Banging the drums with Remo Belli

Who would thought that an indescript manufacturing plant in Valencia would be home to one of the more important music companies in the world? Remo Belli, who had an early career as a professional drummer, pioneered the use of polyester Mylar for drumheads, the membranes that stretch over the open ends of a drum - and a very big deal in that world. That was half a century ago, and Belli, now 83 and still CEO of Remo Inc., believes that drums can be an effective tool for therapy and education. My interview with him is in the March issue of Inc. magazine. Some snippets:

By the 1950s, Los Angeles had five drum shops, but none of them had the feel that I thought a drum shop should have. It should be a hang--a place where you could play, kibitz, do whatever. I had never heard of the word invoice. But there happened to be a vacant store on Santa Monica Boulevard, and I borrowed $2,300 from my parents to open up Drum City with a partner. I continued to work as a drummer after the store opened, but I decided that I liked business. This was going to be OK.

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The synthetic drumhead revolutionized things right around the time Elvis Presley and the Beatles introduced a rhythm that people responded to. That changed everything in the whole musical instruments category. It was no longer woodwinds and brass winds and strings. It became guitars and amplification and drums. And to this day, that's what it is.

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By the early '90s, there was a lot of interest building up in medicine and education about how deeply music is connected to the human condition. We as an industry were beginning to examine music and the brain. Drums are a rhythm instrument; they're accessible; they're instantaneous. Drums can be used by anyone for relaxation and enjoyment. They can be used for helping people with autism or Alzheimer's--or for someone just showing up at a recreation center on a Tuesday night having a ball.

Photo: Catherine Ledner