By Keith Brunson
Music is a language unto itself. Phil Buckman knows that. The 52-year-old bass player from Queens that lives in Los Angeles has been in and out of bands all his life. And these days, it's "PETTY CASH."
At one time, it was Filter.
Music is the very core of his soul, and it's the desire that fuels his fire. "I was four or five years old when I decided I wanted to be a rockstar," says Phil "and discovering KISS," Phil explains that sort of ended all consideration as to the course his life would take.
Phil is also a voiceover artist for commercials, and you know his voice from the world-famous Carl's Jr ads.
Carl's Jr. TV ads feature Phil's voiceover work.
"Voiceover has made a huge difference in my professional life and its' made up the majority of my income, even when I was a series regular on a network TV show," says Phil. His first ads were with Jack in the Box. So much for wood sheading. In the ad world, brands like that can take a lifetime to achieve. That…is where Phil started. He was discovered by casting director Elaine Craig (who happened to see him on a TV show and thought he'd be perfect for a Jack In The Box radio commercial she was casting) and Rick Sittig, founder of Secret Weapon Marketing & Radical Media.
Phil Buckman built a career in entertainment, including a lucrative "gig" as a voice-over actor.
Rick led Phil to Activision Extreme Sports games, including games for the great Tony Hawk, the skateboarder, and world-renowned Pro surfer Kelly Slater. This genre of voice work is Very specific. It's very hard to get. So, it says a lot about a voiceover artist if there doing this kind of thing. Now connect the music he plays to the genre he voices, and you'll have a clear understanding of who Phil Buckman is. I saw him in the movie "Hired Gun" 30 months ago, so I am familiar with who Phil is. But you're meeting him now.
Phil is a well-rounded artist. He's a musician, an actor, a photographer, and a voiceover artist. The hustle it takes to maintain a great lifestyle in LA sustains only the very best in the media world. Life inside the epicenter of entertainment is complex. The business requires that you not only be talented at the work, but you must have talented people who help you find the work. And that's how the agent/talent relationship contributes to life there. Phil is represented by Atlas talent. But it was his first agent Jeff Danis who opened doors for Phil. "He gave me my shot," says Phil.
"I auditioned every day," says Phil. "Every day that there is a chance, I'll read." Phil addresses this as an emphasis because constantly proving yourself is just part of it. It's about grinding out the talent in your heart to communicate to the entertainment public that you are relative. Phil first landed into the clutches of Carl's Jr in 2000.
Phil lends his voice talent to another Carl's Jr. ad.
He was empowered by Jordan Mendleson, the brainchild of the highly charged television campaign that used sex to sell hamburgers. Phil was the voice. It worked. “He understood the value of a voice's contribution to an ad campaign," says Phil. "He made me feel more than being "just a voice."
But the evolution of the home studio has augmented the production landscape. And sometimes in conditions even less. "I've recorded from the back of a tour bus before," Phil tells me. "I started, and things were set up in a studio format, and now, everything is done in the home." This new phenomenon has resulted in too many high-end artists competing for fewer high-paying gigs. "It is what it is," says Phil.
And with his wife, who writes pop music working, Phil also is involved in raising children. "We did plan the way it has occurred," he says. "We wanted to start a family right away and did." But as Phil tells me, "the high volume of commercial work that has been available in past years for union workers is way off from what it used to be." Phil's union SAG/AFTRA provides guaranteed rates and offers the elite artist benefits the non-union announcer is not privy to. This level of talent led to voice work with KNBC-TV in LA. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0118720/
If you're interested in becoming a person Like Phil, you can find out if you're right for the work. At The Voice Shop https://www.voiceshopcoaching.com, voice over classes are offered remotely to anyone anywhere or in-person in class in the New York City area. Voice classes are offered from beginner to expert. And there are specialty classes to perfect dialects accents, and everything is designed to help you identify where you fit in the voiceover world. The Voice Shop is a sister company of Creative Media Design in New York. https://www.cmdnyc.com CMD offers translation in (80) different languages. When you become a student of The Voice Shop, you become exposed to the people who hire voice talent in the world of entertainment and production.
Phil is no longer a student. "I probably could learn something new, of course," he says. But with family life and professional life combined, when you're at Phil's level and still active, managing life becomes an art form in itself. As for life as a rock star, Phil is still active and still playing. And despite the changes in the entertainment landscape across the decades, music remains the driving force in his heart that fuels the fire for everything else. Some things never change.
