Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Levine. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

During my 40-year career as a marketing consultant in the drum industry I’ve been very fortunate to work on several projects that I (along with most drummers) consider game changers: the expansion of percussion education along with the development of the plastic drumhead, the double bass drum pedal and electronic drums. However, the most meaningful project for me— and the one I feel has had the biggest impact on the community— has been Hit Like A Girl.

Since we began the Hit Like A Girl contest in 2012, there are more girls, women and non-binary drummers and percussionists playing, teaching, supporting and actively participating in the drumming community today than ever before. Just look at their increased representation in concerts, recordings, social media and drum festivals, for example. And, these days, there are just as many young girls starting to play drums in the US and around the world as boys… maybe more.

From a historical, musical, social and commercial perspective, the growing quantity, quality and diversity of the female drumming community has undoubtedly been one of the most important and significant changes in drumming in the 21st Century.

Hit Like A Girl can’t take all the credit for the female drumming revolution that’s taken place over the past 20 years but I can say that Hit Like A Girl certainly contributed to that progress. And, by becoming part of a global movement, it has become much more than just a drum contest.

David, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I guess I am proof of the adage that if you can do what you love and get paid for it, you’ll never work a day in your life.

After playing drums and percussion throughout high school and getting 2 degrees in percussion in college— yet being unable to pay my bills as a freelance musician/teacher/inventor/journalist— I decided I needed to subsidize my “drum addiction”. I contacted a friend who I had met when I played for the grand-opening of his drum lesson studio. He had just acquired the machinery and patents for a new type of bass drum pedal and was transitioning from teaching to manufacturing. I asked if he had any part time work for a struggling artist and he said he was sure he could find something for me. The company was called Drum Workshop (also known as DW Drums) and I ended up being their marketing manager/director for the next 20 years.

As an independent consultant, I also had the opportunity to work with drum companies such as Simmons, Evans, Remo, Modern Drummer, Ludwig, LP, Puresound and Cympad, among others, as well as market development groups including the Percussive Arts Society, the Percussion Marketing Council, the Electronic Percussion Industry Council and, of course, Hit Like A Girl.

I’ve always felt that all those years of drum lessons and my experience as a drummer provided the foundation for whatever success I was able to achieve in the drum business. More recently, it also gave me the perspective to recognize that the business cycle of the past 50 years was beginning to decline and the ability to help the industry prepare for the an exciting, new cycle that’s just getting started.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Here’s a story I love to tell from my days at Drum Workshop (which became famous all over the world as DW ):

When Drum Workshop wanted to develop a more affordable line of drums we decided we needed to create another brand that wouldn’t dilute its high-end reputation. We settled on “Pacific Drums & Percussion” to meet that goal and also to reposition a competitor, “Orange County Drums & Percussion”, that was becoming popular.

After a few years, we felt that Orange County was no longer a threat and came up with a simpler version of the logo that was just “PDP”. I went into a management meeting to share the new design but the owners said that they didn’t think this was such a good idea. “Successful drum companies have been names like Ludwig, Rogers, Gretsch, Tama and Pearl. You can’t have a drum company that’s just initials,” they explained.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I’ve long felt that the drum industry makes enough drums. We need to make more drummers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hitlikeagirlcontest.com
• Instagram: hitlikeagirlcontest
• Facebook: hitlikeagirlcontest
• Linkedin: hitlikeagirlcontest
• Youtube: hlagcontest

Image Credits
Robert Downs