Shinya Ihara is best known as human beatboxer Dokaka. As a five-year-old child, he hummed along with melodies on television, but one day plugged headphones into the TV, discovering that the sounds in his head matched those piping through the headphones. He quickly realized that songs consist of many parts like bass, drums, etc. Within a year, he began to record himself humming.



At 18, Dokaka started drumming in bands, and four years later stumbled upon his childhood recordings, reigniting his interest in humming. He was first heard humming by others when his band's bassist missed practice, so he hummed the bassline. The band's singer found the humming catchy and recommended professional recording. Dokaka financed and produced his own recordings and uploaded them to the internet, dubbing himself with the onomatopoeic name "Dokaka" from his drum derived humming sounds!



The Japanese human beatbox produces acappella remakes since of well-known songs from the likes of Nirvana via Shakira to Iron Maiden and via Slayer back to Stevie Wonder. Listening to them will produce a big smile on your face. In 2004 he released a solo album and was featured on the "Medulla" album by Björk.