Ahmet: I think that everyone’s reactions
are going to be: What the fuck is going on
right now?
This is bananas.
Anthony: Frank Zappa died in 1993 when I was
a child, so I never got a chance to see him
perform live.
I spent a lot of time as a kid listening to
my dad’s record collection and then exploring
more on my own as a teenager buying the Rykodisc
releases.
As an adult, I’ve been able to catch a few
of the incredible Zappa Plays Zappa shows
and have enjoyed the high definition releases
in recent years, like the awesome Roxy & Elsewhere
blu-ray.
And then there’s all the live footage on
YouTube!
These modern experiences and products have
given me a great sense of what it would have
been like to see Frank perform live when he
was alive.
In recent years, Frank’s son Ahmet has been
working on a truly 21st-century Zappa concert
experience.
Partnering with a hologram production company
called Eyellusion, he is bringing an entirely
new presentation of his father’s creativity
on the road.
The show is called The Bizarre World of Frank
Zappa and meets its first audiences in late
April 2019.
It features a live band accompanied by a computer-generated
three-dimensional holographic projection of
many entertaining multimedia elements, including
Frank himself performing new unreleased songs
and guitar solos.
And this live band isn’t just any live band,
either.
It’s several of Frank’s former bandmates.
These guys are some of the most dedicated
and talented musicians who ever played with
him.
They’re all incredibly passionate about
Frank’s music and I am super-excited at
the possibilities of these guys playing together.
Frank was always pushing the boundaries of
politics, music, art, humor, technology, animation,
and media.
The Bizarre World of Frank Zappa brings Frank
into 21st-century technology, beliefs, and
expectations.
I have a feeling things are going to get very,
very weird.
SECTION: What the heck is this “hologram
tour” all about anyway?
Mike: “It’s a totally different type of
entertainment from a standard concert.
People shouldn’t come expecting a replication
of an experience that they had 30 years ago
when they went to see a Frank Zappa concert.
This is utilizing a lot of techniques that
have never been utilized before in quite this
way in an attempt to create a very different
kind of experience live.”
Ahmet: My mother would pull me in and no one
was thinking outside of the box.
I would say that it probably would have happened
sooner, while my mother was alive, if other
companies were willing to go to these creative
places that we’re going to now.
There just wasn’t a company out there willing
to do it.
But after becoming close with Jeff [Pezzuti,
CEO of Eyellusion] and really saying, “Here’s
the deal: This isn’t just about projecting
someone back on stage.
We want to do something different and explore
new ways of storytelling in ways that my dad
did.”
Mike: It’s hard to discuss, almost, because
there’s no frame of reference for what it’s
going to be like.
So, I guess I can understand why some people
are reflexively responding negatively just
because all they have to imagine what it’s
like is a very limited scope based on whatever
they’ve seen or experienced or what they
think they know about what a hologram show
is.
And anything that’s been done with that
technology up until now does not represent
what can be done with the technology and I
think this show represents a step towards
how far out and how crazy we can get with
this stuff.
And ideally it’s going to result in an incredibly
powerful and really peculiar night of entertainment
with live musicians doing what they do in
the midst of it.
It’s going to be a multi-level thing and
a lot of unreleased Frank performances and
we’re playing some unreleased Frank compositions.
It’s a very layered evening of stuff.
There’s going to be something there for
everyone who’s into Frank.
I’m super-jazzed about it.
I think it’s going to be really cool.
Steve: Well, it’s so interesting because
holographic technology--I remember many years
ago when Disney decided to put this holographic
technology of these heads, these haunted heads,
in their haunted house.
That was big news at the time and I went and
saw it.
I knew, I just instinctively felt that this
technology was going to evolve into something
beyond our wildest imaginations at some point.
Have we gotten there?
No we’re far from it.
Far from it.
Somebody is going to wake up and say, “This
holographic technology can be really powerful
and can be used for a certain convenience
and quality of life experience that’s beyond
where the technology’s at right now.”
