"Speaking" Instrumentals With Instro Meister Phantom Frank of The Treble Spankers - by Art Phibes
It couldn't have been more exciting to finally track down Treble Spankers' guitarist Frank Gerritsen. I knew he was somewhere in Amsterdam, Holland, but it wasn't until he recently connected to the worldwide web that I finally found him. I had written an e-mail to one of the members of Spy-Fi, Gerritsen's new side project, asking if they would be interested in doing a track for the forthcoming Link Wray tribute CD project I was putting together, and I was pleasantly surprised to get a reply from Frank himself. Lucky for me...and lucky for instrumental and surf music fans around the world! "Phantom Frank," as he's known to his fans, is considered by instro enthusiasts "in the know" to be one of the very best guitarists in the genre, having made his mark with The Treble Spankers. Although the group is no longer together, in the mid-90s they released two seminal records, "Araban" and "Hasheeda." These two albums had a huge impact on the instro scene and on those lucky enough to have found them (only released in Holland, it was next to impossible to find these recordings in America). Phantom Frank rarely does interviews in English, so I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered his excellent command of the English language. So, I invite you now to delve into my conversation with Treble Spanker Phantom Frank as we discuss the instro genre, gear, Middle Eastern and "Oriental" music, and seeing the Beatles' limo drive by his house (what?!!)...
Art: Frank, when did you first start playing guitar?
Frank: I bought my first guitar when I was 14, so that's 29 years ago. In the beginning I didn't know anything about chords or how to tune a guitar. I struggled for about 2 years and then I took some classical- and jazz guitar lessons. I really was obsessed and played night and day. My teacher advised me to go to the school of music to become a classical guitar player but I went to University instead and quit lessons. Over the years I also learned to play keyboards, bass, recorder, drums and flute.
Art: Where did you grow up and what kind of music were you interested in early on?
Frank: I was born in a little village close to Amsterdam, called Hillegom. We lived in a big house in the fields where they grow tulips and other flowers (the land of the bulbs). As a child I was kinda isolated and always played in the fields. I'm a big fan of Spaghetti-westerns and the music of Morricone. Maybe that's because of my youth. Near the house was a barn and I remember I was always busy making a sort of string-instruments and drum kits out of junk. I desperately wanted to make music but I didn't know how and there was no encouragement from my family. In fact, there was no music at all till my father bought a small record player. My 3 older sisters bought records by The Beatles*, The Kinks and The Spotnicks**. When I heard the last band I knew for sure I wanted to become a guitar player although it would take some years till I bought my first guitar.
*(I actually saw The Beatles sitting in a limousine passing our house on their way to a TV-show to be recorded in our hometown. My sisters went wild. It was 1964.)
**(The song "Johnny Guitar" from "Araban" is actually an ode to The Spotnicks.)
Art: Your guitar playing seems to be very influenced by Middle-Eastern music. Let's talk about that.
Frank: When you play the classical guitar you need to play a lot of Spanish stuff. I always liked those pieces the most. Later on I became interested in what we call "world music". I still remember the first time I heard a rock band play an oriental tune. I was very excited and the thought of a western/oriental combination would never leave my mind. Of course later on I found out about the exotic period in America (Baxter, Martin Denny) and the psychedelic bands in the 60's playing sitar music. I bought records of gypsy music, Greek Rebetica and lots of Turkish and Moroccan artists, just to study their tone scales, but I like to translate those elements into western music instead of playing a 13/6 beat or some other complicated measure. The surf bands did a good job combining rock and roll and oriental music and that's probably why I play that music. In Europe populations are mixing very quickly and I think it will only take a few generations to establish a new sort of music. What happened in New York (9/11 attacks) could be important for the way we think about cultural differences and how to combine them. It certainly will not stop my urge for making music that will be accepted by both a Muslim and, for example, a Dutch housewife.
Art: What other bands or artists influenced you?
