MANGALURU/BENGALURU: ‘Mind boggling’, ‘awesome’ and ‘insane’ are just some of the adjectives used by fans to describe beatboxing events that pop up in the coastal city every now and then. And they are not exaggerating as beatboxing has become a fad among music lovers everywhere.
There are no official records of when and how beatboxing took shape. For instance, if one listens to British rock group Mungo Jerry’s 1970 song ‘In the summertime’, the musicians do a few beats using their vocal chords. “Beatboxing is all about mimicking beats generated by percussion instruments. In recent times, many artistes have even accomplished to mimic sounds of cymbals and saxophone. My partner Akshay Bhat and I have collaborated on a new genre of beatboxing by mixing rap and hip hop. Akshay has to be credited for bringing professional beatboxing from Muscat to Mangaluru,” said Mangaluru’s beatboxing pro Swarup Paul Maben.
Both Akshay and Swarup have competed at state and national level competitions and performed at concerts. “I hate beatboxing being equated with mimicry. It is anything but that. The beatboxer should know his music, every beat and change of rhythm that the percussion instruments have, especially drums. Beatboxers need timing, potential energy, and good lung power.
It is an art that synchronises breathing while creating sounds of instruments,” explains Swarup. Swarup has also mastered the art of playing the harmonica while beatboxing. When asked if using the harmonica would mean bringing country music into beatboxing, Swarup explains, “It is not the genre of Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson but more of the recent kind where drums are heavier and faster, coupled with a dash of harmonica.”
Akshay, a final year student at St. Aloysius College in Mangaluru, says beatboxing is all about bringing out the music within you without the use of instruments. Many say it is an emerging form of entertainment. The duo has been to Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru among other cities to take part in beatboxing events and even reached final rounds of TV reality shows. Beatboxing is gaining so much attention in the coastal city that almost every music concert includes a beatboxing segment. At the recently-held wine festival organised by the Karnataka Wine Board at Kadri Park in Mangaluru, beatboxing swept hundreds of music lovers off their feet.