{"id":11770,"date":"2016-11-18T05:30:43","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T10:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=11770"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:36:11","slug":"outside-now-a-conversation-with-dweezil-zappa-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/18\/outside-now-a-conversation-with-dweezil-zappa-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Outside Now: A Conversation with Dweezil Zappa, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a> …<\/i><\/p>\n

While Dweezil Zappa<\/strong>‘s tour will include a few tracks from Via Zammata<\/i>, most of each show will center around performances of Frank’s challenging material. And Dweezil’s band follows the late Zappa’s onstage approach of building improvisation into the songs. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the unique things about Frank\u2019s music,\u201d Dweezil observes. \u201cHe actually created spots within the songs for improvisation. If you play that same song a hundred times, it would be different every time. A large part of his catalog was created that way.\u201d Now as then, that guarantees concertgoers never see the same show twice.<\/p>\n

\"dweezil_zappa02\"Dweezil characterizes his live set as a balancing act. \u201cA lot of the people coming to a show are predominantly interested in hearing Frank\u2019s music,\u201d he readily concedes. \u201cThis particular tour set list is comprised mainly of early Mothers stuff,\u201d he says, with a particular emphasis on music from Frank’s debut album, the 1966 double-LP Freak Out<\/i>. \u201cThen there is a large chunk of stuff from Joe\u2019s Garage<\/i> [1979] and some other stuff from the ’80s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d Dweezil laughs, \u201cwe don\u2019t ever try to create a greatest-hits kind of thing. ‘Cause there isn\u2019t really anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dweezil explains that his own guitar abilities grew from studying his father’s music. \u201cThe hardest part was to develop a vocabulary that allowed me to speak in some of the same [musical] sentences that he would create himself,\u201d he says. \u201cI had to find ways to trick my brain into thinking that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he didn’t start out playing his dad’s music. Dweezil’s first single was \u201cMy Mother is a Space Cadet\u201d b\/w\/ \u201cCrunchy Water,\u201d \u2013 \u201cI had only been playing guitar for nine months when I made that,\u201d he says \u2013 and if the single showed the influence of anyone, it was probably Van Halen<\/b>. \u201cI always loved my Dad\u2019s music, but his music was way harder than any other music,\u201d Dweezil says. \u201cIt didn\u2019t seem like the obvious place to start. I knew that somewhere I would have to build up to that, but at the time that I got interested in guitar, Van Halen and Randy Rhoads<\/b> guitar playing with Ozzy Osbourne<\/b>, were huge influences. That stuff was the most popular music at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalls those days in the early 1980s. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty crazy to put in all into perspective, the way the music industry is. But at that time, you really had to know how to play pretty well to be a rock band. Van Halen and Randy Rhoads \u2026 that stuff is not easy by any stretch, but it was a more of a condensed kind of thing for me to learn than trying to learn some of my Dad\u2019s hardest music.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was young, it wasn’t even a foregone conclusion that Dweezil would be a musician. Prior to recording \u201cMy Mother is a Space Cadet,\u201d Dweezil was very active in Little League baseball. \u201cWe were on our way to the Little League World Series,\u201d he recalls. \u201cBut we got knocked out just before we got into the final round. So I was really into baseball for a while. I actually pitched a no hitter as a 12 year old. Anyway, once I got deep into guitar, I pretty much abandoned the baseball ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"dweezil_zappa_45\"<\/p>\n

A recent documentary film, Eat That Question<\/i> chronicled Frank Zappa’s life and career. The filmmaker’s approach involved using only Frank’s words to tell the story; there’s no narrator. Asked about his thoughts on the film, Dweezil gives a surprising (or perhaps unsurprising) answer. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know that film was being made until it came out,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of stuff that was happening with the ZFT. They basically don\u2019t give Moon, or me any information about anything. But I did see the film and I thought it was well done.\u201d<\/p>\n

He makes the point that telling the whole of Frank’s story is a near-impossible task, but remains impressed by the film. \u201cFor what it was, in that two hour area, you got of a taste of how Frank looked at his career and making music and all that stuff. It didn\u2019t have enough time to delve into every aspect of what he did. I did enjoy seeing personality come out in full force on screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toward the end of Eat That Question<\/i>, the elder Zappa is shown in a clip recorded shortly before his death. He says that his work isn’t important, and that he doesn’t expect to be remembered. In fact, he argues, he shouldn’t<\/i> be remembered. To those who’ve followed his work, that point of view seems mystifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always was aware of that quote,\u201d Dweezils says, \u201cbecause he said it more than once. I disagreed with what he was saying about his music, and felt it was more important for people to recognize. One of the main catalysts for me doing Zappa Plays Zappa was that quote.\u201d Dweezil leans toward dismissing the quote, saying, \u201cYou know, it\u2019s not exactly the most uplifting time of one\u2019s life to look at things as unimportant at that point. I think that time will tell about how important Frank\u2019s music really is especially in the world of modern classical and all that. As a composer he had a very unique voice. I do think of it as an important thing to carry forward and that\u2019s why I continue to.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he’s not touring \u2013 or responding to \u201cpublic letters\u201d \u2013 Dweezil remains busy with other musical pursuits. He recently took part in Crown Guitar Workshop & Festival’s \u201cExcel with the Masters\u201d program in Montana \u2013 \u201cI had nothing to do with that title,\u201d he laughs \u2013 there he shared his ideas on how to make the most of one’s skill set on the guitar.<\/p>\n

Many artists would find it difficult living in the shadow of their famous parents: one need only look at the careers of Alexa Ray Joel<\/b> or James McCartney<\/b>. But Dweezil Zappa isn’t intimidated by the prospect of comparisons with his father. \u201cI think it\u2019s something that other people try to place on me as a weight around my neck,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve done something that has put me in direct comparison with my Dad\u2019s work,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cand through doing that, that’s how people become interested in what I<\/i> do.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Dweezil Zappa does \u2013 beyond performing his father’s music and recording and releasing rock albums of his own \u2013 is quite ambitious. \u201cThere are a lot of things in the works,\u201d he teases. \u201cI\u2019m planning an event in Europe where I will debut some orchestral works of my own.\u201d How that will turn out remains to be seen and heard, but one thing is certain: Dweezil Zappa will continue to do whatever the f@%k he wants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One … While Dweezil Zappa‘s tour will include a few tracks from Via Zammata, most of each show will center around performances of Frank’s challenging material. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62],"tags":[734,861],"class_list":["post-11770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-dweezil-zappa","tag-frank-zappa","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11770"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32174,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11770\/revisions\/32174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}