For instance, I’m looking for the day where
I can go and sit in my room and have a conference
with people in Japan as if they’re sitting
in the room with me, or I’m sitting in their
room.
And this has the potential to completely change
home entertainment as we know it.
So much more.
But the technology is slowly evolving because
it’s expensive and to develop it takes a
lot of courage and expense, but it’s happening.
When holographic technology was being used
to reproduce people for concerts and stuff,
or for performances, it was still very limiting,
but it was amazing in a sense because you
get to see Mariah Carey singing something
in ten different countries and it’s as if
you’re there, but it still is just a hologram
of somebody.
So, as more people come along to improve this
technology and the experience of it, we’re
going to start seeing some really cool things,
and that’s what my expectations are of this
Zappa hologram tour.
Ahmet: I’m lucky in this sense: There’s
so much audio and video of Frank, and because
he was so opinionated and so smart and he
was a futurist, a lot of the decisions I make
are really because he’s talked about them
or he’s shown an interest in them.
Like the hologram show, it was something that
he talked to me about dozens of times.
So it kind of blows my mind when people are
like, “Gah, Frank would never do this.”
And I’m like, “Well, how much of a fan
are you?
Because he writes about it in his book, The
Real Frank Zappa Book, Chapter 18,” which
I can say til I’m blue in the face.
And they’re like, “Nah.
Nah.
Nope.”
And I’m just like, “All right, well, look.
I’m trying to make an experience happen
that does a couple of things.
One, I know my dad was really interested in
it.
And two, I get to creatively flex my muscles
in terms of putting the show together.”
I had to come up with the storylines, the
visuals.
All of this is emotional for me in the sense
that the conversations I had with him over
the very short period of time I got to have
him in my life, he inspired me in so many
ways: things he showed me, things we watched
on TV, movies that we saw, sounds he exposed
me to.
It’s as much about a love letter from me
to my father and to my mother as much as it
is to the fans.
There’s no other way if you want to go see
and hear Frank play his music.
This is the only way to do that.
Other people can go play his music, sure,
but if you want to hear his lines, hear his
vocals with his live band--that’s the great
part about technology now.
We can try to do something--this is an experience.
Something that I hope people really enjoy.
You don’t have to be a Zappa fan and you
can come to this show and have your mind blown.
And that’s the other thing I tried to set
out to do.
And because there’s so much technology involved
in making this happen, I think we have hopefully
a good shot at having different people discover
Frank’s music.
Because I think we will get fans and hopefully
the goal is to make new fans.
And because there’s so much music that Frank
recorded, if people like what we’re doing,
we can keep adding to it and change it up,
so I’m pretty excited about the Bizarre
World.
SECTION: What’s exciting about a hologram
tour?
Steve: I’m very excited about it because,
first of all, it’s Frank and for Frank fans
like myself, his music is a treasure.
It’s a life treasure.
And for any opportunity to see it being performed,
be it Dweezil performing it or another band
or a hologram tour, I can’t imagine why
anybody that’s as moved and touched in their
life by Zappa, as myself, would not attend
something like that.
Mike: There’s various levels to it that
are exciting.
At its base, I’ve been talking to Joe Travers
for years, “We gotta play some Zappa together.”
And we wanted to get Scott Thunes.
That would be great.
And who else would we play with?
Finally, Joe told me one night, “It’s
gonna happen.
Ahmet’s into it.”
Because for various reasons connected to the
fact that Joe Travers’ full time gig is
working for the Zappa Family Trust maintaining
the vault and doing the Vaultmeister gig.
For him to get a band together playing Zappa
music, it helps in a lot of ways for it to
be a Zappa Family Trust-involved project.
So we were just kind of waiting, because I
wanted to do it with Joe, and we were just
waiting to see if Ahmet wanted to do something
at some point with Frank’s music in a live
format.
And then one night, Travers said, “We’re
doing it.
Ahmet’s ready.
We’re doing a Frank Zappa band.”
And I was like, “All right, that’s great.
Right on.”
And then he says, “Hologram tour.”
