Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappais an American rock guitarist and occasional actor. He is the son of musical composer and performer Frank Zappa. Exposed to the music industry from an early age, Dweezil developed a strong affinity for playing the guitar and producing music. Able to learn directly from world-class guitarists such as Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen, Dweezil quickly developed into a musical star in his own right, releasing his first singleat the age of 12...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth5 September 1969
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
It was spontaneously composed as I was playing it. And then I added a couple of other overdub textures on top of it after the fact. But it's one of those things where I wouldn't be able to sit down and specifically write that. That's just what came out.
I started touring in 2006, and there was an agreement made for merchandise between my mom and myself.
Somebody under 30, if the name Frank Zappa came up, they would just say, "Who?" To me that didn't sit well, because I felt my dad's accomplishments in music should be better known, not just in a popular way, but better understood.
In fact, musicianship is at an all time low, so anybody who's actually good at their instrument is probably unpopular at this particular moment.
But I've done some soundtrack things with my brother for stuff, and I'm hoping to get into actual scoring. That's really where I'd like to end up.
As far as solo records, there's ten years between it. As far as other releases, there's, I don't know, four or five years between it.
But the reality is when you write a song, you should be able to strip away all the instruments and just have a song right there with an acoustic guitar and a voice, and the song should be good.
I really want younger audience members to see kids in their early 20's playing Frank's music and to be inspired to take things to a higher level themselves.
While it is true that Frank had a great sense of humor, he was also very serious about composing music. In reality there are only a handful of skilled players who can play his most complex pieces. It takes a lot of patience to learn and requires a fantastic memory.
The thing with food is that you can give 20 people the same recipe and the same ingredients, and somebody's going to make it better than somebody else, and that's the creativity of it. It's like music. You could have a bunch of people playing the same piece, and somebody's gonna play it better.
Yes, but I view Frank's music as fully composed. In other words, the arrangements can work for any idiom such as a rock band or an orchestra. Frank was a brilliant arranger and could make his music work in any context. He proved that tour after tour and album after album.
And, you know, my dad would show me some things sometimes, but the best things that I got to do were to actually see really good players play up close. That gives you an idea of fingering and technique and what not.
I mean, no offense, but I don't really see why, like guitar players from Creed, or something like that, are on the cover of guitar magazines. Almost anybody can sit down and learn to play those songs.
For me, the most difficult thing is that I am learning melodies on guitar from some songs whose melodies were not meant to be played on guitar. Ever. They were intended mostly for keyboards or melodic percussion.