They wanted me to get a ‘real’ job — so I’m teaching the world to b-b-b--beatbox
SK Shlomo studied astrophysics but gave up, was spotted beatboxing by Bjork — and now performs around the world
RECORD-BREAKING BEATBOXER Simon Shlomo Kahn was once expected to get “a serious job”.
Born to a Jewish family in a village in Buckinghamshire, he was encouraged to pursue his love of music as a hobby.
He was trained in classical percussion, toured Europe with a classical youth orchestra, and even played the drums in a jazz band as a teenager.
Then, determined to follow his musical dream professionally, he did so in a way that no one expected.
Aged 20, he performed at open-mic nights, dropped out of university and took on a side job writing lonely hearts adverts to pay the bills.
The gamble paid off.
In 2004, he was spotted by Icelandic singer Bjork, with whom he collaborated — and the rest, as they say, is history.
Since then, he has performed at Glastonbury with artists from Lily Allen to Rudimental — and has taught celebrities from pop singer Ed Sheeran to poet laureate Michael Rosen the art of mimicking the beats of a drum with your mouth.
He has performed across the world and was named the first World Looping Champion, for his ability to record over (or loop over) sounds he makes in a solo performance.
But for the 38-year-old, known as SK Shlomo, music was initially a means of escapism.
Born to Jewish parents — an Israeli/ Iraqi mother and German father — he feared being bullied for being different. Living in Bourne End, he would enjoy Friday night dinners, attend cheder and spend weekends in north London with his maternal grandma in Edgware. But he kept his Judaism hidden from his classmates. “I felt invisible going to a school where there were no other Iraqi-Israeli-Jewish kids, or anyone else of colour,” he says.
“I knew I would be bullied for my background, so I kept it quiet.” Aged eight, his parents bought him a drum kit. “It was a big turning point,” he says.
“Drumming was the first time I felt I could have a voice. I stopped being invisible and kids wanted to speak to me.”
When neighbours complained about the noise, he would practise the beats using his mouth. He later learned that his ability to “beatbox” was a skill.
While he wanted to pursue music, he felt pressured to go down a more traditional path. Even though his father, Jeremy Kahn, was a semi-professional jazz musician, he “was also a database and software designer”.
SK Shlomo went on to read physics with astrophysics at Leeds University, but felt jaded. “My heart and brain were not there,” he says. “I was in a lot of pain because I remember meeting drummers on a jazz course who were going to music college. I remember thinking: ‘I won’t be able to do that because I am going to have to get a real job.’”
Encouraged by Leeds’ music scene, he performed at gigs and met people who helped him record beatboxing demos.
Where he once hid his Judaism, he now celebrated it by using his middle name, Shlomo, as his artist name.
“Before I came out as a beatboxer, I thought about a hip-hop sounding name and used ‘Shlomo’ – boom.”
Now living in north Hampshire, the father-of-two has brought beatboxing to the children, with his sell-out UK show, Shlomo’s Beatbox Adventure for Kids.
The show, which has relaunched after lockdown, encourages children to explore all music, including beatboxing.