I’m here at NAMM 2018 with Cory Evans, founder of Cymbal Sox. How are you doing this time around?
Cory: Very well. Thank you, Tammy. It has been a great weekend.
Good! We spoke last year your debut at NAMM. What has changed since the debut?
Well, a couple of things have changed. We’ve kind of altered our design a little bit and that came on requests from a couple of the touring pro artists like Mike Vanderhule from Y&T, great guy, great drummer and he has been a big supporter. Tico Torres from Bon Jovi of course. We sent some to Clem Burke for Blondie. Gene Provencio who is the drum tech for Slayer. They requested, of course, you got to tear down as fast as you can, and you move on to the next city. So, what we’ve done, we’ve changed from the slider togged clip for them. They requested just stay with the elastic band. So, we were trying that out. Mike Vanderhule took them on a 27-day European tour. It’s a road test and they like them. They’re a little bit quicker, a little bit of a different design but we’re trying out. So, that’s the new thing that we’ve added. So, kind of get away from the slider which works great but these guys have requested the elastic.
Nice, trial, and error.
Trial and error absolutely. You know what, we’re not against something different. You know, we’ve got the whole concept is still the same. You know, let’s keep our gear as pristine and factory-looking and sounding if we can. So, we’re still covering the cymbal. It’s just a little bit of a different procedure, that’s all.
Last year was your debut here at NAMM.
Yes.
How has the visibility of Cymbal Sox changed within a year?
Well, you know what, the word really spreads within the music industry. You know what, this year we had a lot of people come and say “I’ve been looking for you guys. I’ve heard about you. I have heard about you on social media and other drummers”, you know, drum stores. It’s great! That says that you’re doing something right. You know, when you’re adding something to the drumming community. As a drummer myself, I’m not just a businessman and inventor. I’m also a drummer. I’m my own customer, I paid a full retail price for my own product because I believe in it. So, having said that, I apparently sold other guys and I really appreciate that. They’ve come looking for me because they have heard of what we do and what we offer. So as a second year, that has just expanded.
Good. You’ve had a lot more interest from artist finding you here?
Yes.
You had a decent number of artists endorsing this product. How much has that changed?
Cory: It has. Yes, well. You know Clem Burke from Blondie. I got contacted by Rick West who is his drum tech and they contact me. So, you know, we let you try these out. We have a couple of other guys. So, you know Steve Smith from Journey is interested. Mickey Curry from Bryan Adams, they’re also interested. But that’s coming off other drummers saying, you got to check this out. Steve and Mickey, they’re not signing on with the company as artists yet. What I’m saying is they’re interested in it. And I think that’s great, that these guys are saying “You know what, we got to look at this.”
As we talked last year about the word of mouth on how it expands.
Absolutely. Gonzo Sandoval from Armored Saint came by the other day, looked at it and he loved it. Gregg Potter and Cathy Rich, Buddy Rich’s daughter. It’s an honor to have them come by the booth last night. I have met them before. They came by the booth and said, “Tell me about it.” I showed Gregg all about it and they signed on. So, I got the drummer for the Buddy Rich Orchestra saying, “You know, this was fantastic and yes, let’s do it, let’s get me a set”.
Everyone knows a drummer, or drummers still looking for your product. How can they find Cymbal Sox?
Well, right now, we’re strictly online through our website www.cymbalsox.com and looking to break in at the retail market. We are in the Long & McQuade up in Canada. There’s a couple of stores but right now we’re, we’ve had a lot of interested distributors and buyers worldwide from this show. So, we have a lot of work to do when we get home because we’ve had interests from Japan. We’re working on a deal with a Japanese company, Italy, Spain. There’s quite a few from the US here who’s interested as well. So, we’re going to be working with them and hopefully going full retail with them very soon.
This is a feel-good story from NAMM, last year was your debut to this year having interests worldwide. Will you be expanding Cymbal Sox headquarters?
It’s still the same. We have a small warehouse in Kamloops, BC where our headquarters are and where we live. All my product is made off-shore so its sent to us there and I do have a small warehouse that’s where we conduct all our business. We ship worldwide right from there.
Is it a storefront?
It’s not a storefront, yet. But I think after this weekend that probably could change.
Now, last year, you had a couple of people request maybe a name on the sox itself. How has that progressed?
