When choosing to do business in this field, there are choices to be made about where you stand and what kind of compromises you are willing to make. Perhaps John thought he had it easy and all the decisions were made for him when he acquired Inma-Ku USA in 1998, at the time the largest importer of didgeridoos into the country. But in fact it just made more painful and apparent all the compromises that needed to be made to take the didgeridoo, originally meant to be individually made for use in the Australian bush, and make it into a mass marketable, wholesaleable item.

In his first few years in the didgeridoo business, John saw more instruments than many of us will ever see in our lifetimes. The hands-on experience with all these instruments was incredibly instructive on what makes instruments behave the way they do; how the shape, density, etc. affects the sound and playability. And as anyone who has imported didgeridoos or even has simply owned some for a few years knows, they can get damaged or simply crack on their own. John had his share among the heaps of instruments that have gone through his business, and many have ended up on his workbench, giving him more hands-on repair experience than most of us will ever have (thankfully).

As the tinkerer and craftsman he is, having also worked with guitars and flutes, it was inevitable that this would lead John to work on his own instruments. Early efforts were with staved didgeridoos, assembled from straight pieces of wood. The idea was to create an easily reproducible quality instrument, rather than counting on the whims of how a tree might grow or how the termites might hollow it.

While he found success on one level, having created some great playing instruments, he knew something was missing, which left the instruments a bit unsatisfying. By creating reproducible instruments based on a standard process, all the soul was being lost, along with all the joy and surprise that comes from unique, individually created instruments influenced by the shape nature gave them.

Over time, Joyous Noise gradually got away from actively importing Australian instruments, choosing to only do so occasionally, and through direct channels to available individual craftsmen such as Djalu' Gurruwiwi, rather than dealing with the host of middlemen in the business. John continued making his own instruments, now working with the more natural and ever-present agave.

It so happened that John's family was moving at the time, away from the suburbs and onto their own property, conveniently filled with trees of many kinds and ages. So it didn't take long for him to do the same thing that he had seen Djalu' do -- venture into his own natural environment, collect and bring home suitable wood, and then work with it to create unique high quality instruments inspired by natural shapes. They are also inspired by his years of experience with heaps of imported instruments and the character of the Yolngu yirdaki made most often today, meaning long, conical instruments that are usually of a relatively high pitch of D and above. In tribute to the inspiration, John has named the instruments "Balan'daki," an original contraction of "Balanda," a word based on "Hollander" that is used widely in Arnhem Land to refer to non-Aboriginals, and "yirdaki." The name is to make it clear that these are absolutely not traditional instruments, but do have have their roots in and find their inpiration from traditional forms.

Despite a lot of fantastic work being done by the new batch of didj craftsmen in the USA who all deserve lots of credit, one of John's Balan'daki is the only American-made hardwood didgeridoo that has made its way into my household so far. It has been admired by everyone who has seen and played it. John Madill's putting out some quality work that deserves to be sought after and held in esteem along with the better known contemporary non-Aboriginal Australian craftsmen. If you're looking for a contemporary hybrid didgeridoo, check'em out.