Pono Akina is one of the best beatboxers in the world. He creates unique sounds and songs with nothing but his voice. We talk beatboxing, winning the American Beatboxing Championships, the hardest sounds to make and taking beatboxing mainstream. Then, we countdown a special “Christmas Movie” Top 5.
Pono Akiona: 01:46
Pointless: 33:19
Top 5: 57:48
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nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show Email)
https://youtube.com/@ponobeatbox (Pono Akiona YouTube)
https://www.instagram.com/ponobeatbox (Pono Akiona Instagram)
Pono Akiona Interview: Beatboxing Champion
Nick VinZant 0:11
Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode beatboxing and bad Christmas movies.
Pono Akiona 0:21
It's like saying the letter K, like, you kind of say in Word
you know, it is a battle. So it kind of has that, that more aggressive, kind of head to head mentality where you can kind of call them out, you're like, Hey, bro, like, you know, that's cool, but you keep spamming the same thing, you know, like you're doing anything, and people can't see in the calendar standard, right? Don't let that discourage you, especially if you can see, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel, you can understand and grasp for yourself, you should should do for you. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate it. It really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is one of the best beat boxers in the world. And I think the best way to introduce him is just to let you hear it
Nick VinZant 1:41
this is beatboxing champion, porno. Aki, ona I have an idea of what beatboxing is. But how do you define beatboxing? What do you consider it to be? More
Pono Akiona 1:53
or less? It's creating musical tracks with different body parts mostly like your mouth or your nose, your throat? Your tongue? Like that general region?
Nick VinZant 2:05
How did you get into this?
Pono Akiona 2:07
In 2016, I started beat boxing because I saw a video of another beat boxers name was zealous. And for some reason, that was the one that that stuck with me. Because before that, I've seen a couple of other beatbox videos. But for some reason, hearing him I really thought like wow, like, I really want to try that. I really think I could, I could do that. And from there, I remember just trying to do like the fundamental sounds. And I picked those up really quick. Like I could just do them like after hearing them. I could do the fundamentals. Those okay, maybe there's something here. And then from there, you know, I just practiced every day and I went down this rabbit hole and then it was stuck, then I could never get
Nick VinZant 2:56
no was other music like that for you? Or was it just this specifically?
Pono Akiona 3:02
Mainly this one. Before that I had some musical experience, but nothing, nothing really, you know, scratch that itch for me like, like beatboxing this.
Nick VinZant 3:14
So what kind of defines it as being music versus noise?
Pono Akiona 3:20
I would say what makes it music is the fact that you can turn into like an entire, like, a piece, you know, it's a whole track. There's like, There's rhythm to it. There's a flow there's, it's a whole it's structured, like a song. And then there's there's certain meat boxes that have even made careers out of it, where they perform for a living.
Nick VinZant 3:43
When you mentioned before, like the basic sounds, what are some of the like, the basic sounds? Could you give us examples of of those.
Pono Akiona 3:51
So the basic or fundamental sounds are your typical drum kit. So you've got like, the kick drum, right? Or the hi hat, or like a snare. So like if you put them together, just simply it's something like that.
Nick VinZant 4:18
I'm fucking shocked. I can't believe that sound comes out of your mouth. And that's a compliment, right? Like, that was so clean and clear and sounded like the instrument that you were imitating that my mouth just dropped was like holy, how the hell do you do that?
Pono Akiona 4:36
Well, for one, lots of lots of work. I practice you know, every day pretty much. But to give a quick breakdown of the those simpler sounds for your kick. You just want to It's like saying the letter B so B, B and then you push really hard with your lips. So instead of B pull out pressure Pee Pee, pee and then remove your vocals from it. So not the kick, and then your hi hat similar with the letter T. So T T
and then the last one would be the hardest one is your snare. So, for the K snare, it's like saying the letter K, like, you kind of say in Word your fundamental sounds
Nick VinZant 5:42
okay. Is it that hard to learn how to do it? Or is it maybe just me that like I have, I have no musical talent? So to me, you might as well be inventing a rocket ship, right? Like AI? Is it that hard to do? Or is it just like, man, you got it, or you kind of don't?