Absolutely, yes. We did one for Mike Hansen, the drummer from Hurricane. He’s a good friend of ours, we made one for Mike. Now, Tico Torres for the Bon Jovi Tour which started last April. We made a full set of embroidered “Knife through the Heart” for Tico. Randy Barach, he’s a drummer/producer out of Long Beach, we made a full set for him. There has been a whole bunch. Now we’re talking with Mike Vanderhule about making one for him. There has been a lot of interest at the booth too as soon as I say we do custom logos. I just kind of put some personal touch. It’s not that much more expensive to have that to be put on it just gives them that personal touch.
You are the founder and designer of Cymbal Sox correct?
Yes. I came up with the whole idea concept. I have had some help, my sister, and brother-in-law. They were partners in it as well as my wife, Maria. So, we’ve collectively come up with this design and for that most part it’s been fantastic, I mean, the response has been great. It’s easy on, its easy off, its durable, machine washable. You know, the one thing with a lot of the pros too, you know, talking to JD from Bon Jovi. You know what it’s like. We got to get, like get down as fast as we can, packed up and we’re going. So, time is of the essence and really, it’s not a hard product. I mean, for myself, I have seven cymbals and it takes me about 45 to 50 seconds to take all of them off.
And with the new design, it speeds up the process.
It could even cut that down even more, yes, absolutely.
Is winter NAMM the only convention you’ve done so far? Will you be heading to Nashville for the Summer NAMM?
No. We didn’t last year. We’ll see how it goes this year. We would like to get to Nashville but as of right now we’ve just done two NAMM’s 2017 and 18. Who knows? With how we’re growing so fast, we could be there in July as well. We love Nashville. I’ve been there many times.
I haven’t been to Nashville yet.
Oh, you got to go. It’s a fantastic city. You know, a good friend of mine, one of my best friends and former bandmate, Dale Wallace, is a keyboard player for Emerson Drive. So, he lives in Nashville. They’re based now at Nashville, so I go there quite a bit to hang out with Dale. I love the city. Music everywhere.
Yes, I heard that.
Oh yes, yes.
Hopefully, next year, we’ll have a lot more to tell you.
I look forward to hearing the growth of another year, and hopefully, Mike Hansen will be here. He is the one that introduced us, which has been special.
I got to bend Mike’s ears a little bit for not being here. I’m only down here once a year and you’re not here on the one weekend. But we did bring him up to Kamloops last June, late June. We brought him up to drum play at Long & McQuade. So, Cymbal Sox brought him up specifically for that and then he sat in with my band on that weekend. So that was fun. We did a duel drum solo, him and I. It’s out on YouTube and we got quite a view. It was fun but what a great guy as well. So now, we’re looking at bringing Hurricane, his band up to Canada sometime this year and we’ll be opening for them. Hopefully, do a little bit of a mini-tour. We’re working on that right now, no dates or etched in stone yet but we’re working on that.
What’s the name of your band?
Our band’s name is Forum.
Forum.
Forum, yes. Blaine is our lead singer and partner in the company. Another great bunch of guys. We love playing and we’re pretty good band too, I have to say.
What kind of music do you play?
It’s all covers. We were a cover band. We do some originals but playing clubs, people want to hear, what they want to hear.
What they know.
Absolutely. A lot of Tragically Hip we’re Canadian. You know, we do Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Queen, you know, that kind of stuff. We do some Buck Cherry get into that kind of stuff too as well. Black Crows you know, that’s what people want to hear.
That’s true!
It has been a lot of fun. It’s been a good year. We have a busy year coming up again now. The band is really expanding as far as dates go.
It’s great seeing and talking with you. I wanted to touch base on all the happenings since NAMM 2017.
You know, it has. It really has and it’s quite surprising on something like this but it’s really this year people who I’ve met a lot of people and say, I’ve been looking for you, I’ve heard about you guys. So last year, because we were new, we didn’t really have a lot of that, but it has quadrupled, I mean, even more than that. It’s amazing to see “I’ve been looking for you guys, I’ve heard about you.” So, that’s fantastic.
Getting the word out.
Yes! You know I was talking to Nico my friend’s son, Justin. He says, “Yes, I’ve heard about your stuff,” It means that, that we’re doing something right. You know, honestly, I wanted to add something to the drumming community. I’m a drummer. I want to know what my colleagues, my peers think in the drumming world. I want to know what their thoughts are. So, not just about the business, that’s one thing but I want to know what these guys think. I’m happy with the response. Not one person has said say it’s not a good product. So, that’s a good thing.
Perfect. Thank you very much. It’s great seeing you again.
As well am I. Thank you. Thank you for contacting me.
Oh sure!
Cory: I very, very much appreciate it.
Artists cruzing NAMM, stopping by the Cymbal Sox booth.
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