Joel Turner, ‘Australian Idol’, And ‘These Kids’: A Look Back At Our Brief Beatboxing Obsession
Joel Turner remains one of the most successful Australian hip-hop acts of all time. Let that sink in.
Chances are, if you watched the first season of Australian Idol, the words “beatboxing” will take you on a percussive walk down memory lane.
Joel Turner began beatboxing to practice playing the drums for his local church. His mum couldn’t afford a drum set, so on the bus ride home, he’d emulate the beat with the only instrument he had. “I started by grinding my teeth together,” Turner remembers. “Then I discovered I could make all these sounds [with my mouth]”
After coming across Rahzel, a former member of The Roots whose ability to rap while beatboxing blew Turner away, the Brisbane-native was inspired to find his own way into music.
Together with his older brother Tim (aka DubLT) and their cousin Chris (aka C4) they formed The Modern Poets, a hip-hop trio assisted by their own beatbox extraordinaire. Besides a few school performances, nothing substantial ever came of it.
Fast forward to 2003, and Turner found himself at an audition for Australian Idol. “We weren’t even going to go, but my brother woke me up at five in the morning, he was like, ‘Do you wanna go?’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, all right’”, he recollects. “’Cause we didn’t know what it was back then, all we had seen was that little ad saying ‘Australian Idol, get here this date’. So we rocked up and didn’t expect to get in of course, ’cause we’re not singers, we’re rappers.”
Australian Idol entered living rooms everywhere in the latter half of 2003. The advent of reality television-cross-talent shows promised a peek behind the curtain of the music industry. With a panel of judges slated to either make or break a slew of hopefuls wildest dreams, Australian Idol became must-see TV.
The national syndication of the reality show saw Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson (UK record executive and talent scout), Marcia Hines (pop singer and Australian national treasure by way of Boston), and Mark Holden (record producer), play the parts of their American counterparts.
Somehow, as soon as Joel Turner entered that sun-lit audition room, they all forgot where they were.
Swimming in an oversized New York Rangers jersey and a navy baseball cap a 16-year-old Turner stares at the floor. The sounds of a record scratch escape his lips as he moves his hands mimicking a DJ using turntables: “Ah wa oh-oh wa… Australian Idol!”
Marcia smiles, Dicko forgets to be the acerbic asshole, and Mark Holden sees dollar signs. Australia’s next star had arrived.
Despite the judges’ frenzied gratitude for the beatboxing teenager, Turner didn’t make the next round. Instead, he was handed a golden ticket to perform at the Idol finale at the Sydney Opera House, performing a two-minute beatbox solo for a gaggle of screaming fans.
Marcia smiles, Dicko forgets to be the acerbic asshole, and Mark Holden sees dollar signs. Australia’s next star had arrived.
For Turner, it didn’t matter who won that night. Handed a recording deal with Holden’s Dream Dealers label, Joel Turner and The Modern Poets were born.
The release of their single, ‘These Kids’ a song dedicated to their trials and tribulations — from a friend’s suicide to Joel’s childhood — found its way to the number one spot on the ARIA charts. Up until then, Turner was simply a novelty act from Idol but almost overnight, he’d ignited a nationwide obsession with beatboxing. Spending twenty-one consecutive weeks at number one, ‘These Kids’ remains the highest-selling single release by an Australian hip-hop act ever.
Riding the coattails of this success, the trio toured the country extensively, with Turner appearing again on Idol for their second season’s grand finale. Eventually, alongside fellow beatboxer, Tom Thum, Turner returned to his craft, winning the World Beatbox Championships in 2005 as Attention Deficit Disaudio.
And in an unforgettable instant of Australian pop culture history, Drumstick even enlisted the beatboxing wunderkind for their new Loaded advertisement — cited by Wikipedia as his “most famous” moment.
Turner’s sights were set on paying forward the magic of Rahzel to Australia; however, in 2007, those plans were put on hold.
In July 2007, Turner attended a housewarming party in Brisbane. Amid the chaos any house party brings, he found himself breaking up a fight but in the moment was hit square in the jaw with a fence paling. Rushed to hospital where he underwent surgery to have his jaw wired back together, the then 20-year-old feared what would happen to his career.
After his second album, Out of the Box, paled in comparison to his double-platinum debut, Turn claimed his sales tanked because he was unable to attend launches of the record while he recovered. Other sources claim Turner returned to performing less than a month after the incident occurred, in spite of doctors’ orders.
The case was taken to court, with Turner’s attacker sentenced to two years’ jail, suspended after he has served six months in custody. In a victim impact statement, Turner wrote: “The mouth is the beatbox artists’ instrument.”
For the most part, Australia’s “most popular of the unforgettables” Idol has been quiet ever since. But just last month he announced Joel Turner comeback to Courier Mail. Details are scarce, but only one question needs to be asked: are we ready for another Drumstick commercial?
Kish Lal is a writer and critic based in New York City. She is on Twitter.