I designed my first kick drum head, an classic emblem of American Rock & Roll, for my pal Pat Bowden and his band The Knew.
There is a visceral, primal, element of life that is becoming harder and harder to find. While working on several designs for this drum, I relished in the fact that this was only a 22 inch circle that was stretched tight over a wooden frame that was made to be beaten, very hard, by the stomping of Pat’s foot on a pedal that drove a mallet smashing into the backside of the drum. It was viceral. It was plain energy, vibrating into the air. It was primal. It required no strategy meetings, no market research, and sure as hell no user experience documentation. It is a drum and you bang it hard. It rattles in the dark and shakes your bones. It is rock and roll.
There is an element of life that is becoming harder and harder to find. Where is it is still evident, we scarcely make time for it, or pay attention to it. Every day there are sheer geniuses who work hard to make our lives ever more cushioned, convenient, and cleaner. And at the very same time, ever more complicated. A drum does not need a software upgrades, and API, a username and password. It needs a heart connected to leg that can stomp, and a soul that has rhythm.
To witness rock and roll, to feel the vibration shatter stagnant air and ripple out against your body – to feel something first hand – to physically feel the beating of the drums – is something basic that everyone can understand, and depending on one’s sonic orientation, can move you to fury and tears.
The drummer drums and the dancers dance. The predator hunts and the prey flees. The sun falls and the moon rises. All of these things we have worked hard to not need to pay any attention to. We are cushioned, we are cluttered with conveniences, and we are squeaky clean. And we can be far too removed from feeling firsthand things that shudder in the night.