Frank: I already mentioned The Spotnicks as the first instrumental band I heard. At first, I was listening to what my sisters brought home, until I had my own money to buy records. I've had lots of different "musical periods". My classical favorites are Bach and Bartok. I listened to jazz and blues. Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, and Django Reinhardt are the ones I still like to hear now and then. I consider Jimi Hendrix one of the greatest ever. Then I discovered country and rockabilly and I spent a few years just trying to play that kind of music. Johnny Cash is my hero and I can listen to Hank Williams, Sanford Clark, Johnny Burnette and "Gun fighter music" for hours. I couldn't live without that music. The German computer band Kraftwerk has been very important for the way I look at music. I was never the type to search for rarities and collector-items because I was always busy playing the guitar. And as I like to compose a lot, I like it to be very quiet in the house so I can go on composing in my head. Friends always provided me with all kinds of tapes and I learned a lot from that and I'm glad they did the searching for me. Listening to a lot of different music made me an all-around guitar player and composer. I can play and compose in any style, although I'm only known for my surf playing. I also like Link Wray a lot- what a great sound! He' s the one for me. Also Andy Tielman (of the Tielman Brothers), an incredible guitar player from the 50's and early 60's who was mentioned by The Beatles and Hendrix, who saw him perform in German nightclubs. Of course, Gypsy music, The Shadows, The Ventures, The Trashmen and all the American surf bands from the 60's.
Art: What is the meaning of Oriental music for you?
Frank: Oriental music means for me all the exotic music from far away: Arabian, African, Indian, Indonesian, Eastern European. Turkish etc.
Art: I really enjoy your style of double-picking (the picking technique every good surf music guitar player learns how to master), what can you tell us about that?
Frank: It must be a result of my classical lessons. I then used, of course, the nails of my right hand but when I started playing the electric guitar, I found out a way to pick 2 strings at the same time: one with the plectrum and one with the nail of my forefinger. I never thought about it but now that you asked I guess it's my own discovery.
Art: What bands were you in before the Treble Spankers?
Frank: When I was old enough to be in a band, pop music wasn't very interesting. Rock music, like Deep Purple, for example, is a style I never really liked and certainly didn't wanna play. I listened a lot to 60's bands like The Who and Jimi Hendrix, but I never had the idea of playing that kind of music myself. So I studied all sorts of music like blues, jazz, rockabilly, country, flamenco, etc. and learned to play guitar in these styles. I became "all-round". Strangely enough it was very difficult for me to learn a song just from a record. I could read notes but learning a solo just by hearing was impossible for me. That was my luck because now I was forced to write my own music instead of playing someone else's tunes. I still consider composing much more interesting than reproducing. When punk came along in 1977, I immediately got interested and formed a punk band called The Pessariums. Gigs were very hard to get in Holland so the band was disbanded after 2 years and I went to Amsterdam to study and become a lawyer. In those years I saw all the great punk bands performing in Amsterdam and it was a very inspiring period in my life. The Ramones were my favorites. Punk disappeared and guitar playing became less important. I was studying and listened to synth bands like Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and OMD. After a few years, I became bored with the law study and decided I would be a better guitar player than a lawyer and quit University and played in all sorts of mostly experimental bands. I picked up the classical guitar again and studied 12 hours a day. A terrible RSI-injury of the left hand was the result and I could never become a guitar teacher or performer of classical music. For 5 years I could only play the lap steel (Hawaiian style).
Art: Wow, that's a sad story. Give us some background on the RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury).
Frank: I got RSI from playing classical guitar in the wrong way. When I searched for medical help my left hand was already badly damaged and they told me it would never heal again. However, my right hand was still healthy and I learned how to play with that hand in the right way without the danger of getting RSI there as well. My left hand will always be a problem.
Art: What did you do next musically?
