You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.I'm Dallas Taylor.In our last episode, we explored the sound of Bluey with the show's sound designer and mixer, Dan Brum.
To craft the show's organic sound, Dan uses all kinds of techniques, from recording birds, creeks, and playgrounds all over Brisbane, to applying a low-pass filter to the sound effects to give them a more warm, rounded tone.
Now, my three daughters are all huge Bluey fans, and my eight-year-old had a question about how they record the actors.
It's about all the people who do, like, talking and stuff.How do they do that?Because, like, we can't just press on a video that's already done and there's already sound on it.Right.Because they have to draw it first.
Mm-hmm.Or they might do the sound first and then draw it.
In Bluey, like in most cartoons, the actors record their lines before it gets animated.This gives the actors much more freedom in their delivery.
And after they record, the editors can use all those takes to build the most natural and impactful dialogue edit.Bluey might be a cartoon about a family of dogs, but the dynamic between these actors always feels believable and human.
Here's a clip of the family playing a board game called Pop-Up Croc.It looks a bit like Jenga, but with a spring-loaded piece that pops out when you mess up.
No, upstairs for bedtime.
Watching these scenes, it feels like these actors must be recording together, so they can bounce off of each other's energy.
But it turns out... In every single case, every actor is recorded individually.In different booths, different cities sometimes. G'day, I'm Dan Brum.I'm the sound designer for Bluey.
While the actors record, they're guided by the director, which is one of two people.The first is Joe Brum, the series creator, and Dan's older brother.
He's a really good line reader.He reads you the line.You do your own takes of it, and he'll kind of rein you in.
The second is Richard Jeffrey, the series director for Two and Three.This arrangement means that the cast members rarely interact in person,
It feels like we have the show, so warm and natural, but you just, you don't interact.
In 2023, Jimmy Fallon interviewed the actors who voiced the parents on Bluie.That's Dave McCormack, who plays Bandit, and Melanie Zanetti, who plays Bandit's wife, Chili.Keep in mind, this is five years after Bluie started.Here's Jimmy Fallon.
You were telling me backstage you just met each other a few days ago?
A few days ago.It's the first time.
So, we record separately.Yeah.We live in different cities and I travel a lot for work.Yeah.So, this was the first time.
Even Dan, who's been with the show from the beginning, still hasn't met some of the actors face-to-face.
I've never actually met Dave McCormack.He records all his parts down in Sydney.
Again, Dave McCormack plays the dad, Bandit.But it turns out, Dan and his brother Joe have been fans of Dave since long before Bluey started.
Dave, I mean, he's from this band that we loved as kids, Custard. local Brisbane sort of pop-punk band who had a bit of fame around the world.
Dave McCormack is Custard's lead singer.Here's one of their classics.
And me and my brothers grew up.
I think it might have been the first concert I ever went to.I jumped the fence into this festival and they were playing.You know, I loved them.
Before Bluey, Dave had never done any voice acting, as he told Jimmy Fallon.
I was walking out of a lift, someone I knew was walking into the lift, and they said, I know someone who's making a show about a cartoon dog family.Maybe you'd want to be the dad voice.And I was like, I can't act.I can't do that.
And he said, can you read?I said, well, I can read a bit.
And as soon as you heard his voice, it's perfect.
Oh, good morning, everybody.Say good morning, everyone.What up, party people?
As you can hear, Dave's speaking voice is virtually the same as his bandit voice, and that sometimes throws kids off.
Parents say, come and meet my kid.Like, they love the show.I'm like, oh, don't.They normally burst into tears.Because they think I've, like, eaten bandit and his voice is coming out.
They don't understand it, yeah.
As for Melanie Zanetti, Dan actually met her years ago.
How she came into the show is when we did the pilot episode, Joe had a different voice actor play the mum.And I think the ABC weren't quite into it, I can't quite remember.
But I had Melanie come to my studio just to record some innocuous corporate video because we were with the same agency.
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I'd only really just met her recently, but she had such a beautiful voice, and I knew that she could act.And so we did the voiceover, and I said, oh, look, we're just working on this cartoon.
And he said, my brother's creating this animation.You've got a great voice.Do you want to whack some voiceovers down?
And I showed her a bit of it, and her eyes just lit up.And she's like, yes, this show is beautiful.
I'd already seen the pilot, and I had fallen in love.Like, the most cute.Like, my heart hurts.This is so cute show.
And so she just threw down a demo.I sent it to Joe, and he really liked it.
And then they did their due diligence and auditioned for like three months and then came back and said, no, you were right.
And then the rest is history.
Yoo-hoo.Hi, I'm your wife.
My wife.Yes.And if you want me to stay your wife, you'll learn about dishwashers.
Bluie's explosion in popularity has made Dave and Melanie into celebrities.But from the beginning, the identities of the child actors have been kept a secret.That includes Bluie, Bingo, their cousins, and all of their friends.
