on february 26th - 28th, the first thomas lang drum camp took place in los angeles, california. thomas himself has made this video here which captures the vibe and atmosphere of the event. check out what the participants had to say about their experience. it seems that thomas' new teaching concept has proven itself to be an efficient and modern teaching method.

four more drum camps are already lined up:

london: april 9-11
berlin: april 18-20
austria: 23-25
new york: june 7-13

check out thomaslandrumcamp.com for more information and also if you want to sign up for it.

- norbert

it all comes together in the end. i remember when i've had the idea to make a benny greb signature ride. it was at the 2008 namm show in los angeles when benny and talked about it for the first time. the reseach and development which followed then has been especially challenging for us. it took 18 months of development time until we were finally able to introduce it at the 2009 summer namm show in nashville. ever since it has become the favourite ride of many drummers.

a few days ago i found out that the sand ride is now nominated for the presitgious m.i.p.a. award in the best-cymbal category. this award is like the grammy of the music-instrument-business. more than 100 magazines from all over the world vote for the best products in more than 40 categories. being nominated already is a great honour. the award ceremony is held every year at the frankfurt musikmesse where the final winners are chosen and i really hope that we will be it!

inspired by the success of the sand ride, we have started to work on a sand hat for benny. last friday finally at a workshop at musik-produktiv in switzerland benny has played the final version of his sand hats for the first time. everyone loved them and we can not wait to finally introduce the byzance vintage benny greb sand hats to the public at the upcoming musikmesse in frankfurt.

from the first signature ride idea to the mipa nomination, more than two years have past. sometimes you just have to be patient and it will eventually all come together in the end.

to all of you who plan to attend the musikmesse: make sure to stop by at our booth b25 in hall 3.0. and check out our new benny greb sand hats.

- norbert

i have just announced the line-up for our this years meinl drum festival. it will take place on june 26th, 2010 here on our premises in gutenstetten, germany.

here it is again:

gergo borlai, hungary
oli rubow (de-phazz) & bertil mark (thomas d), germany, will be doing a drum/percussion duet
dave mackintosh (dragonforce), england
chris coleman (prince, chaka khan, n.k.o.t.b.), usa
thomas lang, austria

there is one more artist to be confirmed. he could not give me his definitive OK so far, but i'm sure i'll be able to announce his name soon too.

our dear friend benny greb will also be part of the meinl drum festival. however, he won't be playing on the main stage. instead he will host an exclusive groove workshop for a limited amount of participants together with the great german bass player frank itt. their master class will be all about musical interaction between drums and bass. this is for sure going to  be an unforgettable lesson for all groove workshop participants.

details about ticket pre-sales for the meinl drum festival as well as details about benny's groove workshop will be announced very shortly on meinldrumfestival.com. so stay tuned.

i'll be on the road in europe for the rest of this week and will be posting on facebook and twitter meanwhile.

- norbert

You would probably have to have been living on a deserted island for quite a few years now to not know that the world has come together through the internet.  The communication and information revolution that is known as the world wide web has earned its place in history books for the rest of mankind's existence. No question about it.

Throughout my tenure at Meinl, the web has been an indispensable tool for me as the USA/Canadian artist relations manager. Gathering information on potential artists, current artists, competitors, trends, etc. is done in large part through my time on the web. Indirect company feedback is also found on the web. To see the effect that Meinl's company activities can have on young drummers and the purchases that they make is an awesome thing to behold.

That's why I love seeing the two videos that I have attached to this blog.

The first is of a Canadian Cymbal artist by the name of Kevin Figueiredo. Kevin has spent the last few years touring internationally with his brother in a band called 401. He and his brother recently disbanded the group and are putting together a new project.

In the meantime, Kevin has continued the online promotion of his drumming, a promotion that has garnered considerable attention world-wide. Kevin has been taking today's top of the charts pop, rap, and r&b songs and has been throwing down a rock feel behind them, with a lot of groove thrown in. The videos have been getting massive hits and websites such as Perez Hilton's and Ryan Seacrest's have been throwing up links to Kevin's work. Pretty cool.

