A BOY NAMED DWEEZIL



(an old picture, but I like it)

As you will see in the coming issue of the New Times, Dweezil Zappa is embarking on a tour playing only songs by his late father, the musical genius Frank Zappa. It comes to town on Sunday, December 10.

It was really fun to call him up and say, "Hi, may I speak to Dweezil?" I could only fit about two sentences in the print edition of the paper, so here's our interview in its entirety. Enjoy!

Hi, can I speak to Dweezil, please?
Who’s calling?

Deirdra from the New Times in Florida.
Yeah, this is Dweezil.

Do you have time to talk now?
Yep.

Where are you?
At my studio in L.A.

Have you started playing shows yet?
Yeah, we started in May, in Europe, and then did a short US tour, took a little break , learned some more songs and went out again. A couple of weeks ago we finished, and we’re going again in couple weeks to do more touring. Next year we’re gonna do about 100 concerts.

Awesome. Tell me about the reception so far. Who’s showing up? A lot of your dad’s fans?
I’ve been curious to see how it would change. Originally I figured it would be the core fans and then maybe them bringing their kids, and maybe college-age kids. And it kind of is a bit like that, but there have been certain places where the crowd has been younger than expected – and the two places that surprised me the most were Norway and Montreal.

There are a lot of guitar-god fans in Norway, right?
The thing is, Frank’s music definitely has some guitar stuff in it but it’s beyond the sort of guitar pyrotechnics. He was really a composer who used a rock band as his orchestra. And while there is a lot of guitar solo stuff and guitar parts, and Steve Vai has been playing at a lot of concerts as well, it goes beyond that. It’s actually been interesting to see where the pockets of the young people are. I’d like to see it where it’s an equal mix of the core fans and new, young fans. Each time I’ve seen really young kids, it’s been fun for me. It reminds me of when I was little and I would see Frank and his band, and how amazing it seemed and how impossible it seemed. So kids who are 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years old – I’ve seen that, kids with their parents in the front row, and that’s been really fun. I think it really changes your perspective of what music is and what it can be when you see something like that at an early age.

So you have new album of all your own songs – but the tour is all your dad’s songs.
Right.

Isn’t that weird? Don’t you usually make an album and then go on tour to play it?
Well the thing is that I’ve never really tried to create a big career out of just playing and making my own records necessarily. I’ve done all kinds of different things. I like making my own music, but touring – unless youre doing it in a way that is fairly comfortable, it’s exhausting and its not that much fun. But when we’re playing Frank’s music, we’re extremely energized by the music. It’s not about getting people to accept new material, as it would be with my own record – and we’d be playing to an entirely different kind of fan base. But making the record was something I just did for fun, and if people are interested in it as a result of the tour, that’s good as well.

So are you doing this to promote your dad’s legacy, as a tribute?
The thing to me is that I think Frank’s music has been overlooked by several generations and I’d like it to be more readily available and well-known to the average 12-year-old. And the only way to do that is by playing live concerts and making it known that this music is contemporary and it’s something that they should discover. It’s not music that has traditionally been on the radio a lot and that’s never going to change. So the live venue is really the only way to grow the fan base.

Yeah, I think a lot of people know who Frank Zappa is, but I don’t know many people who can hum a song of his or necessarily even name one. That must be frustrating to you.
I think that does need to change, and it can’t change unless I’m doing what I’m doing.

Do you throw some of your own songs out there on the tour?
Nope. It’s all Frank’s music and it’s a 3-hour show.

Did you always want to be a musician? When you were a kid, was it scary to think that you have to follow in your dad’s footsteps?
I never thought of it like that. It’s a strange thing that the media places upon a situation like this. I’ve always been inspired by Frank’s music, but the music I’ve done of my own really bears no resemblance to his music. But I will say the future music that I do will be undoubtedly more influenced by it, because of the amount of time that I’ve spent learning and playing and being even more influenced by it at this point. So I can see even more correlations in the future, but I think that at this point for me to go and do this – I’ve never thought of it as following in his footsteps necessarily, because it’s not a competition of any kind, but people tend to put those boundaries on it. I think it’s important for people to hear Frank’s music because it’s very contemporary. Even though some of it is 40 years old, it’s still unlike anything that’s out there.

Do you often sit around and put your dad’s records on?
For the past few years, it’s really the only music that I listen to because I have had to spend so much time listening to it to learn it and choose what music might be learned for the next part of the tour.

So you got this idea a couple of years ago?
It’s been there a long time, but it was a question of how to even begin. I actually took two years off just to study the music, and in that time I changed a lot of things about my own abilities on guitar. I was always technically proficient, but I had to become extremely much more so. It was a lot of work but now that we’re actually out there playing, it makes it all worth it.

Do you play other instruments besides guitar?
Not really. I can kind of mess around with most stringed instruments, but I’m not very good at keyboards and I’m not that good at drums, so I just stick with the guitar.

Do you sing?
I do sing a little bit but most of the guitar stuff that I have to concentrate on requires so much more effort that I can’t really do both.

You seem like a musician’s musician. Are you a technical geek who’s in the studio from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. every day?
Not those hours necessarily, I have certainly spent many 20-hour days in the studio.

