Behind the Scenes of Don't Mind: Cruxmont

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Adapted directly for audio for the very first time.

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The following interview was recorded in March 2022.

Hello, everyone.

We have here today our wonderful voices from Don't Mind Cruxmont.

I am Travis Vengraaff, the director and producer.

Hello, I'm K.A.

Stats.

I am the writer of Don't Mind Cruxmont.

Hi, I'm Adjua Ando, and I'm playing Gwen.

Hi, I'm Daniel Demeron, and I'm playing Neil Mitchell.

I'm David Alt, and I'm playing Roger Allhill.

And I'm Demera Moore and I'm sort of helping out behind the scenes.

We are so happy to have you all here.

We wanted to ask a few questions because we don't normally record people all together in a studio.

This is actually a first for us.

So we wanted to ask how this experience was for you.

What's your level of experience working with actors in person?

This is not the norm, at least for us.

Who's going to go?

Oh, no, I'm sorry.

I've clearly started talking.

It'll be me then.

Well,

I've been working on radio drama for people like the BBC since the 80s.

So the idea of doing drama with people in a space for audio is not new.

However, we've been living through a very unusual time.

And so being able to do things together face-to-face, sort of flesh and blood in the same room, has become a bit of a novelty.

So it's a treat really to see other fleshy beings to do work with as opposed to a disembodied voice.

How dare you?

It's very streamlined, fleshy bodies, I would add.

Yes, for some of us, well,

doing the tours with no sleep and being on stage is a very different way of acting within the podcast scenario.

But for me, I've been doing podcasting in my own room, etc., for 15 years or so now.

So it's really lovely to get back with real people inside a studio.

So yes, it's been an absolute honour and a delight to be down here.

And it's a much different, it's a different dynamic, I think.

Because podcasting in general, especially because it's so accessible, it is mostly people like us in their wardrobes

with a blue Yeti

and a few towels over the door and then an awful lot of teach-it-yourself.

So this is the dynamics between people when they're in the room is lovely.

It makes the script sort of sparkle from a listener perspective, definitely.

Yeah, it makes the emotion more palpable.

Like everything feels more real.

I've been only doing voice acting for like seven years, mostly with Travis and Caitlin.

In fact, they're like the reason why I even got into the whole thing.

But I'll be quite honest.

I've never

done this before.

Across from a Joaquin.

Wow, that's like, that's mind-blowing to me.

And then, of course, I love David and Gemma.

They're like, they're incredible.

But like, this is a totally new experience for me.

So never thought it would happen.

And

I'll leave it at that.

In London, nonetheless.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

In London, I'm this yank that, well, I'm actually a Kanuck, but you know,

can yank, whatever, whatever.

It's the same thing.

North American.

Yeah.

So audio fiction storytelling is older than written history, even.

It's a very ancient form of communication.

But podcasting is fairly new.

And do you feel that's changed the way that we can tell stories?

I think certainly

there is a, as Gemma mentioned, there's a huge accessibility now with the quality of microphones and the accessibility of people doing the writing.

And the internet has brought communities together to be able to create audio drama.

And that has sort of steadily been made more and more accessible over the last 20 years.

Yeah.

I mean, podcasting isn't new,

and I think that's important.

I think we're in a phase now, a bit of a golden age, of storytelling in a,

we can tell our stories without many barriers.

So, I feel like,

again, from a listener perspective, the stories that we're getting are so much more diverse and

people aren't coming up against as many of the traditional barriers.

Because it certainly used to be that you would need to be in a studio like this and be commissioned by the BBC in this country to be able to

be part of it.

But that's why it's much nicer now that anyone can do it.

Of course, that means that there's a whole load of podcasts out there for people to listen to, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Not at all.

When you get really great production, it leaves the door open to be taken even further, right?

Because while this is an audio drama, because you can feel all the emotion and the foley that gets involved makes it feel even more real.

That may draw people in to be like, oh, I want to see this on a screen.

I actually want to see this happen.