And my initial thought was, “People are
going to freak out,” which is true.
People are freaking out, but then you start
thinking about, “Well what does this mean?
I can’t imagine a Frank Zappa hologram tour
that’s just Frank Zappa standing on stage
being a hologram.
It would have to be something more interesting
than that because you want it to be something
Frank would be interested in.
That’s always been part of what’s guided
me whenever I choose to do some Zappa-related
thing.
I’m hopeful there’s something there that
would have at least been entertaining and
hopefully stimulating and amusing for Frank.
Ahmet’s vision for the holographic material
in the show is so insane and so wide-ranging
that I know if Frank saw this show, he would
be sitting there going, “Heh heh heh,”
doing the Frank laugh for a large swath of
this show.
I don’t think he’d be as interested in
looking at himself, but that’s also a Frank-like
thing.
Frank was not into being the venerated or
lionized.
He swore, and I think that’s largely true,
that he had zero interest in his legacy or
what anybody thought about him after he was
gone.
So I think he would dig that this show is
visually focused on concepts and characters
and just being inspired by the music in a
much more free-wheeling way.
And the appearances that Frank himself makes
as the hologram during the show are almost
like cameos, or like a character in the whole
tapestry.
What it actually reminds me of is a few years
ago, they did a 200 Motels live in Los Angeles
and London, I believe.
They put out an album from the Los Angeles
show called 200 Motels the Suites, which was
this really spectacular album, but Frank himself
is a character in this thing in the same way
that Frank was a rarely-seen characters in
200 Motels itself.
But when they went through his manuscripts
to play unreleased material for 200 Motels
the Suites, he had written a lot more narration
for himself.
So they hired a guy to deliver this narration
at the show and to me there was nothing weird
or disrespectful about that.
And that’s the same to me as the holographic
representation of Frank in this show.
It’s a character, it’s undeniably a part
of the bizarre world of Frank Zappa.
Who Frank Zappa was, how iconic he was visually,
that’s a part of the world, but the way
that world is represented visually is bonkers.
It’s all over the place.
It’s really fun.
Morgan: People are already watching Frank
on screens at home.
Unfortunately he’s not around and now this
thing’s going to happen and you get to see
some unperformed and unreleased music.
It’s done with the right people and the
best equipment available at 2019 standards.
I can’t see why you wouldn’t like to go
see it.
I’m sure it’s going to be great, so I
support it totally.
SECTION: What about the band?
Steve: The band is incredible.
It’s elements of the best band that Frank
ever had.
We all know Mike Keneally.
And for those of you who don’t, just imagine
a musician whose expression is effortless
and perpetually inspired.
That’s Mike Keneally.
Fearless and completely inspired.
He’s a freak.
I’m so inspired by him, through the years
too.
And Frank had said to him once that his ears
are the best ears on any guitar player he’s
ever had in the band.
So that tells you how Frank felt about him,
you know?
And he’s headlining this band.
And the other members of the band are obviously
forming a really powerful Zappa unit.
And the thing that they have that’s so important
is that love and respect for Frank.
That transcends a job.
So you know that the quality is going to be
fantastic.
But what about the technology?
I don’t know, but I do know this.
Ahmet is focusing on expanding the technology
and doing things with it that are unexpected.
I believe, just from some of the stuff that
he’s sent me, that people don’t know what
this really is going to be.
Ahmet: All I could do was explain the ideas
that I had in my head and ask them to go on
this leap of faith with me and so much of
it--none of it had been figured out.
There’s no roadmap.
We’re inventing something.
This doesn’t happen.
We’re the only…
Eyellusion--the company, a gentleman by the
name of Jeff Pezzuti [CEO], who’s become
a real good friend of mine--his desire to
preserve music or create new experiences,
he didn’t come from this background.
He quit his job and was like, “I believe
in this!”
I gotta say I’m a sucker for anyone who’s--[Anthony:
Skin in the game.]
Yeah!
And trying to do something different.
SECTION: What about AAAFNRAA (Anything Anytime
Anywhere For No Reason At All)?
