Unique, gifted, esoteric, outspoken, bizarre, prolific and excessively productive are some of the words that could used to describe the late, great and universally respected musician the world knows as Frank Zappa. His passing in late 1993 left behind a lot of musical innovation, proving how far he sometimes pushed the envelope without being pretentious. His legacy and body of work borders on staggering, generally tinged with a sardonic wit that gave authority figures a serving of unrelentingly defiant commentary. That even occurred literally with an address to the US Senate when the ridiculous politically fuelled PMRC tried to censor music in the mid eighties. Further driven to what some might regard as workaholic perfectionism as a producer, musical director and performing artist, he was celebrated with numerous awards after his untimely death.
Frank’s prowess on the guitar appears to have some hereditary qualities as his second son, Dweezil Zappa is an accomplished musician and guitarist himself. Having released primarily instrumental solo albums sporadically with no shortage of guitar histrionics and a strong sense of musical arranging skills, he has also successfully explored other media avenues such as ongoing television host roles and session guitar work. Taking on the daunting task of cataloguing, over-seeing remastering and now replicating the sounds of his father’s music, Dweezil recently gathered some of Frank’s more celebrated band mates including Ray White, drummer extraordinaire Terry Bozzio and guitar guru Steve Vai to resurrect some of Frank’s works with truly mind bendingly musical performances.
When the ‘Zappa Plays Zappa’ tour hits Australian shores, audiences will be reminded from the virtuoso performances that there really are not many people that can do that on stage anymore. Australian Guitar’s Paul Southwell recently spoke to Dweezil via phone from his studio in California around the time the tour was announced.
AG: You are turning up in Australia with Steve Vai and playing your father’s music. The amount of material is massive. Will you be playing any of your music as well?
DZ: No, it’s only Frank’s music. The real challenge of this is to do it properly and what I’ve had to do before I even put the band together was do a lot of studying on my own and made some drastic changes to my own guitar playing because what I wanted to do was play some of the melody lines that were written for other instruments on guitar. There are things that were written for keyboards or marimba and I wanted to be able to play them on the guitar along with those instruments. So, in order to do that I really had to make some crazy changes to my physical playing and also to my mental approach to playing. I had to do all of that before I even put the band together just to make sure it was possible to do it the right way. So, that took two years (laughs). Then I put the band together and once I was confident I could do what I wanted to do I knew it was just a matter of finding other people that were up to the challenge. Choosing the material ranged on particular favourites of mine to knowing other particular fan favourites but also, really trying to represent what makes Frank different as a composer, as a guitarist, as a record producer and all of these things. What I was really trying to establish was letting Frank’s music speak for itself and re-educating people because really, through under exposure, people have all sorts of weird impressions of what Frank was really about and a lot of his greatest achievements are overlooked or completely undiscovered.
AG: What’s the possibility of more unpublished material being released?
DZ: Well, there are things that exist in the vault that still haven’t been heard, we haven’t even had a chance to archive some tapes. But in recent years we’ve put out some things that hadn’t been heard by the fan base other than an original one-time performance of something that got debuted at a certain point. One song that comes to mind like that is a song called ‘Imaginary Diseases’ which was probably in 1972 or 1973 when this song was performed but on maybe one or two occasions so it would have only been those audiences that would have seen it but it was not on any record until we put it out a few years ago with a few other things. So, ostensibly it could be considered a new song because it really hadn’t been heard by anybody.
AG: I suppose there will be diehards that quibble with their interpretations of that.
DZ: It was an actual live recording of that performance or one of the performances of it from a long time ago. But then, you know, as we play some of this stuff on stage, things that are unfamiliar to people, well, they assume is me sticking in one of my own songs. That’s what I see on chat sites and stuff so it’s kind of funny to me when we’ll play a rarely played song of Frank’s and they’ll say, ‘oh yeah, that’s just one of Dweezil’s compositions’ and in fact, it is not (laughs).
AG: How has the ‘Zappa Plays Zappa’ tour gone for places such as Europe?
DZ: We started off in Europe and last year and then we played in America. By all rational thinking, if you were to look at receipts from years gone by in terms of where Frank sold the most records and did the most business, it was sixty percent in Europe and forty percent in America. So, he was a little bit better understood and appreciated in Europe throughout his career. But, we found that when we did this tour it was pretty much equal but with perhaps even a little bit more enthusiasm in America than in Europe the first time around. We are about to head back to Europe and we’ll see if that has changed at all and see if the enthusiasm is more effusive on the European side.Overall there just seems to be a lot of people that are very thankful that they’re getting an opportunity to hear the music again and in many cases, for the first time which is also a big goal of mine; to expose newer and younger people to his music.
