Hailing from Laguna Beach, singer/songwriter Donavon Frankenreiter seems to love music just as much as surfing, and in the same vein as Ben Harper and Jack Johnson, his sun-kissed love of nature as well as a good guitar melody emerges within his tunes like a promising swell out in the ocean.
Frankenreiter's passion for surfing began earning him money and took him all around the world by the time he was 16. Frankenreiter then decided to learn how to play guitar and by his senior year in high school was a member of the popular local band Peanut Butter and Jam.
Frankenreiter's sophomore work, “Move By Yourself,” which is his debut on Lost Highway Records, combines soul, pop, rock 'n' roll and a bit of country in the spirit of the Allman Brothers with a dash of Jamiraquoi, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and a bit of Van Morrison. The laid-back grooves hint at Motown and 1970s funk with their great use of the wah-wah pedal. Frankenreiter's first album was on Johnson's label Brushfire Recordings.
“Jack and Mario (Caldato) did a great job on that last record and I had a beautiful time making it. I just felt like I needed to make a change, and there were definitely no hard feelings involved,” he recalled. “I wanted to succeed or fail on my own merits and I jumped at the opportunity to be part of a roster like Lost Highway's.”
Frankenreiter produced the new record and it was released over the summer. Mixer Neil Pogue suggested that he get in touch with Benjamin Wright who ended up composing the string arrangements for the song “The Way It Is,” which prove to be an enthralling touch to the dreamy, lighthearted, earthly rhythmic song.
“We went into the studio up in L.A. and there was a 30-piece string orchestra. They laid it down live to the track and that was the first time I've ever done anything like that, but it was really cool,” said Frankenreiter.
Frankenreiter notes the importance of his band mates - Matt Grundy (bass), Eric Brigmond (keyboards) and Craig Barnette (drums) - who helped in the song collaboration both musically and lyrically. The latter ranges in subjects from home, to family (his wife and toddler son), unrequited love (“Fool”) and a spot of meditation near his house that is nestled in a canyon - an ideal atmosphere for reflection (“These Arms”).
“Whenever I am at home it's nice because I am never there,” he said while on tour in upstate New York. “There is a lot of wind that blows our way and (the locale in the song) it is a place that I can stand out there, take it all in.”
Along the way in the recording process, Frankenreiter did seek out suggestions from both the band and Pogue.
“For me, I am really into collaborating on songs, and working on lyrics with other people,” he said. “That is kind of the thing with me - I have a lot of songs, but I kind of get stuck on the lyrics. I don't want to repeat myself; and there are only so many scenarios, scenes and situations I can describe. Other people have different words to describe things. But on the other hand, you always exist in that realm and things happen. The music part just comes easier for me, the melody comes to me and then I think, ‘What am I going to say?' That's why I like working with other people on the words.”
For the next album, Frankenreiter would like to see his music taken in a new direction with a different producer at the helm. He added playing the producer role is a lot of responsibility because at the end of the day, the work from “Move By Yourself” rested on his shoulders. But he said he wouldn't have had it any other way, calling it a “great experience.”
“I want (the producer) to take it somewhere,” he explained. “All my songs are definitely written on the acoustic guitar, so you can take them anywhere really. The song is there and you can frame it any way you want. I think it would be good for someone else to take their interpretation of where they think the music needs to go. I don't know what the next record will be, but I definitely don't want it to be like the same record I just made.”
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