The EM Poll

Peter Frampton: The Guitarist

Feb 6, 2007 7:56 PM, By Gino Robair

           

There are new surprises with each listen of Peter Frampton's first instrumental CD, Fingerprints (Universal, 2006). Doublings of the melody move around the stereo field, harmonies appear with unusual timbres, and there are plenty of subtle sonic touches to support his tasty soloing.

Frampton also keeps things fresh by exploring a variety of genres with numerous guest musicians: Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, Hank Marvin and Brian Bennett of the Shadows, Matt Cameron and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Gov't Mule's Warren Haynes, English saxophonist Courtney Pine, and all-around string virtuoso John Jorgenson.

Many of the songs, and all of the overdubs, were tracked in Frampton's personal studio in Cincinnati, Ohio. The basic tracks were cut to a Studer 827 24-track analog recorder, then transferred to an AMD Opteron PC running Steinberg Nuendo. Outside studios were used for tracking some of the guest musicians, but most of the engineering is credited to Nashville-based Chuck Ainley and Aaron Swihart. A majority of the mixing was done by Swihart and Frampton.

It seems as if Frampton used nearly every tool at his disposal to make Fingerprints: myriad classic and modern guitars (each lovingly noted in the track listings), vintage amps, loops in Apple Garageband, various handheld recorders, and, of course, his signature effect, the Framptone talkbox. Yet all of this technology is used to serve one thing: the song.

What made you decide to do an instrumental album?
Well, it's way overdue. My passion has always been for the guitar: I started out playing guitar and composing music, not singing. And I've always wanted to do my own instrumental record album, ever since I learned my first Shadows record.

In fact, the reason why I started playing guitar in the first place was because of the Shadows — Cliff Richards's backup band — and because of the lead guitar player, Hank Marvin, in particular, as well as the American band, the Ventures. I knew that I'd started this solo project when I got the "Okay, I'm ready to do it" from Hank Marvin about doing "My Cup of Tea." Once I had Hank signed up to do a track with me, I knew that we'd started.

Even though this release is back with the major label that I was originally with, (which has now become a bigger major label, Universal), I said "It's all very good you wanting me to come back. But I don't think you're going to get what you wanted. The next record I'm making is instrumental." And they said "Fantastic." They got it. It wasn't like "Oh..." You know?

It's great that they didn't just expect you to make another pop hit.
Right. They've already got the catalog. That's what the basis of the agreement is all about, and it makes perfect sense because the record company has such an interest in my career that it behooves them to give me much more of a marketing budget than I would have with an independent label. Usually, when you ask an indie label what sort of budget do we have for marketing, they say "How much have you got?" It's such a thrill to not have to ask myself that. [Laughs.]

So, yes, it was great that they got it. For an instrumental record, I couldn't be more thrilled. I knew it was going to difficult and it wasn't going to have mass appeal. I wasn't about to change my mind, and I'm glad I didn't.

It must open other doors, if people can have an open mind that this is Peter Frampton, right? You have a Django-inspired tune, and you've got a blues song, which isn't really something people would usually associate with you.
No, it's not. But it's all stuff that I play and have played with other people. But people were polarized by Frampton Comes Alive, if that's the right way to look at it. People can't see anything else. Okay, they can see two other things: if pushed, they'll go "ah, yeah, 'I'm In You.'" and then the other thing is "Oh, Sergeant Pepper!" And, there, I've brought it up myself.

But Frampton Comes Alive was so big that they can't think about anything else. They've only got so much room in the brain to take in anything about Peter Frampton, and that's the thing that they remember.

It must be hard to overcome that. Is this record doing that for you?
Yeah, I think so. I think that since I started touring again, from around '92, it has been... I can't say "re-education" because it sounds so premeditated. The phenomenon of Frampton Comes Alive completely buried the musician, if you know what I mean. That's been the journey: To come back to the guitar player, and lead people there. And this record is obviously a major part of that game plan.

What are the difficulties in working on a project without vocals?
How you make the second verse more interesting than the first, because there are no lyrics. It's a wonderful challenge actually. I've written my fair share of instrumentals, so it wasn't like my first attempt. It was very interesting, I have to say.

I wasn't finished composing a piece until I was actually recording the melodies. I enjoyed composing and changing them on the spot. You'd have a pretty good idea, but then when you could take that idea and then expand on the theory and it starts to develop, that's when it gets interesting.

I didn't want it to be background music. That was absolutely the opposite of what I was going for. I was going for something that was very listenable, at a level that you would listen to a vocal. I had to keep it as interesting as possible, and that was that challenge. I think I did: I feel like each one has a mood.

Did you ever get to a point where you would listen to a nearly finished mix and say "Oh. This needs another part."
Absolutely, yeah. Sometimes I'd try it and keep it. And sometimes I'd try it and it was already finished. But the beauty of having the studio at home is that you can take that time and say "Okay, wait a second. We're going from mix mode back into overdub mode for a minute." Basically, that means you're not going to start mixing it again until tomorrow, because you've got to experiment for the rest of the day on trying to make it better. That's great. But on a normal budget, on a normal album schedule, one doesn't have the time or the money to do that. But I do. [Laughs.]

It seems like it would've taken a long time to record Fingerprints considering how many people were involved and all the different studios you used.
It took over a year and a half but, obviously, we weren't recording all the time. We were touring as well. If you put all the days together, I have no idea how long it took. But it wasn't break-neck speed, if you know what I mean.