Dweezil Zappa continues to spread his father’s legacy

When Dweezil Zappa began putting together his live musical tribute to his father, Frank Zappa, he found that – after decades as a guitarist schooled in the flashy style of Eddie Van Halen – he had to find a new approach.

“I had to completely change my playing style, not only physically, but the mental approach,” says Zappa, 45, of Zappa Plays Zappa. “You have to get a lobotomy and train from the ground up. You take 25 or 30 years of habits and just say, ‘I’m not going to do any of that.’”

Zappa Plays Zappa returns to the Neighborhood Theatre Friday with its latest tour, which includes recreating Zappa’s 1975 “One Size Fits All” album in its entirety.

Although sheet music exists for some of the compositions by Frank Zappa, who died in 1993, not everything was written out.

“Everybody in the band is different in how they process the material,” he says. “They have the advantage because they can all read music. I learn everything by ear. I have to rewind and memorize stuff. They’re looking at a page. I have to look at everything in small chunks and memorize them in smaller phrases.”

The experience has colored Zappa’s upcoming solo album – his first in almost 10 years.

“I had a whole new set of tools I could use for the technical approach, and because of what I’d been learning, I had a whole different sense of melodic and harmonic structure,” he says. “I wrote horn and string section parts. I had not known anything about how to do it, but because of my experience in Zappa Plays Zappa, that became possible.”

Although Zappa has contributed guitar to albums by Winger, Don Johnson, the Fat Boyz and Pat Boone, his own music isn’t widespread.

“People never knew my music that much, so every time I make a record, it’s almost like a clean slate,” says Zappa, who takes inspiration from his father’s versatility. “My dad’s music is its own thing. You can’t identify it as anything other than his own unique style – which is kind of what this record is like, but in my own way.”

It still reflects his base as a guitarist.

“People love Led Zeppelin and all these bands that came up with cool guitar riffs, but that’s not the stuff that’s being pushed by record companies,” he says. “It’s all computer-based production. What I wanted to do was make a record that has a lot of elements of the kinds of records I liked growing up.

“I did an homage to my favorite guitar players – Brian May, James Honeyman Scott from the Pretenders, Elliot Easton from the Cars – that people would not expect to hear in my playing.”

But Zappa is in no hurry to step away from playing his father’s music, either.

“That’s the fabric of my childhood,” Zappa says. “It’s been a way to have a continuing relationship with him while he’s away on his final tour. I learn more about his music and therefore learn more about him. The more details I discover in how he did what he did, the more fascinating it becomes.”

This story was originally published May 8, 2015 at 8:36 PM with the headline "Dweezil Zappa continues to spread his father’s legacy."