David O’Neal - Rising Moon Flutes
David O’Neal is a talented Native American Flute maker from Raleigh, North Carolina. With 20 years experience in this craft, David produces fine quality instruments that have a warm and soothing sound. He spent his youth in Houston Texas, as his father worked in the space program as a NASA Engineer. Persuaded to follow in his father’s footsteps, David eventually earned a degree Electrical Engineering. Working in for a startup company at a local industrial park, he soon realized that this type of work was not for him. He began to listen to Native American flute music to escape the tedious work as an engineer. He decided to take this one step further and attempt to make the flutes that he enjoyed listening to. He built a standalone workshop in his backyard, quit his engineering job and never looked back. Today he has made thousands of flutes and has a thriving business. He pays attention to detail and used the finest quality woods. His delicate inlay work gives a high visual impact to the musical instruments as well. I recently spoke with David about the evolution of his craft.
R.V.B. – Hello David… Robert von Bernewitz from Long Island… how are you?
D.O. – I’m good… how are you Rob?
R.V.B. – I’m doing good… excuse my bad Long Island accent.
D.O. – I like your accent. (Hahaha)
R.V.B. – (Hahaha) You have one too. Congratulations on your career and your craft. You make beautiful instruments.
D.O. – Thank you.
R.V.B. – How did you get started in this? What drove you to the Native American flute?
D.O. – I used to be an Electrical Engineer. About a little over 20 years ago, I was with a startup company here in Research Triangle Park. There was five of us in a basement… all jammed together. We were working crazy hours. There was a lot of tension… we were about to run out of money and all that kind of stuff. To calm down at work, I got headphones and started cruising for some calming music. I found the Native American flute. I was just trying to remain calm at work. From there… I heard it was easy to play. I ran across a guy who made a few and then he showed me how to make them. Then I got more and more serious about it. I decided over the years, I’m getting out of engineering. (Hahaha)
R.V.B. – Did you have a wood shop in your house to begin with?
D.O. – No. I had been doing some woodwork before, but didn’t have a shop. I was doing it in the garage and outside. As I got more serious about it I built a detached shop… at home in the back yard.
R.V.B. – Did you have a trial and error period of learning how to make them?
D.O. - For three years, I was trying different ways of making them, and also trying to perfect the sound that I was looking for… it’s a clear beltone quality flute, perfectly tuned. It took a few years of trial and error and perfecting my skills, and getting the right equipment.
R.V.B. - What kind of wood do you use on your flutes? Do you mix it up and try different things?
D.O. – I mix it up all the time. I get some wood local. I get a lot of wood shipped in from the west coast… Oregon… California. I use some exotic woods from Asia… South America… Africa…
R.V.B. – Is it like a 4 by 4? What size piece of wood do you start with?
D.O. – It depends. For example, in the shop right now, I got to have it 2” thick. I’ve got a lot of curly maple here that is 12” wide… 2” thick and 10’ tall. Sometimes when I get some exotic burls, they may be up to a couple of feet and in a roundish shape. It depends on what I can find.
R.V.B. – Do flutes differ with different Native American tribes?
D.O. – The design was similar. The sound mechanism is about the same but the material would change depending on the region. The Southeastern Indians would use a lot of river cane. It’s a native bamboo that’s already hollowed out. Towards the Mid West and the West, they would use tree limbs. They used soft wood back then because they needed something soft to work with. Nothing was completely standardized. The looks would vary and the number of holes would vary. The tuning is whatever the maker thought sounded good to him.
R.V.B. – I gather that you put the holes at different positions to achieve different keys.
D.O. – Correct! For instance, when I’m going to go for a G flute, I need to bore it out with a 7/8ths bit. I’ve got a template on where to put the finger holes. The flute can then play the traditional pentatonic scale plus the full chromatic scale. The position on the holes to get the cross notes for the chromatic scale is critical. I have templates for every key for where to put the holes.
R.V.B. – Is there a difference between a Native American flute and a recorder?
D.O. – These are a lot like a recorder, in that the player only has to blow into it. The sound mechanism thins the air and focuses it on the edge. With a silver flute, you’ve got to do that with your mouth. Why it’s called a flute… I’m not sure. There are a lot of different kinds of flutes with different sound mechanisms. They just seem to be lumped together as flutes
R.V.B. – Did you ever try to make a recorder?
D.O. – No… I like the sound of the flute a lot better. It’s got a mellow, sort of melancholy sound to it.
