It was a rainy night in England when I met the masterminds and crafters of Serenity Drums. Jon and Dan had come out to the Children of Fire European Tour to gift Zac Mayfield of Oh, Sleeper with a brand new, custom-made, snare drum.
I felt like a fly on the wall, but probably looked more like a broken nutcracker, as I stared with my jaw unhinged while Jon and Dan showed the drum to Zac. Their artistic craftsmanship and careful explanation of the thought and heart that went into making it were equally present in the instrument.
As the night went on, I had the chance to chat a bit with the guys, and it didn’t take long for Jon to step up and pose the question, “How can we use our humble business to help the cause of TWLOHA?”
I told him we should definitely keep in touch. A few weeks later, we reconnected over email and started conspiring about making a TWLOHA drum. We settled on a simple and clean concept, a drum we could have artists play and then auction as a fundraiser.
I didn’t see any pictures of the process, and my creative input was nominal at best. Then, just a couple weeks ago, I received confirmation that the drum was en route to the States, along with a video from Jon and Dan about the drum. I will always remember where I sat in that Starbucks on the outskirts of Detroit when I watched the video. My jaw unhinged again; I had to leave the coffee shop for the tears and embarrassing sniffles.
You see, Jon and Dan don’t do simple and clean. They work in the context of stories, which are always complex. They talked about intent and pain. They talked about destruction and rebirth. They use the words “labor of love” as passionately as I’ve ever heard, and we were left with this.
Jon told me that, at one point, he destroyed what he had originally made, that he broke the drum right down the middle. Drums were made to be whole, of course—but so are people, and so rarely is the case. So he gave the drum a scar.
He then told me the joy of being able to reshape and repurpose the aftermath of the painful day that it all fell apart. There is no more important part of a drum than its vent. This allows the drum to breathe—to take its daily beatings and turn them into a voice. Jon and Dan told me the sound is unlike anything they’ve ever made. This is in part due to the letters “T-W-L-O-H-A,” which literally hold the drum in place along the scar. This name, or rather, this community has repurposed the drum and given it another chance to do what it was made to do all along.
We want to share this drum with you. All summer long, you can see it at our tent on Vans Warped Tour. Throughout the tour, we are allowing our more rhythmically gifted friends to play the drum at select dates on the tour. By the end of the summer, the drum will be full of memories that, again, we would like to share with you. In the fall, the drum will be available for purchase via auction (along with some extra goodies from our friends at Serenity Drums).
(Matt Griner – August Burns Red)
(Jess Bowen – The Summer Set)
The hope is that this drum will serve as a reminder of friendship, stories, dreams, the value of sharing, and the ways in which we are all held together.
—Chad
Arunima Sharma
This is so beautifully made! TWLOHA is for ever and ever and beyond ♡
Nick
wow i like this picture 🙂 and……..
Laura
This is just so TWLOHA: Broken, hope, music, People meeting and joining…This is so awesum, so sipmle soo different so unique!!!
Samara
Chad-
I met you at Lifest in Oshkosh this summer.(2013) At that time I was making decision to end my life. I had made numerous attempts of suicide. One of the things that you told me was “If you can’t make it through the hour, make it through the minute. If you can’t make it through the minute, make it through the second…..” Every time I want to shut myself off, that is what I think of. After Lifest, I continued feelings of self harm and suicide. I started cutting insanely bad with the motto of “I don’t care how deep it is, I am going to kill myself very soon anyways” I had already made up my mind. I kept cutting and it got so deep where I could no longer hide it, especially in the crazy heat. So my mom found out and we were back in stage one. A couple months later my mom started trusting me more. I started to do very bad again and made plans and backups. One night I finally decided to jump off a bridge that is by me over a highway. When the time came, my body would not allow me to get out of bed. I didn’t fall back asleep but ended up getting out of bed to get ready for school. Everything seemed normal on the outside. Everything kept going the wrong way and I just kept getting worse and no one knew. My father is flying here to do therapy fr the first time. My therapist is i France so I have o stay with my dad for a little while. I have been getting panic attacks at school and at home. One got so bad where I couldn’t stay at school and had to come home. My dad gets here in two days and I’m so anxious. We will see how everything goes but if if doesn’t go well, I don’t know what I’m going to do or what will happen to me. This is the update to right now. My birthday was 4 days ago and I was hoping for some money so that I could get more Sweatshirts, Bracelets, Pins, Etc. I didn’t so I am going to start selling things to support TWLOHA. I’m moving to Seattle at some point in the next year so I might have a new beginning there. I was wondering if there was a “group” I could join? I would love to support you an others who need help. You also told me that I might save someone else’s life. Well I think you might have been right:) I got a troubled girl in my school help and now she is (hopefully)on her way to recovery. These days I am modeling(with longs leaves), Singing in my church band, and staring at my arms hopelessly wanting them to heal so that I am ale to play basketball. Have an amazing day.
-Samara Mae