Enter: Canopus Drums

A few thoughts about Canopus Drums

     I started hearing about these new "Canopus" drums from musicians around New York.  A bassist asked me "hey man, they got a set of Canopus drums down at Cornelia St. Cafe and they sound amazing and open.  You ought to check them out.."  And, sure enough, the next time I played Cornelia, I was struck by how open and tonally expressive the Canopus were.  I made a note of it, for sure.

     In 2010 I was in Frank Ascensa's drum shop in the Bronx when I met Eliot Zigmund, the great drummer who was with Bill Evans in the 70s (Eliot is STILL great, he's at the top of his game).  I had some old Sonor drums I was having the edges re-cut and I was thinking of buying some new drums.  Eliot asked "Why don't you try Canopus?  I think you'd like them."  He invited me to his house and we played the Canopus club kit in his living room and they just sang beautifully.  I was very impressed.

     On the way home I stopped off to see my friend Frank Colonnato at the Long Island Drum Center shop in Nyack, NY and there was an amazing Canopus RFM kit sitting there, waiting for me.  I played them, they sounded open and full, especially the snare, a beautiful 5.5x14 with die cast hoops and the Canopus Vintage snare wires, it sounded bigger than a 6" deep drum and had more guts than any snare I'd ever owned.  It was perfect.  So, I promptly stepped outside to call my wife and explain to her how I was going to pull off buying these new drums.  "What's the name of them?!?" She kept asking. 

    The drums sang so much more open than any other drums I'd owned.  I found the Canopus to be especially easy to tune and hear the tonalities more specifically.  Granted, I had been playing on 60s vintage drums since the early 90s, this was my first "new" drum kit in quite some time, but the alignment and congruity of the Canopus allow them to sing and have tone that no other drums I'd owned ever had.

     In 2011, I very gratefully and happily signed with Canopus Drums.  

     In 2012 I ordered two more Canopus kits, the Club Kit and a "pop" type kit with a 20" bass drum.  I enjoyed them immensely and recorded a couple of records using those drums.  I used the RFM drums on my album "Suit-up!" in 2013 and took the Club Kit out on scores of gigs, the 15" bass drum always sounded amazing, filling up the room with a full tone.

Canopus Club Kit

     In 2015 I switched out my RFM series for a Neo-Vintage M1 kit.  The past few years had taught me a lot about bearing edges, hoops, various woods… all kids of nuances about drums I hadn't known.  After playing the Canopus kit at Smoke in NYC several times, I found I liked the Neo-Vintage drums a lot because of their tone and feel, which comes from their rounded bearing edges, die cast hoops and poplar wood in the shell design.  The perfect kit for me has evolved into a Canopus Neo-Vintage kit with 12" 13" toms mounted from stands, 14" 16" floor toms, 5.5"x14" snare and 18" un-drilled bass drum.  Rounded "baseball bat" edges, die cast hoops.

     Canopus is doing several things aside from just their drums; the bolt tight washers, their amazing snare wire, the speed star bearing, are all examples of intelligent re-imagining of drum designs.  The bolt tights change the feel of a drum, just slightly, taking a bit of the edge off, softening the feel a little bit because the hoop is resting on a bed of leather washers instead of a metal-on-metal.  I feel it most in the snare drum.  I also feel it gives a slight more depth to the sound of a drum.  Their snare wires are the best going, artistry applied to every detail make the wires more sensitive and light, so that the drum breathes.  I can't say enough for the snare wires, they are simply amazing!  And the Speed-Star, I was shocked at the difference in my vintage yamaha pedals from the early 90s, the re-imagining of the bass drum spring pulley gives a pedal a major upgrade in smoothness, speed and power.  You have try it!

The Speed-Star Bearing Rocks!

     

     So that's it, I'm just psyched to be playing drums that are a total joy to play and I don't find myself wanting something more from them, they're opening me up as a player, I can relax into the drum, all the tones are there, the depth is there.  I spent 20 years trying to nurse along my 60s vintage drums, carrying them around NYC banging them all up, felt like walking on eggshells.  The vintage drums, they always needed work, I was always on Ebay looking for parts, and they never sounded right, even after I had them re-cut.  The old drums were cool, still had a lot of soul, but they were limited.  I had to move into the present!  The Canopus have the soul of a drum from the past, but with all the modern design upgrades of the present.  http://www.canopusdrums.com

     

Welcome to Kane's World

     When a person writes, they reveal themselves in a way that no other communication can.  When we write, we put our thoughts and feelings into words.  In between the words lies the spirit, that something beyond words, open to our interpretation.  Writing is powerful.

     With that in mind, I'm starting this blog to write about many topics in music in hopes that those who read it may get a better idea of what I am all about.

     Music has been a constant force in my life.

     I have loved music since before I can remember.  I sat in a circle of LPs and a record player when I was 4,5,6 years old, watching the vinyl spin, hearing the otherworldly sounds come thru the speakers.  There was and still is a mystery about that.  Even tho I know how music is recorded, there is an intangible spirit in music that still gets me.

     I got interested in the drums around the age of 6.  First, it was playing on plastic butter containers, then a conga drum, then my uncle found a used drum set for 40$ and sent it to me from Florida to Missouri, one piece at a time.

     In my town of Hannibal, Missouri, I dreamt of someday being a musician.  There was no manual on how to do it.  There were few, if any, musicians playing around town to learn from.  It was a total mystery to me as to how one would even become a musician, let alone get good enough to someday move away from Hannibal and go play in big cities, tour, record, write and live the dream.

     I kept asking myself one key question:  "How can I get better at music?"  Even in Hannibal, Mo. the answer to that question was there, and the answer was "Keep at it".

     I kept at it all through grade school and jr. high.  At 15 I got into a band, with grown men who were easily 10 years older than me, and I began making money and playing gigs.  I worked at it in the school jazz band and found myself in the all-state jazz band at 17.  I took it as far as I could in Hannibal and left five days after high school graduation for Kansas City.

     In KC, I learned a lot of truths.  A lot of what I had thought was true in Hannibal, was not real.  The music business and playing jazz worked totally different than I had thought.  I was almost starting over, on my playing, my concept of music and really, my concept of myself.  But, that was ok, because I was still asking the question "How can I get better?"

     I asked that question constantly:  in the practice room at UMKC putting in hours and hours, on the bandstand, listening back to recordings of gigs, watching videos of gigs, at jam sessions, even just lying in bed at night and thinking about music and how to get where I wanted to go, how to get better and play like I knew I could play.

     After moving to NYC, I started over again, which seems like a theme in my life, always pursuing something further.  I've put in 19 hard years in New York in which I constantly ask that question "How can I get better?"

     It continues to this day and much of it feels the same as it did when I was six years old.  The fascination with music, the feeling of the drums and rhythm, playing with the best musicians possible, staying grounded and moving forward, building, being disciplined.

    Through my playing and teaching, I funnel my experience in music and life.  I always thought that if I was going to do something, I wanted to do it to the fullest expression possible, weather it's playing or teaching or going to the gym or writing.

     So, welcome to Kane's World, hope you enjoy the journey.

Best,

Matt