Workshop: Vintage Kitchen Drumset

I've been recording a new album and have everything finished so far except percussion. I've always liked toying with "found sound" when it comes to drums but the last time I did any drumming on record I was pretty traditional... just using a 1920s snare and bass drum plus wood blocks and whatnot. This time around I figured I'd build myself a "kitchen drumset" by borrowing (read: thieving) various odds and ends from the antiques side of our family's store. As a bonus I wanted it to be lightweight, easily portable, and double as something for the kids to bang on.

An old pretzel tin (once our behind-the-counter trash bin) becomes a nice deep-sounding tom. I used busted chair legs to keep this thing upright.

The rest of the "kit" includes a missing-lid tin picnic basket as a higher-voiced tom (or with something left on the surface, a snare) while pie tins and an old rectangular cheese box make crude cymbals and a "wood block." There's even a crinkle-cutter mounted as something like a guiro.

So: the kids love it... and if you mate the whole thing with a big old frame drum hanging up from an old lamp frame you can even get a good rumbly bass drum sound, too. Pretty soon you'll all be able to hear it on record, too!