Pono Akiona 6:03
I think anybody can learn those. Those sounds, it might take a lot of work. Because for some people, you know, it clicks more than others, like, just like anything else, right? Words. For some people, they just, they, they, their brain understands it easier, and they're able to pick up pick it up quicker. But I believe those those beginning sounds are sounds that everybody is like physically capable of doing. Like you can, you can eventually do it with enough practice. Um, there are certain sounds that I feel like, like, you know, there's just like, some only don't like only, like, randomly just some people can just do it. And some people can't, because like, only a small number of people in the community know how to do those sounds, but I think more or less people can anybody can learn.
Nick VinZant 6:59
You can figure it out, right? Like, if you did it enough, you're eventually going to be able to do it. Is it generally kind of harder to figure out how to make the sound? Or is it harder to figure out how to Alright, make this into a musical flow?
Pono Akiona 7:15
I feel like that's, it really depends. Because some sounds will be really difficult for me to, to figure out and understand, like, to wrap my brain around it, you know, it's like, why can't I do this one specific sound, but then sometimes I'll get a sound and it's like, really, really difficult for me to do. So if it's really hard to do, it's hard to put it together into like a beat. Right? So it's, it kind of varies, but I think once you get the sound, and you just practice it enough more often you can, you can put it into a beat. But that's not always the case. You know, there's, I still have some songs that I'm not comfortable yet using in a beat because I don't feel like it's a it's a certain quality for me to put in a beat.
Nick VinZant 8:05
You mentioned before like making a sound with your nose. I don't even know how to do that. Like, what's the sound that you would make with your no
Pono Akiona 8:13
one that you would, uh, I Okay, actually, maybe, maybe, not all of them, like, are generated from your nose, but but it'll like it'll come through your nose. Like, you know, for example, like coming home. Let's just come for you notice without your mouth, right?
Nick VinZant 8:31
I never even thought about it as becoming through through my nose. I was I was coming through my mouth. I guess it is
Pono Akiona 8:40
passing through your nose very, but even even though um, it's your voice, right? So it starts. So, there's a few sounds that are like that. And then there's actually a couple of sounds that are like, through your nose. Like, you know, like, you know, when you snore, some people use that sound and a beat like, you know, like, I don't I don't really use that sound. But that's, that's a sound that people use. That comes from your nose.
Nick VinZant 9:06
There's definitely a ton of sounds that you can make, but I wouldn't say that. A lot of them are necessarily like musical or good sound like I make this weird sound with my throat itching the back of my throat and pretty much everybody who knows me in real life hates it. But like I wouldn't say that's a musical sound. Are there ones where you're like, Oh, that's a new sound like Oh, that's terrible. I can't use that at all.
Pono Akiona 9:32
Yeah, definitely. There's there's times where I'm like wow, that like it's more so like a joke you know, when I did it, I'm like, wow, that's not good. But it's kind of funny. Um, but for the most part if you like, there are a lot of sounds that are at the surface you might not think much of or might not think there's a lot of potential for but if you explored enough because sometimes you can, we can layer sounds together you can You know, combine it with the sound, the sound or, or do a, a combo of like, going from one sound to another sound. And sometimes they work better when they're when they're, you know, paired with something else or layered on something else.
Nick VinZant 10:15
So like when you got started doing this, right, like, obviously, it's cool. It's impressive. It's unique. Were you ever kind of discouraged? Because I can hear like my grandpa and my like, hey, that's really cool, Nick, maybe play guitar? Right? Was Is there ever that kind of stigma around it?