In Canada, Kevin has earned youtube.com honors for the following - 

#22 Most Subscribed All Time Musician

#23 Most Viewed (for the month of December) Musician

#79 Most Viewed All Time Musician

#100 Most Subscribed All Time Musician 

So the first video is of Kevin doing his thing over Madonna's Celebration. (Check out his awesome set of Byzance cymbals! He plays with great technique and he projects plenty of volume, but without having to slam the cymbals too hard. That's from the technique I mentioned. ***Young drummers take note...to have your cymbals flat like Kevin's and to not have proper technique yet like Kevin has, you may crack too many cymbals!!!***)

The next video is of a young drummer by the name of Shahen who posted a cover of Kevin's cover of the Madonna song on his own youtube.com page. Shahen is 13 years old, lives in New Jersey and clearly has a passion for playing the drums. He is throwing down! It's cool to see Shahen's Meinl Cymbals front and center in the video, just like Kevin has them!

I think these two videos taken together as a whole speak volumes. We're all connected, through word-of-mouth, through the web, through whatever, and it's great to see a connection between Meinl, Meinl Cymbal artist Kevin Figueiredo and Shahen.

 - Chris

despite of strike announcement from lufthansa pilots, i flew to budapest to attend the cd-release concert of our artist gergo borlai. i had a wonderful time in hungary's capital and would like to thank gergo and his girlfriend andrea once again for their incredible hospitality. budapest is a very old and charming city with a lot of history.

gergo's release concert has been a great experience too. he started by playing a soloshow which was followed by a performance with his band european mantra. the cd is titled m.m.m. which stands for music meinl messe. the reason for the name is simple: when gergo performed for us at the musikmesse in frankfurt in 2009, he wrote most of the music for messe which is now part of his new cd. music meinl messe. nice coincidence :-)

gergo's playing has worlclass format and that's why he is already confirmed to perform at our 2010 meinl drum festival on june 26 here in gutenstetten.

- norbert

today's been a very productive day. i spent time with benny greb working on some new cymbal ideas which we are hoping to be able to release soon. being around and working with benny always is great fun. we're heading out now to have dinner together.

early tomorrow morning i will fly to budapest, hungary. one of our artist gergo borlai is releasing his new cd M.M.M. and i got invited to attend the record release party. not only is gergo one amazing drummer, but budapest is a beautiful city with lots of history. i am really looking forward to that trip. i will report from the road via facebook and twitter as usual. so stay tuned.

the bad news is that lufthansa pilots will be on strike starting next monday. guess when my flight back home will be and with which airline? yep! so, i hope i am not going to end up stuck in budapest for four days. i love lufthansa, but that would really bum me out. keep your fingers crossed.

- norbert

our old coffee machine, a jura impressa s9, has brewed 30,606 cups of coffee for us over the last six years. it is now going into well-deserved retirement.

couple hours ago we got our new coffee machine. a jura impresse xs90. annelie is currently setting it up and i can't wait to enjoy my first coffee brewed by this machine. coffee is by far our favourite drink here in the office. without it, meinl would not function properly :-)

- norbert

we are deeply saddened by the passing of paul specht of ibanez guitars. paul was a close friend to the meinl company and a long-time music industry veteran.

on the foto you can see paul holding the ibanez history book, on which he has worked over so long and lovingly.

our thoughts are with his family.


meinl cymbals

i got an email from jost nickel, drummer of jan delay & disko no.1. he had a great idea about our website. he suggested to install a button which collectively shows all new products we introduced for 2010. this way you don' have to search through the entire product section in order to find out what's new.

no sooner said than done: when you click on products you can see the tag-cloud at the bottom. there is a tag called new 2010. when you click on it, all of the new products for 2010 will show up collectively. no more time-consuming search necessary. all news 2010 at a glance.

thank you for the hint jost.

- norbert

this morning i have uploaded a couple new profiles from some of our newest international artists:

leo lazar from germany who plays with saint lu.
shy of the depth drummer chris allen from england
viatrophy's drummer craig reynolds from england
swedish drummer tobbe gustafsson who plays with vomitory and torture division
danish drummer jeppe nielsen from surfact
a great up-and-coming drummer from belgium, yannick de clerck
the bishops drummer chris mcconville from england

check'em out and be inspired.

- norbert