An animated Frampton

Part II – The Torch is Passed

He remembered the smile of the candy seller, on his first day in Tangier, when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to go—that smile had also been like the old king’s smile.

– The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

RR: Another landmark relationship signpost which runs along with the autobiographical theme on Thank You Mr. Churchill is symbolized by the track you co-wrote with your son, Julian Frampton, who delivers vocals on “Road to the Sun.”

PF: Over the last few years, his talent has been blossoming and shining. He’s turned into this incredible songwriter, very prolific, great guitar playing, and he writes on guitar and, now, keyboards, too. [Author’s Note: Indeed, like his father who helped co-found The Herd at the age of 18, Julian Frampton got his start at a young age, and is now 21.] We had often jammed together over the years. That was a lot of fun, obviously, but then, we decided we’d sit down and write a couple songs, and see what it was like together. It doesn’t get any better than that. We had so much fun doing it, and I slipped one in that we had written together, when I was playing the potential songs for the album to Chris, and I didn’t say anything. Chris said, “Who’s that? That’s great? What’s that?” I said, “That’s my son.” He said, “Why it’s got to be on. We’ve got to do it.” That was it.

I let Chris choose, so it wasn’t Dad saying, “You’ve got to be on the album.” But…obviously, I would have…that was my idea. (laughter) But, I mean, I felt it was definitely a powerful song, one of the strongest rockers on the record. He just rose to the occasion. His vocal is the first take, live with the band, which was Julian’s dream to play with Matt Cameron [Pearl Jam drummer, who appears on six Mr. Churchill tracks]. And Craig [Young] is such a great bass player. We cut it as a trio, with a singer. What you hear is what he sang on the track while we were putting it down, so it’s pretty amazing.

RR: You co-wrote several tracks with Gordon Kennedy, a longtime collaborator. Let’s talk about that working relationship.

PF: Well, I think Gordon and I are in our eleventh year of working together. We just went out, the other day, flew out for a day to San Francisco, and did a couple of numbers for the iTunes people for their online content. It’s just acoustic, the two of us. I can’t imagine not writing with Gordon for long. (laughs) He’s like my brother. We’re very close, personally, and he’s just an amazing writer/guitar/singer—the whole bit. We’re just really—to use the Italian term—simpatico. He can morph himself into any style of music, and enjoys it. He’s an all-around phenomenal songwriter. Pretty amazing—the most gentle touch of Gordon Kennedy; beautiful guitar touch, he has, and style and everything, so it’s always a thrill to work with him.

RR: Your electric guitar playing on the album is very impressive, as well as the tasteful acoustic passages on several songs, such as “Black Ice.” What I also like is the lyrical content featured subject matter that, normally, could not be pondered at the age of 25. Did you want to talk about the evolution of that particular song?

PF: Basically, it’s about the journey I’ve been through, and, obviously, my new-found sobriety over the last seven years. Also, there’s the personal thing that there is always that one person who is there for you. It doesn’t matter how low it gets, you hope you’ve got that one person who you can always turn to, and, accepts you for what you really are, no matter what anybody else thinks.

We tried it various different ways. We tried it with the band, live, and it just wasn’t that kind of song. I sat down in my living room, and we ran some cables and mikes up to my den, actually, where I wrote the song. I sang it and played it with no click tracks, or anything, just solo, and, then, came downstairs, and started overdubbing on it myself.

There’s another track that I did like that, years ago, called “Just the Time of Year,” on the Frampton’s Camel record, and that’s all me playing on it. It was sort of like going back to that, really. I’ve really enjoyed layering the very subtle guitars towards the end. There are some Leslie guitars at the end, there, and there are the “Hank Marvin” Strat sounds, which comes in at the very end, which is a very special sound, and a very special guitar. After that session with The Shadows, I was allowed to play Hank’s guitar [Author’s Note: Fender Stratocaster, immortalized as the first Strat brought over into England, and played by Hank Marvin in The Shadows]. I got all the information on how to get one, just like that, and guess what? (laughter) Hank could pick mine up, and it would be exactly what he plays. I had the same people work on it that does all his stuff, so that’s a dream come true to have one of those.

RR: Yes, you also layered bass, dulcimer, acoustic guitar, and piano, among other instruments on that track, and it doesn’t sound too overdone.

PF: No. It’s very sparse, but just for the different colors.

RR: You featured a variety of colors, and a different location on “Invisible Man,” which was recorded at Blackbird Studios in Nashville.

PF: Well, I wanted to do it just like the Funk Brothers would have recorded, so that even the tambourine was live, and there were two drum kits. I didn’t have room in my studio to do two drummers, and Blackbird in Nashville is an amazing studio. It is John McBride’s studio, Martina McBride’s husband, and it’s probably one of the nicest studios you could ever visit. He loves guitars and equipment, and collects a lot of it. Whatever you wanted was there. We had this beautiful room with a big API console, and we had the Funk Brothers come in from all over the place. I had inducted the Funk Brothers into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville a few years prior, and had asked them at the time “when I do my next record would you join me on a track?” They said, “Yes.” I also got to perform with them on the show when they were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

When I called all [the Funk Brothers] up, they came, and, in the meantime, Gordon Kennedy and I decided to write a song that was dedicated to them, being the “invisible men,” basically. [Author’s Note: the Funk Brothers was not the name of a band; rather they were session musicians who worked on many of the great Motown recordings in the 1960s. For further information on these musicians, see Allan Slutsky’s book Standing in the Shadows of Motown, or the documentary of the same name by Paul Justman.] It was Gordon’s idea to come up with lyrics that were all these Motown titles. So we went and picked out his Best of Motown —six CDs, or whatever it was (laughs—and wrote down all the titles, and put them into one song. I thought that was very interesting the way we put that together.

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