Marko Johnson, Originator of the Didjbox, Leather Didgeridoos, and Dyed Rawhide Drums
Sometime in the mid-90s, alongside the rise of globalization and the Internet, the Australian didgeridoo became an international phenomenon. These days “didgeridoo”—whether you spell it didjeridu, didge, yidaki or any other variation—will turn up thousands of websites describing a seemingly simple hollow tube that, when joined with the player’s breath and buzzing lips, produces a resonant drone. Some early enthusiasts sought out authentic instruments from renown aboriginal masters while others, like Marko Johnson, experimented with local materials to make their own. Marko was the first to make a didgeridoo with leather. He also holds US patent (#6664454) for the Didjbox, a compact didgeridoo. Although the patent has since expired, its existence establishes the fact that Marko originated the idea for a compact didgeridoo.
Marko first encountered the Australian didgeridoo September 21st, 1993, when a fellow artist from New Mexico passed through Salt Lake City with two instruments in hand. One of these instruments was a termite-hollowed, Australian Aboriginal crafted, eucalyptus yidaki. The other was an American rendition—an agave stalk coated with epoxy resin and trimmed with copper foil. Although Marko knew of the didgeridoo as a concept, he had no notion of its shape, its sound, or how to play it. Nevertheless, he managed a short drone and a yelp on the yidaki and was hooked. Neither of these instruments were for sale, but Marko’s studio was in the mode of creating dyed, rawhide drums and other primitive instruments and so was stocked with suitable materials for a rough and ready didgeridoo. With his friend’s help he transformed a length of bamboo into a serviceable instrument. The didgeridoo has been his inspiration and creative focus ever since.
Leather Didgeridoos
Over the next three years (1993-1996), Marko made instruments out of PVC, split and routed pine, staved wood of all sorts, foraged aspen trees and agave searching for the right material. Given his experience using rawhide to make drums, he began investigating its suitability for didgeridoos in 1997. While the rawhide did not produce the sound quality he desired, the attempt made it clear that almost any material—if sealed properly—had the potential to become the foundation for a quality instrument. In 1998 he turned to canvas and leather. Canvas produced a bold sound but its rigidity limited the shapes he could make. Leather, twenty years prior, had launched his career as a craftsman. He pulled a thin, oak-tanned hide from his stash, joined its sides with a sewing machine to form a tube, then sealed the tube with epoxy. While wet and saturated with resin the hide became malleable as clay and allowed Marko to manipulate the tube to match the subtle curves of an agave didgeridoo.
In 2001 he found that 1/4″ cowhide saddle skirting produced a bold sound that he had never experienced in any other didgeridoo. When hand-stitched, this material produced a uniformly round tube and once saturated with resin gave him total control over an instrument’s shape and surface design. Rather than rely on traditional methods of tooling and dying leather, he developed unconventional techniques to alter the surfaced of the material and began to mold faces and shapes into the forms.
He volunteered a didgeridoo made from this material for the Wandering Didj Project II.
The Didjbox
In 1995, in the midst of his materials research, Marko began exploring the feasibility of a compact instrument—a “didjbox.” He compressed a full-length didgeridoo into a square block of wood (12″ x 12″ x 2″), by splitting it in half and routing 5 channels side by side, connecting them top and bottom and extended the ends out to form mouthpiece for the breath at the top an exit for sound at the bottom. Marko knew he was on to something big but set the idea aside to focus on creating his best full-sized didgeridoo. A few close friends and family were aware of his work but he was always secretive about the details and never consulted anyone about the design.
Marko bought his first computer in 1997 and soon joined the Dreamtime list-serve (the “Didjlist”) hosted by Mills College in Oakland, Ca. Initiated in 1994, this list-serve offered a didgeridoo-centric forum to connect players, makers, and enthusiasts around the world. For two years, while participating in the discussions and making friends, he watched for anyone who had a similar inspiration for a compact didgeridoo and saw nothing.
That same year Marko turned his creative energies toward the Didjbox, experimenting with different wood, methods, and designs. The 3-Channeled “Longbox” (2″ x 2″ x 20″) was the first design to meet his playability requirements. The 9-channeled “Bookdidj” tested the limits of how small a didgeridoo could be. The 5-channeled “Traveller” presented a reasonable compromise between these extremes. He chose cedar for the material. Satisfied with his design and originality of concept he applied for a US patent June 30, 1999. The next day, July 1, 1999, Marko sent samples to influential Didjlisters (Ed Drury in Oregon, Dave Crowder in Colorado, John Madill in Maryland, Peter Lister in Australia, Rasta Robert in the Netherlands, Brandi Chase in California). He launched a product website and announced on the forum, “I have a miniaturized version of a didgeridoo for sale at Didjbox.com!” A chronological list of all Didjbox related sites evolve directly from these declarations.