AG: You’re not going to replicate the Cheech and Chong era interludes? Some of the ‘Mothers’ live material had sections of solos with talking over them.
DZ: There’s definitely some musical skits that happened on some of those records and we have done a small a mount of that so far. I’ve been concentrating on orchestral things that we’re doing this year as well as a lot of the things that really show off what makes him different as a composer. That can range from all different styles of things from guitar instrumentals through to fully orchestrated songs or compositions that have multiple styles all inclusive. I mean, it is hard to categorise any of Frank’s music, it is really its own thing.
AG: Not being able to categorise it is probably what is so good about it.
DZ: Yeah, it is a remarkable accomplishment when you consider how many records have been made in the world and really (laughs) nothing sounds like Frank’s music.
AG: Playing guitar live with Frank, was that often documented?
DZ: A few times and it’s been released on certain records and the most recent one was actually a compendium of guitar solos, similar to the series [of albums] that he made in the eighties called ‘Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar’ but this newer one came out called ‘Transfusion’ and is a collection of guitar solos. I’ve played on one or two of the tracks on the record.
AZ: What sort of guitars are you using? I’m guessing it would be a lot of SGs and Strats for this tour.
DZ: I’m trying to use stuff that is similar to what Frank would have used to create certain sounds up to a degree. What I mean by that is that his guitars all had electronics built into them that were usually parametric equalizers on through to certain distortion devices or octave type devices built into the guitar. I actually am using pedals and specially designed boxes to get that rather than have it built into the guitar because of the way that stuff was designed in his guitars. His guitars have 18db more output than a normal guitar so it crushes the front end of most amplifiers. So, you really have to use amplifiers in a different way and if you like the sound of a particular amplifier you may not be able to use that amplifier that way and use a guitar with that kind of stuff in it because it just can’t handle the output. So, recreating the guitar parts is a challenge. But to at least dress the part, I use a Gibson SG and a couple of Fender Stratocasters on the tour to create the right sense of what things are. People are always asking me if the SG I’m playing is the one from ‘The Roxy’ but it’s not. It’s just a guitar that is meant to look a bit like that to give the illusion (laughs).
AG: Any modifications on them?
DZ: Nope, the SG I’m playing is a standard model straight from the factory. I didn’t have any real changes made to it. But one of the Strats I’m playing is a sixties relic Strat but I put in Eric Johnson pickups in it and a five-way switch instead of a three-way which is the only change made to that guitar. One of the other guitars I’m playing is another Strat that has lipstick pickups in it that are these Chandler pickups. That’s the main three guitars for this tour.
AG: Are the amplifiers Marshalls?
DZ: No, I’ve never been able to find Marshalls that work for me. I like the sound of them but they are either too loud or lacking some other element of detail that works for my playing. So, on this tour I’m using Fuques amplifiers and two different Fender amplifiers. I have a pretty expensive guitar rig that is pretty wild.
AG: For Frank Zappa music there’d be a few effects in that rig.
DZ: There are a few effects that can be used. I don’t constantly have tonnes of effects on. In terms of digital effects, I have an Eventide Orville that has every effect you could ever need. You know, reverbs and modulation and delays and all types of things. I also have a TC2290 delay and then the rest of the things that are in the rack, of which there are many, are different distortions plus there’s a flanger pedal and some other modulation thing that kind of sounds like a really wide crazy vibrato sound. Then, the other thing that makes the rack very useful is this thing called a ‘Switchblade’ which makes it possible to create presets that have the effects chained differently. So, you don’t have to always have your stuff set up or routed the same way so you can put different effects in front of each other and it will be stored as a preset. That’s very helpful ‘cos you can have all sorts of impedance mis-matches in your signal if you’re putting effects in the wrong spot so this helps alleviate that situation.
AG: Do you find yourself being self conscious playing on stage with Steve Vai?
DZ: No, ‘cos it’s a really nice contrast. His style versus my style and what the band is able to do, in terms of all of the colours and textures within the music. What is cool about having Steve play with us when he does play with us is that it is a bit of a retreat back to the early stages of his career and what really had him inspired to be a musician and a guitar player. Frank was very much an inspiration to him and so it is kind of going back to his roots. He is playing things that as much more structured except in the obvious areas where it is improvised. So it is nice to hear him play Frank’s music.
AG: With you being the band leader, do you have to bark out orders much?
DZ: Ahh, there comes a time (laughs). But usually everybody is very well motivated and it is a big responsibility to play this music. So, you have to really be responsible for everything yourself in terms of maintaining what is necessary in your instruments and in your actual knowledge of what you’re playing. We play for three hours and there are a lot of compositions that have a lot of notes and to play them accurately requires a lot of concentration and a lot of rehearsal.
