Staff

Drum Specialists

Nick Pansini
Nick is a professional drummer with over 30 years of experience and has been in the retail industry for over 20 years, our department manager for Drum Factory. As a professional drummer Nick has toured both domestically and internationally, and has recorded with many different artists during this time. He has an extensive understanding about the mechanics of drums and percussion due to his experience from playing, building and repair work. If you're into anything drum related - trust us, Nick is the person you'll want to speak to.

Stefan Upton
Stef is instantly recognisable by his charming British accent and exceptionally friendly demeanour. A member of our team for a couple of years now, Stef is a multi-instrumentalist and comes to us with many years of experience spent at similar retail stores in Sydney,

Pete Kostic
Pete comes to us as Australian rock royalty, the only staff member of our entire business crew with his own wikipedia page....... To quote said page: "Kostic joined Regurgitator in 1999 after its original drummer left. He has also been a member of Hard-Ons, Front End Loader, Kryptonics, Dead Boss and Vicious Hairy Mary."

Not bad, aye? Pete's also earned his stripes working for many percussion institutions around Sydney over many years, so you know you're in the safe hands of a seasoned pro.

Lachlan Pollard
If you typed "tall dude who loves drums, and slayer" into an AI image generator, it'd probably look a lot like Lachlan. He's young, avidly into classic heavy metal - and most importantly, drums.

 

 Guitar Factory Australia Management

Lewis Mallia - Owner
Owner of over 35 years and company director, Lewis is the glue that holds our store together. Our most universally knowledgable team member, Lewis was actually responsible for Drum Factories earliest form, when Guitar Factory had never sold percussion products at all.

He then spearheaded the opening and management of our separate professional audio store "Sound Devices" over in its old Sussex Street, Sydney CBD location for over 20 years.

Lewis is just as at-home talking about boutique guitars, designing or servicing valve guitar amplifiers and even blazing through a piano solo on a Rhodes.

Dylan Mallia - General Manager
Lewis's eldest son Dylan has been with us in both Guitar Factory and Sound Devices for over 15 years now, from enthusiastic beginnings working every Saturday while in high school, to juggling days between university classes and then eventually, full time.

He holds a Bachelor of Music degree (majoring in audio engineering) from the Australian Institute of Music, and currently oversees many areas of our business ranging from general sales, social media content, online order fulfilment and website maintenance, supplier relations and inventory management.

Often our ambassador at overseas trade shows, such as the annual winter NAMM show in Los Angeles - Dylan has personally visited the factories of ESP Japan & USA, Schecter U.S.A, Suhr, D'Addario, Pro Mark, Evans and Meinl Cymbals. He enjoys keeping our finger on the pulse of what is new and worth looking at within our constantly evolving industry.

If you're placing an order with any of our three websites, Dylan is checking it over and putting it in the queue to go out to you as fast as possible.

Wesley - CFO
The responsible overseer of the nitty gritty stuff - our CFO of many years now and often also heavily involved in website operations, communicating with suppliers and generally making sure the world keeps spinning.

Craig - Dispatch Supervisor
Craig is a veteran of our store, having been with us the longest out of any staff member. He vigilantly oversees our stock management and shipping, our store grinds to a halt fairly quickly without him working behind the scenes every day. He's responsible for your orders reaching you safely, time after time.