Music Star Debi Derryberry Of Very Derryberry Productions On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry
An Interview With Guernslye Honoré
I wish someone had told me to set a budget as to how much I was planning to spend on producing a song or album. There are SO many expenses involved.
As a part of our interview series with leaders, stars, and rising stars in the music industry, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Debi Derryberry.
LA-based Debi Derryberry is best known for her distinguished 30-year career as a voice actor, having voiced Jimmy Neutron in the Academy Award-nominated film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, as well as characters in Disney/Pixar’sToy Story, Netflix’s Emmy-nominated adult show, F is For Family; Grimsburg; Nickelodeon’s The Loud House, Monster High, Sharkdog, and The Casa Grandes; Disney’s Bugs Bunny Builders, and many, many more. Debi’s video game credits include Like a Dragon, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Crash Bandicoots, Final Fantasy, Guild Wars 2, Genshin Impact, and World of Warcraft. She can be heard on such animé projects as Zatch Bell!, Sailor Moon, and Glitter Force. A “go-to” coach as well as a performer, Debi is the author of the popular book, Voice Over 101: How to Succeed as a Voice Actor, which is now in its second edition, and she was voted LA’s #1 voiceover coach by Backstage West.
As an on-camera actress, Debi’s credits include The Rookie, The Grinder, iCarly, Ghostworld, Comic Book: The Movie, and Free Willy. In Free Willy, Debi was the stunt double who actually rode the whale!
However, Debi’s passion has always been music. The granddaughter of an Orthodox Jewish cantor, Debi received her first guitar at age 9, and she has been writing and singing ever since. After graduating from UCLA as a pre-med student, Debi followed her heart to pursue a career as a country music singer/songwriter in Nashville. Debi returned to LA three years later to launch her voiceover career, but she never abandoned her music. She formed a female folk/country trio, Honey Pig, which was voted one of the 100 Top LA Bands for three years running, sang at Dodgers and Lakers games, and even had a song on NPR’s much-listened-to show, Car Talk. Honey Pig released an album, Exactly As We Are, a 4-song EP, Clueless You, and a single, “Fallin.’” Becoming a parent ultimately inspired Debi to write and record three award-winning children’s albums. (The title song from her third children’s album, Baby Banana, went to number one on the SiriusXM Kids Place Live radio charts!) Debi’s fourth children’s album, Gotta Go Green, will be released on March 8, 2024.
Debi’s previous children’s albums include Baby Banana, Very Derryberry, and What A Way To Play. Her children’s book, Baby Banana and the Licorice Tree, written to accompany the Baby Banana album, is available on Amazon.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about your “origin story”. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up the middle child of my family in the small desert town of Indio, CA. Starting at 9 years old, I played guitar to accompany myself singing. I have always loved to sing and make and hear harmonies. They light me up. My family was always involved with community theater. I had a girlfriend with whom I wrote songs and performed for our families. She lived down the street so I would haul my guitar to her house, and we would sing and write for hours. I did well in school and was in drama class and gymnastics until I went to UCLA to be a pre-med major.
What inspired you to pursue a career in music, and how did your journey begin?
After graduating UCLA as a pre-med and starting the medical school application and interview process, I realized that what I really wanted to do was sing. Throughout college, I spent my weekends on the streets of Westwood busking or in the stairwells of my dorm writing songs (the acoustics in the stairwell were amazing!). So instead of medical school, I moved to Nashville, TN to try to peddle my songs and sing. I started booking jingle sessions, but not as a grown-up voice. My jobs were for singing like a child. The bulk of my career has been me sounding like a child.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
To earn a living while pursuing music in Nashville, I did “stand-in” work on the set of the feature film Ernest Goes to Camp. They needed someone who was the size of a 12-year-old boy. So, I sat in the forest with the parents of the kid actors, and when they needed “2nd team” (the stand-ins) to set lighting and such, I was there. One of the mothers, Dottie Menville, Scott’s Menville’s mom, thought I would do well in voice over, and she gave me names of some casting directors in Los Angeles. I brought my little electric typewriter (this was in the ’80s) to the forest and typed some letters which I mailed, along with my cassette tape demo, to the casting directors. Ginny McSwain responded and told me that my cassette demo was good, but I needed to live in LA. So, long story short, I moved back to Los Angeles, she called ICM, and Jeff Danis signed me as my first voice agent. Two weeks later, I started booking voice over jobs, and that was over 30 years ago. Having worked as a body double for a 12-year-old boy and being a scuba diver also helped to land the job as a body double for the boy in the first Free Willy movie where I rode the whale for the boy. I did this while I was recording Howie Mandel’s cartoon, Bobby’s World.
It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I don’t want to say I don’t make mistakes, but this is a hard question … I remember once I had surgery for an ingrown toenail and was in so much pain that I took a very strong painkiller. Then I went (someone drove me) to a recording session, and when I tried to record, it was difficult to make my mouth say the lines so I had to go home and return after I was feeling better with no pain medication for my toe. Always best to show up to work when you can be 100%!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There are a few people who come to mind here. One is Sherry Lynn, a fellow voice actor who recommended me to her ADR looping coordinator, Mickie McGowan, to do additional voices. After that first film, I was brought in to do additional voices on most of Mickie’s animated films. They ended up being huge and successful films that I get to say I was a part of! (Toy Story, Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc, Kiki’s Delivery Service, etc.)
