Just Drums
Silver Member
Hello everyone. My name is Shane Fowlkes and I am the owner and founder of Just Drums (USA). I've been meaning to jump on here and introduce myself and our drum shop for a very long time now but other business has always seemed to take precedence.
Music and drums have been a part of my life ever since I was 10 years old. I was always in the middle school & high school band programs – jazz, marching, concert, percussion ensemble and so on. If there was drums, I was there. Of course, I was always involved in countless of garage bands. I later attended VCU School of Music and majored in Performance and Education. After college, I spent most of my 20’s teaching, gigging, working various part tine jobs, and eventually ended up on tour for 7 years traveling up and down the east coast countless times.
The rest is cliché. I ended up getting married and settling down. Had a child and eventually ended up in a IT profession since I was always good with computers. I spent my late 20’s and 30’s casually nurturing my IT career and the next thing you know, I was making serious money and was a sought after individual in the field. Web development and database development was my forte and somehow, I ended up on several high profile State (VA) and Federal projects.
Time went by and before you know it, music had become a very low priority. I had a great office job and like many of you, I spent my down time, more time than I should, browsing message forums. Back then, I was very active in a few of the popular forums – mainly this one, Drummerworld and Pearl’s forum. Who knows – some of you might even remember me. In the mid 2000’s, I became bored programming and started scheming and dreaming of opening up a drum shop. One thing lead to another and before you know it, I was selling off my stock, spending all my savings on this crazy idea.
Just Drums was created in 2006 and is Virginia’s only pro drum shop. In late 2010, we were honored to be invited to be a part of the Five-Star Drum Shop family. We carry Ludwig, Mapex, Gretsch, Sonor, Pearl, Taye, Crush, & GMS. We’re also scheduled to pick up another major brand sometime in the spring. We also carry all major lines of cymbals and accessories. Jus Drums is approximately 5,300 sq feet in size – 3,200 sq ft of showroom space and 2100 sq ft of warehouse.
We are staffed entirely of professional, non-commissioned experienced drummers. We have 5 full time employees and a few part time. We also have 3 full time instructors and offer all forms of percussion lessons. Drum set, hand percussion, classical, rudimental, drum corp, and more.
Just Drums has experienced (blessed) exceptional growth despite these never ending poor economic times. Somehow, we not only managed to stay Open for business almost as soon as this “recession” started, but somehow managed to grow. And grow we did.
In the very beginning during our first year, I attempted to stay active in this Message Forum since it was one of the main sources of my inspiration and hey, I enjoyed talking shop. But it didn’t take long for free and downtime was something unheard of. It wasn’t long before causally chatting on the forums just wasn’t in the picture. It was always on my mind but never had the time. Running your business takes every single bit of energy and all of your free time. Our business has many facets - a retail store, a educational facility, a repair shop, and an online retailer.
Hopefully, now that we are fully staffed and starting to run like a well oiled machine, maybe, just maybe, I’ll have the time for the forums once again.
Whew. With that said...Hello all once again. I'm glad to be back!
Music and drums have been a part of my life ever since I was 10 years old. I was always in the middle school & high school band programs – jazz, marching, concert, percussion ensemble and so on. If there was drums, I was there. Of course, I was always involved in countless of garage bands. I later attended VCU School of Music and majored in Performance and Education. After college, I spent most of my 20’s teaching, gigging, working various part tine jobs, and eventually ended up on tour for 7 years traveling up and down the east coast countless times.
The rest is cliché. I ended up getting married and settling down. Had a child and eventually ended up in a IT profession since I was always good with computers. I spent my late 20’s and 30’s casually nurturing my IT career and the next thing you know, I was making serious money and was a sought after individual in the field. Web development and database development was my forte and somehow, I ended up on several high profile State (VA) and Federal projects.
Time went by and before you know it, music had become a very low priority. I had a great office job and like many of you, I spent my down time, more time than I should, browsing message forums. Back then, I was very active in a few of the popular forums – mainly this one, Drummerworld and Pearl’s forum. Who knows – some of you might even remember me. In the mid 2000’s, I became bored programming and started scheming and dreaming of opening up a drum shop. One thing lead to another and before you know it, I was selling off my stock, spending all my savings on this crazy idea.
Just Drums was created in 2006 and is Virginia’s only pro drum shop. In late 2010, we were honored to be invited to be a part of the Five-Star Drum Shop family. We carry Ludwig, Mapex, Gretsch, Sonor, Pearl, Taye, Crush, & GMS. We’re also scheduled to pick up another major brand sometime in the spring. We also carry all major lines of cymbals and accessories. Jus Drums is approximately 5,300 sq feet in size – 3,200 sq ft of showroom space and 2100 sq ft of warehouse.
We are staffed entirely of professional, non-commissioned experienced drummers. We have 5 full time employees and a few part time. We also have 3 full time instructors and offer all forms of percussion lessons. Drum set, hand percussion, classical, rudimental, drum corp, and more.
Just Drums has experienced (blessed) exceptional growth despite these never ending poor economic times. Somehow, we not only managed to stay Open for business almost as soon as this “recession” started, but somehow managed to grow. And grow we did.
In the very beginning during our first year, I attempted to stay active in this Message Forum since it was one of the main sources of my inspiration and hey, I enjoyed talking shop. But it didn’t take long for free and downtime was something unheard of. It wasn’t long before causally chatting on the forums just wasn’t in the picture. It was always on my mind but never had the time. Running your business takes every single bit of energy and all of your free time. Our business has many facets - a retail store, a educational facility, a repair shop, and an online retailer.
Hopefully, now that we are fully staffed and starting to run like a well oiled machine, maybe, just maybe, I’ll have the time for the forums once again.
Whew. With that said...Hello all once again. I'm glad to be back!