Photo: Matt Bonham
“That’s why I moved there,” Frankenreiter says. “I wanted to try to have a garden for the first time and have a real swell life once I got off the road. Because it’s kind of chaotic once you’re on the road. I didn’t really realize it, but I’ve been travelling so much for the last 10 years playing music and we’re on the road 8 months out of the year so when I go home, I don’t want to get on freeways and drive all over the place. I’m lucky that I have an opportunity to live in Hawaii and call that place home. I love it there, but it’s just me. I love the beach, I love surfing, I love that lifestyle, and so I really, really love that.”
That night, after a stage introduction capped off by a broadcast of Jimi Hendrix’s blistering national anthem at the first Woodstock, Frankenreiter and his band take the stage. With vocals mellow enough to stoke out a hillside of Southerners, including myself, as well as many others from around the country, his set takes on a breezy, backyard-like atmosphere, with a jovial Frankenreiter kicking a beach ball into the crowd, and from his Martin acoustic to the white custom Hendrix ’68 Stratocaster remake, he thrills the audience with his guitar chops.
“Yeah, we have great shows,” he says, laughing, “and there are some shows when I struggle. And I’m like ‘Fuck!’ Man, I just couldn’t get going. It’s sort of a real life thing, you know? You get up there, some gigs you’re sounding weird on stage, and just not feeling it, you can’t fake it, you know? Just have to go, “OK, man, get it back together. Let’s feel it, let’s have fun.”
Similar with his songwriting and surfing, Frankenreiter put in long hours — and continues doing so — developing his music from scratch.
“It was weird for me,” he says. “Nothing really felt natural to me, I mean, it really did feel natural, but it was also something that I worked at. My surfing, I had to work really hard at it, you know? But I had such a deep passion for it. Everybody can get up and surf, but then it’s like how much of a passion do you have for it, you know, and what kind of style do you have and what are you going to do on that wave? And what do you want to say? Same thing with music. It didn’t come easy. When I learned guitar the first three years was difficult. It was like getting over that hump of like, ‘Fuck, I want to play three chords quicker than this, slow’. Once you get past that you’re like, ‘Whoa, I’m doing it’, and then you start a band and then what are you going to do with that? What does it mean? And so, it was always fun for me. It was always an experience and I love how it’s always changing, too. I never get bored playing music, so I have no idea from gig-to-gig, from song to song, it’s always changing. And same with waves. Waves are always changing. So those two things I do, they’re exciting, you know? Every road’s different. This one’s dirt, the next one will be cement. And then, fuck, we’re in the mountains here. We’re going to Germany next…it’s a weird, crazy experience.”
Another passion of Frankenreiter’s is giving back to those in need with time, effort and benefit concerts, to such charities as Surfrider, SURFAID, and Love Hope Strength, a cancer support organization he participates in with other musicians. “I do benefits for whomever, whenever I can,” Frankenreiter beams. “I don’t really pick one or two charities and ‘this is it, I’m gonna fly this flag’. I try to do benefits whenever I can, anywhere.”
Family, surfing and music continue inspiring him forward, as well as time and age, bringing Frankenreiter experience that keeps any contentment of success at bay.
“My kids are getting older,” Frankenreiter says, marveling at the thought. “I’m getting older, and you go through ups and downs, and you go through beautiful times and it’s always a journey, you know. I think the journey changes as you go. You never get to a place where you’re like ‘I’m so comfortable, this is it — I’ve made it — yay! It’ll just come natural now, and it’s easy.’ It’s life, you know? It’s a lot going on, so you just get inspired all the time, by everything. And different things inspire you, because you get older. I’m a lot different than I was when I was 20. I’m 40 now, so I’m a lot different than when I made my first record at 30. Ten years later, it’s like, different person.”
Traveling across the world, he sees more waves in a year’s time than most surfers do in a lifetime. Does he have any certain wave on his ‘bucket list’? Frankenreiter smiles, and without thought, gives a father’s — and a surfer’s — perfect answer.
“Uncrowded, and with my kids.”
The sun now gone for the day, he stands up and moves to the laptop against the side of the wall, takes a seat, looking into the electronic gateway to the rest of the world. Perhaps he is planning for Germany, the next stop on his constant global journey. Possibly checking the waves on a perfect left that you or I will never see. Perhaps checking in with his family back in Kaua’i, or maybe Donavon Frankenreiter is seeking inspiration from everyday people across the rest of the world, doing what they love, the world that finds inspiration in him.
