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
Well, Steve Vai joined my dad's band right around the time when I actually started playing guitar. So he gave me a couple of lessons on fundamentals, and gave me some scales and practice things to work on. But I pretty much learned everything by ear.
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 didn't really hear any other music other than what my dad was working on until I was 12. My recollection of hearing other music was that I liked some things that I heard but I always thought, 'Where's the rest of it?' It didn't have the same amount of detail or instrumentation or imagination in the arrangements.
I liked a lot of the things other people liked - Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Van Halen, AC/DC - but if I compared it to my dad's music, there just seemed to be elements missing.
I'm not going to be doing any touring.
I'm working still a bit on Lisa Loeb's new record, and that's going to be a great record when it finally gets a chance to come out.
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.
Just because something has tubes doesn't mean it's the best. I mean, tubes are obviously good, but the circuit of this thing is designed well and it sounds good.
Modern records are all made with virtually identical gear, software plug-ins and everything. Everybody wants everything to sound like the last thing that was popular because they're chasing their tails.
There's no difference in a lot of people's minds between good musicians and popular musicians.
I feel that through my father's music I've found my own voice in my own playing.
Everybody else goes out and plays a show as if it's their album, which is boring. I'd rather sit at home and listen to the album, because I hate to be in a smoke-filled, loud room - that's not enjoyable for me at all...I always look up to guys who can sit and do dinner music...they're singing in tune and playing somebody else's music, and I don't think I could do that...it's the shittiest job in the world.
Well, I haven't been doing that much work with other people per se. I started doing more of that.
The Silvertop and the Goldtop both had subtlety where it was needed but lots of definition as well. I liked the different voicings of the distortion/fuzz elements.