Vampires usually arrive with capes, fangs, and a body count. In Hugo Pierre Martin’s hands, they arrive with empathy, humor, and something closer to a warm cup of tea.
Martin, an audio drama maker, voice actor, and podcasting consultant based in Providence, has spent the past two-plus years crafting a low-fantasy vampire audio series that quietly defies expectations. “In one breath, it’s about vampires but really about recovery from trauma,” Martin says. What listeners don’t expect, he adds, is “how comforting and sweet it is, despite it dealing with heavy material.”
That tonal surprise is intentional. While the series leans into genre, it uses vampires as a vessel for deeply human themes: neurodivergence, healing, and the long arc of recovery. “I think I was in a place in my life where I was beginning to talk about my journey of being someone in trauma recovery,” Martin explains. “The vehicle of fiction, specifically vampires, struck a chord.”
The project is also unmistakably Rhode Island–rooted. Martin records locally while working part-time at Brown University and has collaborated with Trinity Rep MFA students through the university’s resources. A recent season was supported by a grant from the Awesome Foundation, allowing Martin to commission Providence-based artists and voice actors.
“Since the series is largely set in Providence, I really dig when people from here are engaged with it,” he says. While contributors span the UK, Mexico, Singapore, and across the U.S.,
Martin is clear that the local creative community matters. “Meeting local artists and getting to direct people in person is a lot more fun than doing it remotely.”
The spark for the entire series came, fittingly, from a Rhode Island moment. A visit to Woonsocket and a chance sighting of a a man that looked like a vampire in a lime green mustang inspired the first episode, written, recorded, and edited in about an hour. “Away we went,” Martin says.
Now deep into recording season eight, Martin describes the project as something more than a show. “I think this story has been a hypersigil,” he says, noting the personal and professional growth that’s unfolded alongside it. Whether the series ends, pauses, or transforms into something new, Martin hopes listeners take what they need. “A bit of fun, or something more meaningful,” he says. “Both are important.” Ready to press play? Learn more about the audio series and listen to episodes at NetoVampire.com.
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