Five-piece percussion ensemble from Tauranga, Beat Street Drummers. Photo / @beatstreetdrummers
Five-piece percussion ensemble from Tauranga, Beat Street Drummers. Photo / @beatstreetdrummers
A sensational Kiwi teen percussion ensemble is hitting new heights, appearing at summer festivals and racking up nearly 20 million views on its latest cover video.
The Beat Street Drummers - Noah and Lucas, both 18, Daniel, 17, Tristan, 15, and Elliot, 14 - are known for their slick beatsand unusual instruments of choice: bright orange Mitre 10 buckets.
The Tauranga quintet told the Herald they were thrilled to see their latest video “pop off” online.
“It’s our most viewed video now,” Lucas said of the group’s cover of Sigma and Paloma Faith’s 2014 hit Changing, which has amassed a staggering 17.6 million views on Instagram.
“As soon as we posted it, it was cool to see this one pop off quite quickly,” he said, describing the experience as “priceless”.
The clip shows the Beat Street boys casually twirling their drumsticks before launching into a tightly choreographed routine, striking the buckets in unison at their signature breakneck pace.
Even Sigma, the song’s original artist, weighed in on the clip, commenting: “Smashed it lads”.
Describing their style, Noah said the group enjoyed experimenting across genres to appeal to a multi-generational fanbase.
“We like upbeat tracks that help really show off our skills on the buckets, but then we’re also keen on playing chill tracks as well,” he said.
Lucas said the video’s success came down to more than just fast rhythms, pointing instead to the group’s choreography.
The Beat Street Drummers have scored another viral video with their Changing cover. Photo / @beatstreetdrummers
“I think the speed of it is quite cool, and just us going on each other’s buckets, a lot of people obviously love seeing that,” he said, adding the routine was “pleasing to the eye”.
Daniel said the group, who met through an after-school music programme, had refined their recording process over time.
“Once we’ve decided on the song, a TikTok recording might take us about 20 minutes to record and film, including choreography,” he said.
“Over the years, having that experience and developing as a group has really helped - there’s good chemistry between us, so it flows quite nicely.”
The band played to its biggest live audience yet at Festival One in Karāpiro, earlier this month, performing in front of thousands of “hyped” fans.
“It was our first time as Beat Street at the festival, and the crowd reaction for some of our sets was amazing,” Lucas said.
“To have the crowd right there and interacting with you in the moment was so cool,” Elliot added.
Tristan said he put the group’s appeal down to being “just really good friends”.