Anthony: Frank had a motto of “Anything
Anytime Anywhere For No Reason At All.”
This long, unpronouncable acronym represented
a spirit of improvisation and unpredictability
that fans came to expect from Frank’s shows.
The set list was different at every show,
the solos were never pre-written, and the
each song could be performed in various ways.
Frank used hand signals like "piddling with
a Rasta braid on the right side of my head
-- that means: Play reggae.
If I pretend to twirl braids on both sides
of my head, it means: Play ska.
If I want something played heavy metal, I
put both hands near my crotch and do Big Balls."
These are some of the elements that made Frank
such a great entertainer and so engaging for
audiences.
So, how is the band going to bring this ethos
into a show where they’re playing along
with pre-recorded tracks?
Mike: While we’re accompanying pre-recorded
tracks, there is ostensibly less spontaneity
because we have to stay attached to this grid,
but within that there’s a lot of room for
expression.
There’s a lot of room for things to change
up from night to night because most of the
songs that we’re accompanying tracks have
long guitar solos and they’re unreleased
guitar solos of Frank’s.
So the act of accompanying these long unreleased
solos--even though I’ve been listening to
them for a couple of weeks--I’m still reacting
to them very improvisationally as though Frank
was on stage and we were just being musicians
accompanying Frank as he plays a guitar solo.
During those moments of the soloing, it feels
very real.
It feels very spontaneous.
And then we have these chunks during the night
where we’re literally untethered and we
can kind of do what we want.
And then there’s the moments that are highly
structured and we’re playing arrangements
that are written to be played a certain way,
but that was exactly the same way as it was
before with Frank.
We might as well have been on a grid while
we were playing specific composed sections
because they’re meant to be done a certain
way.
But all these years later to be playing these
songs again and with these people, it really
does a number on you emotionally.
There’s a lot going on here.
It’s fantastic.
I feel privileged to be here.
SECTION: Ending
Steve: I just feel, being a Zappa fan, I don’t
want to miss this event.
I don’t want to miss it when Dweezil’s
playing, I don’t want to miss it when Ahmet’s
doing it, I don’t want to miss it if quality
musicians are playing Frank’s music.
And the added bonus is the technology.
Morgan: There has been a lot of bands playing
his music already like Zappa Plays Zappa,
Banned from Utopia, Grandmothers of Invention.
This would be the first time that you get
to see his own musicians playing with him,
with Frank on screen.
Nobody is trying to say that Frank will be
there in person, but he will be on the screen.
It’s his music.
I mean, just go and see it.
Outro
Anthony: If you have an opportunity to see
a show this tour, I’m definitely jealous
of you right now!
Seeing this show will means you get to support
great music played by great musicians with
a guaranteed memorable evening that will shatter
all kinds of expectations.
Everyone working on this tour is putting a
lot on the line to make this happen and that’s
the kind of thing that I think are worth paying
for and featuring here on Make Weird Music.
I’m so glad this band has an opportunity
to get paid to play this music out on the
road, and even some of it alongside Frank’s
actual tracks and performing new music we’ve
never heard before.
There’s no opportunity to hear that anywhere
else.
I am also glad to see a tour that tries to
capture the spirit of Frank as a futurist,
a technologist, an animation enthusiast, a
live musician, a composer, a filmmaker, a
producer, a storyteller.
We will likely not see another Frank Zappa
in our lifetimes, so let’s support and experience
the creative visionary who’s touched so
many of our lives while we still have an opportunity
to see and hear his art in a live setting.
And for people like me who--I was never old
enough to see him perform, this is such a
cool opportunity because Frank’s music and
all of the technology that’s available today
are coming together into a modern experience
that is truly unlike anything else out there
and I think that’s what Frank stood for,
pushing the boundaries.
So I’m really excited to see how this turns
out.
If you go to any of the shows, please let
me know.
I’d love to chat with you about it.
Leave a comment or find me on social media.
I’d love to chat.
Thanks for checking this out.
I hope you enjoyed it.
