Interview: Donavon Frankenreiter

Musician, surfer, entrepreneur, Beachlife board member. Donavon Frankenreiter is many things, and thus a very busy dude. Despite having a new EP with his friend Devon Allman coming out this Friday, June 23rd, and an extremely ambitious 50 states in 49 days tour planned to support the EP, he still kindly took the time to speak with me about his new music, upcoming tour, the Beachlife Festival, and more.

*Parts of the interview have been edited for clarity

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The Indy Review: I first wanted to take the time to thank you for speaking with me today.

Donavon Frankenreiter: Thanks for calling me and doing this over the phone.

IR: I recently tried to catch your set at the Beachlife Festival, but the crowd was overflowing, so I couldn’t get close enough to even see you, much less hear you.

DF: That was a good vibe though. That was cool.

IR: Have you thought about upgrading to one of the main stages for one of your future shows?

DF: I’m part founder of that festival; we do Beachlife in May, and Beachlife Ranch in September. Jim Lindberg‘s also another founder and he kind of curates that Speakeasy (Stage), so he’s like “Hey, since you’re not doing one of the main stages, can you play with a buddy and do the Speakeasy this year?” and I said “Fuck, of course man.” I’ve always gotta be there, and always gotta be a part of it. It’s really fun for me to go from a bigger stage with a full band to that Speakeasy, since it’s very intimate. You get to meet the people, and you’re right up against them. It’s close. It’s like a little afternoon campfire vibe, you know? It’s something you normally wouldn’t get at a festival, and it’s something I really enjoy doing. I loved it, it was great.

IR: This was my second year at the Beachlife, and I’ve enjoyed it both times. I’m from the South Bay originally, Manhattan Beach, so it’s been great having this fantastic music festival there. How did you become a part of the festival?

DF: Jim called me and said he was working with this guy Allen (Sanford), who started it, and he brought me in and said “would you want to do this, and this and this” and be a part of helping promote and talking about and curating? I kind of like, watched it grow a little bit and become a thing, and I came full on-board when they wanted to do the Beachlife Ranch. I just felt like this thing’s growing, there’s a lot more going on than just the festival. Like, that whole area we’re kind of taking over. We’re in the process right now of building a restaurant.

IR: Oh wow.

DF: Right there on the grounds. You know where the Ruby’s was? That’s going to become a restaurant. And there’s going to be a California Surf Club right next to that. So that whole area we’re trying to make a really special place, even when Beachlife Festivals aren’t going on. Where people can come down and enjoy that space and enjoy that area.

IR: That’s great.

DF: When all that stuff was starting to come to fruition, I’m like “Hey, I’d love to be a part of this. It sounds like a beautiful thing to be a part of, help build, and make that area really special.”

IR: I’m glad to hear you guys have this plan for expanding in the future. You mentioned you’re part of curating the festival – do you have any dream headliners for Beachlife or Beachlife Ranch in the future you would love to see on the bill?

DF: I always tell Allen, who ends up booking these things, “hey, you should try to get Jack Johnson, The Doobie Brothers, The Avett Brothers, Bahamas…” and he ended up getting all of them. It was like…I don’t know. This Beachlife Ranch line-up is going to be insane. And the Beachlife that we just did, just fucking insane, with John Fogerty, The Black Keys, The Black Crowes. We had Gwen Stefani. I think that’s what’s so fun – you can watch The Black Keys, and be all into that, and you can also be totally into, and have such a great time with Gwen Stefani, and come the next day, having John Fogerty sing all number one hits during his set. It’s just a neat festival in the sense of, there’s a bunch of younger hip bands, and different older nostalgic bands as well. I always just try to dream up a scenario, and then he (Allen) goes and sees who we can get.

IR: I really appreciate how each day has its own identity; this is the indie rock day, this is the reggae/ska day, and then you have the more classic rock and soul day. You feel that they are putting time and effort into who is playing each day, along with who they are getting.

DF: Totally. What stage they are on, what time they go on, what’s the weather, the sun’s going to be where…it’s just that whole vibe of pacing the whole day out. That’s really enjoyable for everybody. The beauty of that festival is that it’s only a ten thousand seater, so it’s still really comfortable when it’s sold out, unlike going somewhere where you’re like “oh fuck, there’s like fifty thousand people here! Holy shit, where am I gonna go?” It’s a manageable crowd in a sense, because you don’t ever feel compact.

