Shlomo

You may not be familiar with the name, but Shlomo is a two time World Record holder for beatboxing who has collaborated with artists such as Bjork, Ed Sheeran and Imogen Heap.

He recently performed his show ‘Human Geekbox’ at the Royal Albert Hall and was joined on stage by Newton Faulkner.

For this tour, it is not only famous faces he will be collaborating with.

Using social media, Shlomo is recruiting local artists to join him onstage at each venue performing their co-written track. Shlomo will release a new song in each town and after the show, the song will be available as a charity download with all proceeds going to War Child.

The collaboration project will culminate with a 15-track charity album available at the end of the tour.

Ahead of the end of his UK tour, we caught up with Shlomo to find out more about his unique talent and his plans for the future.

For those who have yet to discover your beatboxing talents, how would you describe the sound you can create?

It’s I swallowed a symphony orchestra, Michael Jackson’s rhythm and all the equipment in The Prodigy’s studio and burped it back up into musical harmony. Sounds more painful than it is.

Do you prefer being able to spend time producing tracks or the live stage environment?

I will always love performing, but recently I’ve been spending a lot more time behind the scenes – composing, directing, recording and creating. I love both.

Who has been your favourite artist to collaborate with to-date?

Being asked to record with Bjork was a big shock, as it was my first major break. I was working in a call centre typing out lonely hearts ads when I got a voicemail from her asking me to come to London to record my beats. After that collaboration I got really inspired about my music and took it a lot more seriously, and since then I’ve got to work with amazing people like Jarvis, Imogen Heap and the Mighty Boosh.

Who would be your dream artist collaboration?

Stevie Wonder! He’s just God.

Video: Shlomo & Newton Faulkner – Home: Here’s what happened when I first met Newton Faulkner (singer-songwrit… http://t.co/UPACijT4af

— SK Shlomo (@SKShlomo) November 18, 2013

Are there any particular parts of your live set you enjoy the most?

The collaborations. I’ve given 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 in each town on the tour. After each show, the music will be released digitally in aid of War Child. So far we’ve done 4 of the 15 tracks and I’m really fond of all them. You can listen to them on my website and choose how much to donate if you want to download them.

How would you describe your live show?

My current tour is called #HumanGeekbox and it’s a one man theatre show, 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 kind of 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.

Are there any up and coming beatboxers you would recommend?

Check out Ball-Zee, Grace Savage and Just Alliance in the States.

What can we expect from you for the rest of 2013?

Working on my new album which will come out in a year or so, and in the meantime I’m doing lots of composing – including writing a vocal score for Bristol Old Vic’s Christmas production of The Little Mermaid which opens in a couple of weeks, and I’m going to write a choral beatbox piece next year for the National Youth Choir. Very exciting times!

Keep up-to-date with Shlomo on social media:
Twitter
Facebook
Soundcloud