City artiste is popularising multi-instrument beatboxing

When most of us find learning to play even a single musical instrument highly challenging, 21-year-old Chennai-based artiste, Ankush Jain, manages to play wind instruments and make music with his mouth at the same time. A graduate from Loyola College, Ankush has turned his beatboxing hobby into full-time profession. His incorporation of musical instruments while beatboxing has made him the first such artiste in the country. 

“What makes my work unique is my love for wind instruments. Along with beatboxing, I play instruments like pan flute, bandura, soprano flute, harmonica, jaw harp. I decided that I would experiment with a new instrument each month, learn to play it for a month and then perform it while beatboxing over the next month. This has allowed me to constantly push my boundaries and widen my horizons,” Ankush tells us. 

His passion to keep learning and creating new music has provided him opportunities to perform with some of the well-known names in music industry, including Armaan Malik, Vishal Chandrasekhar among others.

The young artiste also writes his own music and refrains from performing covers of other songs. “My aim is to contribute to the country’s independent music scene and to see it grow to a stage where people can recall an independent performer just as they remember a film song. People should be made aware that there is music beyond commercial or film music,” asserts Ankush, who also works as the logistics head at a city-based tech firm. 

Ankush is a true millennial, in the way YouTube has had a significant influence on his life and career. “Videos of Australian beatboxer Tom Thum seemed very fascinating to me and drove me to pursue beatboxing further. YouTube helped me all the way in inspiring me,” he admits. 

The youngster became one of the first hip-hop artistes from the city to deliver a TED talk in Pune. With a handful of mouth musicians a few years ago, Chennai now has dozens of active beatboxers. Ankush is also a popular face at college events across the city as a guest performer and judge. 

The performer now aims to pursue music therapy. “I’m looking to pursue a degree in music therapy and practise it full-time. Music can be the best healer for problems like depression, stress, anxiety and autism,” he points out.