Pono Akiona 10:33
You know, for me, that wasn't something super huge. I remember, maybe started hearing that maybe not directly, but people were on when people heard about this or, you know, saw me doing it, they might have thought, or they vocally said like, wow, that's, that's kind of dumb. It's kind of silly or whatever, right? But I never had anyone directly like telling me like, you should stop. You should not do this anymore. Like something like that, right? Like that. That never really happened in my when, when I was first starting out. My parents and my family been really supportive. Because, you know, at first, I'm sure they were just like, kinda like, metaphor, like, you know, it's a kind of, it's a party trick or something, right? It's a lot of people think of me in the beginning, but what you can really do with this, and what you can really explore is a there's a lot, there's a lot to it, you know, there's the rabbit hole is very deep, and you can do a ton of things. And people just often seem to not not see that. And they just barely scratched the surface of what can be done in the public. A point of view, so if there, anyone out there, you know, you're doing anything, and people can't see in the calendar standard, right? Don't let that discourage you, especially if you can see, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel, you can you can understand it and grasp for yourself, you know, you should do it for you.
Nick VinZant 12:06
We had an Ice Climber on here one time, and he said something that always stuck with me in that regard. He was like, everybody's stupid. Everybody's crazy. Until they're not. And it's all a matter of when is it not? Right? Um, so How popular is this? Right? Like, is it going up in popularity? Is it down? Is it about the same? What would you say it is?
Pono Akiona 12:28
I think it's definitely growing. Maybe not as fast of a rate as it was a couple years ago, even. But it's it's definitely growing. And at least the interest of it not maybe not one like, like the community of the boxers. But definitely the people that support the boxing I think is getting a lot bigger, because a lot of the competitions are going viral. And a lot of posts on like Tik Tok or Instagram have viral videos of boxers, people that I know, people that I consider friends even, are blown up. And I think that's awesome, because it's getting some representation of what you know, actually is beat boxing, you know, like, yeah, one of the best crews. So like, it's four people make up this beat box crew. They did, America's Got Talent. And I think they're, like one of the top five most viewed videos on on America's Got Talent channel. And they're real beatboxes they're all like, really well respected within the community as well. So they're really like, showing what, you know, what we are really capable of, you know, instead of just, you know, putting lives whenever it's depicted, like a TV show, or like, you know, a movie or something. It's just like, kind of like, a kind of a joke, right? It's not really ever taken, like too serious.
Nick VinZant 14:01
Can it move past? I'll just say like, sick, you know, the 62nd mentality, right? We're like, Oh, that's really cool. Can I listen to a whole album of this? Do you think it can do that? Or is it kind of arts? It is what it is?
Pono Akiona 14:17
I personally do. I think it definitely can, there's, there's a lot of variety in what you can actually do with it. Because like I said, people just, you know, have been given that chance to see that, but I know, um, I know multiple people who've released albums have just beat boxing, and they've done pretty decent for themselves. And there's also certain people that that also, you know, incorporate the boxing sounds into like produced songs, you know, so that they'll sample like, a sound from beatboxing and things like that.
Nick VinZant 14:55
So correct me here, right fill in the resume. Yeah, you just won the American championships.
Pono Akiona 15:00
Yeah, the 2022 American beatbox championship. And the title specifically was for solos for the solo category. So it's just like one one versus one
Nick VinZant 15:12
array like, okay, in a competition. What are you being judged on? Like, how does that whole process work?
Pono Akiona 15:19
The first stage is the video submissions. So everybody records a two minute video, or no, one minute 30 video, and they selected the best 32 competitors to perform live, and the live competition took place in in Atlantic City. So the judges pick their top 32. And from that top 32, everybody, they all performed live. And then then from there, they they chose to top 16 to move on to the battles. The way the battles work, is they're bracketed off. So one versus 16, two versus 15. And so on.
Nick VinZant 16:01
Yeah, like a sports tournament, basically. Yeah. Yeah.