R.V.B. – So as far as artistic design, Do you take orders on a specific design or does the flute just happen to come out by the natural beauty of the wood you’re working with?
D.O. – I do it both ways. I will put flutes on line that I think looks good. I also have people surfing my online gallery and they will pick out designs and woods, and then place an order that way. Right now I’m selling by word of mouth. Up until this year, I was going to art festivals all over the country. When I did that I had to make a lot of flutes to have in my art booth.
R.V.B. – You don’t want to be caught empty handed when you travel.
D.O. – I have to have the different keys and the different choices in the keys.
R.V.B. – You have the ornamental pieces that cover the sound hole. Do you carve some of those pieces?
D.O. – That piece on the top that is tied on, is the top of the sound mechanism. It’s functional in that if it’s off the flute, you won’t hear anything. The Native Americans would traditionally carve figures such as an animal. Sometimes they would have a simple block. I like to take it in a different direction and make it a little artsy with some unique stones and shells.
R.V.B. – Do you have any noteworthy flutist customers?
D.O. – I had a Native American flute player named Jan Michael Looking Wolf. He’s pretty well known. In the contemporary arena… I was at an art show in Charlottesville Virginia and ended up selling quite a few flutes to Boyd Tinsley… the violinist for The Dave Matthews Band.
R.V.B. – Approximately how many flutes do you make a year?
D.O. – Probably in the neighborhood of two to three hundred.
R.V.B. – Wow! How long does it take to complete a flute from start to finish?
D.O. – It depends on how decorative it is. The fanciest flute with burl woods and multiple inlays from start to finish would probably take me a week.
R.V.B. – That’s relatively fast.
D.O. – The simple ones are a lot quicker. I usually batch flutes up. I’ll get a batch going and bore them all out. It speeds things up to do one task at a time with multiple pieces. Sometimes when I get a custom order – and they need it fast – I’ll just do it from start to finish.
R.V.B. - Do you have different finishes that you use?
D.O. – I use one finish. It’s a salad bowl finish. It’s a finish that’s used for cooking utensils, salad bowls and kids toys. It’s made to go in your mouth. You don’t want to worry about toxicity and putting things in your mouth.
R.V.B. – I can see that. So this sure beats electrical engineering.
D.O. – It sure does. (Hahaha) I went into engineering because my dad was a NASA engineer. We lived in Houston… we moved there when the Space center just opened. He was in charge of testing the lunar lander, so he would fly out to Long Island quite often to talk and work with people at Grumman.
R.V.B. – My father retired from Grumman.
D.O. – Did he work in the space project?
R.V.B. He worked in Technical Specifications and wrote up different manufacturing procedures. He did worked on the LEM project. He passed away. I have all his papers, plaques and rings of service from the space project.
D.O. – My dad passed away also. That’s how I got the name Rising Moon Flute Company. It was a nod towards my dad.
R.V.B. – Oh, very interesting.
D.O. – He had a long career with NASA. He pushed my brother and I pretty forcefully to go into engineering. It wasn’t really a good fit for me and I wasn’t really interested in it. The field provided for my family for a while but I never really liked it. When I was working all those crazy hours with the startup company I thought “You know??? This is not really doing anything for me.” The flute making was a hobby at first but I got more serious about it when I saw it as an escape from corporate America.
R.V.B. – I was in the electronics field myself for awhile. We worked on government defense contracts and made waveguide switches for planes, satellites, ships, and other military and commercial uses. My father went to Florida a few times and met a few of the astronauts.
D.O. – When we were kids, we lived in a suburb of Houston… in Seabrook. All of the original astronauts lived in our neighborhood. In the early ‘60s, the news crews would come to the neighborhood and all of us kids would ride our bicycles around the astronaut’s houses to see what was going on.
R.V.B. – I met one of the original astronauts… Scott Carpenter.
D.O. – I was in Cub Scouts with Grissom’s son. He was the one that died in the fire. It was an interesting time because NASA had just located there. At the time, Texas was just oil wells and cattle fields. It all changed quickly. In the 1st grade, you could identify the local kids because they were barefoot. All of the NASA kids wore shoes.
R.V.B. – (Haha) They were cowboys.
D.O. – They were back then.
R.V.B. – It was a pleasure learning about your business and craft. You’re very creative! Keep up the good work.
D.O. – I appreciate your interest. Thank you so much.
Interview conducted by Robert von Bernewitz
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For more information on Rising Moon Flutes visit their website. https://www.risingmoonflutes.com/
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