Tulunad's own beatboxers

Mangaluru’s own beatboxers Swaroop Paul Maben and Akshay Bhat are an important part of every youth event in their city. Their presence often extends to Bengaluru, Goa, Chennai and Pune.

With the pandemic, their work has been limited to what can be done from home.

“Akshay and I were the first to appear on the beatboxing scene on the coast. The opportunities for young talent is growing and we are also trying to motivate them to train their vocal cords,” says Swaroop.

“Akshay was trained by Vineet Vincent, a professional beatboxer who had migrated from Mangaluru to Muscat. Later, we generated sounds of percussion instruments. Many beatboxers world-over have recently been able to even make the sounds of cymbals and sax. Akshay and I have corroborated a new genre of beatboxing by synergising rap and hip hop,” says Swaroop.

“People must not equate beatboxing and mimicry. This is music and involves learning the workings of instruments and training your vocal cords. You need to hone your lung power in a unique synergy to deliver the right sound,” Akshay says.

They were even selected for the final audition of reality shows, and performed in ‘India Got Talent’.

“As a Beatboxer, I made a solo opening for ‘Music for Change’, which is an event bringing together the best music professionals from Mangaluru to train special and underprivileged children in an epic music and dance battle,” says Swaroop.

“The music industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, especially with regard to live-performance revenue. Since I have a day job and do shows in the evening, I cannot completely relate to it, but I’ve seen the struggle. It’s scary,” he adds.

Swaroop and Akshay have made time for their shows by performing solos since the virus attack. This gave them a chance to offer training in college hip-hop and beatbox battles. This is one of the many ways the music industry is fighting back against the pandemic and finding new ways to monetise their talent.

At the same time, the musicians feel like they are being used by new music video app owners, event promoters and other new startup promoters who seek them out for shoutouts and intro shows, and provide no remuneration.

To escape this “exploitation”, they have started virtual shows and live chats to keep the connection intact. They post their work on the YouTube channels ‘Paul Maben’and ‘Akki Vlogs’.