Head MARU

Building the Beat of Your Own (electronic) Drum

‘Essentially I’m sick of setting up a drum kit. I want to be able to rock up to a gig, plug a couple of wires in, and start making a shitload of noise.’

For those endowed with big instruments, musical ones that is, transporting and setting up to rehearse or play a gig can be a pain in the arse. Tired of lugging around drums and frustrated with the musical limitations of most electronic percussion gear, Trigger Happy’s Alon Ilsar has set out to develop his own set of electronic instruments.

Having built his own electronic percussion instrument a couple of years back (the EAPP – Electro-Acoustic Percussion Pads), Ilsar recently teamed up with instrument builder and all-round technical whiz Mark Havryliv to design a series of instruments allowing him to trigger and manipulate sounds by moving different parts of his body – either as a standalone instrument or while playing other electronic percussion in live performance. Ilsar explains ‘… I suppose being a percussionist you’re always finding new percussive sounds, so it all seems very natural for me to build new instruments. There’s no real reason why instruments should be so standardised.’

The first instrument to be developed is the Head MARU (Midi Algorithmic Response Unit) – Head because it’s essentially a cap with an accelerometer sewn into it. Basically the instrument works by converting X,Y messages from the accelerometer into MIDI messages which then trigger either pre-recorded sound samples, or control effects being placed on live audio. A simple interface enables Ilsar to tweak various parameters on the fly. Ilsar describes the process ‘… for example I can change the pitch of a sample by moving my head forward and back, and change the amount of reverb by moving left to right. This started getting really exciting, even if I looked a little weird moving my head around randomly while playing.’

Having performed with the Head MARU across numerous Trigger Happy gigs over the past 12-months, Ilsar and Havryliv are now working on prototypes for two more instruments: the Airsticks and Air Pedal, each offering similar functionality to the Head MARU. Down the track Ilsar hopes that the instruments will allow him the option of fronting up to gigs without the need for physical drums.

We may not always notice it, but musical instruments are constantly changing. People tweak and extend instruments, develop gadgets and devices, plugins and software, in order to achieve a different type of sound or way of playing. Sometimes there’s the necessity, or inspiration, or accident, that takes things further, into a new musical instrument.

As Tom Waits tells it ‘… the problem is that most instruments are square and music is always round.’ Round music requires rounder instruments. People are inventing instruments to produce the sounds they want, to make the music we’ve yet to hear.