Canadian Music Trade - August/September 2020 | Page 17

By Andrew King
Supplier Spotlight
YC DRUM
COMPANY
I’m really passionate about is getting
to meet people – drummers, dealers –
and getting to pick their brain,” begins
Jordan Gauthier, the owner and builder
“What
behind revered Canadian drum brand
YC Drum Company. “What got them into drumming? Who inspires
them to play? What do they want their drums to look and sound like?”
It’s that very passion that got him into drumming in the first
place, and ultimately inspired him to launch the company that now
builds and services kits for professional and amateur players alike –
including some of the biggest names in Canadian music.
Gauthier founded YC Drum Company in his native Ottawa in
2013 at just 19, and in the years since, has built custom pieces and
kits for players across the country and beyond while also offering
rentals, repairs, and personal drum tech services for shows, tours, and
studio sessions.
“I was always the ‘business guy’ in the bands I played in, and the
guy in Ottawa that people would ask to tune up their drums or fix a
snare before a show,” Gauthier begins about launching YC, which is
now headquartered in Waterloo, ON. “I was also the guy with the nice
drum gear. Right when I turned 15, my dad told me to get a job, so I
had a hole in my pocket through my teens where I’d work all week after
school, then go to the drum shop on the weekend and buy stuff.”
He ended up acquiring all kinds of enviable vintage pieces and grew
familiar with their construction and characteristics. “Then I started to
develop an interest in possibly building my own drums, so one weekend,
I took my paycheck and went to buy some tools – a router, a drill
press, and some other stuff from Kijiji – and made a few snare drums.”
The goal wasn’t to start a business, though as it happens, things
snowballed as more and more players heard the products. The “big
turning point” was when Gauthier quit his job delivering auto parts
and turned his parents’ garage into his workshop.
Shortly thereafter, he got a call from a friend to help out with
the University of Ottawa’s frosh week concert headlined by Arkells.
After the show, he was telling drummer Tim Oxford about YC and they
exchanged info to reconnect the next time the band was in Ottawa. A few
weeks later, though, Gauthier called and asked if he could bring a kit to a
show in Guelph and tech for Oxford for the night.
“Tim ended up just loving them,” Gauthier enthuses. “He told
me, ‘There’s just something about your drums, and about an eager
19-year-old that builds them; let’s do it.’” And so Oxford became the
first-ever YC endorser and Gauthier jumped on the road as his drum
tech for their next tour and every one since.
Today, the YC logo graces the kick drums for esteemed acts like
The Glorious Sons, July Talk, The Strumbellas, Matthew Good, Half
Moon Run, and dozens more, and each one is specifically tailored to the
player sitting behind it.
“It’s very personal,” begins Gauthier about his creative process. “I’ve
always wanted to emphasize the fact that it’s a one-stop shop; when you’re
talking to me, you’re talking to the person building your drums, and the
JORDAN GAUTHIER OF YC DRUM COMPANY
person that’s accountable for getting you exactly what you want. It’s not
just a drum company; I like to think of it more like a community.”
That community has grown significantly over the years thanks
in large part to good networking and word-of-mouth buzz. Thus far,
YC’s success has almost exclusively been driven by custom builds and
repairs; however, Gauthier has reached the point that some dealers
have expressed interest in carrying the products, and he’s excited by
the potential of working with the right kind of retailer, listing stores
like Dave’s Drum Shop in Ottawa, Rufus Drum Shop in Vancouver,
Drumland in Vaughan, ON, Just Drums in Toronto, and Drummer’s
Hangout in Aurora, ON as the archetypes.
“Those indie drum shops are the places I like to go – where it’s
more than just a place to buy things; it’s about community and nerding
out with drum talk, and developing good relationships and trust.”
YC will celebrate its seventh anniversary this September, and
looking back, Gauthier shares a handful of professional highlights.
“The big one was seeing my drums on the Juno Awards stage,” he
recalls about Arkells’ hometown performance at the 2015 edition in
Hamilton. “I was still building in my parents’ garage then, so we were
watching it in the living room and the YC logo was in, like, every
shot and my mom had tears in her eyes.”
He’s also earned Junos for albums he’s teched on, and has a statue
along with several gold and platinum certification plaques adorning his
parents’ home. Then there are the little things, like when he got a call
to come tune up a drumset in a Toronto studio only to realize when
he got there that he was talking to Metric guitarist Jimmy Shaw; now,
Gauthier is the band’s go-to whenever they need a tune-up or tech.
Asked about current or incoming trends that might influence
his operations, Gauthier is happy to report an uptick in players
seeking the more classic sounds and designs of decades past, which
is YC’s core strength.
“I’ve been doing that with my own spin since the beginning, so
it’s cool to see the market come around,” he says, noting “YC” fittingly
stands for Young Classics. “Even some of the older companies like
Gretsch and Ludwig are building shells like they did in the ‘50s and ‘60s.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has kept him and his clients off
the road and out of the studio of late, Gauthier has found a silver
lining in having more time to work on product development and new
prototypes, including an upcoming line of innovative snares.
“It’s been great to have the time to buckle down and focus on
the next steps,” he says, and largely, those next steps are in line with
the ones he’s taken to build YC to this point: community building
alongside drum building and ensuring that every product leaving the
shop lives up to YC’s hard-earned reputation.
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Music Trade.
CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE 17