Web Version - Drum Workshop

I got deeper into the material, the clinic
was turning into two to three hours, so I
decided it was time to document it. In
presenting the material in a clinic format,
I learned a lot about how an audience
would accept it. You know, many people,
when doing their historical homework,
don’t even go back to Ringo, let alone 100
years, so I knew I had something here. I
presented the material in a relaxed, fun
way. I also involved the audience with
a lot of questions, and I’d reward them
with various giveaway items from my
sponsoring companies. I’d just make it
fun. I wanted to take these aspects and
transfer them into the DVD. What I didn’t
want was for this to be like a formal
PBS documentary. I wanted to keep the
interactive aspect of my clinics and feature
some audience member commentary.
RM: You funded a part of this through
Kickstarter.com and I thought your promo
video on that site was brilliant. Talk about
how you came to utilize Kickstarter.com
to fund the project.
DG: Thank you. I had previously appeared
on the show “DC Live” on Drumchannel.
com and during that time, Don Lombardi
(Drum Workshop and Drum Channel
Founder) and I began talking about the
idea. He was very interested in it, but my
rather grandiose idea for the final outcome
would cost a bit more than could come
solely from Drum Channel, so I began
looking into sites that offer what’s called,
crowdfunding. I came across Kickstarter
and liked their approach to the concept.
They seemed to be the best known for
this, even though they’re an all-or-nothing
venture. Meaning, if you don’t achieve
your goal, you’re basically back to squareone
(each project sets a financial goal to
reach within a specific time period. If
the goal isn’t’ met, monies are refunded
to contributors). Because they’re the best
known, they have a large audience, which
is what you want when obtaining public
funding.
RM: Talk about the various rewards or
incentives you offered to encourage
potential funders to contribute to your idea.
DG: What’s cool about Kickstarter, and
what I believe makes one successful with
it, is that you have a chance to open up
yourself personally to those viewing your
idea. You basically offer different levels
of rewards for various levels of monetary
funding–the more you donate, the more
you receive from the creator. Obviously,
the higher you go, the better the reward. I
did a huge amount of research on creating
an effective promo clip for it and also
researched other successful pages that had
achieved their goals. I also looked at what
kinds of rewards they offered.
RM: Your rewards included a vintage
Leedy snare, backstage passes, Royal
Crown Revue CDs and even a Day with
Daniel in LA; really great stuff. Even
though you’ve already achieved your
goal, I encourage all of our readers to
check out your page on Kickstarter, it’s
really cool and inspiring. How did you
put the promo clip together for that page?
DG: I had the idea for the content and
basically knew what I wanted, and I had
a friend who worked at the Columbia Film
School edit it for me. It was a lot of work to
not only create the clip, but also manage
all of the donation levels. Once you
complete your goal, before you collect,
Kickstarter takes their cut and you also
have to fulfill all of your rewards. So one
thing I’ve learned is that you must keep
that all in mind when setting your financial
goal. There was one guy who donated
$1,750. I’d never met him before. He
worked as a private contractor for the US
Government, stationed in Kuwait and had
an office job there. He’s a drummer and is
a fan of Gavin Harrison. He was watching
Gavin on YouTube and Gavin mentioned
that he was doing a project with a friend,
funding it on Kickstarter. So, this guy in
Kuwait then goes on Kickstarter and starts
searching around for anything related to
drums. By the way, I was very careful to
make sure I optimized my search engine
word choices. He searched ‘drums’ and
my project came up. He checked out the
video clip, loved the project and before
you know it, donated the money!
RM: If you fulfill your goal and people
continue to donate, the amount over the
goal is then yours as well, right?
DG: It is, but you still have to pay
Kickstarter their percentage, and also fulfill
your rewards.
RM: You had presented this idea to Don
Lombardi some time ago. Talk about that.
DG: Right. I had done DC Live back in
2009 and Don was the host. We just hit it
off from there. Don is all about education
and his vision for Drum Channel is very
focused on furthering drum education, first
and foremost. So we began talking about
how to transfer the material in my clinics
to a DVD, while maintaining my relaxed
presentation style. One way we achieved
that was to cut to a green screen to feature
the audience’s answers to the questions
I presented. We did the lecture portion
in one day, and the band performance
sections in two days. I feel that what we
have now really captures the essence of
the live clinic, along with a much more
detailed history lesson.
RM: Absolutely. Speaking of history,
you have a very interesting background.
You’re originally from Honolulu, Hawaii.
What was that like as a young, developing
musician?
DG: Man, when I was growing up and
beginning to play drums in High School
bands and Rock bands, I never could’ve
imagined playing drums for a living, let
alone focusing on the whole music history
thing. I was always just playing for fun and
even when I went to college, I majored in
Psychology. There were 3 teachers though,
that had a huge affect on my change of
direction. One was Bob Gullotti, a great
Jazz player and teacher from Boston.
When I finished college, I started studying
with Bob and from that experience I
realized that this is what I needed to be
doing. I spent a couple of years after that
touring and then went back to Hawaii
and spent time in the woodshed. I finally
ended up at the Dick Grove School of
Music in LA. By the time I got there, I had
some professional experience and really
knew what I wanted to focus on. Later
on, in the 90s, my path was influenced
by Freddie Gruber, with whom I studied
for about six years. Later, I studied with
one of Freddie’s long-term students, Bruce
Becker. He teaches Freddie’s material very
effectively.
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