And that's very purposeful.
There's just no reason to have a kid's name revealed.Probably most of the kids aren't actors, they're just kids of cast, crew, friends kind of thing.
They're doing this adult thing which is making an animated series, but just let them be kids and have their own lives and I think it's a really, really wonderful decision the production company made.
Yeah, I don't even reveal the names of my children on my podcast, which is much smaller and that's entirely the same reason.
Yeah, there's absolutely no reason anyone needs to know.It's just enjoy the show for what it is and just let them be kids.
In virtually every cartoon out there, the child characters are actually voiced by adults.This is true in everything from Rugrats, to Powerpuff Girls, to Bob's Burgers,
But for Bluey, Joe Brum always knew that he wanted these characters voiced by real kids.
I think this is what's unique about Bluey is that the way my brother writes for kids, he writes the kids' lines the way the kids actually speak.
There's a leaf bug in the way.Aww, she's so cute.You have to be more careful, Leaficus.You're lucky we didn't squash you.
When Joe and Richard record these kids, they already have a good idea of how they want the lines to sound.
They will say the line, and the kid will copy them as best they can.And we've been very lucky to get kids that have these great musical ears that can pick up on all the nuances of the director's read and kind of match it musically.
The toilet's got a ribbon?Maybe it won a prize.Yeah, the best toilet in the world.
But often they kind of go off script a little and sort of hit a weird key or a weird intonation or something like that.
Isn't anyone going to mention the salads?
And it ends up funnier than the director could have planned himself.And that line invariably is the one that ends up getting used.
That sincere, childish delivery really shines through in Bingo and Bluey's squeaky giggles. They're so good.They're the best laughs in all of animated ever.
Yeah, I think they are.They're sincere.You don't just ask a kid to laugh.You tickle them or you do some silly face.And it's this real laughter.
Bingo, calm it down a bit, mate.
And I think that's why they end up sounding so genuine and so funny.
What's your favorite sound on Bluey?
That's my youngest daughter.What is it about Bingo's voice that you like so much?
Um, because she talks kind of like me.Daddy.
Just leave the door open this much so the leaf can come in.
One of the most heartwarming things about this show is how many of these voices come from Bluey's crew and their families.For example, there's the Busker, a musician dog whose signature line is, Who likes to dance?
He's voiced by the show's composer, Joff Bush.
Thanks, matey.That deserves another song.
Then there's Bluey and Bingo's grandmother, Chris Heeler.
She's voiced by and named after Joe and Dan's mother, Chris Brum.
Oh, yes, Bingo.I floss every night.
Joe also named the grandfather, Bob Heeler, after their dad, Bob Brum.On the show, real-life Bob actually doesn't voice Grandpa Bob, but he did do the voice for one of the grey nomads in the episode Road Trip.
And as it turns out, there's one more close relative who has a key role on the show.
A bit of a backstory is that I have this bizarre, graying stripe down the middle of my head, and so my older brother calls me Stripe, and amongst all the cousins, I'm Uncle Stripe.
And then I saw a script, which was horsey ride, come across my desk, and there was a character in it called Uncle Stripe.I thought, great.I think that character might be written for me.
there was no heads up.Dan's brother Joe just knew that he would get the message.
I think I first found out just from the script there and thought, ah, OK, I'm going to give this a red hot crack as an audition.
In Bluey, Uncle Stripe is Bandit's brother.He's got stubble on his face and a light blue stripe around his abdomen.
And obviously I was auditioned and I had to be able to do the role.
Fortunately, along with being a sound designer, Dan also had years of experience as a voiceover artist.
When living and working around here, it's all about taking pride in what you do, about being part of a community.
For Dan, the role of Uncle Stripe felt especially natural.
Hey kids, how you going?Hey brother. He's just me.Like, people ask you to do the Stripe voice.It's like, well, it's just me.What are you talking about?Nothing happens when you press my nose.But that doesn't mean that Stripe is always low-key.
He sort of yells a lot, Stripe.And you just scream, like, from the belly.And you just really give it your all. And the animators love that because they've got this just full range wild line that they can kind of animate however they'd like to.
And it ends up just funnier on screen.
Not only does Joe like to cast his friends and family on the show, he also draws from his real life experiences with these people to write these stories.In fact, some of the funniest and most poignant moments on the show came from real life.
I think that's why it's so funny because it was a real line that a kid did say.
That's coming up after the break.
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Congratulations to Thomas Rogsock for getting last episode's mystery sound right. That sound comes from an aeolian harp, also known as a wind harp.It's a stringed instrument that's designed specifically to be played by the wind blowing across it.
Now, typically, when you pluck a stringed instrument, you mainly hear what's called the fundamental tone, with some soft overtones on top of it.