In 2 years, Didjboxes and Didjflutes found buyers in 20 states in the USA and in 8 countries. While Marko fulfilled these orders and waited for confirmation from the US Patent Office, he continued to refine and explore the Didjbox’s possibilities. Insights from his customers’ feedback and inspiration from the annual didgeridoo gathering in Joshua Tree informed his work. To improve sound quality (as compared to a full-length didgeridoo) he lengthened the Longbox design to 24″ and tapered the channels from 2″ to 3″ from mouthpiece to exit. The resulting bell-shaped “Obelisk” improved sound quality and projection. Additionally, Marko discovered that holes drilled to intersect the channels at strategic points allowed the player to change the instrument’s key on the fly. With a root note C and four holes placed within comfortable reach of the fingers, each hole uncovered would sound D, E, F, and G respectively. The “Didjflute” emerged as the first tunable didjeridoo with no moving parts.
In 2001 Marko explored a sculptural design he called the “Didjhorn.” That same year he created a two-part silicon mold from a hand carved Didjflute and a second design he named the “Blowfish” to cast polyurethane instruments. Unsatisfied with the making process and the available materials he discontinued his investigations in this direction in the long run, but proved the instrument’s potential for mass production in the process. He authorized The Didgeridoo Store of Los Angeles to produce cedar and molded plastic Didjflutes that year. In 2002, with the Peter Spoecker’s help, Marko invested in a scheme to have the Obelisk Didjbox and Didjflutes mass produced in India through Tribal Earth.
After the 2003 Joshua Tree Didgeridoo Festival Marko redesigned the Didjbox again—this time with different materials and for a different objective. The 12-14-inch, tapered 5-channel “Meditator” offered a centered sound exit. Made from mahogany and weighing less than a pound these great-sounding instruments were inexpensive to ship anywhere in the world.
The simple fact that loosely vibrating lips produced the sound—and no other mechanism seemed to stump the US Patent Office. After clearing up two arguments concerning the vibrating reed in a clarinet and prongs in a harmonica, December 16, 2003, the agency granted Marko a patent for the Didjbox (Search 6664454).
In the years following, Marko continued to make and sell leather didgeridoos, rawhide drums, and Didjboxes. In 2005, he was invited to perform at the Swizzeridoo Festival in Switzerland. During this event he conducted an interview with Dideridoo Magazine and met legendary didgeridoo players Willy Grimm and Ondrej Smykal. Marko found Smykal’s playing so impressive that he urged the artist to travel to the U.S. and perform at the didgeridoo festivals in California and Oregon. Smykal followed this prompting a couple of years later. Marko hosted Smykal, alongside Steven Kent and Chad Butler at a concert he organized in Salt Lake City in 2007.
In 2012, Bali Treasures, a large musical instrument manufacturing company from Indonesia, contacted Marko with an offer to produce his Didjbox designs for the German firm Meinl Percussion who planned to market them world-wide. Marko agreed to this arrangement in exchange for a small percentage of every Didjbox sold. After several years of correspondence with the manufacturer to resolve specifications and logistics, they settled on the Micro and the Mindblower (stereo didjbox) designs. In the United States, Meinl began marketing these designs through the Guitar Center as a new and unique instrument. Marko soon discovered the difficulty of selling hand-made versions that could compete against the mass-produced and globalized version of his creation! When Bali Treasures requested another design Marko sent them what he believed was his best design yet: the Meditator, a Didjbox with a mouthpiece centered at the top and a triangular sound port centered at the bottom. Once satisfied with the products he could receive from the manufacturer he stopped crafting Didjboxes by hand except to explore the occasional new idea, material, or technology. In 2015 he produced a viable Didjbox on a 3D printer but decided not to pursue it.
On July 1, 2019 Marko’s patent expired. The next day he received word that a second Indonesian company had begun producing, wholesaling, and distributing a Micro Didjbox clone. Marko knew this outcome was inevitable but also desirable. In fact, he could not be more proud of his legacy.
Marko’s designs aimed to create the smallest possible instrument that could still produce a large sound. When he landed on the idea for the Didjbox he had no doubt the idea would catch on. His explorations also made him well-aware of the unlimited possibilities might emerge from this simple design and that any didgeridoo that was not a basic, straight tube and that whoever ever followed would originate from his idea. He also realized that the U.S. patent could only protected his idea within its borders, whereas a compact didgeridoo would have world-wide appeal. It would, within a matter of time, be recreated by anyone with basic woodworking skills. When John Macdonald of Didgeridoo Magazine questioned Marko about the copy-ability and the future of the Didjbox in 2005, he replied:
I believe the Didjbox concept is bound to leave a mark on the history of musical instrument design. The surface has only been scratched as to the design and application of the Didjbox as a musical toy to a precision sound therapy instrument. A do it yourself craft project kit to a sculptural installation. I can envision very specific Didjbox designs for specific applications being developed in the future.
The patent’s existence establishes the valid and provable fact that Marko was the originator of the compact didgeridoo. His idea has influenced and inspired others around the world to create compact didgeridoos. As of 2022, amateurs and manufacturers around the world are producing new and incredible versions of the compact didgeridoo. Marko anticipates many innovations to come.
For decades Marko has sold his works direct, wholesale, and at the Park City Arts Festival. He also participated in Utah artist-owned, co-op galleries in downtown Salt Lake City and on Main Street in Park City. These days, Marko continues to make and sell leather didgeridoos, rawhide drums, and sell Didjboxes—online and by consignment.