Recently, Popcorn Youth interviewed Adam Matta, a NYC beatboxer and artist. He’s been a part of the fertile beatboxing scene in NYC since the mid 80s, and has worked with a wide variety of musicians. Matta will be an artist in residence at Cornell University for the month of February, culminating in his collaborative show “Beat Box Bard,” which will feature the sonnets of Shakespeare reinterpreted via beatboxing and music. Here, Matta offers many valuable insights about the presence of beatboxing with a mainstream audience, his love of Meredith Monk, drum’n'bass, and hip-hop, and his own personal approach to beatboxing.
The world premiere of “The Beat Box Bard” will run Jan. 31 to Feb. 11 at Cornell’s Schwartz Center, and is directed by Cornell theater professor Bruce Levitt. In a separate performance, Matta will join violinist Julianne Carney, singer/songwriter Danielle DuClos and cellist Erin Hall for a Beat Box Extravaganza Jan. 19, 8pm, at the Appel Commons and Jan. 20, 8pm, at Schwartz Center.
Popcorn Youth: Can you talk about your time spent studying with Meredith Monk? How has she been an influence for you? Or, to be more specific, how has her unusual vocal technique been an influence on your approach to beatboxing? How do you make the connection between the avant-garde, the experimental and then the more mainstream, or more “urban” (as seen in beatboxing, hip-hop, etc).
Adam Matta: A older friend of mine mentioned Meredith Monk to me in a conversation where I was trying to explain that I am doing alternative/extreme things with my voice, then a flier came to my roommate-at-the-time’s mailbox for one of her workshops. I signed up, they’re open to the public, at least this round of workshops was. In the class, we were exploring extended vocal technique, applying different ways of saying our names , for instance, and of composing a group piece with “echoes,” hockets, etc, but I just applied some of the percussive sounds to my contributions. People responded well, I met two other singers in the class, and we teamed up for a performance a few months later with improvisation and extended vocal technique compositions. Monk influences me to think of the voice as a conduit for abstract compositions of sound, of creating textures and recombinations of text that piled up in different ways like a painting.
I am definitely trying to integrate the urban and percussive elements of hiphop and beatboxing with some of that abstract sensibility, as much as I enjoy painting the urban landscape. It’s the rhythms of the city that have interested me since I was two years old, but, for instance, when you watch traffic gather and disperse at an intersection, they start to resemble flocks of birds, or water flowing, elements that speak to patterns of nature, and they start to locate man’s relationship to the concrete construction. Hip hop is a way to harness the chaos of urban life and to layer your impressions of your relationship to that landscape.
Popcorn Youth: How do you see beatboxing fitting into the continuum of jazz? Of hip-hop? Of blues?
Adam Matta: I definitely feel that beatboxing is related to jazz in the way that beatboxers can improvise with each other and give each other space to solo, and then come together to create a layered, rhythmic and expressive experience. It definitely fits in hiphop, because it was born out of hiphop, of people making beats with their voices for people to rhyme over in the street. Beatboxing is the underrecognized element of hiphop, some call it the fifth element after mc’ing, dj’ing, b-boying and graffiti. I actually have come to think of it as the Staten Island of hiphop, the forgotten borough, but that’s changing! I lived in Staten Island for six months this year, and it has some great aspects!
As far as blues, I think it may relate as far as it being grassroots way to communicate your feelings and situations. In beatboxing, you’re creating abstract sounds, sometimes sampling other sound clips, which, again, locates you and tells others where to find you in the chaotic landscape of 20-21st century music, culture and society. What sounds and songs you reference can help you connect with others and tell a story. Also the way you compose can tell a story. I find it’s not quite as emotive as singing the blues, beatboxing is a great art form, but your mouth is closed for a lot of it, and I think an important element of the blues is that your mouth is open, your voice is expressing your deepest soul. With beatboxing on the other hand, sometimes you’re so caught up in technique that your soul gets put on the backburner, but that can change depending on the sound you do. For instance, I am known for my “trumpet” sound, which is closer to the blues and jazz than a lot of other beatboxers get.
Popcorn Youth: Can beatboxing be called a “genre” of music as, say, “reggae” are “folk” or considered genres of music? Or is it a more fluid phenomenon that occurs in all sorts of music, from hip-hop, rock, dub, etc.
