Move to the groove

student achiever

It takes a lot to be a beatboxer. There’s the rhythm, stamina, presence of mind and a lot of will power required, which isn’t up everybody’s alley.

But for Nandish Shekar, a second-year BBM student at Jain College, Jayanagar, the skill has always come naturally. 

“I used to do this from childhood but I didn’t know it was called ‘beatboxing’. In class eight, I found out and started experimenting on my own. I didn’t go to classes but fine-tuned my techniques. Since then, I’ve been performing in school, colleges, malls, conventions and other shows,” he tells Metrolife. 

He proudly adds that while he can listen to any song, catch the beat and imitate it, he prefers creating his own beats. “I’ve got about 15 signature beats and have always supported originality over imitation. It’s also fun to work with my team of rappers and musicians for some songs.”

The next step after gaining popularity as a performer was passing on the knowledge. “When I started in school, it was basic beats and people didn’t know what beatboxing was. But the interest grew over time and eventually, people started asking me for classes. I’ve been training students in college and corporates have also approached me to take workshops because it helps employees de-stress,” notes Nandish, who also started a club called ‘Phrosic: The Music in Us’. 

“My dream is to become a public speaker, which I’malready working on. But that involves entertaining people by speaking. I started the club to relate public speaking and beatboxing and the response has been great,” he adds.

But his plans don’t stop here. “I’m trying to create a beatboxing culture here. There are very few beatboxers in Bangalore like Vineeth Vincent and Hilal Gani. But we’re all trying to make people understand that it’s not just weird sounds coming out of the mouth but a skill in itself. Another plan is to take all Bangalore beatboxers in a movie and do the score with just vocals and beats.” 

While he accepts that it’s ‘cool’ to be a beatboxer, the creative satisfaction is why he does it. “It’s for me, not for people,” he asserts.

Nandish feels that the two things that deter people from trying beatboxing is its impact on the throat and parents, who often don’t encourage it as they don’t understand it. But in his own case, neither seemed to cause too much of a problem.

 “I’ve convinced a lot of parents personally. My own parents didn’t have an issue but they didn’t really show any interest either. Now they know that I’m doing something different and seen my videos, they finally understand it,” he grins. 

So how would he describe the feeling of beatboxing? “If I’m frustrated, that comes out as dubstep; if I’m happy, it’ll probably sound like a trumped. Beatboxing is a real relief because it lets my emotions come out organically as beats,” he wraps up.