IR: I wanted to transition into talking about your new EP with Devon Allman, Rollers. How did you two first meet and decide to start collaborating?

DF: He called me one time, and said he was doing this Allman Family Revival thing, and I jumped right on it. It was an insane tour. I did it one year and just loved it. I ended up doing it the second year, and while on it he was like “hey man, you’re fifty years old, I’m fifty years old, I want you to do this thing with me.” I was like what the fuck is he talking about, and he’s like “I want to go do fifty states, in forty-nine days. I want to do fifty shows in a row, in all fifty states, but in forty-nine days.” I’m like why forty-nine days? He’s says “Cause then we’ll break the world record.” Holy shit, I’m like fuck it, let’s go. As that started to get booked and built up, I was on tour doing the second Allman Family Revival, and I was like “hey Devon, every afternoon after soundcheck or before, let’s get together and at least try to come up with one song.” And we could put out a song that goes along with the tour, and we ended up having six tunes and put out the EP. Luther Dickinson produced it, and it was really cool. So that’s kind of how it all came to fruition. We were just going to do the tour, and I thought it would be cool if we had a song or two. It became more of a rock sort of thing, and it’s really great to collaborate with somebody who isn’t exactly like you. Me and him have a great time together, and we had a great time with the Allman Family Revival. It’s just going to be really fun.

IR: When you first started writing songs together, how did you find that your songwriting styles either meshed or clashed? What is the initial vibe, and how did you find your groove?

DF: We kind of just came up with songs, it was sort of like let’s see where this goes. There was no pressure. We needed to have songs, but I was like if it happens to go somewhere it goes somewhere. And I think collectively, we both wanted to make a collaboration where we tried to sing on every song together and play on every song together. I didn’t want it to be a compilation where it was like, here’s Devon’s song, here’s my song, here’s Devon’s song…cause then at that point it’s like, what is this? So we tried to make it a little more special, and play on every song and make it more of a collaboration, and I think we did that to the best of our ability. And it’s going to be cool because, we’re going to be able to play some of his songs, play some of my songs, and then play songs off the EP.

IR: I’ve enjoyed the EP a lot, and songs like the opener “Calling All You Riders” has a western, weary road feel to it. More desert vibes than the beach vibes you’re normally associated with. When you two were putting your minds together, did you want to venture out into new territories for each of you? Do something different than what you’re used to?

DF: I think so. I’m a little more bluesy, and he’s a little more rock, and we sort of just met in the middle. It was a lot of fun. When I’m collaborating with someone, I usually like to go some place I normally wouldn’t go on my own, cause then what’s the point, you know?

IR: Totally. In the song “See it All” I also heard a 70’s rock n’ roll sound in the grooves and retro production.

DF: Yeah, full on. There is.

IR: Was capturing that flavor and sound something you discussed with Luther Dickinson beforehand? Trying to sound a little more retro?

DF: Not really. We just went in there and recorded it. Didn’t have tons of time. He was really busy on the road with North Mississippi Allstars, and we were all touring. Whenever we had time we got in there and tried to cut the tracks and tried to sing on them. They overdubbed here and there and did what they could, and it just kind of came out like that. I think that we were up for anything. There’s a nostalgic sound to it, but there’s also a synth on that song, “See it All.” That was kind of out of nowhere, and I heard that I was like whoa, that’s kind of crazy. It’s neat. And we were up for anything, whatever feels and sounds great. Whatever happens.

IR: The musicianship on the EP is fantastic. The guitar playing on “Electric Lady” was especially mesmerizing. Playing with Devon, did you feel any push to experiment more with your own guitar playing style, or try anything different in that regard?

DF: Not really. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time together. I think he pushes me when we play live. That’s really fun, the two of us up there, he’ll take a solo, I’ll take a solo. I think somebody who is doing what he does, they definitely push you. My bass player, he’s bringing his drummer, and we’ll have a couple other guys on stage, and all those guys like to push each other, and see where you can go here, and take it to a place that maybe you didn’t go to the night before. I think there’s going to be a lot of jamming on this tour as well, and stretching some songs out, but I think that’s where he kind of pushes me most is live.

