by Angelica Clemmer
STATS
Name: Donavon Frankenreiter
Nicknames: No nicknames, I haven’t heard any...not that I know of
Age: 37
Weight: 198 lb.
Stance: Regular foot Hometown: Princeville, Hawaii
Home break: Hanalei, Hawaii Board: Anything Jeff “Doc” Lausch makesmeismy favorite board
Sponsors: Verizon, Billabong, Sanuk, VonZipper, DOC Surf Prescriptions, Cordoba Guitars, Coors Light
Donavon Frankenreiter is a singer/songwriter/pro surfer who travels the globe, surfing during the day and playing mu- sic at night. His songs are posi- tive and uplifting; his surfing is smooth and soulful. When he was 10 he got his first surfboard. At 16 he picked up his first gui- tar.Itwasa definingmoment thatshapedalife ofcreativity.
As a pro surfer he travels to some of the most popular and remote places on earth. As a musician he recently released a new album, “Revisited.” He has another CD coming this fall and is ready to tour the East Coast.
What inspires you? I'm definitely inspired by my two kids, who are 7 and 3 Ozzy and Hendrix, and my wife Petra. Those three humans are the ones that inspire me to do everything I do.
With your music career are you able to surf as much as you like to? I don't know, I get to surf a lot, I surf as much as I can, I surf quite a bit, sometimes I'll be on music tours and I'll find myself close to the beach and I get to surfing spots that I really wasn't planning on surfing, it is kind of neat, sometimes music takes me to places that I never really thought I would surf. It's different.
Do you think sometimes people take surfing too seriously and forget what its all about, like having fun? I wouldn't say necessarily it's just surfing, I think sometime people take life and everything they do really serious and they forget to have fun, its kind of the problem you know with things that happen in the world, like wars, people get greedy. I like people that are really alive and breathing, having fun, being healthy,but I do see people out in the water that sometimes are yelling at other people, being negative, or in a bad mood. I can't really understand that because that is the one place in the world that I feel so fortunate to be in, every time I am there, out in the water, I couldn't imagine yelling at somebody or telling somebody to get out of the way, or to get lost, I don't know, that's just me, its such a beautiful place to be and I feel so fortunate at that moment to be alive, to be healthy and out in the water doing what we are doing. Life has its ups and downs, right? it is very, very difficult and very hard and I forget even sometimes to do the things I just talked about, and I have to remind myself. You have to enjoy what you are doing, you gotta realize what you are doing at that moment.
Are you still doing the Drive Thru? Yes, still doing the drive thru, just finished Drive Thru Australia , that came out and we are talking about doing a Drive thru in September, may be China, or the East Coast, I'm not sure. How many Seasons is that now? If I do one more, that will be my 10th one. That will be pretty incredible.
What is the most unexpected place in the world were you have found waves? I surfed in Sardinia, which is really weird, that is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean, and off of Italy, which isn't really considered an ocean, its just considered a body of water, so a wind swell is the only thing they get there and I've had really good waves in Iceland, that was amazing. There are waves everywhere you just have to hunt them down.
How important is music to you? Kind of similar to surfing, music is definitely like my religion, my life, without music I don't know what I would do. I love music so much, I love listening to it, love watching people play music, I love what it does to people, love what it does to the soul. Means everything to me.
I listened to your new album, "Revisited" that came out June 15th, its really good, I liked it a lot. Yeah, that's a record that I did 8 years ago and redid it with the Hawaiian instrument influence.
How did you come up with the idea to do it Hawaiian style? I've been living in Kauai for the last three years, everywhere you go, it could be a restaurant, the grocery store or on the radio, or where ever, you hear Hawaiian music, slack key guitar, lap steel and ukulele, all that stuff, and I thought I would redo my first record Hawaiian style, so that was Revisited one, and imagine I will do a Revisited 2,3,4 and 5, I'll keep redoing albums that I've already put out.
