Ryan Drums

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My friend Josh from ESP told me that we was workin’ this drum show in Hollywood and I decided it was definitely high time I got more involved with the local drum community. I brought my buddy Will for a few hours of torture. Try to imagine being at a Guitar Center. Then imagine being in a crowded drum department. Then imagine a moderated sized warehouse that is a drum department, where drummers everywhere are encouraged to play on stuff.

“This is my personal nightmare realized.” This is the direct quote from Will.

Any way, there is a lot going on at the show. I saw the Guitar Center booth and signed up to win a snare drum that I didn’t stay long enough to see auctioned off. I have nothing against Guitar Center, I’m there quite a bit, but I wanted to see somethings that weren’t common place so I didn’t hang there for very long. Sabian had a booth promoting their cymbals. I’m definitely in the market for a 21″ Holy China. That cymbal is deafening in the best way possible.

Battlefield Drums had a set-up around the way as well. These guys are really great and super-friendly. They custom make drums and are a little on the crazy side in a good way. I mean…look at these snares. DOPE right?! Hunting Snare? They have it. Snare made from recycled helicopter scrap? Check.

Eventually I made my way to ATI Drum Shells. These were pretty cool too, definitely super fun to think of the possibilities and build a custom drumset with various acrylic shells. I seriously want to put together a drumset made of acrylic and wire in LEDs with a trigger system so the various drums light up whenever you hit ‘em. If nothing else, it’ll look great in a video.

Around this time we had our first clinician of the day, Dave Elitch, already former drummer for The Mars Volta. I don’t know what the deal is with TMV and their drummers but Dave is a serious player. I really appreciated how he had some fairly simple concepts, broke ‘em down, and then built it up to something that was really impressive. His precision and creativity were good and I was fortunate to get an opportunity to watch him develop a solo utilizing many of the ideas he had just discussed. I’m in the audience kinda in the back of this video he posted on youtube.

Matt Nolan Custom is another amazing gentleman from Bath, England. Matt hand hammers custom cymbals and gongs. The cymbals have a dry quality to them but the visual impact is simply amazing. I really loved the hi hats, those were just stunning. These are artisan cymbals, one of a kind stuff.

Next I stopped by a booth they were selling weighted drum sticks. Not really for playing but mainly for developing strength and believe me, they’re serious about the weighting. Some of the sticks were made of solid brass and had to weigh 3-4 lbs. WAY heavier than the heaviest sticks I used in Drum Corps. They probably sound awful on actual drums, but they were specifically designed for practice and building strength. It’s an interesting concept that I hadn’t really dived much into before and interesting to dive into some.

Boneyard Drums had a booth with possibly the best slogan. Repair, Rental, Resurrect. I dig that because this guy definitely brought some really old drums back to life. I can relate to that, my Pork Pie snare drum probably needs some resurrecting itself, but when you have a good piece of gear it’s saddening to watch it slowly deteriorate as years go on. Drums, as one can imagine, take a literal beating but this guy definitely had a good touch with repairs. He even showed me some gear from the 70′s which looked as new as anything else I saw at the show.

Next booth was Todd Created Wood. THESE. DRUMS. ARE. SICK. Todd is a very passionate and gifted woodworker and he’s my kinda guy too. Todd spoke to me some about the drums and then was like, “Here’s some sticks, hit ‘em.” These drums speak really well. It’s as if the harder you hit ‘em the more tones you get. In a room surrounded by drums these drums sounded like absolute perfection. Todd hand makes all the drums and even has used wine caskets from outta Napa Valley to make a kick drum. The set he brought out that day had a 18″ kick that definitely rivaled a 21″ kick drum easily. He also created a snare that is derived from two different kinds of wood. The exterior is Cherry and the interior is Maple fused together. First off, this is in the realm of things that ‘can’t be done’. Secondly, this was another case of just absolute amazing sound, really rich in tone and full. I really can’t say enough good things about these drums. Do yourself a favor and check ‘em out.

Lastly we have monster player Thomas Lang. Thomas is an Austrian drummer who I can honestly say is one of the handful of people who are approaching that Terry Bozzio level of skill. He’s a little flat but who cares, his drums do all the talking anyone would need. This guy can pretty much emulate anything his hands do on his feet. I’m talking 7 stroke rolls, pata fla flas, flam taps, hertas, whatever. The ideas and concepts this guy talks about are very advanced and while I understand most of it from a theoretical level, it’d take a good amount of time practicing any of it to put it to use. I don’t have a link from the show I was at but this other video is pretty indicative of what he does. Enjoy.

Beyond that, I was beyond happy to meet all these different folks and talk drums. I love meeting people who are passionate about what they do and taking chances bring the drumming community forward. Special thanks to Will how dealt with a few hours of nightmarish tapping from a room full of ADD drummers. Also Josh for letting me this was even goin’ down and Todd who…is quite a talented dude.