Pono Akiona 16:03
Right. And then, from there, both, you know, both, both the boxers have 2/92 rounds, and they go back and forth, each twice. So like, let's say, you know, you mean, we're battling, they flip a coin, one of us use heads or tails. Alright, you know, it's lands on heads, and I cheese, you know, to go first I go, you go, and I would go, and then you go, and then that's it, that's time to look to the judges, the judges will make their decision, you know, the vote either one way or another. Whoever has more votes goes on, that process is repeated until the final and then the final once they declare a winner. But the things they're specifically judging, there's really a lot to take into consideration. But it's like your originality, your cleanliness, how well structured it is, how cohesive how coherent everything is, like put together to make like a full like, track versus like, if it's like, a segmented and stuff doesn't really like, flow together and work together. And then there's like, objective thing. So is your timing. Good? You know, are you keeping up in time? You know, are you out of key? Things like that?
Nick VinZant 17:18
Are you playing the competition or playing the man so to speak, right? Like, are you going to do your thing? Or like, Oh, my opponent went all hi hat, I better go snare? Like, how do you approach it?
Pono Akiona 17:29
That's interesting that you bring that up? It sort of both, because for one. A lot of people including myself, they'll come to the competition prepared with set routines and set for like, sets, right? So like, the you have your songs ready. So because because that gives you the best chance of, of like performing your best, right? Because if you go and you freestyle, it's kind of a gamble, right? Like he could like, fall off, or you could, you know, just read be really like on it right there in the moment. So it's kind of up in the air. So having a set like, you know, a set you're more it's more like, solidified, you know, you've refined this over like months even. And, Bob, what you're saying, like, you know, if they do something, does that impact what you do? Sometimes it does, because you can, either, you'll, I'll pick my sets. Specifically, like who I'm going against, because, you know, that that does play a play a factor in, you know, you know, if you win or not sometimes, but in addition to that, some people also like to counter, which is when you do their beat, or sometimes you can counter like their style. And it's just basically showing, like, you know, oh, yeah, it's easy. Like, I can do it. Right. But sometimes people will do that, just to like, shut them down, especially if it's like something that they like, it's like, they're really big highlight moments, like, Oh, look at this, it's so crazy. And you're just like, I can do to like, so what you know, so it's sometimes it's some people do that sort of thing. And then there's also some, like, kind of trash talk that goes into to, you know, nothing too insane. But, you know, it is a battle. So it kind of has that, that more aggressive, kind of head to head mentality where you can kind of call them out, you're like, Hey, bro, like, you know, that's cool, but you keep spamming the same thing. You know, like, it's kind of like just calling them out on like, whatever their you know, whatever you're doing. That's, you know, what, yeah, yeah, just calling them out. Really?
Nick VinZant 19:44
That's just kind of part of the culture. Right? It's back and forth.
Pono Akiona 19:47
Yeah. Because you're going back and forth. You know, they're doing their rounds, and then you're gonna do your rounds. So you only have two rounds, so you really got to make it make it count.
Nick VinZant 19:56
Okay, but you're the American champ. Where does that kind of place in the world though, right is like is is united. You and I are both based in the States. United States like oh man, the American champ is probably better than everybody or like the Americans don't worry about them. I don't
Pono Akiona 20:12
have to be like humble about this. But I feel like in the in the comparing country to country like America's at least number two, he could make an argument for number one, but the three heaviest hitters are probably France, which is probably surprising, right? But you don't think France? France is very, like, really good. France. Us. And then a third one is kind of a debate for but I think it's South Korea. South Korea is really good.
Nick VinZant 20:47
Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Yeah, what's the hardest sound to make easiest sound to make?
Pono Akiona 20:59
Artists now, let's see if I can do right now. That one's pretty hard. Cuz sometimes doesn't doesn't land to like that easy song to make? Hi Hat.
Nick VinZant 21:12
Are you always working on new ones like, Man, I got this new sound.
