On Magalhães street, 31, in Poble-sec (where there are a lot of streets named after conquerors) there is a very small place called Happy Frog Drums that, truly, makes you feel happy as a drumming frog. Drum kits are repaired there. All drummers in Catalonia, but also from all over Spain, bring or send their cracked cymbals, their loosened or holed snare drums to the owner of the small workshop: Ricard Monné, who, of course, is also a magnificent drummer (he plays with many artists from many different disciplines) and, furthermore, teaches drums. I know one of his students. She says that hour, both with drumsticks in hand, is the best of the week.
This workshop used to be his grandfather's shoe shop. "He was the neighborhood shoemaker. He fixed shoes for Serrat, for Sisa... This space is very romantic. And my father bought the premises (my grandfather rented it) and put in a lathe. And then, when he retired, I took it over." Around me, on the shelves, there are many percussion instruments whose names I don't know. What do we know about drums? Me, absolutely nothing.
"It all starts with my father and mother, who at fourteen years old let me have the drum kit in the apartment! Acoustic, mind you? Not electronic. In fact, they let me rehearse in the apartment with my first band. People were more understanding. Now, the only noise tolerated is that of crying children. A violin, no. And the thing is that at fourteen, my first cymbal broke. The second one, I already fixed myself," he explains. He was, then, one of those children who dismantle appliances to see how they work. "In '96 I recorded my first album. I put up those ads that are pasted on lampposts, with a flap. 'Drum kits repaired.' Nobody called me. And then, when the Internet started to work, when Facebook appeared, I also started to have work and not stop... I was an accountant parallel to being a musician and I told myself: 'No more being an accountant.' I don't just repair for people from Barcelona. They send me things from everywhere. This is a snare drum, see? One of the main drums of the kit. It has some mechanisms and some things that break."
I ask him, ignorantly, if a drum, for example, gets a hole. "It depends," he answers with a smile. "Many times there are those who believe that the best drum kit, the best, is the one with the best wood. But the big investment in a drum kit is the hardware. All of this is full of threads, fasteners, anchors that break. This is what makes it better or worse, whether it breaks or not. What you will repair are hardware and coverings."
I observe another of the "devices," completely ignorant. I am hearing names like goliat, tom, hi-hat or snare drum for the first time... My percussive culture doesn't go beyond the Timbaler del Bruc, a hero of fake news. Now that the Rolling Stones' drummer has died (who apparently played one of the most austere drum kits in the world of rock and roll), we have seen him, in videos, playing Satisfaction. How many names of drummers in global pop could we remember? He, the Stones' drummer, Charlie Watts; the Beatles' drummer, Ringo Starr. And who else? Michael Giles, from King Crimson, whom everyone respects and admires so much... For other reasons, Phil Collins. And perhaps, someone will be able to name a female drummer. The Carpenters' drummer, of course, whose name was Karen (Carpenter); Arcade Fire's drummer, which is a band I love, Regine Chasagne (also a singer and keyboardist) and, of course, Moe Tucker, from The Velvet. That's it.
"This is a drum, for example," Ricard tells me. And, after seeing it up close, I ask him if it's made of skin. "Historically this would be made of skin, but now it's plastic." Would skin be better? "Not for vegans. It's less practical, skin. It alters the tension depending on the humidity. And this can cause it to break, for example, if you take a plane trip and it tightens. Since the drum kit was invented, it's normally plastic." And that leads me, of course, to figure out when the drum kit was invented. "It was born in 1900 with jazz. Before, percussion was done by different people. One played the bass drum, another the cymbals... And they took the one who knew the most, who was usually the snare drummer, and sat him down."
"It all started with my father and mother, who at fourteen years old let me have the drum kit in the apartment! Then my first cymbal broke. The second one, I fixed myself. In '96 I recorded my first album."While we are looking, he tells me what he does. "I am repairing thistom, thatgoliatand that bass drum over there... This cymbal had a crack, it's like a run in a stocking." Fascinated, I observe the plates he has, already repaired, into which he has drilled holes. I understand what he says about the run in the stocking. You have to stop the path of that crack. "I have spent many years researching here.I have had to study physics to know how cracks behave with metal. You have to do it with a lot of symmetry, without heating the bronze, polish it very well... The cuts must have a proportion. This cymbal is worth four hundred and fifty euros and the repair twenty or thirty. Besides, it's an old cymbal."
I wonder, as a lover of all things old, if you make a drummer happy by giving them old cymbals. "It depends. Some people tell you: 'What junk have you given me?'. But I like them. There's the hunter's motivation; before, two identical cymbals were made, and one sounded bad and the other spectacular. But now they all sound the same. I have several sets of cymbals and I use them depending on what I play. All cymbals made by hand in Turkey, whatever the brand, sound very good. Turkey and China have specialized in cymbals. Look, this is a handmade Turkish cymbal." And I smile, because the brand, of course, is Bosphorus. "But the same manufacturers make cheaper cymbals with the same alloy. This one is called B-20 because it has twenty percent tin. It's one of the most expensive metals that exist apart from gold. The more tin, the more expensive."
"The drum kit was born in 1900 with jazz. Before, percussion was done by different people. One played the bass drum, the other the cymbals... And they took the one who knew the most, who was usually the snare drummer, and sat him down"I ask him if each musician sets up their drum kit as they wish. "The order is whatever you please, what happens is that the drum kit is already very practical in every sense but one. You have to cross your hand. The foot that works the most is the right one, the good foot plays the bass drum, the right hand normally plays the cymbals, which is what has the most beats. And the cymbals are strategically placed. I have four drum kits that I use for concerts. And here I have things that I will restore someday. Before, in the eighties, things weren't repaired, they were bought," he says. And I think he's right, and that it didn't only happen in the drum industry, but also in that of cars, refrigerators, clothes, shoes. He has lived, since he was little, with a shoemaker. He knows what it's like to patch a hole in a sole. Now things are repaired."I like it. Ecologically and also for the romanticism of recovering things that would be in the trash". He shows me another of the ---I don't know if I should call them that--- timbales. "This is a Catalan brand, from the middle of the last century, it's called Miller, because the owner was called Millera. Like Miguel Ríos, who called himself Mike Ríos. It was the brand people bought when they couldn't afford imported brands like Ludwig."
Ricard, before, wrote for a magazine called Batería & percusión, which has already closed. What he told was very important for the world of music. He doesn't consider himself a luthier. "I am not a luthier, I am a mechanic, I compare myself to my grandfather, the shoemaker. An artisan. Yes, of course, I don't just repair. Someone also comes to me who, for example, wants to convert this drum, the goliat, into a bass drum. Why? To go gigging and so it doesn't take up so much space, for example. Then some legs, a hoop must be adapted... Sometimes they bring me an old drum. And we invent the part or modify it."
"Before, in the eighties, you bought. Now you repair and I like it. Ecologically and also for the romanticism of recovering things that would be in the trash"Finally, I want to ask him about electronic drums. What does he think of them? Do you fix them too? "I do some electronics, yes, because I also know a bit about electronics. If the question is 'what do I think' I will tell you thatI don't consider them a spawn of the devil. I find them fun.You can put sounds that have notes... And I like combining electronic and acoustic. I have two in my collection. A Roland and a Simons. They make very freaky sounds, they're cool. But they are two different things. Like canned tuna and a tuna loin. Two different things that are good. I would never make a salad with tuna loin nor asanfainawith canned tuna."
I leave the store wanting to go see him in concert. Wanting to pay attention to the drums. The discreet, diabolical, essential, and energetic drums.