IR: Let’s go back to talking about the ambitious ’50 States in 49 Days’ tour. How do you approach the logistics of planning something like that, and what kind of contingencies do you have to have in place in case something goes wrong (a flat tire, a delayed flight, etc)?

DF: The first day we’re doing two shows in two different states because we have to do the tour in all fifty states, but in forty-nine days, because someone else did fifty. I feel really confident about all the U.S. mainland dates. If I wake up and the bus breaks down, we get a flat tire, I’ll be like “Devon, grab your acoustic,” we’re like planes, trains and automobiles. Whatever it takes to get there, we’ll get there. The only two shows that are going to be a little scary are Alaska and Hawaii. Cause if we land in Anchorage, and they’re like “Oh, glad you guys made it. Did you hear there’s no flights leaving for a week?” We’ll be like, wait what? Cause that will be day thirty nine or forty. If we fumble this fucking tour in theforties…that would be devastating. It’s an attempt, you know what I mean? We’re attempting to it. I feel like if some shit hit the fan, Devon and I would ride motorcycles, or rent a car, we would do whatever it took to get there, cause that’s the only stipulation. Me and him have to be on stage together, and we have to play the show together. It doesn’t necessarily have to be with a band. I think it’s just going to be one of those things.

The most exciting thing for me is, we’re working on it and it’s not confirmed yet, but I think we’re going to film the whole thing. Come out with a documentary. I know I told Devon that I’m going to look at him half way through this tour and be like “why didn’t we fucking film this?” I think we have a couple guys coming out to document this whole thing, and we’re going to come out with a documentary of the making of, or the attempting of, a world record. So we’ll see what happens, but you know, I’ve done thirty-five to forty shows in a row, and it’s fucking crazy. It’s really daunting and it’s fucking wild, and by day thirty, you start to lose your mind a little. You’re playing every night, and there’s never a moment when you have a little quiet time to yourself, and so I think a lot of these guys who are in the band, this is going to be the first time they ever passed ten, fifteen, twenty in a row. So we’ll see what happens day thirty. These guys might self-combust, I don’t know. It’s going to be nuts.

IR: Hopefully once it’s over you’ve left yourself some time off to recuperate?

DF: Nah. You wouldn’t believe it – our last show is at Beachlife Ranch. The following weekend I have a gig too. It just is what it is. You know what’s going to be tough about it? Like when I did the forty shows in a row, I did like fucking nine shows in Florida, you know what I mean? The crazy thing about this is we’re doing every state. There is a couple drives, I remember when the road manager was kind of lacing this out…there’s probably five different drives where we have double drivers, because we have between thirteen and fourteen hour drives. You just can’t get to the next place quick enough. And then there’s a couple of weird spots where…you can’t really play the main fucking hot bed of Texas; you gotta play the edge of it cause you want to zap up to Colorado. You may not be able to play the main stay on a Monday night in Kansas cause you have to drop back down to the other state. You have to map it out in some way to make it worth your while, because there’s not a lot of people rocking on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday. It’s usually a Thursday/Friday/Saturday sorta bonanza. It’s going to be a journey. We’re definitely going to see it all.

IR: Are any of these states ones you’ve never played before?

DF: No, I think I’ve played all fifty states, but I’ve been doing it for thirty years so. It took me thirty years to do it. Now we’re going to do it in forty-nine days.

IR: It’ll make 2023 very memorable for you.

DF: Haha, we’ll see dude. I don’t know if you’re going to Beachlife Ranch, but…

IR: I’m trying to. I definitely want to be there for the Friday line-up.

DF: On that Friday, if you are there, and you see our set, if we’re popping champagne at the end of that set, then we did it. If we end that set and walk off with our heads down, something happened along the way [laughs] and we didn’t fucking do it, cause that’s our fiftieth fucking show. So we’re hoping that we’re fucking celebrating at that fucking spot. We’re hoping we’re like “holy shit, we fucking did it.” But you never know. You can’t win if you don’t play. I think the hardest thing for this tour was the agents. When we both called our agents and told them this is what we want to do, they were like “WTF?!” Booking this was like a feat in itself. They were like “oh fuck” trying to figure out where to go, how to go, when to go. It’s just nuts.

