Nels Anderson is marching to the beat of a different drum.
Anderson is the owner and facilitator of Drum Utah, a company that uses hand drums to help with student and childhood development, build community, facilitate team building and help people fighting through addictions.
Many students in the greater Park City area know Anderson through his work with Drum Bus Utah and his programming with Arts-Kids, a developmental nonprofit that had folded during the pandemic, and its former executive director “Cowboy Ted” Hallisey, whom he still works with today.
“Ted has been a great supporter throughout the years,” he said.
Anderson has used his collection of djembes and other hand percussion instruments in his sessions with Holy Cross Ministries, the Park City Library and other local nonprofits.
“My busiest years were the two prior to the onset of COVID-19,” he said. “But when the pandemic hit, everything got slammed to the ground, because drumming is such a social activity.”
With things lying dormant, Anderson decided to do some restructuring.
“I decided to part ways with the Drum Bus, and start Drum Utah,” he said. “One of the big things was the bus that I used to drive to sites and host sessions was basically rotting away in my driveway. Diesels like that, if you don’t use them, will just fall apart.”
With Drum Utah, Anderson doesn’t need to worry about gas mileage and maintenance, which frees him up to conjure different ways to introduce drum circles to as many people as he can.
“During COVID, I changed my drum stock, so the ones I have are easy to sanitize,” he said. “They also are designed to fit inside one another, so I can take more drums with me to different places.”
Finding new places to hold drum circle sessions is another goal, Anderson said.
“I have been trying to expand and increase the number of rural communities in Utah that I’ll visit,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of resources for people who don’t live in the city to be exposed to things like this. So, I’m working on a program under Drum Utah called Rural Rhythms.”
Anderson especially wants to work more in the Wasatch Back.
“I grew up in Heber, and I see the Greater Park City Area is growing and I would love to get out there and work with more schools,” he said. “I would also like to work more with adults. I love working with kids, but as much joy as that gives me, I can’t challenge them the same way I challenge adults.”
The sessions Anderson hosts will still have that familiar flow he started with Drum Bus Utah.
“First you need to get people to feel comfortable and safe behind the drums, so we make a lot of noise and make people laugh,” he said. “Then go through a little instruction. I don’t claim to be a drum teacher, but I’ll teach them a few different sounds and play some structured beats.”
Anderson will then start another beat that gives participants room to experiment.
“Then we’ll do silly things where people can make animal noises and laugh out loud,” he said. “If I can get them to quack like a duck, they won’t feel silly beating their drums. And once you’ve done that, the last half I dedicate to making a little more difficult music. And that’s when they relax, because it’s less silly than quacking like a duck. You can really play with the group.”
As a biologist, Anderson is wary of buzzwords like “therapy” when hosting drum circles.
“I’m not saying drumming helps people detox, but I’ve done a circle at a treatment center where after an hour of drumming this guy who said he had the shakes the entire time he’s been in the center held out his hand and said it was the first time they stopped,” he said. “So my revelation then was to just be the one who opens the door and gets out of the way so people can get what they want and need out of a circle. I have found if you go in and let people experience things the way they want to, things will happen you couldn’t predict.”