Adam Matta: I’d compare beatboxing to an instrument, like saying you’re a guitarist or a drummer, or vocalist. When people ask me what I play, I sometimes start by saying I play jazz and hip hop and drum n bass, and then add in the detail that I’m a human beatboxer when they ask me what instrument I play. Some others may feel differently about this, but this is how I approach it.
Popcorn Youth: Your mySpace page describes your sound as like “a drum kit, but different.” Could you elaborate on this a bit?
Adam Matta: My sounds more closely resemble sounds of a drum kit, versus other beatboxers who sound more like drum machine sounds, but my sound is more compressed so I sound like a cross between a live drummer and a drum machine. I have the tighter, slightly electronic qualities of a drum machine, but I’m playing and improvising fills, etc., as if I was a live drummer. I think about playing drums when I perform beatboxing.
Popcorn Youth: Can you explain what it’s like when you perform live? Do you loop certain parts to create the percussion, and then freestyle horns etc on top? What kind of equipment do you use?
Adam Matta: I use a Boss Loop Station RC-20, which just lets you overdub, you can’t take away layers, which is a little limiting for compositions, since they can generally just get bigger and bigger, more and more layers, but I use it judiciously and have learned ways to make the layers distinct, and then at the end of a phrase, I’ll suddenly stop the whole loop, then bring it back in on the one, which is definitely a technique from hiphop producers.
Popcorn Youth: What are some of the greatest challenges when you perform live? Do you find it’s easier to create that flawless rhythm when you’re in the recording studio, or is beatboxing, in some ways, integral to being performed live, in front of other people, because it has such a strong performative aspect to it? You’ve called yourself a “performance artist.” Does beatboxing apply to this as well?
Adam Matta: I think it’s much more exciting to play live than in the studio. The sound is much different, the soundsystem is bigger, you can hear yourself projected and amplified in real-time and interact with just that, the acoustics of the space also vary in a huge way. In the studio, all that is contained and controlled. When I record, I ask the engineer to put reverb on my headphone mix, because hearing yourself dry in the mix is almost draining. There is something very important about the acoustics of a space and what happens to the sound from when it leaves your mouth to when it enters your ear. For instance, I greatly prefer making sound in an elevator, or on the subway or outdoor situation, where there’s white noise and ambient sound, versus the controlled atmosphere of the studio. I almost think that the next time I record I would like to have the engineer pipe in random street noise. It adds to the spontaneous element of creating and improvising. I think I even heard a report about this on the radio, that white noise stimulates certain activity in the mind, helpful to memory recall and mind function.
For live playing, I sometimes play straight into a mic, and sometimes go through a loop pedal. When it’s a just a short hit, or I’m sitting in with a band, I just use the straight mic. I also do live shows where it’s just me and a mic, and I flow from beat to beat, trying to keep the crowd interested, surprised and engaged. When I use a loop pedal, I usually loop a simple beat, then overdub a bass line, or heavier beat, then solo with a trumpet line. I also perform songs where I’m singing lyrics, or sometimes rhyming, or adding other sound effects. I used to sing in a band in college.
Popcorn Youth: On Jan. 19-20, I see you’re performing with a number of other musicians (Julianne Carney, Erin Hall, Danielle DuClos). Is this how you usually perform live (i.e. with other musicians)? What will your role in the concert be?
Adam Matta: I am going to be performing with them all. Erin has her own shows and sets, where I just back her up as a hired sideman. Julie and I have an informal duo, where we have a few loosely scripted songs, mostly improvisational, we perform from time to time at experimental music programs. Danielle and I do songs, cover songs and original ones, where she sings lead and I do the tracks. So this evening will kind of be a sampler of three of the projects I work with and have worked with in New York.
Popcorn Youth: How has living in NYC influenced your approach to beatboxing? Is it widely acknowledged that NYC is the birthplace of beatboxing? It beatboxing still an underground phenomenon or has it emerged as something more mainstream?
Adam Matta: Living in New York City has definitely influenced my beatboxing. I started out teaching myself when I was a teenager, but just as a random nervous habit, not as a conscious decision. When I started to take it more seriously and do open mics around 2000-01, I started to meet not only beatboxers, but performance artists in general, who took their work very seriously and that was inspiring.