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I’m excited to be the voice of all the infants in the new expansion pack for SIMS. It was SO much fun to do all the babies for SIMS. Also, two video games that I’m in just released: 1) Like A Dragon-Infinite Wealth as the voice of Gachapin and 2) Granblue Relink as the playable character Maglielle. I also just launched my new YouTube channel specifically for kids called “Debi Derryberry KIDS!” that will have all my kids’ music videos.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in music, film, and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
- When kids see diversity in our programming, there are no lines drawn. Everyone is equal. As this fact unfolds visually to our kids, there will be less prejudice and judgment.
- Diversity in our media brings more than just one interpretation to performance. This widens our kids’ views of what is out there.
- Diversity in our media gives EVERYONE the opportunity to be a superhero!
As a successful music star, you’ve likely faced challenges along the way. How do you stay motivated? How do you overcome obstacles in your career?
I have always tried to do what I love to do. I always say to run through any door that opens for you. When there is an obstacle in my way, I just find a way around it and keep plugging. I may not succeed the first time, but I keep trying. Persistence is KEY! Also, never burning a bridge is so important because in the music business, networking is so very important. And even if I’m afraid to ask for something … I do it anyway!
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
1. If you have a passion, pursue it. Not what you THINK you should do. EX: In hindsight, I might have majored in music and the music business or advertising or marketing, which would all have been closer to my passion of music.
2. I wish that someone would have told me to study the music biz as soon as I started recording songs. I wrote and recorded dozens of songs that I can’t do anything with because I have no co-writer agreements and no releases. This prohibits me from ever doing anything with the songs that I can’t get releases signed for. So now, every time I write or record, my paperwork is in order! I realized I needed to do this when one of my co-writers actually said, “Debi you really need to learn this business if you are going to be in it.” I finally took a class from Michele Vice-Maselin called “From Song to Sync,” and that really was amazing. I now have a few mentors whom I can turn to for help.
3. I wish someone had told me to set a budget as to how much I was planning to spend on producing a song or album. There are SO many expenses involved.
4. I wish I had learned Excel and Photoshop earlier. They are so important in staying organized. I still struggle with using Excel, and I have to outsource my Photoshop needs. But I guess we can’t be great at EVERYTHING lol.
5. I wish someone had told me about the “Nice Sandwich” earlier and how important this is! This is when you send an email or letter and you say nice things and pleasantries, then you say or ask what you want, then you finish with thank yous and more pleasantries. I never knew this trick, and I have sent SO many emails or letters that may have been received as “curt.”
Can you share some insights into your creative process? How do you approach songwriting? How do you approach musical collaborations?
Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night and have a song buzzing around in my head. So, I have to wake up and sing it into my phone or write it down. I usually come up with an idea line at the start and then go from there. Lyrics for me come along with the melody. Then the lyrics get fine-tuned as I go along.
For collaborations, I usually come with an idea. Then we sign paperwork and then start with just a guitar and a piece of paper to write lyrics.
Your music has resonated with so many fans worldwide. What do you believe sets your music apart?
I believe that kids’ music needs to be good music, with a subject that appeals to kids. Kids these days are quite savvy, and people’s attention spans in general are quite short, so you want to grab the listener immediately. Lyrics are very important to me. There is a whole world of ways to communicate a thought. Not just boring, plain lyrics. I like to use imagery. And now with YouTube being so prevalent, the visual element of a song gives so much to the video process when making a music video.
How do you connect with your audience?
I connect with my audience mostly via YouTube on my “Debi Derryberry KIDS!” channel. And I hope through YouTube Kids. I hope to have some network or streaming in the future with my character “Little Debi.”
With your busy schedule and demanding performances, how do you prioritize self-care and maintain a balance between your personal life and career in the music industry?
Well, that is a great question! I get up at 5 am to get my exercycling in for my cardio, then I swim and walk the dogs. Then it’s time to start the day! I work in my office/recording studio doing voice over business and auditions all day, breaking for lunch and on-line Pilates. In the evenings or weekends, I am usually writing, rehearsing, or recording music. Of course, I keep a very detailed calendar so I can see friends for lunches and dinners. I love to cook so we do a lot of entertaining.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Well, there are so many things! For one, I would stop tearing down the rain forests and stop using palm oil in products. If there was no need for palm oil, there would be much less rain forest devastation. The air would be cleaner and orangutans and other rain forest animals could keep their homes. ALSO, I would pay our schoolteachers a MUCH higher salary! They are the most important people in our children’s lives besides parents. They must be compensated. They work SO hard!!! Their work is undervalued.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I would love to have a private breakfast with Dolly Parton. I have loved her music my whole life and truly admire all her noble efforts. Dolly is a delight.
How can our readers continue to follow your work online?
My YouTube channel is “Debi Derryberry KIDS!” And my website is www.debiderryberry.com. All my music is available for streaming and downloading on all the digital platforms and on my website. Readers can follow me on Insta and TikTok @DebiDerryberry
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About the interviewer: Guernslye Honoré, affectionately known as “Gee-Gee”, is an amalgamation of creativity, vision, and endless enthusiasm. She has elegantly twined the worlds of writing, acting, and digital marketing into an inspiring tapestry of achievement. As the creative genius at the heart of Esma Marketing & Publishing, she leads her team to unprecedented heights with her comprehensive understanding of the industry and her innate flair for innovation. Her boundless passion and sense of purpose radiate from every endeavor she undertakes, turning ideas into reality and creating a realm of infinite possibilities. A true dynamo, Gee-Gee’s name has become synonymous with inspirational leadership and the art of creating success.