Your dads studio, which you revamped, right?
Uh-huh

Now, Steve Vai comes on tour with you – tell me what else to expect at a show.
The show is focusing on a broad area of Frank’s music, and what we’ve done is put together a show that allows these mini sets to have special guests, like Steve and Terry Bozzio come out. And Napoleon Murphy Brock – he was also in Frank’s band at some time in the 70s, or a few times in the 70s. He’s out for the bulk of the concert with us and singing most of the lead vocals. But the core band is there the whole time and then we have rotating parts and then a big thing at the end where everybody’s out on stage.

So is Steve Vai at every show, but not on stage the whole time?
Right – he’s at every show and plays about 6 songs.

I remember MTV when you were Djing, and I know you hosted that TV show Dinner and Movie. What other stuff have you been doing? Any producing? Other projects? Fill in some blanks.
I’ve done different television things, different music things. I’ve been doing music for sound libraries and TV shows, stuff like that – but I’ve also gotten married and have a baby.

What’s the baby’s name?
A little girl – 4 months old – Zola Frank Zappa. It’s a very old Sicilian name.

Is it a family name?
No, but we have Italian heritage and specifically Sicilian, so I thought it would be fun to find an old Italian name that began with a Z so she can have ZZ as her initials.

Are you the first of your siblings to have a kid?
My sister Moon had a daughter – on Frank’s birthday. She’s gonna be two.

And what’s that baby’s name?
Matilda Plum

Does that get annoying – do people ask of you’re like, having a contest to give the craziest name?
I don’t really think about it. I don’t think the names are that strange, but it’s not really like we try to find the craziest word you ever heard .. It’s just something to give her a nice identity.

I know people are curious about your family – are you close? Do you, like, get together for Sunday dinners?
In years past, we had more time, but everyone’s so busy and having kids, so it’s not quite like that

But you all live in LA?
Yep.

Are you much of a scenester – do you like to go out in Hollywood?
Never! Never have been interested in it, never will be interested in it.

What’s your style? What;’s life like for you, then?
Basically when I’m doing the tour, at the beginning I pretty much have to do prep on my own for a couple weeks, then we rehearse, then go out for the length of the tour, come home, take a break. If I don’t have any other work, I’m just at my house and I almost never leave. We take little walks in the neighborhood, walk to the grocery store, do nothing, hang out and watch TV and read books to Zola.

Now, you’ve said you were influenced by Eddie Van Halen, and you’ve played with him…
I haven’t seen him for awhile. He was an influence on my playing. I got to sit and play and learn directly from him, and I continue to be influenced by him on guitar, but it’s not as evident in my playing when I play Frank’s music…

The reason I ask is because I heard that Eddie’s son Wolfgang is joining Van Halen – I thought you might have the inside scoop on that.
I heard that, too! It’ll be interesting to see how that goes. I’ve never actually heard him play, but Edward Van Halen and Alex Van Halen are two great musicians, and if Wolfgang can keep up with those guys, I have no doubt in my mind that he’s good.


Now, the stuff that you do with your dad and the stuff on your own album – how is it different?
Totally, radically different. My music has always been different than Frank’s because I had different influences. In the past, more rock, but now I’m encompassing new things, so this record is quite a departure. But mainly it’s because this is the first time I’ve recorded using computer technology which allowed me to do things I wasn’t able to before. Like using different instruments – I can write for an orchestra and use a sample, and hear it played in a realistic way. So there’s different textures in the music, but it’s still guitar-driven.

But you also still use live players?
Yeah, but some things use a lot of programming. Sort of a combination of different instruments, ambient noises, and then I’m playing guitar melodies over them. It’s sort of an experimental process – that gave me ideas for the future. Somewhere down the road, I’d like to do film scores.

Any interest in acting still?
It’s never been a huge priority of mine. If something were to happen, it would be almost quite by accident.

Any other projects?
Right now, with the tour, I want to continue and build it and do it annually, so that will keep me pretty busy. The songs are tremendously difficult to learn and even once they’re learned, it’s hard to maintain memorization of it. If I don’t play it for even a week, parts are forgotten.

The tour is called “Zappa plays Zappa” – Did any of your siblings want to get in on it? Are they musical?
They’re musical, but not to the level of skill required.to perform this stuff.

One last question: Does the baby have your hair? You have great hair.
I think Zola’s going to have a little bit of my curls – but it’s just starting to come in. I’m not sure what color, though. Now it’s almost a strawberry blond. My wife is blond and I have dark hair, so I’m not sure not sure if it’ll be blond or brown.

Congratulations on having her, by the way.
Thanks!

That’s it, unless there was anything else you wanted to talk about it…
Well, my main focus present is to present Frank’s music to a broader audience and in large part, to a younger audience.

What would you say to those people – “Hey! You’re missing the greatest thing ever?” Why should they come out?
It’s like the music speaks for itself, you just need to have an open mind and try to discover it. The earlier you’re exposed, the broader your concept of music and creativity is. Kids that only listen to rap have no idea what music is. There’s a lot more out there, and no music education available to kids.

Oh, I meant to tell you that I had your album – the one with “Son of Shoogagoogagunga” on it.
Oh!? The Return of the Son of Shoogagoogagunga!

I had it on tape!
Nice! That had Nuno Betancourt on it.

I loved him! I stalked out Extreme’s recording studio when they recorded down here. I was like a 13-year-old groupie.
Perfect!

Well, thanks, it’s been fun talking to you.
No problem.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to about coming to Florida?
I’ve been through there a few times, but I won’t have time to spend other than at the venue . I do like to play golf, so one day, I’ll come back through.

Awesome.
Well, thanks.

Sure, Ciao!
Bye!