Edition Eight Feature
We Interview: Jordan Swindoll
Location: Petal, Mississippi, USA
Photo Credit: ©Paul Tynes @noblemotivedesign

On a whim, drummer Jordan Swindoll made his own first snare drum as a cheaper alternative to buying one ready-made. It sounded so good that other musicians soon started forming a queue for his custom-made kits. Drum roll, please…

Swindoll in a nutshell?

Essentially, I start with raw lumber to build custom snare drums and drum sets. I mill it and shape it into cylinders, and then I install the hardware and heads. That’s the super-short version of the process.

More often than not, a customer will approach me with the sound they’re after. That sound is going to shape the size of each drum and the choice of hardware as well as the type of wood. In most cases, the sound is what comes first and then everything else is secondary.

What’s your origin story?

I started in 2011. I was a college student and had been drumming for years. Funds were pretty low at the time. I wondered if I could make some nice drums easier and cheaper than I could source them from a store. That idea now seems kind of insane. But I was young and I was dumb, so I just went for it.

I started with only a snare drum. Then some other guys saw it and were like, “That’s cool, that sounds great. Can you make one for me?” I started thinking, well, if I’m able to sell some, then I can source some more tools and materials and I can make them nicer. One sale led to two sales, which led to four, which led to eight, and now it’s just what I do.