But with a wind harp, the air moving over the strings only produces overtones, giving the sound an eerie, ethereal quality. And here's this episode's mystery sound.If you recognize that sound, tell us at the web address mystery.20k.org.
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Terms and conditions apply.Need to hire?You need Indeed. In many ways, Bluey is a family affair.The series was created by Joe Brum.His brother Dan sound designs and mixes the show, and also voices Uncle Stripe.
Their parents, Bob and Chris, have both voiced characters.And the kids in the show are voiced by the children of cast, crew, and friends. When writing the show, Joe draws on all of these connections to make Bluey feel relatable.
Like the episode, Squash, where Bandit and Stripe face off in a squash game.
Big brothers always beat little brothers.That's just the way it goes.
I've got two brothers, Joe and my older brother Adam, and we played a lot of squash, sort of in our 20s and 30s.
Squash is a high-speed game played in a small, enclosed court.
Squash with your brothers is different to squash with friends, because it's combat squash.You're swinging, you're running, it's wild and it's dangerous.
From a sound design point of view, it was so much fun because you can't fake a game of squash.It's such a specific sound.So I went down to a squash court and I recorded myself hitting squash balls, bouncing against walls, hitting the glass.
You know, and the cheats of like the squeak of the shoe.
Now a dog's foot wouldn't make that sound, but if you're watching a rally of squash and you don't have that high-pitched reverberant squeak of a shoe, it's just not going to sound and feel like a game of squash.
Dan actually has a co-writing credit on this episode.It was his idea to make Bluey and Bingo control Bandit and Stripe like video game characters.
Okay, one more point and we win, Bluey.Make it happen.Okay.
Just do your best, Bingo.
I'm trying, but my controllers aren't working properly.
No matter how hard he tries, Stripe just can't seem to beat Bandit.
Why do you keep losing?Because big brothers always beat little brothers.
The genesis of that story of big brothers always beat little brothers is kind of true because Joe just would always win.No matter how hard you tried, he just had that edge.
But this episode differs from real life a bit.Uncle Stripe ends up winning after some inspiring words from Bingo.
You'll probably have a better chance of winning with your dad.
Because big sisters don't always beat little sisters. I fixed you.
Even some of the dialogue in Bluey comes from real life.Like when Bingo trips on a can of baked beans.
Often the three of us brothers will get together and you just kind of laugh about various things that your kids have said.And that was my little, she would have been two and a half at the time.
She was eating a bowl of baked beans and she dropped the bowl of baked beans.And then she literally slipped on them and like, she went, ah, I slipped on my beans.
And so I would have told that to my brother and next minute I see that it's ended up in granny's and it's this immortalised line.I think that's why it's so funny because it was a real line that a kid did say.
While Joe brings his real-life experiences into the writing of Bluey, Dan often does the same thing with the sound.
I was actually watching back on the episode Wagon Ride from season one, and I really liked it because, again, the sound design is about capturing the feeling of what the story is trying to convey.And that episode is set in an early morning.
The kids have woken up Dan and he's got to take him for a walk.
Ah, chilly.Asleep.All right, let's do this.
As parents know, this kind of thing happens a lot.
There's early mornings, and then there's early mornings of when your kid wakes up.
My oldest daughter, she would wake up at four o'clock every morning, and I would have to take her out of the house and take her for a big walk so that my wife and our baby could keep sleeping.
And the sound out in the world at four in the morning is very different from six o'clock in the morning.It's different from five o'clock in the morning.That first hour, it's just whole different birds.
Seatbelts!Dad, there are no seatbelts!Oh yeah!Off we go!
And then, as you go for the walk, by the time you finish the walk, more and more birds have woken up.
Come on Bingo, let's roll!
Coming!Jasmine, I've got some birthday phones!
And I think I did a pretty good job in that episode.It just, it feels beautiful and lush and lovely.
You ladies are certainly up early.
Oh yes, it's got to be done.
Throughout the episode, Bandit pulls the kids around in her red wagon.
You won't get us today, rich troll.Yeah, rich troll, meet some other kids.
The show is obviously very much based on my brother's experience raising his kids.And so that's what he used to do.He used to take his kids in the wagon.So the first thing I did as a sound designer is I borrowed that wagon off him.
And I recorded myself pushing and pulling that around my street in the area.But I needed the weight of having two kids in it.So I put my two kids in it and I wheeled them around.And that got that lovely, really nice weighted metal cart sound.
And you can hear between the takes I've used, my kids laughing and squealing because they're having so much fun.Their dad was pushing them around in this trolley at five in the morning.
And so now they're frozen in time at two and four, and they're eight and ten now.It's this beautiful little time capsule which only I know about.
I have a question.Daddy, daddy, I have a question.Don't keep laughing.
Bluey is inspired by the family lives of the people who make it.And in turn, these stories give families like mine our own special moments.At one point, my daughter started saying this phrase that my wife and I just couldn't figure out.
