Beau Monga winner of X-Factor NZ. Photo / Supplied
Beau Monga winner of X-Factor NZ. Photo / Supplied
Who:The X Factor winner Beau Monga What: Self-titled debut album released Friday
Beau Monga, the 21-year-old beatboxing sensation and unlikely X Factor champ, knows what you're thinking. He knows what everyone's thinking. And he doesn't care.
"I don't feel pressure, eh bro," he spits out when asked if the career corpses of previous local talent-show winners hang over him.
"To be honest, so what? If you die out, you die out. If you go out, you go out. If you go far, you go far. So what? If I stuff up in something, I won't even care."
Like New Zealand Idol winners Ben Lummis, Rosita Vai and Matt Saunoa, the X Factor champions aren't supposed to make it. Had anyone heard anything from last year's winner Jackie Thomas until she popped up as a guest?
But Monga could be different. For starters, he's refreshingly ego free. When the Herald meets him at a music video shoot in Mt Eden, Monga turns down the menu at a nearby cafe because his mum is bringing him Subway.
It's this laid-back attitude that almost saw Monga miss his X Factor audition. "I'd never seen an episode in my life," he recalls. "The auditions were just up the road from my house in Alfriston. My mates were auditioning. They said, 'Bro, you should do it.' I thought I'd give it a jam.
"I looked it up on Facebook. It started at 10am and finished at 4pm. I got there when they were closing up. I was like, 'Is this where X Factor is?"'
The rest is showbiz history. But it's one Monga hopes to extend into something that lasts a little longer than the previous winners.
Tomorrow he releases his debut album, a record made in just five days, which mostly consists of covers, with Monga's personal spin: Blackstreet's No Diggity is a funked-up ballad, Pharrell's Happy is a bass-heavy romp, and Kanye West's Gold Digger is a big-band jam.
"The majority of the songs are all me. They have my own beat, beatboxing and some of my own harmonies. Some of them are different to my X Factor performances - I tried to do songs that I've never done before."
But it's Monga's one original, first single
King & Queen
, that really raises expectations.
It shows off Monga's signature sound perfectly, with beatboxing loops built into startlingly complex rhythms layered with honeyed vocals. It's a soul-laced summer stunner.
It's a sign that a debut of Monga's original material could be really rather good. It's something he hopes to produce by the end of the year.
It's also a nod to his roots: his parents are Betty-Anne and Ryan Monga from '80s funk-pop group Ardijah, and those influences are proudly on display. Music might be in his blood, but Monga says his home life was remarkably showbiz-free when he was growing up.
"We never performed in front of each other. At home it was eat, wash the dishes, watch TV, no singing, nothing. We just lived our life like normal: go to school, go back, do the dishes. My parents are pretty boring.
"At a young age, we'd [go to their concerts] just to eat all the chocolates and lollies." His confidence with a microphone started while beatboxing with friends at school, something Monga took to the streets when he began busking at Manurewa's Southmall early last year.
"I didn't have a job. It was my money on the side. I'd make $50-$70 in an hour and a half," he says.
He later scored corporate shows by practising with a loop pedal to create entire songs live.
The instrument, which Monga uses to sample his beatboxing then loop up bars to form beats, is what made Monga stand out on The X Factor, a show overrun with earnest singers desperately trying to recreate top 20 pop songs and ballads.
But at no point did Monga think he would be in the running to win. He wasn't even trying.
"I'm just a beatboxer. I came in for fun. I was ready to leave at boot camp. Once I saw the other contestants, I was like, 'There's no way I'm going to get in this'. "I just took it as fun, to meet people and jam.
"People like me normally get cut straight away. "I don't believe in winning. I believe in jamming, performing and doing your best in the moment."
Perhaps that's what made him such an attractive performer.
But the day after his big win, Monga wasn't feeling attractive. He was, by his own admission, "a wreck". He'd spent all night celebrating, but faced an entire day of interviews on little sleep with a brutal hangover.
"I went to bed at 5.30am," he says. "I did my first interview at 6am." Monga didn't take the interviews too seriously, and his sloppy answers and half-assed attitude showed.
But now, talking to the Herald in his first media interview around the release of his album, Monga shows a side we didn't see on The X Factor. He's funny, for sure, but there's a new-found sense of the possibilities of the future, too.
"I'm just looking forward to touring and performing. I'm just keen to get some more original songs out there. I'm buzzing out," he says.
He admits his biggest asset - staying grounded and remaining relaxed - is also a weakness. His big reveal comes when Monga admits his dream was to become a professional basketball player, but couldn't handle the drills.
"I can't do serious stuff. I can't function. I just like having fun with things rather than taking it seriously. I know nothing about all this stuff but I'm learning. I want to do it - hard."
He pauses, realising the interview has taken a serious turn. His eyes glint, and he says, "If you go on for fun, you've already won," bursting into laughter.
As an X Factor winner, Monga knows that's a motto to live by.