My brother says you have a good voice and that you sound like Rod Stewart. I like your brother, that's a good complement!
I know you have another album coming out in the fall "Glow", is that going to be Hawaiian style or are you going back to your roots of rock. Going back to the roots of what I do, but also, this record sounds like nothing I've ever done as well, the guy that produced it, Mark Weinberg made my songs into something that is a little different from my first record, a lot different than "Move by Yourself" and even more different than "Pass It Around". I'm very proud of it and very excited about it, can't wait for it to come out. Comes out the first week in October, has ten songs on it, really great moments on there, I don't know what people are going to think but I'm really happy about it.
Where would like to be in 20 years? I would love to keep making music,to be alive, still tour, be able to surf. In 20 years I could be roding for my kids (laugh) that could be cool!.
Artists in the 60s and 70s didn't know the impact their music would have today, to them they were just making music, you are making history right now, you could make a big impact. You never know, it's weird, music and style are things that go in a cycle, also, there are a lot of kids that are coming up, they can sing better than you, play better, write better, you know, maybe what I'm doing now could be completely irrelevant in the future, but hopefully it sticks around with people. I think music, what it does, people get tapped into what you are doing and they remember that, it isn't just a song, you remember where you were at that moment in your life, and that's what's special about that song, if you go on a trip with a group of friends, on a graduation or something and you listen to that one record that you happen to have at that time, that record kind of gets in bedded in that trip, so when you hear that song or hear that artist you think about that time you spent with those people, I think that's what people think of when they hear those songs of the 70s, they think back on what they were doing, for a lot of the older generations that was their youth so they are really excited about it,they were living in the moment, that was what was happening. I don't think any of the artists back then were really thinking about making history they were just making music. Not too many things have changed much from back then, besides that, there is really no music industry now, that's the craziest thing, I think a lot of those people from the 70s can't believe what's going in the music industry today.
You have Ozzy and Hendrix and a very supportive wife, is it hard to leave your family behind when you are on tour? I have the most amazing wife in the world, she is so trusting and we are best friends, our relationship never suffers, and everything is so great between us but the hardest thing is leaving and not being part of their lives every day. That's the one thing I struggle with the most with the two things I do as a career, I surf for a living and play music for a living and to do those things you have to travel and you have to be on the road, you have to go out and do what you do. I leave eight months out of the year, I work on the road, it is definitely a very, very hard thing I have to deal with on a daily basis, but we make it happen, it wouldn't be able to happen if I didn't have a wife that was supportive, I think most woman in this situation would crumble, she gets to travel with me sometimes, same with the kids.
You have a great sense of clothing style, are we ever going to see a Donavon Frankereiter clothing line? I hope so, that would be fun, I've actually been surfing for Billabong for 20 years, so now I've got to work with their designers, they let me do a Donavon Collection, it is a small boutique line of clothes that comes out under the Billabong label, that has inspired by me in the kind of clothes that I would wear, instead of the normal cut pair of pants, maybe they are a little tighter with bell bottoms, or skinny jeans, something a little different with the knitted shirts or the button downs, some of the denim might be different. This is the first season I've been able to put out a collection of clothes, there is another season coming out in October that I worked with the guys from Billabong, it has been a lot of fun doing that, incredible.
Have you surfed Delaware? Yeah a couple of times, I'm coming back can't wait to surf there again.
Bottle and Cork July 12th right? Yeah, its always fun there, will try to find some surfing time, that's the beauty of what I do, I play music at night so during the day I'm trying to find a ride to the beach and hunt down waves. I heard that there is going to be a great swell on July 12th (laughs)
Where can we buy your music? All my records are available on iTunes, record stores, mom and pop places, you can go to my website. I got a store on there, donavonf.com , anywhere where you can buy music, I think its available, I hope at least! Thanks for the support I really appreciated, East Coast all summer long!!!
Donavon, thanks so much for the interview. Make sure you don’t miss his show Monday July 12, at the Bottle & Cork.
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