IR: It is ambitious, and just the fact that you are trying to make it happen is awesome and something to be proud of. Whether it succeeds or not, you’re trying something no other acts have tried recently.

DF: Yup, we’re going to go for it.

IR: So I know you mentioned you have one show planned for after Beachlife Ranch, but aside from that, do you have any other plans for after September? Are you going to be touring more, recording, relaxing?

DF: I’m going to finish my album. I’m going to put that out the early part of next year and get new music out. I can’t wait to get a new record out. I’m almost done with it. I’m just doing a few overdubs, and tightening things up, and then I’m going to mix the thing and get it down and get it out first quarter of next year or so. I have the end of September, and from what I understand all of October off. Maybe there’s a few one-offs. I definitely have all of November off, and then I’m going with G. Love down to Mexico to do Where the Wild Ones Roam with Dispatch. Me and G. Love are doing something together. Yeah, that’s all I got. I always do a New Years Eve run at the end of the year; Coach House, Belly Up, St. Rock…end of the year New Years Eve run on the west coast, and then we’ll see what’s planned for next year. I don’t know. To be honest with you, I’m really stoked to get a new record out, cause I’ve been playing that music game for the last five years where people are like “it’s not about albums, it’s about singles” so I haven’t put a record out in six years. I’ve been putting out compilations and EPs, singles…covers songs and remakes of shit. I’m just so stoked to have ten new songs and a new album. It feels really good, so I’m excited about that more than anything.

IR: That’s great – so a new EP from you and Devon this year, and a new album from you at the beginning of next year.

DF: Yup, the new album is coming for sure.

IR: Fantastic. So one final question for you; if you could make one last impact on popular music as it is now, what would it be?

DF: I’ve never really thought about that man. When I got into the music scene with my first record and I put it out, it hasn’t stopped changing. I got my foot in the door when it was still the glory days, like with a record deal and the record industry, and by the time I released my second album it had started to collapse. So if anything, I feel I’ve learned how to adapt, and make that shit work that’s around me. Now everybody’s like “A.I.’s going to destroy everything,” and they said that about digital music. It’s just another tool. McCartney’s putting out a new Beatles album or a song because he’s got A.I. It’s kind of neat. You either use these tools, or you don’t use them.

For me, I just love living in the moment, day by day. Whatever comes at me, I just try to make it the best I can and adapt, and I’m always trying to do the best I can. I love creating and I love music so much, and I feel like it’s a global language. I just feel lucky to be able to do it for a living. I think anybody that creates music would create it no matter what because it’s inside them. But to be able to take it, and be able to go out and perform and play and make music and do this is a gift. It comes with crazy sacrifices. I’m married with two kids, and I don’t see them as much as I wish I could. I think anything anybody does in life comes with sacrifices if they really try to pursue something. I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about changing the landscape of music or what I’d be thought about. I just do what I’m doing. Hopefully it makes somebody smile, cause it makes me smile.

IR: I can definitely say your song “A.I.” helped me through a tough time years ago.

DF: I wrote that after Andy Irons passed away. He was a good friend and one of the best surfers in the world. As soon as he died, I sat down and wrote that song, in like three minutes. It’s like some songs come to you so quick…and that’s one of my favorite songs too. It’s really something special. It’s about somebody…wondering how they’re doing on the other side. I think that’s what inspires me, when something happens in your life, fucking sing about it. That’s how songs appear and how they happen. The shit that happens in your life. I don’t know where songs come from…they just sort of appear. Music is a real interesting thing.

IR: I agree. That’s why I write about it and try to support as many artists as I can.

DF: Awesome.

IR: Well thank you so much Donavon. Good luck with this tour. I hope it all goes really well, and when I see you at Beachlife Ranch, you’re popping champagne.

DF: I hope to see you at Beachlife and have a champagne with ya!

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Rollers is out this Friday, and you can listen to the released tracks here. And be sure to catch Donavon and Devon on their epic tour!