Bradley Lomax got his start in drumming as a child. Participating in school music programs and drum corps, majoring in music in college and growing a massive set of drumming chops, like many who read this blog. Along the way, he became aware of the impact that our lives have on the environment, and how the environment has responded to our impact; and at that point he became a champion of sustainability in all things. Because of that commitment he makes each Beetle Percussion product himself, using as many recycled or repurposed components as he possibly can, and his practice pads are some of the most beautiful in the world.
This makes him something of a rarity in the drum industry, and someone I’ve been dying to chat with for almost a year.
Here’s our interview.
BL: I got really serious about drumming in high school, and after high school I marched a few seasons of drum corps (first with the Sky Ruders and then with Pioneer). My sophomore year in high school, I got a job working for Bill Cardwell at C&C Drum Shop, where I taught private lessons and in my spare time I watched and learned about the craft of drum making.
I got so into making stuff — learning at C&C and also taking jobs in construction — that eventually I left college and went into teaching lessons and doing construction pretty much full-time.
BH: What was your inspiration for starting Beetle Percussion?
BL: When I was growing up, my parents would take me on vacations in Colorado, and I loved it. Everything was so green and beautiful and I loved going back again and again. After I left school, my parents went back to our favorite vacation place and returned to tell me that beetles were destroying the trees there, eating them to death.
Global warming was forcing the Beetles to turn to these trees for a primary food source in increasingly huge numbers, and whole forests were being destroyed. The whole area was transitioning into some kind of arid desert because the trees were dying. I was horrified.
Since I work with wood, I decided to create something that would use the wood from these trees and I hit upon the idea of practice pads. I called the US Forest Service to ask about getting some of that wood, because they had to clear it out of there before it became fuel for a forest fire; and they referred me to a bunch of mills who were taking the reclaimed timber and turning it into furniture and stuff.
I established a relationship with one of those mills, who brings me some of the reclaimed lumber; they deliver it on pallets right at my workshop.
At first, I tried making pads out of natural rounds, with the bark and everything, because I thought they’d look cool. But working with wood that way is really, really difficult and trying to force it into shape just wasn’t working. So ultimately, I had to set up a serious wood shop with all sorts of planing saws and things, learning how to treat the rough wood like potential furniture. After that, my vision for the pads became easier to clarify. Basically, I make practice pads like furniture, and that’s why they look so finished and smooth. There really isn’t any other way to make them turn out so good.
We source recycled car tire rubber from a company that supplies it to flooring manufacturers. Because it used to be car tires, we sometimes have to pull out bits of metal — old nails, sidewall material, and stuff — so that we can work with just the rubber and mold it into a playing surface.
BL: Yes, the overwhelming majority of people who buy our pads are marching band and corps members who want a pad that feels more like a marching drum head. I’d say almost 90 per cent of our customers fall into this category.
What’s great is that college instructor are excited by the “green” aspect of our pads, and they hype that to the kids and get them thinking about it, and suddenly it’s cool to play a “green” pad.
As to why the pads feel harder, a lot of that is the wood that’s used. Ash is a very dense, hard wood and that makes it great for building a marching pad around; pine, on the other hand, is a softer wood and will give you a response that’s a little closer to a concert or all-around pad.
BH: What about different thicknesses of rubber? Would that affect the response?
BL: It would, but only to a point. Thicker than a quarter-inch and it gets kind of dead-feeling. That’s why we stick with 3/16” and quarter-inch thicknesses on our pads — they just give the best response and feel.
And honestly, we have to respond to what our customers tell us they want. Since they’re mostly marching drummers, we have to give them a pad that responds the way a Kevlar-headed drum would.
BH: Fair enough.
In addition to your commitment to using reclaimed timber and recycled rubber, how else do you promote sustainability at Beetle?
BL: For every item sold, a tree seedling is planted to replace the tree that was destroyed by the beetles. We partner with forest management agencies in Colorado to accomplish this. Removing harmful material and planting new trees helps to stabilize the watershed, restores wildlife habitat and promotes regrowth.
BH: Now, for the hard questions: You make your pads as sustainability as possible. But the carbon footprint involved in that process, from gathering raw materials to shipping out finished pads, cannot be denied. How do you weigh this reality against your efforts? And how wide-angle can you go in your vision before it drives you crazy?
BL: (laughs) Yeah, it’s true. I plant trees, I use reclaimed and recycled materials, and I know it only goes so far. The truth is that none of us can control everything. We can only control what each of us can control, right where we are. It’s a double-edged sword and I do what I can. When my HOA lets me put solar panels on my roof, when everything can be delivered without relying on fossil fuels, that will be wonderful. In the meantime, just getting the kids to be more aware of the need for a more sustainable way of life is a win. We plant seeds and they carry them forward.
I can only do the best that I can do. And hope that enough people will notice and start to pay attention to the places in their own lives that can be made and done more sustainably.
BH: Well, you get no argument from me. I LOVE that there’s a company promoting sustainability and I look forward to more people taking notice and paying attention.
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