He made his name as a human beat-boxer, but Beardyman, AKA Darren Foreman, has turned his considerable talents to cutting-edge electronics. He keeps Tim Hughes in the loop

Beardyman is hard at work, buried in an array of electronics assembled into (probably) the most high-tech musical instrument on the planet.

“It’s called the Beardytron-5000 Mk III!” he says, taking a break from his tinkering to tell me about his new album and accompanying tour.

“I’m probably insane! But I’m looking forward to taking it on the road — with no idea what I’m doing.”

Beardyman is the alter ego of Darren Foreman — a human beatboxing champion, sometime comedian, computer programmer and sonic experimentalist. As a beatboxer — creating multi-layered hip-hop tracks through only his voice — he amassed a global fanbase. Though now he admits he doesn’t really do that. For Beardyman, it’s now all about the electronics. “What I am doing now is far removed from what I used to do,” he says. “I don’t beatbox – and I don’t even have a beard!

“It’s taken the world’s best computer scientists, but I’ve got this new system where I can beatbox or sample any sound and play it back instantly.

“There are loads of crazy new things I’m touring with. These shows will bear no resemblance to anything people have seen before. It’ll be more real music rather than a sketch of real music. It will be an exact representation of what’s going on in my head.”

Fiercely intelligent, while endearingly nerdy, he lists the properties of this extraordinary bit of self-made kit — its abilities laced with lavish claims and superlatives. Most go over my head, though I nod and agree sagely, as he explains with the passion of a mad scientist the intricate workings of his hard-wired baby — which allows him to record, play, loop and mix music — from the second it enters his head.

“In 2011 I put my old kit in the bin because it couldn’t do what I wanted it to do,” he says. “I started afresh, and have now got to the stage where I am capable of doing stuff no one else in the world can do. Any kind of music you want to make, you can make — and make it in real time, from genesis to realisation, in the time it takes to think it up.

“It means I can improvise — not because it’s clever — but because it’s so much fun to start with nothing and go from there. I feel alive and in the moment.”

So what exactly is the Beardytron? “Well it’s not a box, but an entire live rig of five laptops, two iPads, and loads of specially-built software,” he says. “I have pedals at my feet, laptops and iPads in my hand, and a guitar that can become any kind of instrument.”

If there is any mission statement to Beardyman’s work — first as a beatboxer and now as a loop-master –— it is improvisation.

“How is it fun to go on the road with a well-honed set?” he asks.

“Isn’t it better to know the person you are there to see is flying by the seat of their pants? It’s more exciting and that’s what I want to do. Nothing is easy.”

But isn’t he afraid of things going wrong? “What can go wrong?” he chuckles. “You mean catastrophic computer failure? Yes, that happens occasionally. Software glitches? Sometimes. But musical mistakes? Never really, as you can cover them over. With the new rig, if I do a bum note I can turn it into something else before the audience realises. Or, if it’s boring, turn it into completely different music.

“All it takes is a stray cosmic ray to destabilise everything, but it doesn’t worry me. That stuff happens.”

Oxford Mail:

Fans of the knockabout jokey humour and beatbox pastiches, so beloved of festival crowds — and even Prince Harry (he told him he was a fan when they met at a charity do), may have to adjust their expectations though. With his new album Distractions, Beardyman has grown up. It’s a serious expression of musicianship, veering between glitchy electronica, euphoric pop and chilled-out groove.

“It’s like the history of ideas,” he says, “Music is a product of its time. But when people try to innovate it’s exciting. Music is always more exciting when it comes out of the blue.”

So why the change in direction? “I won two competitions and went round the world beatboxing, but then I got into loops, using bits of technology to record my voice,” he says. “That technology was really basic, but I had a vision to make music live and in the moment.

“However, I found that technology was really basic. I wanted to follow a vision I had to make music live and in the moment.”

He adds: “Then I retooled and invested a huge amount of time and effort in making the thing I’m now in the room with. I can still do the stuff I was doing but can now make it into something far better.”

He also admits the beatboxing was getting a bit boring. “Pick up a mic and beatbox for a minute and people say ‘that’s amazing’. Do it for five minutes and they’ll say ‘I’ ve heard that bit repeated’. But after 10 minutes they’ll want to hear something different.

“I’ll always beatbox for an encore, though. It’s a natural thing to do and a nice closer.”

He had time to get to grips with the Beardytron while caring for his real baby — his five-month-old son Theo. So has Beardyman junior picked up any of his old man’s beatboxing traits, I wonder?

“Oh, yes,” he says. “He makes all sorts of noises — especially ‘brrrrr’..!

“He loves music though, and can bounce in time to any rhythm.

“I didn’t realise how primal that is.”

Beardyman
O2 Academy, Oxford
Wednesday
Tickets from ticketweb.co.uk