Adopting Franks Experimental Techniques – Dweezil’s Garage
Playing music live that was written by your father with luminaries of the music world that also worked with your father must be a surreal experience. When that father is the late Frank Zappa, the demanding nature of the material will heighten the emotional impact of the performance. Given the huge scale of the material’s complexity together with an anticipated show of three hours duration, how does Dweezil comprehend it whilst entertaining the audience and enjoy playing the set at the same time?
AG: I can imagine preparation is intense. Are there particular highlights in the set list?
DZ: For me everything is a highlight. Frank’s own compositional achievements continue to inspire and amaze me but to actually be playing these things that seem inhumane is a real testament to the commitment the band has and desire to do this in the most respectful way possible. So we’re playing things like ‘G-spot Tornado’ which is a really treacherous thing to play. There’s about four thousand notes in the song (laughs) and some of them are extremely fast. That is definitely a highlight. There are some other things within the show that, you know, certain things that happen that because I have a connection to the music, there’s times when I don’t even feel like I’m necessarily playing as much as channeling things. We play ‘Yo Mama’ and that has this guitar solo that Frank played but the thing about it is that it was constructed using ‘xenochrony’; a phrase he created which that means that he would take two different items that are unrelated and synchronise them to make them something else. So a guitar solo that was sort of the bastard child from something else was placed over another composition rhythm section creating a new rhythm section. The thing about it was it was making a composition or making something happen that didn’t exist in nature. A weird combination of things but, in any case, that song has about a twelve minute guitar solo and I learned a lot of quotes from the solo and I play this solo and we re-create the thing that never happened in a live situation. Frank didn’t go about doing that when they played the song other than that version that exists on the ‘Sheik Yerbouti’ record. To recreate it, it is the chord progression and everything…there is something about it that just has this epic sense and sometimes I can just sucked into the emotion of the thing and that tends to be a highlight for my own personal experience.
AG: That’s understandable. The mind boggles on trying to play that stuff.
DZ: Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. There are really not many songs of Frank’s that you would be able to consider easy. They are mostly moderately hard to impossible.
Replicating Frank Era Instrumentation – A Mother of Re-Invention?
One of the more sublime aspects of Frank’s creativity was his studio experimentation and desire to create newly captivating sonic textures within that idiom. Sometimes his works were done without any intent of being replicated live. As a result of his ongoing legacy, some pieces have, over time, ascended on the Zappa-head listener wish-lists. Thus, the enormity of Dweezil’s noble tribute project appears to have escalated somewhat.
AG: How much of the engineering side do you get into [for ‘Zappa Plays Zappa’]?
DZ: Ah, one hundred percent (laughs). It’s crazy, there’s so much to be done. Learning the songs is one thing but, and this is a really important thing for me, I want people to be able to hear Frank’s music in the most realistic way possible and with all of his best intentions within the music. A lot of my favourite things about some of his music comes from the nuances of actual recordings. So to play the song is one thing but to play it and to make it sound like the recording is another. That really makes it sound like, ‘This is Frank’s music’ to me. The music itself has its own longevity and always sounds contemporary. I’m not trying to change arrangements and use sounds that make it sound like it’s a modern band playing this stuff. We actually try, if say it’s a song recorded in the sixties and it has a particular sound to it, we try to recreate those exact sounds from the keyboard, guitar sounds and everything. It’s really a musical time machine and that goes on up through whatever period that we’re learning music from. We try to create the textures from that era because to me those details are every bit as important as the notes and the song itself.
AG: Surely there’d be certain pieces of vintage equipment that you wouldn’t want to take out on the road.
DZ: Well, yeah and that’s where we have to have little workarounds and create different things to get in the ballpark. Some things we have spot-on identical and some things are just as close as we can get them, based on the gear that we’re using. But, you’ve got to realise that Frank never tried to recreate any of that stuff. It was not part of his thought process because he was constantly evolving and the arrangements would change for every tour and he wasn’t interested in going backwards, he was interested in going forwards. But, the difference for me is that the music no longer needs to continue to evolve. Frank can’t make it evolve any further and it’s not up to me or anybody else to make it evolve. It is to tell the story properly using all of the ingredients that make it what it is and that’s the only way that Frank’s music is going to go into the future unadulterated and having all of the elements necessary to show what he did to make his music. It’s not about me; it’s about Frank’s music. Some people sometimes miss the point and they think, ‘oh well, you should go out there and do it, make it your own and change it’ but there’s no point in me doing that whatsoever.