NYC is definitely the birthplace of beatboxing; it started in the Bronx. Beatboxing is a weird phenomenon, it’s mainstream, in that it’s in the collective unconscious, if you grew up in the eighties or later, because of guys like Darren “Buffy” Robinson from the Fat Boys, or Doug E Fresh. But for the mainstream in general, it’s pretty invisible, many many people have no idea what you’re talking about, have never heard the term beatboxing. And still can’t understand it if you try and describe it. But I’ve performed for 80-yr. old grandmothers and parents and friends of family who are really drawn in, especially in the context of jazz. You have to hear it and see it to get it. But beatboxing is popping up in advertisements, TV, so it’s out there, and getting more discovered. But it’s hard to sell it to the establishment, who are mostly an older generation.
Popcorn Youth: How is beatboxing an “urban” phenomenon? What predicated its success?
Adam Matta: Well, it started in the Bronx, as a means for people to provide beats for each other to rhyme over without turntables or stereos, and people were rhyming about their urban situation. And the beats they did mimicked the beats they were hearing from the funk, soul, R&B world, which was related to the black American urban experience, as opposed to African drumming, or folk music, etc. In modern beatboxing, you’re hearing scratches and samples and beats that came directly from the urban realm of music production.
By the same token, beatboxing can be thought of as coming from a larger context, of traditional vocal music, like throat singing, or Indian tabla voicings, or chant. Putting it in this context reminds us that the voice is the oldest instrument, and western cantorial singing and its variations are not the only thing you can do with your voice, and that beatboxing is a type of folk music, a way to transfer songs and stories, voice to ear, in a communal setting, but all this only further emphasizes beatboxing’s urban roots and influences. The sounds that come out of your mouth are more influenced by a radio you pass on the street, or by a nightclub you drop into one night, which is a result of the layered and juxtaposed rhythms of the urban landscape, vs. anything more rural or suburban.
Popcorn Youth: How have places like mySpace changed the way people across the world understand what “beatboxing” is? Will it change from being strictly an “urban” phenomenon if it can be accessible to anyone, anywhere (with an Internet connection). Given the rise and success of blogs, mp3 sharing, mySpace culture, what is the future for beatboxing?
Adam Matta: Well, I think for beatboxing to really grow, you have to have people meeting face to face, and this is more likely to happen in a city. Beatboxing techniques and icons tend to get transferred much more readily when it’s in person. The Internet definitely is helping it to grow, and does a lot of this work, but I would still consider that an urban phenomenon infiltrating a non-urban mindscape. Hip hop in general extends to every corner of the world, from villages to suburban schools, so I think beatboxing spreading on the Internet is only a continuation of that process. My personal dream for beatboxing is that it DOES get integrated into non-urban forms, that it gets combined with more traditional forms of music, that it gets accepted by the institutions as a viable, if not critical, form of instrumentation.
Popcorn Youth: Is there a comparable beatboxing scene in the UK? Are people in NYC aware of similar scenes outside the United States? Is it as respected?
Adam Matta: The most visible beatboxing forum on the Internet is based out of the UK. They have a strong, passionate scene out there… The UK beatboxers are very vociferous about the art form, but I feel, based on their online posts, that they are not as interested in beatboxing activity outside their own country, versus New York beatboxers not being aware of scenes outside of New York. New York beatboxers are very aware of other scenes throughout the world. There are major beatbox artists in Japan, Australia, Germany, UK, etc. But you don’t see any American beatboxers but Rahzel and Kenny Muhammad being credited on the UK online posts.
I’ve heard that even in drumnbass circles for instance, UK youth are very passionate, if not nerdy, about their art form, and will invest their whole lives in it, which is impressive to those outside it, but they seem to lose or gloss over the roots of the art form, whether it’s the Caribbean or America. So their online forums are a lot more active than ours are, but that’s attributable to their culture in general, not just beatboxing. Live music, especially outside the box type music, in general, is a lot more supported and celebrated in Europe than in the US, I don’t know why that is. But I’d say it happens with graffiti as well. It started in America, but it’s when you go to European cities that you see the most elaborate and proliferous pieces up on inter-city train railways.
