CHENNAI: You don’t need a drum kit or any other instrument when you can be your own music box. A roll of the tongue, lip smacking, whoosh of air and your voice together can help you beatbox. Beatboxing or b-boxing has been famous among American musicians since the 19th Century. It evolved into a culture, a career and in the past decade, it has mesmerised Indians too. Chennai is clearing a pathway for this fascinating genre and French beatboxer Faya Braz who is coming to town for a concert and workshop. Dun, dun, dun. Let’s do this! City Express caught up with a few local beatboxers to find out how they were introduced to this vocal percussion and if they plan to make it big in this field.
Practising hard for the last six years is 18-year-old Kewin Fernando who first heard b-boxing on television. He was hooked. “I can imitate drums, trumpet, mandolin and I recently started to imitate Indian instruments like the mrudangam. I also, rap, sing, play the guitar or keyboard while beatboxing. Lately, I’ve been into combining it with a harmonica,” says Kewin who owns the Boss RC 505 Loopstation, the one that Faya also uses.
Some are into looping, like Kewin’s close buddy Kshitij Swamy, for instance. Looping is the art of recording different layers of sounds and creating an entire performance — like a one-man show. Kshitij says, “I do beatbox looping as I like it better than plain beatboxing, which restricts you with the number of sounds you can produce at a time.” He was also given a Boss RC 505 as a birthday gift by his friends.
The duo has performed together at open mic events like Unmaking India, Queer and Allies Art Festival and those held by Crea Shakthi. “I have been beatboxing for four years. People actually appreciate it very much as many of them are unaware of it and are astonished by the way we replicate the sounds to near perfection,” grins the 19-year-old who recently performed in the 54th Bengaluru Ganesh Utsava.
Doesn’t beatboxing affect their vocal cords? While a common itchy throat is possible after long hours of b-boxing, studies by Journal of Voice reveals that the use of the entire vocal trace, including the pharyngeal constrictors can protect against glottis injury. Verifying this, beatboxer Rahul Ramesh claims that b-boxing helped get rid of his wheezing problem. He has been learning it for the last two years, aiming for perfection. He adds, “Once a gig on the beach was called off stating it was public nuisance. But times are changing, beatboxing scene is growing exponentially.”
Beatboxing was indeed regarded as a public nuisance and a matter of ‘spit and make noise’. Akash Radhakrishnan says, “Almost two years ago, people mocked me, made fun and frowned upon it, including my parents. But it’s changing now. There are people begging me to teach them and then there are those who continue to mock.” It seems certain that the form is now considered a popular art and is trending.
Talking about trends, we asked Faya what is in trend and what’s he going to teach at the workshop. Including a perfect (almost scary) impression of a barking dog in our conversation he said, “I’ll be teaching them the history of human beatbox and the basics of producing sound. I’m quite excited and in my Indian tour, I’ve come across many good beatboxers. I am looking forward to the same in Chennai,” says Faya who will also bring in the current beatboxing trend — Lip Rolls.
The beatboxers in the city are stoked about Faya’s upcoming workshop at Alliance Francaise on September 17 and his concert at Phoenix MarketCity on September 18. Ready with a bunch of questions and a pen and paper for his autograph, it looks like they have the same goal — to increase the awareness of the human beatbox and conduct workshops for the aspirants.
For details about the workshop, call 28249803 and for the concert, call 66513007