"There is no other time in life when I feel more myself, more comfortable or more at home than when I’m singing or listening to music." -- Ashley Barrett
Ashley Lynn Barrett, credited as Ashley Barrett, is a vocalist and voice actor who provides the singing voice of Red in Transistor. She is a longtime collaborator with Darren Korb and Supergiant Games, having also provided voice work for Bastion, Pyre, and Hades.
Personal Life[]
Barrett lives in San Francisco, California. She had been friends with Darren Korb for years before providing vocal work for Supergiant's games, having known him through their old theater company in the Bay Area.
Career[]
Barrett's singing career began with acoustic sets in dive bars and opportunities for rap hooks and commercial jingles. Early in her career, she also did a lot of voice-over work for English as a Second Language tapes for Japan. Her website notes experience singing jazz, pop, folk, country, and R&B, as well as a knack for harmonization and blending.
Bastion was her first video game role, though she had worked with Darren Korb on some side projects earlier. Her recording for Bastion took place in his Brooklyn apartment closet, from which she discussed each of the songs' many takes with him through her headphones.
Barrett has since provided voicework for all of Supergiant's subsequent original video game soundtracks, including Transistor (2014), Pyre (2017), Hades (2020), and Hades II (early access release in 2024). Many of her collaborations with Korb have gone on to win video game industry awards, and "her voice has been written about in publications such as Billboard Magazine, SPIN, Kotaku, IGN, and Bandcamp."[1]
Transistor[]
Barrett described recording for Transistor as requiring multiple takes due to the complexity of Darren Korb's music, which could be difficult for a vocalist to follow due to its specific, unusual timestamps. She found We All Become challenging because the part used in the game's trailer was recorded first and its intensity had to be matched in the full song a year later. However, her acapella experience and intense interest in harmony left her undaunted by the challenge.
Transistor's large volume of vocal tracks makes it among her favorite experiences with Supergiant Games.[2] For the hummed tracks, Darren Korb would either write a scratch melody which would be sung by Ashley or have her improvise to the instrumentals.[3]
Barrett was twenty-nine years old when Transistor was released.
Trivia[]
- Barrett's height is 5'5".
External Links[]
- Website: Ashley Lynn Barrett
- ↑ Website: Ashley Lynn Barrett; Interview: Ashley Lynn Barrett On Voicing Zia From "Bastion". Complex (2012). Both retrieved 02 August 2024.
- ↑ Ashley Barrett interview | Supergiant Games Vocalist | Hades, Pyre, Transistor, Bastion at timestamps 17:40, 19:25, 23:02. The Wannabe Critic (2021). Retrieved 02 August 2024.
- ↑ Transistor Devs Q&A. Archived by the Wayback Machine; retrieved 04 August 2024.