aaamusic | On 19, Sep 2013

AAAmusic: Who are you and where are you from?

I’m Shlomo. I’ve been beatboxing since I was a kid, and over the last few years I’ve had the pleasure to beatbox with people like Bjork, Damon Albarn, Bill Bailey and Martha Wainwright.

AAAmusic: What inspired you to get into music?

I grew up in a very musical family and got my first drum kit aged eight years old. All I wanted to do was play my drums on Top Of The Pops. Only problem was it was on at 7pm, and I wasn’t allowed to practice my drums after 6pm, so I instinctively started making noises with my mouth. I didn’t know it was called beatboxing until much later. My love of all things digital didn’t come ’til much later.

AAAmusic: What have you done?

I started incorporating live looping into my show a few years back as a way to take my music beyond gimmickry and to start creating my own songs. I entered the World Looping Championships for a bit of fun and came back World Champion, and then I won the Guinness World Record for directing the largest beatboxing choir.

AAAmusic: What are you like live?

Since winning the looping championships I’ve developed my rig, and I now have a table stacked with various gadgetry designed to process, warp and mash up my voice. I’m also using digital media to help find a different collaborator each time I do the show. I’ve set myself a slightly ridiculous challenge: to co-write, perform and release a new song in two hours with a different local artist in each town on the tour. After each show, the music will be released digitally in aid of War Child. My guest for Brighton is Zee Gachette.

AAAmusic: What makes you different?

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. His story has inspired my new one man show #HumanGeekbox.

AAAmusic: Physical vs Downloading vs Streaming…How do you listen to music?

I love Spotify and listen to it daily on my phone. It’s clear to me that physical music releases will always be there, but they are essentially a relic these days. It’s up to us artists to innovate and find new ways to get our work out there.

AAAmusic: What have you been listening to?

Loving new releases from Kal Lavelle, Fat Freddy’s Drop, I Am Legion (Foreign Beggars and Noisia collaboration).

AAAmusic: What are your aspirations for the future? 

I’m touring my new solo show #HumanGeekbox throughout the UK this Autumn, then I’m planning on writing a new solo album as well as continuing my work as a composer and director for all kinds of projects. It’s the diversity that keeps me happy!

Be sure to catch Shlomo on his UK tour of Human Geekbox. Tickets on sale now…

Questions answered by: Simon Shlomo Kahn…