppets or nobody or people if i have people wow honestly that's how i feel about the podcast i'm like if there's lessons yeah great well here trivia tidbit my friends who i'm doing silent chill with the youtube show are this lovely couple the davids david and dave and we met because they're filmmakers and they made a couple ukulele music videos for me that are super fun and weird so now we're doing this Honestly, as I said, it's going to be amazing to see what you come out with. Whether it's, as you said, the silent chill stuff, whether it's your voice acting stuff, whether it's your music, whether it's your podcast and stuff. Honestly, fantastic. That's all I can say. But honestly, Thesley, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on Chatsanami today. Thank you so, so much for joining me and sharing your story and your fantastic work as well. Thank you for having me here. You know, it's incredible. It's been great chatting with you. You really brought out some stories I'd forgotten. So thank you. This has been joyful and I can't wait to come to Scotland. No, absolutely. All I'll say is if last month has taught me anything, there is a plethora of Comic -Cons here. There's hundreds of Silent Hill fans out there, I'm sure. Wow. The fans have to reach out to their local convention cons and be like, bring the Silent Hill people. Me and Michael Gwynn are a team and we like to go out together. He's so great. Bring us on out. We'll have to have a talk with them. I'll be like, hey, do you know who should come to this event? Are you interviewing Michael? Oh, no, no, no, no. Not yet. I actually haven't reached out to him. Reach out. He's great. That's on the list. That's next week's episode, but for legal reasons, it's not. I'll still have to reach out, but no, that would be amazing to have him on. Before we wrap up, Thesley, where can the amazing Pandalorian listeners at home find your content? I just made a link tree yesterday because I was like, oh God, I have so many links. So I made a link tree. It's Rainbow Valentine. because it's the easiest for people to spell because the ukulele is difficult to spell. And so is Thessaly. So Thessaly Learner, my, you know, my YouTube is Thessaly Learner and most of my socials are the ukulele and that's difficult to spell. So we went with Linktree slash Rainbow Valentine. So that is where you can get the links to everything. You know, my website, all of it has all the links too, but the easiest Linktree dot, I'm new to Linktree. What do you say? How do I say it? Linktree slash Rainbow Valentine. We've got a linktree as well. It's just like linktree slash chat tsunami, I think. And yeah, it's like linktree .ee or something. You're like, yeah, how the heck do you say this? I'm just going to say linktree slash rainbow valentine. Thank you for that. Yes, thank you. It's been so fun. Thank you so much. No problem at all. And to all the listeners out there, if you want to listen to more of our episodes, then of course you can check us out at our website, chatsunami .com, as well as all good podcast apps. A huge shout out to our Pandalorian patrons, Robotic Battle Toaster, Ghosting Cryptic 1991. Thank you so, so much for supporting the show. And if you would like early access to episodes, exclusive content, all the goodies, then as always, half joking earlier then you can check us out at our patreon page patreon .com forward slash chat tsunami but until next time thank you all so so much for listening to the first episode of silent hill month as always stay safe stay awesome and most importantly stay hydrated
