He might have won X Factor, but Beau Monga still lives at home with his folks. As Shane Gilchrist discovers, the South Auckland beat-boxer prefers to go with the flow.
Beau Monga lives in Weymouth, a subsection of the South Auckland suburb of Manurewa.
No disrespect intended, but it's not the flashest place in New Zealand.
Still, parts of it do have water views, provided you're perched clear of all those mangroves.
Take it from someone who grew up there.
In fact, had the folks not decided to move south all those years ago, the high school of choice would have been James Cook, the very same educational institute Monga attended.
Though it wouldn't have been at the same time: he's 21, much younger.
Anyway, enough. Despite him seeming to like the fact there is home turf in common, this conversation is less about where Monga comes from, more about what he's done.
To recap: Monga won New Zealand's X Factor back in May, his vocal beat-boxing skills (doof, duh-doof, chikka-chikka, bwoomba ...) overcoming all rivals as well as a mid-series controversy when judges Natalia Kills and Willy Moon rounded on contestant Joe Irvine.
Boo, said the audience (and more than 70,000 people who signed a petition urging the couple's dismissal for their bullying behaviour).
Bye-bye, said the show's owners, Mediaworks.
''It was just annoying. There was too much drama. I just wanted to get on with the show,'' Monga reflects.
Beat-boxing is a self-contained form of music.
Talent aside, all you require is a microphone, a device by which you can loop and warp vocal phrases - be that singing or staccato, percussive bursts of percussion (hence its name) - and a PA system to get the audience moving.
''One person can do it,'' says Monga, adding he used to work on his chops while in the toilet and/or walking along the street.
The point is, he isn't the type to lock himself away in a bedroom, practising for hours on end.
''I should practise every day, but I just don't.
''I did beat-boxing at school,'' he says, not mentioning that he won James Cook High's talent quest in 2010 with a skit inspired by UK artist Beardyman.
Monga went on to win the Parachute Festival's ''Parachute's Got Talent'' competition in 2013, he and a hip-hop crew merging beat-boxing and dance; he also performed at the Ragamuffin music festival that year.
''After Parachute, I thought I was the man, but I fell back to the ground. So I bought myself a looper and spent about a year sussing out how to use it properly.
''Of Maori, Cook Islands, Tahitian and European descent, Monga is the son of Ryan and Betty-Anne Monga, of ''Polyfunk'' group Ardijah.
Now the 21-year-old has a self-titled debut album that, since its release on Sony Records, has been in the top 20 for eight weeks and includes the single King and Queen, which debuted at No1 on its release.
The X Factor winner's album also features 1960s hit Hit the Road Jack, Maori classic Ruketekete Te Mamae and covers of Kanye West's Gold Digger, Blackstreet's No Diggity and Pharrell Williams' 2013 mega-hit, Happy, albeit deftly reworked into a slower and lower-pitched R'n'B version.
''It was cool because I got to do what I thought would work. It was done in five days, so it was pretty hard and fast.''
As for plans, Monga's mum has taken up the challenge of helping chart his course post-television show (anyone heard from NZ Idol's Ben Lummis lately?).
Still, if he has any concerns about his future, he's sure not letting on.
''We are just going to see what happens. I've got this New Zealand tour,'' he says, referring to a national trek that includes all-ages performances at Dunedin's Brimstone nightclub (on Saturday night) and Southland Boys' High School the following day.
''I have some other gigs lined up. I don't have a job.''
Should music not work out, perhaps he could look to drama.
In 2013, he toured with the Phoenix Performing Arts Company, taking on the lead role of Maui in a play that aimed to raise awareness of suicide.
''We performed it down the line,'' Monga says.
''Last year, in Dunedin, we did it in front of all these corporate people, who were crying at the end.''
So a potential career path, then?
''No,'' Monga counters quickly.
''I can't feed off that kind of drama, not depressing acting. I can't play that sort of character for too long.''
How about Shortland St then?
He cracks up.
''Naaaaahhh ...''
''I'd be like, 'Yeah, yeah, bro'.''
• Beau Monga's ''King and Queen'' tour features a live band, dancers, cameo performances by other X Factor contestants, and local youth talent.
Monga will perform the following dates in the South: Brimstone, Dunedin, Saturday, September 12; Southland Boys' High School, Sunday, September 13 (both shows from 6pm-8.30pm).
