Donavon Frankenreiter bio
When Donavon Frankenreiter was 10 years old, he got his first surfboard. Six years later, he picked up his first guitar. It was the beginning of a wildly creative journey: His improvisational twin obsessions have carried him around the globe and into his fans' hearts. When Frankenreiter released his fourth album,
Glow, the 37-year-old singer/songwriter/pro surfer admitted he still thrived on simply taking the plunge. "We don't have a set show, if we did, I would go crazy," he says. "You never know what's going to happen. I love that element of surprise with music and surfing – you never catch the same wave twice."
"The first thing I do is grab a surfboard or guitar if I'm depressed or bummed – I think that's why a lot of my songs are positive and uplifting, because those two things make me happy. I've really enjoyed living in the moment, enjoying what's going on right now," he says. The disc's title track captures this sentiment perfectly: Riding a sweet, syncopated acoustic strum, the song swells into a beautiful chorus as Frankenreiter sings, "I want to see you glow/I want to see your daylight shining all around your heart." "The sounds are something I've never had on my records, ever," Frankenreiter says, adding he just played his acoustic guitar on the album and was pleasantly surprised by the addition of echo and delay on the disc's electric guitars. "I don't want to say it's a risk, but I don't know what people are going to think," he admits.
But in true Donavon Frankenreiter fashion, there's little room for stress on Glow. The album's 10 tracks are the perfect antidote to trying times: warm, organic, and overwhelmingly hopeful. And Frankenreiter is ready to bring the new tracks to his international fanbase as he continues to crisscross the globe on more surfing and musical adventures. "If there's anything I learned, it's that you really gotta be yourself," he says, reflecting on his career. "You can't fool people in music if you want to stick around for a long time."
Growing up in southern California, Frankenreiter was drawn first to guitar gods like Clapton and Page, then to songwriters like Dylan and Marley. Ska-punk soundtracked his moves in surfing films, but his first high school band was so inspired by Pearl Jam, they named it Peanut Butter and Jam. His next outfit, a Southern rock group, scored a spot on the Warped Tour and was promptly pummeled with debris whenever their harmonies followed acts like Sick of It All. He continued to play rhythm guitar with a cover band, staying comfortably out of the spotlight, until one day something clicked: he needed to branch out on his own.
Good pal Jack Johnson was starting up Brushfire Records, and offered Frankenreiter a shot, producing his first album of folk songs – including the hit "Free" – along with famed Beastie Boys collaborator Mario Caldato, Jr. Frankenreiter followed his 2004 self-titled debut with a full-band record, 2006's Move by Yourself (Lost Highway), where he plugged in and chronicled his life on the road. Joe Chiccarelli (The White Stripes, My Morning Jacket) produced 2008 disc Pass It Around, which featured guests Ben Harper and G. Love, and marked a major musical turning point for Frankenreiter: "The first time I started working with other writers." He kept up the spirit of collaboration on 2010's Revisited, a track-by-track reinterpretation of his debut disc through a Hawaiian lens.