Pono Akiona 21:17
I'm not always because you kind of develop a kit that you're comfortable with. And then you you just go really deep into what you can do with those sounds, you know, instead of learning different sounds all the time, you're staying at, like the surface, right? It's like, if you're growing like, you know, if your roots, it's like going out versus if it's going down, right? If you just rooted in like your style?
Nick VinZant 21:41
Is it harder to to conceptualize it, right? Like how many sounds will you go through and be like, that's not it harder to come up with it are harder to do it, I guess,
Pono Akiona 21:50
probably harder to do, because I'm sorry, harder to come up with it. Because coming up with sounds is not something that's like, you know, you don't make them alive, so to speak, you don't like put on your hand. I want to make any sound right. But it's more like you accidentally kind of stumble into it or find it. You know, it's like, well, natural, or you'll hear somebody else do a sound. And you're like, Okay, that's, you know, now that's brought into the game. Right? And that's like, Okay, some people are gonna learn it, some people are not gonna learn
Nick VinZant 22:19
it is do you have a signature sound? Yeah.
Pono Akiona 22:23
It was probably the one I did earlier. Like, yeah, probably that one.
Nick VinZant 22:31
Is it? Is it an open secret? Or is it very secretive? Like how how you make those sounds?
Pono Akiona 22:38
I mean, I could tell you, but I don't know, if you didn't really understand everything. But I could, I could
Nick VinZant 22:42
like to hear the explanation just to see how much I don't understand it almost.
Pono Akiona 22:47
So the first sound, it's a it's a combination of, like, 333 layers, basically. So the first sound underneath, all of it is inward base, which is a base created by breathing in, that's why it's called an ER B. So it's like, you know, ah, ah, that's the, that's the sound. So it's like, kind of like, you breathing in and you kind of getting this this sort of, you know, vibration in your throat. But that's the first answer. Yeah. And then on top of that, it's vocalized. So, you know, if you went, you know, if you just home, right? If you do that, like inward so. So, that on top of it, so. And then on top of that, there's another sound called siren. So if you put your mouth and like kind of a V shaped like you're about to say the letter V
and then so that, again, is you're also layered on top of all those so ah yeah, that would be that sound as the name really,
Nick VinZant 24:20
but you might as well be sneaky speaking, like clinging on to me. Right? Like, breathe in, like, how to make a sound. Besides just being like, out of breath. But were you like it that were you like that at the beginning?
Pono Akiona 24:35
For me? A lot of this stuff was really like, intuitive. Like, I'm not sure. Yeah, I mean, I remember the first sound. I was like, really stumbled on was, was the sound that a guy who inspired me it was zealous he's to use it like that was like one of his main sounds and how's he doing that? Man? I remember sitting down watching the his like tutorial on it and I I got it pretty quick. So I don't know, for me, a lot of these sounds just, I'm really able to just pick it up pretty pretty quick.
Nick VinZant 25:09
Yeah, you get it or you don't, right. Like, I think you and I could sit here for hours and I'd still just be like, Okay, I can make that set. I can Whistle. Whistle, I can do that. Um, who's and if it's you, man say it's you, who's kind of the Michael Jordan LeBron James, of beat boxing.
Pono Akiona 25:31
It's, it's not me. But that's tough. And I remember actually, I was watching, I was watching a another segment that you did, where you asked that. And it was defined answer. But for beatboxing it's really tough because I don't feel like there's anybody who's had that legacy or had that, like, it's too young. You know what I mean?
Nick VinZant 26:01
Well, yeah, that makes sense, right?
Pono Akiona 26:03
It's really young words. Like, there's a lot of really, really, there's a lot of people like kind of contending that spot, but there's no one who's just like, just just has it right. There's no one that's like, like, you know, that's, like, ascended ahead of like everybody else, and they're just like, This guy's like, go for sure. Like, set in stone.
Nick VinZant 26:21
Now, can anyone make this their full time living?
