Tom Thum
Beatbox Virtuoso
Armed with just a microphone, Tom Thum pushes the limits of the human voice to create incredible soundtracks of impossible beats and phenomenal sounds, with scratched vinyl, the Michael Jackson back catalogue, the didgeridoo and an entire '50s jazz band amongst his vocal repertoire. Footage of his performance at TEDx Sydney 2013 recently became the most watched TEDx video of all time, with over 18 million hits.
Only in his mid-twenties, Tom Thum has achieved and experienced more than most artists could hope to achieve in a lifetime. From winning the team battles (alongside Joel Turner) in the World Beatbox Championships in 2005, to fulfilling every artist's dream and performing on Broadway in New York with the Tom Tom Crew, Tom has seen his fair share of accolades and well and truly paid his dues. Raised by the small but accommodating Brisbane hip hop scene, Tom started out as a graffiti writer and Bboy but slowly rose to recognition through his ability to produce unhuman sounds and his natural knack for performing and weaselling his way on stage...
Although the stage seems the ideal habitat for Tom, he is also no stranger to community and has been helping the scene improve through conducting a plethora of workshops in many places that usually wouldn't have access to such knowledge and skill. Tom has travelled from the very top of Australia teaching in the Indigenous communities of Mornington and Thursday Islands all the way to the very bottom with a series of workshops in Tasmania and Adelaide.
He has also spent considerable time teaching on Palm Island and in Charleville and many other places that would otherwise be starved for education about hip hop and the positive message that music preaches.
As Tom's experience within the music industry expands, he plans to push the limits of the human voice as far as inhumanly possible. Enrolling the help of numerous loop stations, Tom has been conducting DJ sets using only his voice and nothing else, propelling crowds across the country into a frenzy of jaw-dropping disbelief, as he re-creates and remixes classic joints and jams from all eras and genres.
Twitter: @TomThummer