For the longest time, I had two different daughters who said the same thing.They were just like, I want to play passel-passel.Passel-passel.And I was like, passel-passel?It took us forever.
It took us like six weeks to figure out, like, what are you talking about?Passel-passel, passel-passel.
But then, my wife and I saw the episode of Bluey where the kids play this game that's apparently common in Australia.It's like musical chairs, but instead of changing seats, you pass around a present.
The game, in my very American accent, is called Pass the Parcel.
OK, ready for Pass the Parcel?Yeah!Pass the Parcel, where they pass presents.
We realized that they were saying, pass the parcel, but with an Australian accent.It was so cute.That's amazing.
You ready for pass the parcel, kids?
Yeah!I love pass the parcel.
The reason why I say pass the parcel is because it's kind of hard for me to speak.
Pass the Parcel isn't the only game we've gotten from Bluey.I play Keepy Uppy at least once a week.I love it.This aspect of the show isn't by accident.The creators are very conscious of how these stories impact parents.
Some parents find it hard to play with their kids, to have the imagination to come up with these games.But what Bluey has given those parents is a bunch of games that they can just play.
And so the kids are then getting much more fun times with their parents.And that's what you hear everywhere is that it's just encouraged dads and mums to play with their kids and
There's no better outcome from a TV show, right, than bringing families together and playing these games.The unfortunate thing is that those games aren't just a seven-minute game.
It's a game that the kid wants to play for five hours in a row when the cricket's on.
All right, girls, who wants to sit on the couch and watch cricket?
Not me!No way!Let's play horsey ride!Yeah!
Well, we gave it a shot.That's parenting for you.
more than any specific game.For me, the biggest takeaway from Bluey is just relatable stories about being a parent.Like in one episode where Chili's cooking dinner.
She has Bingo in one ear telling jokes that don't make sense, while Bluey is in the other ear practicing her recorder.
Potato who?Potato drives a car to the potato shop and buys a potato.
That's a good one, Bingo.
When Banda gets home, Chillie tells him that she needs a break.
Right.Dinner's in the slow cooker and the pad afternoon tea.I need 20 minutes when no one comes near me.What?
Oh, yep.Okay.Come on, kids.Daddy-daughter time.But the girls don't understand, and they think they've done something wrong.
I'm sorry for whatever I did to upset you.You didn't do anything to upset me, sweetheart.Then why don't you want to see us?I do want to see you, but it can be hard work looking after kids.
Sometimes mums just need 20 minutes.
You will one day, sweetheart.
Parenting is such a hard journey. and it's so lovely and it's so emotional, but it's tiring and it's frustrating and it's every single emotion you can experience.
And then suddenly with Bluey, these stories are so sincere, it's so believable and so relatable in that all of us parents who are playing these games behind closed doors that no one sees,
Suddenly, it's like you see yourself up on screen, and you realize we're all going through it together.And for me, that's the power of this show, and that's just this gift to the world that my brother has given.
How does Balouie the show make you feel about your family?
Um, makes us feel more ordinary, for sure.
In the Taylor household, Bluey is the one show that me, my wife, and our three girls can all enjoy together.We can laugh, we can cry, we can learn a goofy new game to play.
And most importantly, we can learn to understand each other just a little bit better.
And I mean, that's what this show is.Ever since it came out in 2018, I'd tell people that I work on it, and their eyes would just light up.And they just want to tell you how much this show means to them and their family.
I'm very fortunate and very lucky to be able to play a role in a show like this.But it's a really nice feeling to know that something you work on is just creating so much happiness and so much joy around the world.
20,000 Hertz is produced out of the sound design studios of DeFacto Sound.Hear more at DeFactoSound.com.
This episode was written and produced by Nicholas Harder.And Casey Emmerle.
With help from Grace East.
It was sound design and mixed by Jesus Arteaga.And Jade Dickey.
A huge thanks to sound designer Dan Drumm.
I'm Dallas Taylor.Thanks for listening. Alright, I'm about to hit stop.Anybody else want to say anything to the microphone before I hit stop? Hey, listeners.
These days, there's so much content that's meant to get people riled up, whether it's on the news, on podcasts, or on places like YouTube and TikTok.Creators know anything that makes people upset is more clickable and more shareable.
But one of my goals with this show is to fight back against that constant stream of negativity.Our episodes are designed to be little nuggets of joy and sincerity.But stories like this aren't the ones that people naturally think to share.
That's where you come in. If you'd like to bring a little more joy into this world, then share our episodes with the people you know would love them.Send them to friends and family members, and talk about them online.
Remember, 20,000Hz is family-friendly, and it's made to be enjoyed by anyone who loves good storytelling, not just people who are super into sound.So please, help us spread the joy.I'd really appreciate it.Thanks.
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