DWEEZIL ZAPPA On New Zappa Plays Zappa DVD -

DWEEZIL ZAPPA On New Zappa Plays Zappa DVD - "You Have To Think Of Frank More As A Composer Than As A Rock Musician"

Classic Rock Revisited recently caught up with guitarist Dweezil Zappa to discuss the new Zappa Plays Zappa DVD, filmed on the 2006 tour and featuring guest appearances by guitarist Steve Vai and drummer Terry Bozzio. Th efollowing is an excerpt from the interview:

CRR: (The DVD is) a beautifully filmed package and the musicianship is just astounding. What are your impressions of it watching it nowadays?

Dweezil: "Well, you know, it's been awhile since that tour — that was the '06 tour — and I began this whole project by choosing songs that I needed to specifically work on to see if it was possible for me to do this at all. And that sort of led me to believe that I needed to do a massive overhaul of my own technical ability to do what I wanted to do on guitar, which was the things that you actually see on the DVD ... things that were never done on guitar before. I'm playing 'St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast'. I'm playing some of the figures in 'Inca Roads', the really fast septuplets. That was never played on guitar by anyone in Frank's bands.

The reason I wanted to do it was to show people my dedication to this music and this project, because that is an inordinate amount of time to spend to learn that stuff and to play it live. And so, watching it, it's almost the same as a regular fan's perspective. Having seen it well after the fact, it's hard to believe that on a nightly basis that's the songs that we were playing, and that's what it sounded like."

CRR: In the DVD, you said it took you two years to learn to play the songs you played on that tour. That really speaks to just how complex this music is, I would imagine.

Dweezil: "Well, for sure. Each player in the band has extensive training and [had been] studying all different kinds of music before they had any involvement in this. And part of the interesting thing about the core band is, a bunch of them hadn't really been familiar with Frank's music. And I viewed that as a good thing, because in a way, they're demonstrating what happens when you become inspired or influenced by Frank's music, the change that occurs in what you're capable of and what you sort of expect from the world of music.

The challenges that are there, the creativity that is there ... some of the steps are not likely to be surpassed in any way by anyone musically. So, it's really cool to be able to present this music and try to give people an opportunity to hear it, in many cases, for the first time. We want young people to be able to discover the music, and there's really no effective way to do that other than live on stage and playing the music in a very respectful, unadulterated way.

We try to really play it as close as possible to specific versions that already exist, and the reason is, you have to think of Frank more as a composer than as a rock musician, and [with] a lot of his music, there are strict written parts. So, to play this music and have people understand what Frank was trying to accomplish, you need to do it justice. You need to do it the way he either already previously did it on a recording or the way it is written on the page. There's no reason for me to change it or pretend that I know anything more about what he would have done with it now, versus then. It's not up to me to create a new evolution of the music. I'm trying to introduce the music that exists to a new fan base, because ideally they'll be inspired by this and want to hear his version."

Go to this location for the complete interview.