A few weeks ago, Meinl Cymbal artist Mike Johnston took a trip to the Meinl Cymbal factory in Gutenstetten, Germany. Mike is the world's leading on-line educator for drumming. His website mikeslessons.com is an insanely successful business that Mike has built from the ground up over the last few years and his gift as an educator and his great business savvy are the two main reasons why he is doing so well. I traveled with Mike across the pond to help give him a tour of how things are done at the mother-ship. We met up with my Meinl partner-in-crime Norbert Saemann at the airport in Frankfurt, and from there the next two days were a blur. 

When you visit Meinl, you pack a lot of meetings and discussions in between great meals. At those meals, a lot of meetings and discussions happen as well, but like any travel and visiting, it all revolves around meals. So Mike was able to experience the standard awesome restaurants of choice when you travel to Meinl world. Lunch with Udo Heubeck, two dinners with Mr. and Mrs. Meinl...and always Norbert and me hanging with Mike the whole time. Heck, we even had a great breakfast at a roadside rest-stop. Who knew?!?!

Mike was able to take a tour of the factory and sit down with us to discuss future plans. It was an extremely productive and fun adventure. Norbert and I were even able to have an impromptu lesson from Mike while working on some prototype ideas.  (Thanks Mike! My songo is coming along nicely!)

Check out the video interview I did with Mike while at the factory. I was supposed to capture the audio with my Zoom Q3HD, the point being to turn the video off and get only audio from my device which we would sync up to our web dept's video that they were taking. Well, stupid me... I forgot to turn off the video and when we checked the sound the video popped up as well, giving an outstanding view up my nose since I had the Zoom on my lap. Nice...It gave Norbert and me a good laugh.