It takes interesting people to do interesting things. Human beatbox artist Shlomo is about as good an example of that axiom as anyone. Of Israeli, Iraqi and German descent, speaker of four languages and classically trained in percussion and the complex art of jazz drumming, Shlomo was unlikely to take up a career in finance. National attention swept his way after his work with the Icelandic eccentric Björk on the Medúlla album, where he used layered vocal percussion and melody to create haunting and beautiful tracks of the like no one had heard before or since. With that Grammy Award nominated work with Björk, Shlomo created something quite revolutionary. So, ahead of his appearance at the Willowstone festival in Killyleah this July, we asked if he noticed if the Medúlla album had made an impact on his career? "Absolutely, it was my first big break. When I got the call from Bjork I was working in an office typing out lonely-hearts adverts." But what was it that pushed him to develop this skill to the level he's now reached? We asked if it was natural talent or if he had been driven by the beatbox arms race, which has seen the skill exponentially develop. We also wanted to know who was impressing him in the beatbox world. "I’ve been doing it since I was tiny, I got my first drum kit when I was 8 years old and all I wanted to do was play drums on Top Of The Pops. Unfortunately it was on at 7pm and I wasn’t allowed to practice my kit after 6pm, so I kind of invented my own style of beatboxing as a way to practice my rhythms. It has been non-stop ever since." "The scene is moving so fast there’s no time for sleep! Reeps One is killing it right now, Beardyman of course and of course Dub FX is a big inspiration just for the quality of his songs. Meanwhile, the sounds being created are becoming unrecognisable as those created by the human voice. After his demonstration last year of reversed beat sounds to a stunned audience we asked if there was anything crazy he was working on at the minute? "I’ve spent the last few months touring my first one-man theatre show, so I’ve been working on combining beatboxing with storytelling to create soundscapes and use the music to paint a picture." Shlomo is also a festival regular, having performed massive slots at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Glastonbury, Bestival, Womad, Latitude and Oxegen Ireland. Are festivals what he enjoys most? "It’s a totally different buzz when you stand up in front of a sea of thousands of people. I love it, but it’s almost an entirely different skill set than you’d need to rock a tiny intimate show – in a way they are more terrifying." But it's not all festivals and appearances on Jools Holland. After asking about his proudest achievement, Shlomo told us he knows how much he appreciates getting into beatboxing, what it's done for him and what it could do for others. "I’m so proud of the young beatboxers we have coming up through the BAC Beatbox Academy. We’ve been running the programme for over three years and we’ve now reached the point where some of the more senior students have started a teaching programme, so they will learn how to teach the beatboxers of tomorrow. Seeing them do their thing is powerful stuff." It's not quite clear to know what to expect from a beatboxing live show, so wrapping up, we asked Shlomo to let us in on what can we expect from his Willowstone headline appearance. "I’m never sure what’s gonna happen until I’m on the stage," he told us, "but it will certainly include a whole heap of extreme vocal beats, bad ass mouth breaks and floor wobbling throat bass!" Shlomo headlines the Willowstone Festival, taking place on the 1 & 2 July 2011 in Delamont Country Park, Killyleah. Day Tickets are £26, Weekend Camping is £38.
The full version of this interview is available in the print version of The Big List, available throughout Northern Ireland.
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