Beardyman

Pavilion Theatre, Worthing, Stoke Abbott Road, Worthing, Thursday, June 23,

Starts 8pm, tickets £19.50, call 01903 206206

IT is not unheard of for musicians to make their own instruments in pursuit of their sound.

Darren Foreman, also known as Beardyman, went one step further in designing his own software.

The beatboxer and comic, who made a name for himself ten years ago by winning the UK beatboxing championships and retaining it in 2007, went on to loop and layer his vocal sounds using the latest equipment to create new textures.

Now he has created a piece of kit called the BeardyTron 5000, software that works on touchscreen pads and laptops linked up to a keyboard, to create an album's-worth of material from scratch every night as part of a show.

Foreman says, "It's a kind-of study in what you can get away with in the moment.

"Back in the day you had to make your own gear. You can get sample packs and DJs have got in trouble for that but that's what they're for. I prefer to do sound design.

"Making music in real time is my fascination. That's what the BeardyTron 5000 does, much as it sound like it's capable of destroying the planet."

Foreman is waiting to board a plane when he talks to The Guide and adds, "I probably shouldn't be saying that in an airport."

His music contains elements of drum and bass, dubstep, breakbeat, trance, techno and other forms of electronic dance music.

"This show really does push it to its limits," he says, "But this will be the last year I do it because increasingly I like collaboration and that's more fun."

Foreman moved from North London to Brighton in 2001 to study at the University of Sussex.

"I studied philosophy because I was an idiot," he laughs, "It was a waste of time. Then I went to Brighton uni briefly and thought about product design. I learnt I wanted to make something and that something was music."

Foreman has been beatboxing since he was three but cannot pinpoint whether he was imitating Police Academy star Michael Winslow or making experimental noises.

"I don't know what came first. I never watched him and thought what he was doing was what I should be doing for a living.

"It was a uni that I started to realise this beatboxing stuff could be crafted into a show that could be really engaging. It was after getting into [beatbox legend] Rahzel - he was the genesis."

In coming to Worthing, he makes an album in an hour from audience suggestions.

Worthing might seem an unlikely choice for Beardyman, a town which has, over the past few years, taken great strides in booking less traditional acts to mix up its offering.

Foreman says, "They have been gentrifying Worthing in preparation for my visit. I'm a bit like the Olympics; I bring a wealth of regeneration with me and everything that's happened is part of that."

He's a bit of a joker - the year of his first championship win saw him start one show as fictitious Austrian climate change lecture Professor Bernhard Steinerhoff.

"I kind of can't go for very long without doing something silly," he says, "I find it hard to keep a straight face most of the time. You've got to laugh - especially when you're improvising.

"Once I was at this gig in Paris watching a free jazz band, where these people were hitting their instruments and blowing on the strings.

"I can like that stuff for five minutes but then I noticed it had been going on for a really long time and they had their eyes closed, everyone is stroking their beards and you realise it is s***.

"I was getting funeral giggles and my girlfriend, now wife, and I had to leave. You need to have a sense of humour when you're doing music."

Foreman continues joking around when asked whether he has made friends who simply refer to him now as Beardyman.

"It says on my rider [instructions from touring artists for venue operators], you will not talk to Beardyman but look at the floor and bark," he says. "Beardyman then whispers to his tour manager, who will punch you in the face."

You have been warned.

Adrian Imms