Schlomo is probably the best beatboxer in the world. He’s a Guinness World Record Holder, performed to 10,000 people at Glastonbury (albeit plunged them into darkness first), a World Loopstation champion, and Tim Westwood thinks he’s Harry Potter. So yeah, he’s kind of big deal. Despite all these lofty accolades he’s still all about the engagement and collaboration, and needs YOU to help with his upcoming national collaborative project #HumanGeekbox. Here he gives us a little insight into the mind of the beatboxer…
Afternoon Mr Shlo! So your project for War Child, #HumanGeekbox, deserves a good plug as it’s for charity, GO!
Well #HumanGeekbox is my new touring show. It’s very theatrical, so I’m mixing my beatboxing with a storyline from my own life. I was born into a line of certified geeks – my grandfather, Professor Kahn, was an astronomer and they named a planet after him, called Planet Kahnia. When I was a kid I thought I was going to go and live there. So #HumanGeekbox tells the story of 4 generations of space obsessed boys from my grandfather, my dad, me, then down to my own son, all mashed up with plenty of beatboxing, live looping and audience interaction.
How did the idea come about and why War Child?
The War Child link is my ‘Charity Collaborator Challenge’. I love collaborating, and even though it’s a solo tour I couldn’t resist the idea of working with other artists. I’m using digital media to help find a different collaborator in each town on the tour. I’ve set myself a slightly ridiculous and totally terrifying challenge: to co-write, perform and release a new song in 2 hours with a different local artist at each show. After the show, the music goes up on my website for people to buy in aid of War Child.
Integral to Human Geekbox is collaboration, which is a running theme in your work. Why is working with other musicians important to you, and what do you think you bring out of them?
I’ve always seen music as a social art form. I’ve led bands since I was a kid and I love the idea of creating something bigger than the sum of its individual parts. I like to think I can bring out a side of my collaborators that their audience might not have seen before, and also it means you get two audiences crossing over which is always lovely.
Social networking is a big part of the project too, with you going so far as to ask followers to tweet you ideas. How interactive are you as an artist with social media, and what is it about breaking the forth wall that you like?
The music industry has changed hugely these days and any artist who thinks they’ll get success by having some mysterious untouchable persona and not connecting with their audience is going to get left behind very quickly. I’ve met so many amazing and like-minded collaborators via social media, like musicians, filmmakers and designers, but also food recommendations, advice and support. It’s all about engaging!
What inspires you creatively? For example, songwriters are using words to express feelings or situations, so beatboxing is…?
Beatboxing is using the tools your body provides to make music and tell your stories.
You do projects that culminate in performance as opposed to albums. Do you think that beatboxing is limited in the sense that it’s all about the live show, or does that give you more space to create?
It’s definitely a live art-form, and I used to shun the idea of recording my music because I was scared that people wouldn’t get that it was ‘all from the mouth’. But then I realized that it’s the quality of the music that matters, not the techniques used to make it.
Talk us through the process of creating a track, where do you begin and how does it take shape?
It totally depends on what I’m writing it for. I compose music for shows like dance and theatre, and for choirs, or for myself to perform solo, or to perform with a group, so there are lots of approaches. Often I’ll start jamming on my loopstation to work up a groove, or sometimes I write on the guitar or piano, and sometimes I compose with Sibelius which is scoring software.
Ever cheated and used a sample you didn’t create personally?
I don’t think I have, but if the music required it then that’s what I’d do! There are no rules
You’ve received some awesome and slightly strange accolades over the years – from ‘Master of the fine art of beatboxing’ to ‘the Harry Potter’ of the genre. With all this love how do you keep your work fresh and exciting?
I’m lucky because I’ve always had a really diverse career, mixing my solo work with my various ensemble projects, composing, directing, teaching, but it’s really important that you keep pushing yourself into new and uncomfortable territories. The minute you are comfortable, that’s when you’ll get boring and stale!
And finally, career highlight and what’s still on the list?
Highlight – my equipment once caused a power cut in front of 10,000 people at Glastonbury. I was distraught thinking this would surely be the end of it all, but the crowd just kept whooping, singing and clapping until suddenly we were back on. There was a collosal cheer and the rest of the set had so much energy – we were all just so happy that we got to go on
Still on the list – perform with Stevie Wonder.
Thanks Schlomo!
Kate Tittley
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