Bass Ventura is a young multi talented artist who has his own UK style of beat boxing, he was interested in music from a very young age, His love for music has brought him this far. We had an interview with Bass Ventura and here is what he had to say.

1. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Bass Ventura- As a child I was always very musical, playing drums, singing and rapping up until the age of 13/14 until I reached my teenage years where my focus shifted towards trying to fit into the small village social mentality that I was surrounded by, this led to me giving up everything musical as it was not deemed ‘cool’ or ‘possible’ for somebody from my village to succeed and spread their music and message across the world.

I always had the music inside me and a burning passion to create art sonically (this led to me emulating whatever sounds I could with my mouth yet not knowing exactly what I was doing).

This became more than a passion, an addiction almost, I had found a piece of me that was missing and although I had no idea what I was doing I just KNEW that it felt right.

As a teenager my Beatboxing was not accepted locally, as a result of which I faced much ridicule.

I continued to practice despite this but I kept my music making secret for around 2/3 years.

I eventually found a few musical friends in the local town, one of those friends going by the artist name ‘MO’ who later went on to win The Voice UK.

From this point I started to come out of my shell musically and explore the possibilities outside of my bubble I had created.

A little time later I found videos from artists like ‘Reeps One’ and ‘Tom Thum’ who were doing the exact same thing that I was, just with more refinement! Little did I know I would later go on to form good relationships with both artists.

This caused a tsunami of inspiration that catapulted me into taking some of the biggest steps of my career.

The first step was finding and attending the first ever World Beatbox Camp in Krakow, Poland.

This global gathering of talented mouth musicians was the start of something beautiful.

I felt fully accepted for the first time, I found where I belonged.

2. Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Bass Ventura- At the World Beatbox Camp I recorded a video of an old rap song alongside world class beatboxers which would later get picked up by many viral pages and Chris Brown, singer who reposted it all over social media. I also got my first taste of performing Beatboxing on stage in a 2 V 2 format against some of the highest regarded artists in the industry.

This burst of attention gave me a boost of credibility in the Beatbox scene and gave me the confidence to start competing in my national competition, the UK Beatbox Championships.

After a couple years of hard work and training I managed to work my way up to become the VICE UK Beatbox Champion on my second time competing in the solo category.

The following summer this new title allowed me to market and sell my artistry to many well paid promotions, corporate work, the education sector and even got me to perform at a plethora of festivals including the famous Glastonbury Festival.

3. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Bass Ventura- My most embarrassing/funny story from when I was starting out came from levelling up all my bass sounds and not focussing on levelling up my percussion.

With my name going everywhere and building hype I tried to compete in a 7 to Smoke battle (beat 7 opponents out of 8 to win) and fell incredibly short on stage as my performance was incredibly unbalanced causing me to look like an idiot in front of over 100 beatboxers. 

This taught me to go back to the drawing board and keep working to become well rounded in all areas of Beatboxing.

4. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

Bass Ventura- Recently I have started  up my own clothing brand BVClothing or BVC for short. Due to Covid and the lack of live work, I have also started to stream online, showcase my beatboxing, gaming and personality.

I am also a beatbox teacher of 4 years with students stretching to all corners of the world.

My latest project has been a video submission the Grand Beatbox Battle 2021: world league (essentially the world championships) Hosted by SwissBeatbox.

I will be hosting a new podcast with the largest online beatbox community talking about all things Beatbox on a new platform.

I am also slowly getting back into singing and rap as I have always had a good voice for it. I hope to have out a couple tracks by the end of 2022.

5. Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?

Bass Ventura- When I was younger and attending raves I was HUGELY inspired by artists like ‘The Streets’ and some upcoming artists like Slowthai, Mr. Traumatik and Devilman.

I then started performing and even supporting these artists at different shows whether it be a nasty midtown club or in front of the masses at the Glastonbury Festival.

6. Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Bass Ventura- I have only recently experienced my first ever real burn out due to isolation (COVID) and focussing solely on social media.

For creatives this is NO joke, it can very easily cause huge issues with your mental health.

My biggest piece of advice is to take breaks, not just vacations but real breaks where you can completely switch off from working and social media.

Another piece of advice is to keep your distance from toxic commenting, overloading your brain with opinions of others and just focus on yourself, loved ones and the music.

7. You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure? 

Bass Ventura- My best advice to becoming successful in the beatbox scene:

1. Make time for training everyday.
2. always looks for sounds nobody is using.
3. Try to sound as different as possible.
4. Always focus on making the weirdest music possible, this often unlocks some of the best techniques through experimentation.
5. If you hit a creative wall, reach out to a well credited teacher.
6. Make sure you keep on top of your physical fitness, you are the instrument, make sure you stay healthy.

8. Can you share with our readers any self care routines, practices or treatments that you do to help your body, mind or heart to thrive? 

Bass Ventura- Kindly share a story or an example for each.

As a beatboxer I use my mouth, face and neck muscles in huge amounts. Like any other muscles these start to get tense and ache, good stretching and releasing these muscles is required to keep yourself in tip top shape.

I often see an Osteopath or a Cranial physiotherapist to correct any issues with my neck, head or face muscles. 

I also Skateboard to keep myself moving and active.

9. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

Bass Ventura

1. Don’t link social growth to your capability.
2. Take care of your physical fitness.
3. Don’t hide and be yourself 100% of the time.
4. Complete the work before you announce it.
5. Keep a tight circle of trusted friends and colleagues/Don’t spread yourself too thin.

10. Can you please give us your favourite  “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life? 

Bass Ventura- Be yourself, Everybody else is taken.

( A reminder that in a career surrounded by emulation to be yourself and stay true.)

11. None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Bass Ventura- I am eternally grateful to my group of friends/Colleagues over in the USA. Throughout COVID I have been very isolated like most, even before the pandemic I didn’t go out often as I am not a fan of clubs etc unless I am performing… weird right? 

My Team of amazingly talented beatboxers, professionals go by the names of: Hershe, Hunty, Fenetix and King Inertia.

Without this group the hard challenges I faced in the last two years of my life could’ve been much worse and I will always be thankful for that.

The biggest honourable mention is to my mum.

throughout the years she would take me to shows, tell me anything is possible and support me 100%.

I would never have been able to make it as far as I have without her and one day when I make it big I will be excited to change her life.

12. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement  that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Bass Ventura- If I was to have my own movement I believe I would focus on helping make people all around the world independent with all or the majority of their own food.

I lived in a village surrounded by farms as a child and have always enjoyed the process of propagating and harvesting.

PLUS it tastes 10x better than store bought.

If we can all sustainably control our own food then I believe this could help aid everyone from first to third world countries.

There are of course other movements which I would love to push to impact the world but I will have to educate myself more on those matters, this one feels natural and like home.

13. We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this.

Bass Ventura- I would LOVE to sit down with amazing artists like Anderson .Paak, FKJ, Tom Misch, Jhene Aiko, Drake and J. Cole to shadow them and learn from the best in the game.

In addition to this I studied business and self taught marketing so I would love to spend time with some of the best in the social media and marketing spaces to see really what it takes to be successful in these fields from the day to day labour of the job to the psychological and sociological aspect of the consumers.

14 How can our readers follow you online?

Bass Ventura

Instagram, FaceBook & Youtube: BassVentura

Twitch: BassVenturaTV