Popcorn Youth: I noticed you mention Squarepusher as an influence. How has he been influential? And in relation to Squarepusher, do you listen to a lot of drum’n'bass? Is the speed, the bpms, that influence you?
Adam Matta: I love drum n bass. It had a huge impact on me when I was introduced to it in 1995-96. It really took a hold of me, and so I feel I understand it and live it more even more than I do hip hop. I don’t listen to a lot of drumnbass, but when I hear it in a song, or in a club, I connect with it instantly. Squarepusher is an example of someone using those textures and bpms to create epic and stunning compositions, which is a musical goal of mine.
Popcorn Youth: What is your personal relationship to poetry? Is beatboxing a type of “aural poetry”? “Sound art”?
Adam Matta: I’d say beatboxing can be a type of aural poetry, sound art, all of the above. You’re still using your lingual apparatus to create the sounds, so it can definitely be a type of poetry, especially if you think about negative space, when and where you are placing the beats and sound effects. I do a piece where I tell a whole story of a day of an average Joe, waking to sleeping, all with sound effects (with minimal actual words) If you break up the beat and think about placement and tension, you are just creating abstract sounds, and so can create a piece of art like an impressionist or abstract expressionist painting. I think with beatboxing, there is always the imitative element, the fact that you are doing impressions of instruments and instrumentation, so there is a little distinction between using beatboxing and doing a composition of screams and noises, like other avant-garde composers have been known to do, but the line is very thin, I think. And in fact, the more you use random noises and actual voicings, or even speaking text, in the middle of the beat, the more each component, the beatbox and the spoken word gets augmented, as long as, again, you are thinking about composition.
Popcorn Youth: What does Shakespeare have in common with beatboxing? Is there a connection between Shakespeare and hip-hop, for example? When you beatbox, are you focusing on the rhythms in Shakespeare’s prosody?
Adam Matta: I don’t know why, but I think of Shakespeare as an urban art form. Maybe I am thinking of the cities in his plays, the layers of “civilization” and governments, kings and caesers. His sonnets create moods and emotional tones that I feel beatboxing can bring out even more. They also deal with themes that are epic and timeless and ubiquitous throughout humanity. His words and phrases are very specific, which I try and address with the beats I choose, but I guess that’s the same as any music composer. Both are oral traditions, just rooted in very different times and places. I think the rhythms of the text and the beats have to play off each other. The rhythms of Shakespeare’s text are much more intricate than a typical 4/4 beat, but if the timing is handled with sensitivity, there can be a lot of synchronicity between the two, especially if you add in breaks in the beatboxing, which I plan to do. You’ll do a beat under the text then stop it at the end of a phrase, and all of a sudden, the attention rushes to the text, which can bring out some new things in the capitulation of the plays.
Popcorn Youth: I know you also have a background in the visual arts — do you ever try to combine your art training with the beatboxing?
Adam Matta: Well, as I’ve touched on before, I think beatboxing and painting have a lot of convenient parallels, especially when trying to describe different movements like Abstract expressionism and impressionism. Also, I think it’s important to figure out where the expression, whether it’s a brush stroke or a sound effect, comes from. I think it all is related through composition, impulse and listening. That said, there are some more literal ways I have tried to integrate drawing and beatboxing. One of my first endeavors was to do a performance where I was literally trying to do both at the same time. It was a little difficult. In a recent performance, though, I did “bike drawing” And beatboxing simultaneously. Bike drawing is a concept I came up with, where I do mountain bike tricks an maneuvers on a canvas on the floor, with paint on my tires, making an “action painting,” like Pollock’s canvases or Yves Klein. People liked the performance.
Popcorn Youth: What is your conception of “action painting”?
Adam Matta: Action Painting, in my understanding, is a way of creating a composition in which your ego is taken out of the process, and much is left to chance through an activity that is barely related, tangential or even deferent to that which comprises the traditional notion of what painting should be, i.e. dribbling a basketball with paint on it, dunking human bodies in paint and having them roll around or dance on a canvas, or, as in Pollock, throwing the paint around in a way that the artist is detached from the intended outcome.
Visit Adam Matta’s homepage here.