Pono Akiona 26:25
Um, I think it's really difficult. Because I feel like in terms of like, the mainstream in terms of like, how, how much recognition beatboxing gets. It's, it's tough. I mean, it can be done. I know certain people who who've done it. But, and certain people we're trying, we're trying to do it currently. But it's, it's really tough. You know, like, like, I'm not trying to, like, I don't want I'm not trying to brag, right, ya know, like, like, I won the American Championship, like, you know, I want the title of like, you know, ranked number one in the US and, um, you know, I'm still not doing it. So, you know, I feel like that, that kind of speaks to something, you know,
Nick VinZant 27:15
now, will, I'll say, like, established artists, or in, you know, genres of music, will they ever contact beatboxers and be like, hey, I need you to come lay down this sound for me? Like, is it ever in the kind of music that I would hear on the Spotify top 40 or whatever?
Pono Akiona 27:33
Sometimes, sometimes, I can't remember the artists name. But I remember somebody pretty big reached out to somebody that I knew. And he did, like a he did a beat for one of their songs, but I can't remember off the top of my head. His name, but yeah, they're I mean, I think it's, it's getting there more so was maybe not the top 40. But like, you know, that certain certain certain songs that you might not expect it from for sure. We'll have it but I don't think it's there yet. I think the just the general recognition from like, you know, the media and like, the, just the public. Isn't isn't fully there yet. Because there aren't a ton of B boxes that are just, like, just performing just just be boxing, like all the time and aren't like, you know, touring, but I think it will be for sure. I think it's growing pretty rapidly. So, by the time you know, I'd say like, 10 years. Five, five to like, 10. Maybe
Nick VinZant 28:40
take this is gonna date me a little bit. Right, but I don't know if you've ever seen the guy from like, police academy. Can you Oh, yeah. Can you like mimic other sounds? Or is it mainly just around beatboxing? Right, like, you hear a car alarm and you can we can figure out how to do it or something like that.
Pono Akiona 29:00
Sort of, because I can do certain sounds that sound like other things. But they're not. Not like, with the, I can't just pick up like a you know, if you do a random sign, I can't really just, I can't I mean, I could try to like figure it out. But I could just like, you know, just like that just like, oh, I can I can do it. Right. But there's certain sounds that like, for example, this is this one that I used, like, in beats actually, but it's like, it sounds like like a bird. Like Oh. Kinda sounds like a, like a chick or something.
Nick VinZant 29:36
Yeah, it does sound like a bird. It's
Pono Akiona 29:39
but yeah, I mean, just a couple songs like that. Um, yeah. So as you know, you know, or as I stated, I don't know. I think off air, right? Yes. But that's where I was from. And I'm from boy, right. And for me, that's a really big thing that I'm super proud of, you know, because I'm also a toyon so it's something that, you know, there's not a lot of representation on top of that, right? It's like, even less like, you know, of like the Hawaiian representation, but also the Hawaiian, be boxers and be boxes from void. So for me, it's, it's really important to just like, at a state it and like represent that, you know, that's where I'm from, because I want to inspire more of the community here to, you know, get into so if there's anybody listening out there, and you're from, you know, in the front there from here, feel free to contact me, I would love to get in contact. Because I'm all about growing the scene here. I organize the state championship, and put that all together and yeah, just wanted to briefly mention that,
Nick VinZant 30:50
you know, you mentioned about forming, trying to, you know, forming a community and getting community in Hawaii going, is there a place in the United States where like, that's, that is the hub of beatboxing?
Pono Akiona 31:02
Yeah, actually, it's the East Coast. The east coast is really like, where it's at. There's they have competitions out there, like super regularly, there's just the sheer amount of people is just, there's a, there's a lot of people like, that's, that's really that's where it's at. A lot of so if you're on the East Coast, and you're beatboxer is a ton. There's a ton of you have access to a lot of things. But as far as competing, I'm not fully sure yet. I might do the World Championship. We'll see. I don't know yet.