[About]
Hello and welcome to this website, thanks for finding your way here! My name is Julian Vleminckx, but you can call me ‘Jul’ (as if you would say ‘Julien’ in French, but without ‘ien’)! I was born on a Wednesday morning in Belgium on February 23rd, 1994. I love music! I love all sorts of jazz, rock, classical, RnB, electronic, and so on! I love playing drums! I love cymbals! I really love cymbals so much I started making my own!
Hello and welcome to this website, thanks for finding your way here! My name is Julian Vleminckx, but you can call me ‘Jul’ (as if you would say ‘Julien’ in French, but without ‘ien’)! I was born on a Wednesday morning in Belgium on February 23rd, 1994. I love music! I love all sorts of jazz, rock, classical, RnB, electronic, and so on! I love playing drums! I love cymbals! I really love cymbals so much I started making my own!
I started taking drum lessons around the age of 9/10 because of my neighbor’s super cool drum kit! When I was 15-ish, my drum teacher showed me the epic Steve Gadd-Dave Weckl-Vinnie Colaiuta drum battle. Not long after, YouTube showed me the way to jazzmusic and its different approach to the drums, which really sparked my love for the instrument. I quickly went from playing 20 minutes per week to playing hours per day! Soon after that, I was captivated by the beautiful and mysterious world of cymbals. On YouTube I could constantly trigger my imagination, steadily turning my curiosity into an obsession (a good one, I promise!). Over the years, I experimented a bit by hitting cymbals with hammers, but it was only until 2019— after obtaining my Jazz Master’s degree—that I seriously started preparing to make my own. I began searching for tools and continued experimenting on existing instruments. From there, it slowly evolved into my small business, ‘belcymbal boutique’. ‘bel’ because of my Belgian roots, because I love bells so much that I hammer them myself & because it is a small nod to the French word belle, meaning ‘beautiful’!
I started taking drum lessons around the age of 9/10 because of my neighbor’s super cool drum kit! When I was 15-ish, my drum teacher showed me the epic Steve Gadd-Dave Weckl-Vinnie Colaiuta drum battle. Not long after, YouTube showed me the way to jazzmusic and its different approach to the drums, which really sparked my love for the instrument. I quickly went from playing 20 minutes per week to playing hours per day! Soon after that, I was captivated by the beautiful and mysterious world of cymbals. On YouTube I could constantly trigger my imagination, steadily turning my curiosity into an obsession (a good one, I promise!). Over the years, I experimented a bit by hitting cymbals with hammers, but it was only until 2019— after obtaining my Jazz Master’s degree—that I seriously started preparing to make my own. I began searching for tools and continued experimenting on existing instruments. From there, it slowly evolved into my small business, ‘belcymbal boutique’. ‘bel’ because of my Belgian roots, because I love bells so much that I hammer them myself & because it is a small nod to the French word belle, meaning ‘beautiful’!
Mystery is what lured me into this beautiful craft, and to this day, its mysteriousness continues to fuel my imagination! And imagination is what keeps pulling me forward! Most of my tools are pre-owned! My current anvil once belonged to a French jewelry maker—I can only imagine the beautiful pieces crafted on its surface. My hammers came from Belgium, France, Germany & America (and also a new one from Turkey). I love daydreaming about what they were used for in the past, who used them, if using them gave them joy, or no joy at all, … Same for my lathe, which was a big wood lathe before I modified it. I bought it nearby a place of pilgrimage in Belgium, -who knows- it might have turned a lot of wood into religious pieces! Lathe of Heaven! :-p
Mystery is what lured me into this beautiful craft, and to this day, its mysteriousness continues to fuel my imagination! And imagination is what keeps pulling me forward! Most of my tools are pre-owned! My current anvil once belonged to a French jewelry maker—I can only imagine the beautiful pieces crafted on its surface. My hammers came from Belgium, France, Germany & America (and also a new one from Turkey). I love daydreaming about what they were used for in the past, who used them, if using them gave them joy, or no joy at all, … Same for my lathe, which was a big wood lathe before I modified it. I bought it nearby a place of pilgrimage in Belgium, -who knows- it might have turned a lot of wood into religious pieces! Lathe of Heaven! :-p
[Logo Breakdown]
1st impression:
A hammer over a compass, or a compass over a hammer. Something for shaping and something that helps guiding it.
deeper explanation:
The compass is composed of 2 (open) triangles. The big triangle points upwards, looking up to the sky: symbolizing unearthly or irrational things. The smaller downward pointing triangle thus stands for earthliness & rationality. The crescent moon-looking shape is an ode to the Turkish cymbal-stamps, but also stands for the dreamy energy that music can bestir within us. The hammerhead and its handle are connected by a dot, which resembles the important connections in your life: a someone, a something, a moment, a thought, a feeling, …
fun fact:
Let’s be honest… this logo looks like a tipi with a huge calumet hangin’ out, smokeyyy!!
interpretation:
The two triangles both miss a side, because of this you could say their meaning is open & interpretable:
'play the instrument
and make it your own
the metal is alive
I merely shaped it for you
but you will shape it even further
with every hit of your stick
you will make it harder
but also softer
the more you play it,
the more it will sound like you
use it
carry it
touch it
apply some of your
very own beautiful patina
give the instrument
your own meaning'
[Logo Breakdown]
1st impression:
A hammer over a compass, or a compass over a hammer. Something for shaping and something that helps guiding it.
deeper explanation:
The compass is composed of 2 (open) triangles. The big triangle points upwards, looking up to the sky: symbolizing unearthly or irrational things. The smaller downward pointing triangle thus stands for earthliness & rationality. The crescent moon-looking shape is an ode to the Turkish cymbal-stamps, but also stands for the dreamy energy that music can bestir within us. The hammerhead and its handle are connected by a dot, which resembles the important connections in your life: a someone, a something, a moment, a thought, a feeling, …
fun fact:
Let’s be honest… this logo looks like a tipi with a huge calumet hangin’ out, smokeyyy!!
interpretation:
The two triangles both miss a side, because of this you could say their meaning is open & interpretable:
'play the instrument
and make it your own
the metal is alive
I merely shaped it for you
but you will shape it even further
with every hit of your stick
you will make it harder
but also softer
the more you play it,
the more it will sound like you
use it
carry it
touch it
apply some of your
very own beautiful patina
give the instrument
your own meaning'