And I think that's a really cool aspect of the audio drama.

It opens the door for more exploration exploration if someone finds interest in the story itself.

So that's really exciting.

I think,

you know,

I'm from the tradition of the BBC.

I train radio drama actors.

So I sort of feel like, I don't feel like this is a different tradition.

I think maybe it's more accessible.

I think, I mean,

you do audio drama in a different way in a radio studio than you do when you're podcasting.

So there are differences.

But I think what I love about audio storytelling is for me it feels more filmic than, say, stage work or even TV work because it's from your lips to the listener's ear.

And so the listener is the third component of the story in a way.

You have the imagination of the author, then you have the sonic creation, but then you have the imagination of the listener.

And that brings a whole rich dimension.

And it's incredibly intimate because we all have a unique imagination.

So we are envisaging the story in a completely unique way.

And I think there's something sort of gorgeous about that.

There's a richness that you

open the door to with audio drama.

I feel like, in a way as well, it's a bit like when you read your favourite novel and you build up an image in your head of how that your the characters look and sound and feel.

And then sometimes you see a movie adaptation and it's just nothing like how you've ever done.

But then sometimes it's just perfect.

And it's just so interesting how every single person who listens to a story can take something different away from it.

Yeah,

I think you're always on a hiding to nothing with an adaptation of your favorite book.

It's never going to live up to your imagination.

I don't know.

I think TV's doing great things at the moment.

So I was traditionally trained as an animator.

So whenever I hear stuff like this, my brain just starts going through like, okay, what's that shot look like?

Okay, because I mean, while animation is not necessarily obviously not the same as like live-action film, all the beats, shots, everything that you want to set up beforehand, exactly the same.

You need to imagine everything.

You want to see the camera angles.

So, one of the things that I love about it is like, it's an exercise for me.

I listen to the drama and I'm like, okay, what would we do here?

What position do we want to put the camera here?

Does that, you know, is it going to happen?

No, but it's always a great exercise.

It's just how I often look at most things.

I like looking at them in terms of that sequential art for film.

I think that visualization is what you have to do in an auditory way when you're doing a drama.

You know, it's like, what's the perspective?

Where are we in this picture?

Who are we with?

What are we experiencing?

How are they experiencing it?

How does it reach us?

So I sort of, I think it's, yeah, it's right that it would inspire you in that way, because I think we have to pay attention to the same considerations when we're doing audio as we would do if you were animating or doing a shot list for an in-camera thing.

100%, yeah.

And I think all the Foley helps with that as well.

It's very interesting hearing people panting and sleeping and running and stumbling.

And they're all brushstrokes.

And it's lovely watching people do it live.

It's the colouring in, isn't it?

Yeah, it is.

And people bouncing off each other.

It's been from a back scenes point of view, watching you guys.

It was great.

It's great fun.

And watching the physicality.

It's like at home, I'm just throwing my arms around, no one gets to see it.

But then when when I'm around people, I'm like, they start moving and I'm like, okay, especially, I will have to say it, Joe, I just kept taking cues from you.

I'd like glance up and be like, oh, I need to be, okay, I need to be more.

Okay, I need to be more.

Okay.

So that's, it was a lot of fun.

It's going to really color the way I approach when I go to finish off my lines for at home.

Cause it's just like, honestly, you just working with you these day and a half, it's like really helped me quite a bit of getting out of the shell, right?

Because it's like super easy to be contained because I'm so used to being, well, I'm not that contained, whatever.

But, but it's like watching, you know, a professional at work.

I'm like, okay,

I need to step up to meet that because it's your lines are

incredible.

Now I just want to be able to, you know, maybe be self-time.

Listen, listen, Daniel, it's a team effort, you know, which that's the great thing about being in the same space.

It becomes a chemical exchange, doesn't it?

You know, we're

all sort of traveling on the journey together and we all, you know, we all feed off each other, don't we, David?

Absolutely, we do, yes.

And now I never want to see any of you ever again.

I am four.

That's enough.

