Drew Anderson
How long have you been making drums?
Just about a year actually.
Why did you get into it?
I got into woodworking because of my grandpa Ian Milne. I always looked up to him and he was a cabinetmaker too. The drums I got into because I always wanted to learn how to play drums and I was just too cheap to actually buy a kit. I thought I could make one for cheaper and it turned out really good and I got a lot of support from my friends and everybody told me to keep going with it. Especially Bobby.
Is he your boss at The Furniture Works?
He’s my boss’s dad. He’s the finisher here so he sprays all my drums actually. He’s been super encouraging.
Have you been playing drums for a year or did you start before?
Before I guess. My girlfriend gave me her really shitty old kit and I got good enough that I wanted a better kit so that’s when I built one.
Are you looking for a particular type of wood?
All of these are different kinds of wood. I basically just go to the lumberyard and whatever board catches my eye I’ll grab that. Every length is going to be a bit different. No two pieces of wood are the same so I just kind of go and whatever has the best patterns the neatest grain I just sort of pick that.
And you use staves?
Yup they’re stave shells.
What is a stave?
It’s just a series of pieces of wood that are just staved together. There’s three different kinds of drums that you can make: There’s a steam-bent single ply which is when you take a length trim it down to about three-eights and you steam bend it so there’s a lot of tension in it. The other method is plywood and that’s a series of about five different veneers glued together. The reason I like doing the staves the best is because they use about 98 per cent less glue than the plywood. In the plywood there’s a whole layer of glue that doesn’t resonate so you don’t get the full sound of the wood. Where with the staves there’s just a little bit of glue at points.
So it adds to the resonance?
You get more of a true wood tone out of it. The other thing is the bearing edge is cut on the end grain rather than side grain which a steam-bend one would be and the end grain is the strongest part of the wood so it will hold that edge for much longer. With side grain your drum will change its tone over time. These you don’t have to worry about it. Also with those other methods you need big expensive machines and this is nice because I spent about $100 on the whole thing. I bought the router off Kijiji for $100 and everything else was just scraps of wood so it was free.
Do people know about you now are you starting to get a lot of orders?
I’m starting to get more people know about me.
So the drums are custom? People order and tell you what they want?
Yeah. Totally.
Are you mostly doing drum kits or are you still doing Irish drums as well?
I mostly do the drum kits. Bobby’s the bodhrán player and he’s kind of taken over that. He’s the one that plays them. He’s been taking that kind of under his wings. I’m not really into the bodhráns but it’s just another drum so it’s the same way of building them and I like building stuff.
How long does it take you to build a drum kit?
Maybe like 25 hours total. It’s about six hours a shell.
Have you ever got a weird custom request?
No pretty regular stuff. Mark Schmidt who plays in The Weir we’re doing a couple of crazy sizes for his kit. Mark’s actually helping me with the company. He’s helping me build a lot of these drum kits and helping me out.
Do you have parts of the kits that you prefer?
I’ve been throwing on the Dunnett throw he’s a guy from Vancouver that does custom drums too and he developed his own throw and it’s awesome so I like buying them and throwing them on. I’ve been throwing on some tube lugs those always look nice but basically every drum is different. I don’t have any preference. I just kind of whatever I think suits the wood and how it looks I’ll go with that.
How much does a drum kit go for?
If you’re looking for a four-piece stave kit somewhere around $3000.
Is that about the same as a normal kit or do you pay a bit more for the custom?
You’re paying a little more than if you just went into Long & McQuade. It’s probably as much as you would pay for one of their higher-end kits. So it is pretty competitive. For stave shells a lot of the companies that I’ve been looking at in the States I’ve been trying to be competitive with them. They go for about five or six grand so I’m able to drop that quite a bit whether that’s just because it’s me doing all the work I’m able to do it here on the side or because Bobby does all the finishing for free for me. That probably helps. I’ve just got a lot of people who are helping me out which cuts down cost.
When you’re not making the drums you’re finishing furniture?
Building custom furniture. These guys are The Furniture Works and they do like kitchen refacing is the biggest part of their business and they do refinishing of furniture and custom furniture is what I do. They let me get away with a lot here and let me do my own thing.
Did you go to school for carpentry?
I did two years at SAIT of cabinetmaking and I’m trying to decide if I should go back or not.
If people want to order a drum or get in touch with you what’s the best way to do it?
Right now I just have an email address milnecustomdrums@gmail.com . I’m looking into getting a website but I’m so computer illiterate. I need to find someone to help me with that. Hopefully there’s a drummer out there who can do web design.