Frank: Django Reinhardt could play with only two fingers of his left hand so I studied his style and began to play again. I formed a country band with my little brother on stand-up bass. We played a sort of "Johnny Cash meets Morricone"-music and did a lot of instrumentals too (the Treble Spankers tune "A man called Curse" was written in those days). We were called The String Phantoms and recorded a single for Dutch label Kelt Records. After a year, future Treble Spankers rhythm guitarist, Marcel Kruup, became our drummer. Sometimes, I played in his band, Ouke Baas. With that band we played some instrumentals, as well, and I learned to play with only two fingers and a very steady right hand which is very important for tremolo-playing. Together with Ouke Baas' bass player, Maarten Heijblok we formed The Treble Spankers. First as a trio, later as a quartet with Frank Sloos on drums and Marcel on rhythm guitar. We had a great time in the beginning. Most people thought we were making a completely new style of music. I could compose as much oriental stuff as I liked. Right from the start we could play a lot and we became a very tight band. We recorded "Araban" in a very short time, almost live. It wasn't a big selling success, but then came Pulp Fiction and all of a sudden we were a very "hip and cool" band.
Art: That "Pulp Fiction thing" is such an interesting phenomenon. That film totally revived the 60's surf/instrumental genre almost 3 decades after it died down.
Frank: Yeah, our music became very popular in Holland and we appeared on national TV a lot. After the success of "Hasheeda" we were able to make a living out of it. "Hasheeda" was deliberately made more commercial to reach a bigger audience than "Araban", and that was our intention and not Polydor's (the band's label in Holland). We played at all the big festivals and toured a lot in Europe. The fact that we did not play the usual surf songs but instead covered synthesizer tunes from Kraftwerk and OMD was important for our success. We got very good reviews on that. But I can assure you it was hard work convincing the other band members of the necessity of playing these songs. Very successful as well was the performance of our Moroccan singer, Abdelatif. I visited all the Turkish and Moroccan shops in town in search for someone who could sing "Samira" (a wildl and exotic "Arabia meets Bo Didley" tune on the band's second album, "Hasheeda"). I finally found Abdel, who had sung The Koran in his childhood. So there we were: four old men and a young and good-looking exotic singer. We hired a belly dancer and our shows became well known.
Art: Why did The Treble Spankers disband?
Frank: We played so much that my RSI returned. I played for about a year with a lot of pain and then I had to quit (doctor's advice). We had recorded another album for Polydor, but because of the RSI, the lack of time to compose good songs and the fact that certain members were too stoned to perform well, the album was never released and I'm actually glad about that. I will use the best songs in the future.
Art: I understand that in 1998, before The Treble Spankers broke up, the band played a series of shows for some sort of tribute to The Shadows. Tell me about that. Did you do some Cliff Richard songs, too, or was it just Shadows material?
Frank: In Holland it's forbidden to advertise for cigarettes on TV, so a company like Marlboro sponsors music concerts. They ask well known Dutch artists to give 8 shows and to play only songs of your favorite artist or band. They pay you a lot of money because you have to rehearse and you have to play for 45 minutes. Because we already played some Shadows songs, we chose that band. We did some Cliff songs with a singer called Michel Tersteege (The Other Side). It was great fun and I remember stage diving during "Apache".
Art: It's a shame that the Treble Spankers never toured America.
Frank: Because we had to earn a living by playing a lot, we were never able to visit the States. Such a tour would have probably been a low budget one and we couldn't afford the loss of our income. I always regretted that and I hope to visit the States when I've got a new band.
Art: Let's talk about gear, a subject many surf and instro fans want to know more about.