And I just want to say everybody's been very lovely because we've had a rather old, arthritic, farting Labrador in studio.

That's my dog.

I love her, but it's the truth.

For the last two years, she's been wonderful since we were

sweet Millie.

Every podcast needs a dog.

I agree.

I think that one of the greatest tools we have as audio creators is we can rely

so much on the theater of the mind, be it horror or the creation of something, you know, not horrible, maybe wonderful, or just the mystery and the feeling that whatever is going to embody that mystery the most to the individual is already placed in their heads.

All we're doing is supplying the audio to go along with it.

Now, Travis, you have another question?

Yes, I did.

So working in television is certainly a style of acting.

And for those who've maybe never done both, what is the difference working in audio drama, like in this sort of capacity?

Like emotionally or preparation-wise, or maybe just...

Is there any difference to being in the moment from one to the other?

I think, well, as I say, I mean,

I've been doing audio drama for, oh my God, nearly 40 years, help Help me.

And I grew up listening to, my father is from West Africa and the World Service was huge over there.

So I've always grown up listening to spoken word on the radio and I've listened to dramas.

I can't remember a time when I haven't listened to radio drama.

Even as a little kid, I used to listen.

So I love that imaginative world.

And as I say,

it's the intimacy of it.

And you know, if I'm teaching, I will say to an actor who's doing audio work, none of your tricks are available.

You can't do your comedy walk or the raised eyebrow or the little funny thing.

You have to distill it all into your voice.

So that means

you have to sort of expand your mind into your voice and your heart into your voice.

And all your fears and your hopes and your desires and your sexiness and your wittiness and your anger and everything has to be in your voice.

So you have to be quite particular.

And you just really have to think of the microphone as the listener's ear and everything is headed, you know, is headed through the microphone, into their imagination, through their ears.

And you have to, you just have to be really focused.

And I do a lot of audio books as well.

So that's another sort of audio storytelling.

It's almost like you have to channel.

the character and the situation and be entirely present with where they are emotionally and how you feel that's going to resonate with someone listening to it.

You know, whether you want to be really intimate or whether you want to be sort of bombastic or everything in between.

It's a real discipline, and I really like it.

I like

the restrictiveness of it that makes you just focus on one skill.

It was also a lot of fun going through the scripts with you all, almost sequentially, almost.

So, in reading the scripts, did you find maybe before, during, after, that you had a favorite character in the story of Don't Mind, Cruxmont, or perhaps just someone you enjoyed?

I'm very fond of Adelaide.

Actually,

I like all the scary ladies.

You know, the ones that they sort of come at you in disguise.

You're not quite,

is this a nice old lady?

Is she going to stab me in the eye while I sleep?

I can't tell.

That's a very nice scon, madam.

You know, it's like those ambivalent characters are always really intriguing.

And I just, and I like imagining, you know, the separating underbelly of this world.

And I grew up in a tiny village in the Cotswold, so I can sort of imagine those those sorts of tiny small town values.

I know that, you know, where I grew up, if you came from four miles over, it's like, yes, well, she's no better than she ought to be.

She comes from Hawkesbury.

So, you know, that very small town mentality that can be the cover for many strange things is always really appealing.

So I suppose the other character is the character of Cruxmont itself.

I feel like Separating Underbelly is going to be my band name.

Give it up for the separating underbelly.

I would say that as a crazy.

thing.

Yeah, I think actually, again, from a listener point of view, the town of Cruxmont itself does have a very distinct identity, and it reminds me a lot of the Wicker Man in terms of everybody on the surface is jolly nice, but underneath they're all part of this massive fungal network of creepy dead people.

Very nice.

Yeah, pops off.

Very nice.

And I think that was the ending is rather lovely.

Everyone sort of just pops off and

has a happy old time.

And that's quite nice, especially in horror podcasting we don't get a lot of that do we

everybody lives beyond even when they may want to live

we'll gloss over the parts the mounds of body parts but so you know also with you know big props out in terms of the writing you've really created a world here where we can

I think there's a lot of philosophical thinking as well about how long do you want to live

and what are you willing to trade for what you know as we have more and more people with far too much money trying to work out how they can live indefinitely, it's quite an interesting philosophical conversation.

