#320 Juels Thomas- Director of Marketing & Artist Relations for DW, LP, PDP, Gretsch & Slingerland!
Juels Thomas has never lived in a house without a drumset. She thinks this is normal. Her father was a drummer and started teaching her to play at the age of five. From there, she went on to march snare all four years of high school, graduate with a BA in Professional Music Business from Berklee College of Music in Boston and is currently the Director of Marketing and Artist Relations for Drum Workshop, Inc., which includes DW Drums, DWe, Gretsch Drums, Latin Percussion, Pacific Drums & Percussion and Slingerland. Juels is involved in the marketing strategy, planning and budgeting for all DW brands as well as overseeing artist and industry relations globally. She also manages the company’s trade show presence, clinic tours, artist sessions and participation at music festivals all over the world. Juels has been an active Advisory Member of the Percussive Arts Society’s Drumset Committee since 2008 and currently serves on PAS’s Board of Directors.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Chris Smith! Chris joined the United States Coast Guard Band in February 2005. Originally from Danbury, Connecticut, MUC Smith did his undergraduate studies at the Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut. He studied percussion with Benjamin Toth, orchestral percussion with Mike Werner of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, hand drumming with Glen Velez, Latin percussion with Johnny Almendra, and timpani with Alexander Lepak. MUC Smith has performed regularly with the New Haven Symphony, Orchestra New England, Bridgeport Symphony, Waterbury Symphony, and Ridgefield Symphony, as well as freelancing on the steel drums throughout the Northeast.
Happy Birthday to Brendan Mason! Brendan is an active teacher, performer, composer, and clinician in the New England area. He currently teaches general and instrumental music at East Shoreline Catholic Academy in Branford, CT (previously Saint Mary School) and serves as the Assistant Marching Band Director for Jonathon Law High School in Milford, CT. He provides private lessons to many students of all ages in the New England Area. Brendan also has served as caption head or technician to several area drum lines and percussion sections including the Cheshire High School Marching Band, Col. John Chester Drum Corps, Connecticut Patriots Drum Corps, The Stony Creek Drum Corps and the 7th Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps. He has provided clinics and workshops all over the United States and Europe, including a 2014 presentation for the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis, a series of performances throughout China, a week of clinics in Singapore for the Singapore Armed Forces Band and for The Royal Marine School of Music in Portsmouth, UK.
Brendan is a student of Ed Rhodes, Bob Rush, Paul Cormier, Mike Gagnon, Matt Mayotte, Tim Cecil and later studied under Ken Green while attending Northwestern State University of Louisiana where he pursued a degree in music education and percussion performance. Brendan started playing rudimental snare drum at the age of 6 as a member of the Col. John Chester Drum Corps. He soon began competing individually through the Corps, winning honors at the Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hudson Valley, and Northeastern States Championships. At age 9, Brendan became the youngest drummer to hold The Dan English Trophy as the Connecticut State Junior Snare Drum Champion, a distinction he has won more times than any other individual. In addition to teaching, Brendan is a member of the Connecticut Patriots Drum Corps. He has also performed with the Middlesex County Volunteers and The Top Secret Drum Corps of Basel, Switzerland. Through these groups, Brendan has toured both nationally and internationally, performing in Switzerland, France, Germany, and Australia. He has individually performed with notable musicians, such as Shania Twain, and was featured on an ESPN recording. Brendan is a proud member of The Company of Fifers and Drummers, USARD and NARD. He is also an endorsee of The Cooperman Drum Company, Innovative Percussion, ProLogix Percussion, and Loyal Drums.
Happy Birthday to Juels Thomas!!!
Gig Alerts
The Roots Picnic is happening June 2nd-4th in Philadelphia, PA.
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Jazz Fest) is happening April 28th-May 7th.
Educational Spotlight
Carnival is happend this Tuesday. Here’s some history on it.
Here’s some back story on Mardi Gras (the United States’ cousin of Carnival).
