Kakishibu Birch
In the wake of the Zildjian 400th Anniversary project, I'm taking a moment to move shop. Over the summer, Latos Drums will be transitioning from our downtown historic Newburgh, NY workspace into a larger, standalone building surrounded by woods in Beacon, NY.
To celebrate, I'm doing a spring/summer edition of a wood snare I've been tweaking for 3 years: Kakishibu Birch.
Featuring a solid, steambent birch shell finished in the 1000-year-old Japanese 'kakishibu' process, as well as Latos' signature brass hardware, this is a wood drum with personality, built to legacy standards.
Zildjian 400th LE Alloy Snare
https://zildjian.com/pages/zildjian-400th-limited-edition-alloy-snare-dtc
VISION
INSPIRATION IS THE PRIMARY STANDARD OF PERFECTION
I feel like the world has plenty of “perfect” drums.For a musical instrument, however, I find beautiful more inspiring and important than perfect. And I’m not sure how many of those "perfect" drums are going to hold up over time. Particularly metal drums, and on-the-drum hardware. In a hundred years, are they going to wear out, strip out, have lacquer crack off, have pitted plating and rust? Almost categorically, yes, if they last that long... or aren’t cast aside for something new and trendy.
Are they going to be as beautiful and inspiring, be something that we'll want to pass down to our kids, our grandchildren, our closest drummer friends or most dedicated students?
The most useful drums for me, as a working professional musician, have been instruments that have aged gracefully. Things that were intended to sound and feel good before all else, crafted from long-wearing materials that embrace wear, with timeless design, and with touch from human hands. And they’ve often been drums that have lasted nearly 100 years so far, with many more miles left to go.
So that’s what I set out to build. Drums that will inspire, sound amazing, look even better with age and use, and be just as musically useful for their 2nd and 3rd owners, a century or longer from now. Inspired by the great brass drums of the 1920s and 1930s, of course, but with a modern, minimalist aesthetic. And with fresh designs, for the music of today and the future.Being individually hand-crafted with traditional methods, they are far from perfect, now or ever, but I think they're something much more important: these drums are beautiful, forever.
-Aaron Latos
Latos Drums
11 Spring St
Newburgh, NY 12550