Wooden Roots - our story..
Our Story begins in Los Angeles, California, we are Marcus and Gemma Brown. We met in Los Angeles in 2003 backstage at a New Years Eve party (yes, really!) and we have been inseparable ever since. Marcus formed Wooden Roots in 2007 whilst we were living in a tiny 600 sq feet apartment in Woodland Hills, CA. It was very much a low key affair as we worked our corporate jobs by day, however on weekends it gave Marcus the creative outlet to do what he enjoyed - building, selling and teaching djembe to our local community. The turning point for us came when we bought our first house and got married 2009/10. Our house afforded us more space to grow the business and operate from and we held classes and workshops in our living room. We built the very first Wooden Roots workshop in our back yard! The video to the right shows our first workshop being built.
Where are we now?
We moved from California in 2018 and we are now located in Rendlesham, just outside Woodbridge in Suffolk. It’s Ironic that we moved our company Wooden Roots from California to a disused American Air Force Base in Suffolk! However, we we just love it on Bentwaters and feel very comfortable. It has everything we need and we can make as much noise as we want - handy when you have a drum business. Bentwaters is a magical place with all kinds of different business, many of them creative and it’s so friendly.
What do we offer?
We sell high quality djembes, accessories, apparel & drum building supplies
We offer weekly djembe classes at our studio in Rendlesham to ages 16+
We offer customised programmes to schools, libraries & community groups
We hold team building events for local companies
We run events and workshops that are culturally appropriate and authentic
We custom build Djembes & welcome your repairs at our state of the art workshop
Our Mission Statement “Connecting lives through creating a safe and fun environment where our local community can explore and learn a culture they would not typically expect to find.”
We get asked this question all the time “Why did we leave the USA”? We decided to leave the USA behind in 2016. We felt that it was a good time to “come home” to England - our native homeland and continue our Wooden Roots journey. One of the last sale’s we made before leaving was to Marvel Studios. They called us and said they were making a movie called Black Panther and could we supply them with Djembe’s for the movie. They told us that they had been watching us for several years and were impressed with our branding and logo. We are very proud to say that we supplied them with drums, straps and ksink ksinks (a form of percussion used on a djembe).
Power of Stories - Coincidence? Late in 2020 whilst the world was still the grips of a pandemic we were contact by Ipswich Museum to ask if we could provide some drumming for an exhibit they were launching in 2021 called Power of Stories and featuring costumes from the blockbuster movie Black Panther. The museum captured our story in this BLOG
“Power of Stories award winning exhibition comes to Snape Maltings in Suffolk, 10 minutes from Wooden Roots HQ”
Find out more about our involvement with Britten Pears Arts at Snape Maltings and how we are still helping to promote the Power of Stories almost three years on.
Recognition and Events along the way
A very proud moment hearing Sona Jabarteh giving us a shout out on stage with her band at WOMAD 22
The Wooden Roots Experience 2021
Wooden Roots Experience with Sidiki Dembele & Mohammed Gueye 2021
