Julia Ramos’ beatboxing career began when she was 13 years old. During a routine YouTube visit, Ramos stumbled upon a video of beatboxer Joel Turner from the 2003 season of “Australian Idol” and, having never heard beatboxing before, was intrigued by his unfamiliar sounds.
“I found (Turner’s video) and was like, ‘That’s so cool – I don’t know what that is but I want to try it out,'” Ramos said.
That initial exposure sparked an interest Ramos has carried to this day. Ramos said she became completely committed to teaching herself the art of beatboxing through a combination of video tutorials and persistence.
“I had to sit in my room and do the same thing over and over again, because (beatboxing is) a lot of conditioning,” Ramos said. “It’s like a muscle – you work it until it sounds right.”
After homeschooling herself in beatboxing for several years, Ramos stepped out of her room and onto the national stage. The graduating fourth-year has beatboxed on television in a CoverGirl commercial and has been highly ranked in national competitions.
In 2011, Ramos competed in the American Beatbox Championship in New York City for the first time and placed in the top 16. In 2014, she booked another plane ticket and, after competing against over 100 contestants from all over the country, and again made the top 16.
Most recently, Ramos was a featured “Rockabella” beatboxer in a CoverGirl commercial promoting the movie “Pitch Perfect 2.” After hearing Ramos at an audition for a professional a cappella group, Grammy Award-winning arranger Ben Bram reached out to her for the television opportunity.
“He hit me up and said, ‘Hey, I think I have something you might be interested in – do you want to be a CoverGirl?'” Ramos said.
To balance her beatboxing career with her Design | Media Arts studies at UCLA, Ramos said she has found ways of incorporating her passion for beatboxing into her visual artwork.
In a study about visible sound vibrations, Ramos set a speaker beneath a container of water to demonstrate the sound waves involved with her beatboxing. She said her favorite project, though, involved typography, in which she created graphic artwork to represent the sounds used in beatboxing.
“Beatboxing is often notated with lettering, like B-T-K,” Ramos said. “I made strips of beatboxing, expressing it through a typographical means.”
Ramos’ most extensive beatboxing experience at UCLA, however, has been with Random Voices, an all-female a cappella group she joined in her first year. At that point, the ensemble’s previous beatboxer was graduating, so when Ramos was accepted, she said she immediately became responsible for the majority of Random Voice’s percussive sound effects.
Megan Gaumond, a third-year psychology student and music director of Random Voices, said she considers Ramos to be a core aspect of the a cappella group.
“No other a cappella group on campus has a beatboxer like Julia,” Gaumond said. “Her talent really just adds a whole other level to our group.”
Ramos said being in Random Voices has helped her develop skills in singing, so she has reciprocated by sharing her expertise in beatboxing.
“Sometimes before rehearsal, we have these little beatboxing clinics and (Ramos) teaches us a few percussive things and gives us tips,” said Olivia London, a second-year theater student and fellow Random Voices member.
London said Ramos has also given Random Voices a recording of her beatboxing to a variety of songs as a reference for after she graduates and leaves the ensemble this year.
After graduation, Ramos said she plans to continue beatboxing professionally, either as a soloist or as a member of an a cappella group. She said she feels fortunate for her recent success in the beatboxing world and wants to continue that momentum, especially since she has found a home within the beatbox community.
“Beatbox culture is still very new, but the way it’s forming, meeting other beatboxers, I’ve noticed that we all have this kind of quirk,” Ramos said. “I think there’s something really unique that we bring with our interests and personalities.”