Product Review
Damon has released his Plethora of Percussion (aka P.O.P.) pack with Yurt Rock. There are over 1,000 loops and one-shots for drummers, other instrumentalists, engineers, producers, singer-songwriters and more!
Here is the Spotify Playlist of iconic pop percussion songs that Damon and Marcos Torres created.
Iconic Recording
Juels picked out this week’s iconic recording in the song “Typical” by Mute Math. The video was recorded with the band learning how to play the song backwards. They synced the audio with the miming in post.
Music News
The Musicians’ Union backs the FAC 100% Venues initiative to abolish commission fees on artist merchandise.
The Musicians’ Union (MU) has announced its support for the Featured Artists Coalition’s (FAC) 100% Venues initiative, which encourages venues to allow artists to sell merchandise without charging punitive commission fees. -Article
When they go low, Robert Glasper goes viral. The Grammy-winning pianist and producer/songwriter could have stewed about the static he got from Chris Brown after he bested the “Iffy” singer for this year’s best R&B golden gramophone and Brown griped, “Y’all playing. Who da f— is this?”
Instead of getting into a social media showdown with Brown, Glasper did something way better: he took the insult and printed it on a t-shirt while promising to donate the proceeds to a charity. On Tuesday (Feb. 14) Glasper announced that after just four days those shirts had sold out already. -Article
You can also catch Robert Glasper and a bunch of other great musicians at the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Napa.
Juels Thomas Interview
The song leading into the interview is “Who Can It Be Now” by Men At Work from the ‘Business As Usual’ album.
Juels grew up in and attended Mission Viejo High School in Southern CA.
The conversation starts with talk about the DW Chili Cookoff.
Here’s a recipe that won a bunch of awards…..
If you really want to get crazy with your chili, here are some other recipes to check out.
Juels talks about her new role at DW. She is now involved in more marketing with the company. If you are looking to get into some good marketing habits for yourself, the books, The “22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” and The “22 Immutable Laws of Branding” are highly recommended.
Juels explains her duites with events and trade shows as well.
Juels talks about teching the New Orleans Jazz fest with Jerry Zacarias for the DW and LP artists.
Juels talks about the acquisition of DW by Roland as well as the brands that DW overseas in LP, Gretsch Drums, PDP, and Slingerland Drums.
Juels talks about the electronic side of DW drums in DWe.
Juels talks about PDP flirting with marching percussion.
Juels talks about getting into drums from her dad.
Shout-out to the Santa Clara Vanguard.
Juels graduated Berklee College of Music with a Music Business degree.
Damon brings up Manny Marroquin and the restaurant in L.A. called Verse.
Juels is a member of the Board of Directors for the Percussive Arts Society.
Shout-out to friend of the show, Sarah Hagan!
Damon shares his thoughts on expanding PASIC.
Juels talks about her fitness events.
Juels talks about some of her traveling and adventures.
She mentions pumpkin pizza in Australia.
Juels talks about going to Easter Island and also traveling solo.
Juels wants to go to Italy next. Damon promised to send Juels to some iconic pizza places, like THIS ONE.
Damon recommends Air Tags for traveling. Juels recommends Trip It and Trip (dot) com. You can also use Flight Aware.
Damon mentions Master Tour.
Damon brings up the restaurant Pier 48 and the history behind it.
Juels talks about how she got into hockey and chose her team.
Damon talks about the rewards programs and you can check out those apps and more in Episode 280A. He also brings up “The Points Guy”.
Juels recommends the sushi spot, “SUGARFISH”. She also has a weakness for Entenmann’s Donuts (the chocolate ones).
Juels picks the iconic recording. Shout-out to Darren King.
Honorable mention goes to “Soul Meets Body” by Death Cab for Cutie. Shout-out to Jason McGerr.
Shout-out to Logan!
You can follow Juels on Facebook or Instagram.
The song leading out of the interview is “Make Believe” by Toto from the album ‘IV’.
