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Website: acherepercussion.com Instagram: @acherepercussion
My name is Christian Noguera. I come from Argentina, and I’m now living in New Jersey after spending some time living in Philly. I came to the United States in 2009 when I met my ex-wife. When I finished college, she invited me to come here, and I’m still here. I’m the father of twins, two girls. Time flies.
I’m a percussionist and started my drum shop business 4 years ago, in 2021, after the pandemic. Before that, I was a teaching artist working in the Latin community for over 10 years. During the pandemic, I decided to step aside from education and start making drums.
Acheré Percussion is my small artisan drum shop in Germantown. I’m working with Esteban Adrián Hernández Silva, who is a guest artisan I met in Argentina. He’s originally from Uruguay and is a descendant of a traditional Afro-Uruguayan Candombe family. I started working with him in 2023 and have been getting advice from him. He’s been a percussionist and master craft drum maker for over 30 years.
I’m a well-known percussionist in the US, and I’m still working in many cities, including NYC, Chicago, and Miami. I co-founded the Timbalona Collective, a percussion ensemble rooted in Afro-Caribbean and Latin American traditions, which has been well-received and supported in Philadelphia. That helped to spread the word of the shop.
I started music in Argentina and have a college degree in music. While in school, I didn’t just focus on percussion. I studied production and was a composer before. For the past 5 or 6 years, I have been just doing percussion. I’ve been playing drums all my life – I’m going to be 40 and have played for 30 years.
Now, I’m moving more toward being a drum maker. I learned to make drums by myself. My coworker, Esteban, learned as well. We both came from families of drummers, and it’s normal and common in our culture to make music. I came from a music family where the tradition of playing is passed from generation to generation. Though I’m the only percussionist in my family, my grandfather was a carpenter and a musician from Paraguay, and he made guitars and harps, which are popular in South America. I was an iron worker in Argentina and learned to build drums by watching and studying the instrument.
What I’m still learning here is about the materials – what kind of wood there is. There’s a big difference in the trees here since South America is tropical. We get most of the wood we use here in Philly, so it’s much harder.
We make Latin percussion hand drums and do repairs on drums. We make a series of 10 to 15 drums each season. This year we made 15 conga drums. It’s a lot like construction work because it’s just two guys working on making drums.
The place in Germantown where we work is humble; we don’t have a heater or air conditioning, it’s a very humble shop. Before we opened our shop there, it was an old stable for horses. Since we need to think about the weather, we work in seasons. In Spring and Summer, we build the drums because it’s not cold. In Fall and Winter, we focus on sales. The plan this year is to work Spring and Summer as usual, and I’ll keep doing small projects in the Fall while we switch to selling.
Right now, I’m working in the shop and also doing music. Gigs are usually on the weekends. I also worked hard in the Artisan Accelerator program at NextFab.
I had the idea to build instruments because the cost and availability of quality instruments make them hard to find. One of the easiest ways to get drums or a Spanish guitar is to make your own. In the beginning, it won’t be as good as you want it to be, but it will get much better.
This idea to make drums in the US was interesting, because I’ve known my coworker for a long time in Argentina, and in 2016, we talked about putting the drum shop in the US. In 2021, we finally had the opportunity to start. I found that I loved teaching, but during the pandemic, it was hard being on the computer and teaching music.
When deciding where to go in the States, I didn’t find any Latino drum makers in this part of the East Coast. Most Latin drum makers are in Puerto Rico or Cuba, so it’s pretty hard to get a good drum because you have to be careful traveling with them.
I think that playing drums is so important for our culture. That’s why I started with this adventure. It’s an adventure for me. I learned so much these past 4 years. I’m doing it in some way to keep the tradition and culture. I see huge companies making drums, but when you make your own, you put more of your everything into the instrument.
Where we come from, we have to cut the log and make lumber before even making the drums. I have to put a lot of energy into making it. No two will be the same, since it’s made by hand. That’s a very important thing that we try to give to the community, the percussionist or the collector. They’re going to find a drum with soul. We are not a factory, just artisans.
Dealing with the technology and trying to be on point with sales and customers. Social media is so different from having a personal Facebook and posting vs a business account and trying to get far with it. Technology changes every single month. It’s a challenge.
In the 4 years we’ve been working, I feel successful, but I also feel that we need to take another step – in marketing and sales. Each year, we grow a little bit and feel more positive, but our network of customers is starting to get small. The real difficult part is marketing. I can say that I’m slow with the computer and it’s very hard work, but I’m trying to do my best. My wife helped a lot with this part, with emails and the computer.
There’s also a language barrier. English is not my first language. I can speak now, but when I came to the US, I had no English, just Spanish. I have noticed that some kinds of customers need more professional speaking. It’s something that I have to keep studying myself.
Acheré is a Lukumí word for a little maraca, used for Orisha music & dance that comes from Afro-Cuban culture. It’s a mix of old traditional art and religion. The Lukumí is an important instrument for the ensemble of the Batá drums in Cuba and the Western Hemisphere, where the person who sings plays the small maraca to lead the music. The roots came from the Jarawa culture, which is now in Nigeria, when they came through the Atlantic slave trade, mostly in Cuba and Brazil.
Though I’m from Argentina, part of my family on my mother’s side is from Brazil. I also have a strong culture of drumming from my African and indigenous side. Drumming is important in any Latin culture. From Argentina to Mexico, you’re going to find drums.
I’m going to keep working with this idea. I have been going for 4 years, and I wish to be doing this for many years. I’m also trying to get a bigger network of customers who are interested in handmade drums. I’m trying to get better with instruments. The tools and machines we have do their function, but we need better equipment to keep doing better. When you have better equipment, it makes the work easier.
For example, the first year we opened the shop, we were working Monday to Monday, 9 hours per day, and I was exhausted. In 4 months, I found the space, and I had to find the first machines, tools, and materials, and it was insane. It was a huge learning experience for me that I can’t do this for myself; I need help.
Every year, I get better. Talking about sales, I’m trying to do at least 2 or 3 sales monthly. I start in September, and in the next 4 months, I want to do at least 50 or 60 percent of the sales of the stuff that we have. Another goal is to get better with social media, working with Instagram and Facebook, and also have YouTube and TikTok. Tim from the Artisan Accelerator program says 20 or 30 percent of time should be dedicated to marketing, and that’s something of a challenge.
I feel that I need more people to hear about the business. I want to expand beyond the US and try to sell drums in Europe, Asia, and Canada. We can’t sell to Latin America because the price is too high for the drummers there, not because we want to make it high, but because the materials cost a lot of money. We work with wood, metal, skins, and because we’re small, it costs more to invest in materials to make the drums.
My wife and twins are my biggest inspiration. I feel blessed that I have a family and a home and can work with something I love and like. Sometimes it’s very hard, but I do this profession with my whole heart.
I think making drums in Philadelphia is important because Philly has an old and huge tradition of drums. I found that everything came naturally and organically. I also made a new logo for conga drums that says handmade in Philly. I feel very deeply toward that phrase.
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NextFab’s Artisan Accelerator is a 9-month program providing current and aspiring creative entrepreneurs who create physical products with business education, access to resources, and community support to build viable businesses. This program is designed for creative entrepreneurs, whether just starting out or looking to take their business to the next level. The program helps those new to running a business who feel overwhelmed and/or struggling to balance creativity with day-to-day tasks.
In Partnership with FORMATION. Media.