But then I think horror and speculative fiction, all those things, they're fantastic genre for thinking about the world and having those.

But it's also exploring difficult themes and you're never going to have a fun time discussing the idea of dementia and losing your identity and your memories

and mystery and horror and thrillers like this.

They are an ideal genre for going into that kind of how would that that person feel?

Because you also juxtapose the juxtaposition of Gwen's kind of condition against what's happening in Cruxmont.

It's a good stage for her to play out all those feelings.

You know, rather than just following a doctor as she loses her capabilities, she's also uncovering a giant mystery.

And I think that's the brilliant thing about genre writing in general.

exploring difficult themes.

Yes, and I love the idea of somebody with all these medical skills, you know, healer, heal thyself, that sort of

how you deal with that stuff.

But also the idea of holding on to medical research when it could help other people.

Yeah.

Yeah, the range of motion in this script is actually pretty wild.

There's a lot of themes that go through that I'm, I found myself when I first started reading the script crying a couple of times where I'm like, wow, this is like whatever is happening in this town feels so real to me that.

Even as I'm reading just through it, I'm like, I'm being sucked in.

So it like really colored everything prior to coming to record today.

It's just, again, I've been working with Travis and Caitlin for a long time.

And Caitlin, you just keep getting better and better.

And it's just, I, I just, I feel very fortunate to continue to work with you guys for sure.

It's uh, it's incredible.

And you flew in at ridiculous hours to get here to the production.

Thank you.

Yeah, I mean,

I was going to say for the benefit of the listeners, Daniel flew in on a 12-hour airplane flight, as opposed to a different kind, and

traveled across London, rocked up to the studio.

Was it Gatwick or Heathrow?

Something like that.

Heathrow at 6:30 in the morning.

He trained his way in, got to the studio, and then did like a nine-hour day in the recording studio with no sleep.

Let's go, and then came with us to the pub afterwards.

Stayed up until the early hours.

I actually, then I went home, or home.

I went to the BNB, and I, I, so I also play music on the side, and I had a recording of a song that I had been writing before I left home, which is basically about like this journey that I'm doing and played that until like, I don't know, like 11:30, midnight or something, and then passed out, slept 10 hours, and then was like, let's do it again.

Super fun, super fun.

Impressive.

If not a little mad.

Yes.

Very mad, I will say.

So, so, David, what was your experience like?

I know you've done like live shows and stuff, worked with people, but you were literally all of Cruxmon these last two days.

And hey, we didn't kill you this time.

Yes, you didn't kill me.

That's very kind of you, Caitlin.

Thank you very much.

For the listeners at home, I'm usually killed by Caitlin in horrible ways, so I'm very happy that I avoided that this time.

Yeah, it's been a lot of fun to just be standing in for all the other characters.

It's given me a bit more of a unique insight of

how everything works.

It's just been a lot of fun.

It's been so

lovely to be in a room with people again.

I think that that's really the main thing somebody let you out of your house exactly yes

I don't usually get allowed out

Travis would love to be there by the way but because we're still waiting for visas we still can't leave Germany we would have loved to have you both here that would have been amazing it would

nonetheless we really wanted to say thank you to all of you for making this show possible don't mind crux month has been an amazing experience for all of us I'm trying to think of anything else that I need to mention.

Caitlin?

We're incredibly lucky, always.

Yes.

So we're congrats on your script, though, Caitlin, as well.

Really, thank you.

You've woven so many amazing strands together.

It's a terrific,

what would you say, writing tapestry.

Yeah.

That's beautiful.

Well, again, thank you all so much for joining us as we have gone through the adventure recording and creating Don't Mind Crux Mont.

It's been a pleasure working with all of you.

That is a wrap.

So thank you again, a million times over from Caitlin and myself.

Thank you.

Pleasure.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

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