HISTORY
Red Rock Drums Australia is one of the original stave drum kit producers in Australia. In 2001, Roger provided the beautiful African Ashiko drums he was making at the time for a week-long workshop at which Mat was an instructor. The tones of his drums were rich and the resonance was impressive.
Having declined previous requests to jump ship and make kit drums, Roger bit the proverbial bullet and glued up a 14 inch snare drum made from scrap Tasmanian Oak lying around his shoebox sized shed. Mat fitted the snare with cheap old hardware left over from old drum restorations. It was raw, but most successful. Around the same time whilst filling in university days with labouring work, Mat salvaged a huge amount of Tasmanian Myrtle dated 1943 from wall cabinets torn out of a house high atop the ferny hills of Melbourne’s outer suburbs.
Roger made 9 drums from the striking Myrtle using a metal lathe belonging to the boat builder over his back fence. The smaller drums were turned but the remaining 16, 20 and 22 inch drums were then rounded by hand. The drum shells sat dormant whilst Mat toured overseas for a couple of years, in which time Roger traded city life for country surrounds, clean air and a big new shed.
In 2007, Mat and Roger designed and built new machinery to complete the prototype kit and to prepare for the advent of a marvellous new drum company. Many drums and machinery upgrades followed during experiments leading to recent years, where Red Rock have continued to refine more and more beautifully finished drums.
Mat and Roger have spoken a lot about the modern day industry; Red Rock Drums is not at all about corporate or highly technological jargon. They are also not sure about labelling Red Rock a ‘boutique’ or ‘custom’ manufacturer but they agree it’s certainly not about mass manufacturing in any way. They simply make drums with a lot of care and delight in building drums for discerning buyers.
So from the start, Roger as a master craftsman, and Mat as a drummer fed up with boxy sounding or overpriced drums, the two developed Red Rock Drums. Furthermore, Mat’s passion for restoring great old drums mixed with much research has led to the current shell designs and features, along with Roger’s expertise and willingness to entertain those notions of course.
The End. For now.