Mr Ray

Beat-boxer, Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist, Live-Looper, One-man Band. Mr Ray(23) sews together layers across a broad range of genre’s, creating an astounding brew of beat boxing, vocal instrumentation and rhythm/lead guitar. Mr Ray has been performing for 3 Years and has opened the stage for Redwood, Real-Estate Agents, The Dirty Skirts, Steve Newman, The Beams and many more. He won the South African ‘Vocal-Wars’ 2006. Additionally, he came second/runner up at the South African Hip Hop Indaba beat-box battle 2006. At Splashy Fen 2006 he opened the Grant Erskine stage on both days, and made the final round of the ‘battle of the bands’ competition. He recently moved to Canada and had to leave the multi-talented, diverse, and up and coming crew, “The Grime Council”. “I started playing guitar 9 years ago, and beat-boxing about 4 years ago. As I started beat-boxing, my desire to perform alternative rock began to morph into a grungy hip-hop vibe. I very quickly lost interest in Hip-Hop, battles, and branched off in attempt to create my own genre. I ‘pioneered’ a new style of beat boxing/vocal percussion by changing the technique of kick release. My style became nasally dominated as opposed to the typical ‘mouthing’ techniques. This had pro’s and cons. Cons – it was initially harder to mic up as there was significantly less air being released on the kicks, and it was hard to get the levels of the vocals right if I was doing a beat at the same time. The pro’s – doing a break beat, a bass line an lyrics at the same time became a serious option without compromising integrity of lyrics. In the early days of my gigging, I played acoustic sets. A kind of Jack Johnson guitar and vocal vibe, while beat boxing a slow lounge vibe at the same time. As my name got heard, I had to do more upbeat sets for standing audiences, and so I began to focus on creating dance sets. Now with the help of my trusty loop station, I can create back tracks and layer myself. This allows me the versatility to mimic virtually any genre effortlessly. My passion for sound got me studying Radio/Sound Production at the University of Cape Town. I have also took 2 full year courses at the South African College of music (Music Theory, and Contemporary Music Practice).