Frank: My most important guitars for playing live are my 2 Fender Jazzmasters (both 1966, dots and binding). The 1966 Jazzmaster is the only model I can handle. I tried all sorts of Jazzmasters but these ones are made for my hands. I use heavy flat wound strings (012) and the sound is incredible. The tremolo system never let me down, I can play for hours without tuning. Although they are post-CBS, the material is probably pre-CBS. I use my Jazzmasters on most records as well. My most important guitar at home is my 1969 Fender Telecaster (maple neck). The body is very light and guitar customizers are always delighted about it because Jimi Hendrix played a 1969 Strat made of the same material at Woodstock. The neck is perfect and it has a very light action. I use the guitar a lot in the studio and, for studying and composing, it's my favorite. I own a 1964 Guild-starfire 3 which I used on The "Good, The Bad and Ugly" (great version of Moriconne's tune on "Araban") and "A Man Called Curse" (another super spaghetti western on "Hasheeda"). The guitar is so dear to me, I won't take it out of the house anymore. For acoustic recordings, I always use my 1967 Guild-western and a Spanish flamenco guitar. I'm recording a Hawaiian album now and therefore use two very old lap steels: a Supro electric and a Fender. I've got a very good Jerry Jones remake of the Danelectro 6-string Bass. I would like to have a Burns or a Fender, but this one is okay. I'll use it as a bass guitar as well. Other guitars: Danelectro Convertible Silvertone - Fender Mandolin - Höfner Beatle bass 1966. Through the years, I collected the guitars I really need. I'm not much of a collector and I don't mind if a guitar is refinished or if it's got a new pick guard. I recently bought an 80's Stratocaster and it's the first one I can actually play on, so I waited 20 years for the right Strat and it isn't even a collectors item. On stage I always use a 70's Fender Twin Reverb with JBL-speakers. I need the heavy speakers for my heavy sound. Celestions won't do. I use the Twin in combination with a 60's Fender Showman Amp and with this combination, you won't need a PA-system anymore. In the studio I used the Twin and a very nice Princeton-Reverb from the 70's. I used to think that vintage gear was important but I'm a bit skeptical about that now. I once played at a surf festival in London. I'd heard so many surf bands in my life, I wasn't really interested in surf anymore. I was resting backstage and in the distance I heard a surf band playing, and the sound was so beautiful I was really shocked. So I decided to go out and have a look and I found out that the boys were playing on small Peavy-transistor amps, headless Japanese hard rock guitars and a sort of cheap imitation of a Pearl drum kit. So from then on I'm thinking a bit different about vintage gear. For effects, I only use a Voodoo Lab Tremolo and I've got a Fender Reverb Unit (remake of the Dick Dale-model). I'd really like to get my hands on an electric sitar (Coral or Jerry Jones-reissue). The one with drone-strings. Whenever I need one I have to borrow one because they are very hard to get around here.
Art: What are your thoughts on analog vs. digital recording?
Frank: Of course The Treble Spankers recorded analog but I would never do that again nowadays. Digital technology has become so sophisticated, why should you struggle with tape recorders in an expensive studio. I mean, I listened a lot to Kraftwerk when I was young and I was never a purist person. I'm interested in modern music made with samplers and computers as well as old music. In fact, I build a complete computerized studio in my house. There are programs now which simulate all kinds of vintage guitar amps and they are very convincing. I am not really interested in the analog versus digital discussion. I've got great sounding CD's and I've got some terrible vinyl, so it depends on how you put your material on the tape, CD, record or whatever.
Art: Do you listen to modern instrumental or surf bands?
Frank: When you have played as much surf music as I did, you tend to listen to other music when you're "off-duty". But now, after a few years without surf music I get really excited when I hear or see a surf band. After all, it's very exciting music. Here in Europe there aren't many surf bands and the bands who play instrumental stuff like The Shadows are a bit dull. Although I'm a great fan of The Shadows, these bands seem to lack the element of sex or something like that.
Art: What are your thoughts on the current state of popular music?
Frank: I think the computer will be very important in future music. Analog recording studios will be a sort of curiosity. I don't care much about that, the problem is the song writing. When a song is good I don't mind if it's full of samples and computer sounds. The number of good songs is now decreasing. Popular music is now sponsored and often made just for marketing purposes. Thanks to samplers and the lack of fantasy I hear only retro music and the kids don't care. In Europe the new instrumental music is now House music and Dance. Very beat oriented grooves without a real song structure. There is now the strange situation where DJ's are pop stars. People actually think that a DJ is making music instead of putting on someone else's record. Live music has become less important in Europe. We've got 80's revival nights now and although people are getting a bit tired of House and are longing for more melody, they really don't know how to dance to songs without computer beat. I guess it always has been that way. I mean, where are the great orchestras of the 40's and 50's, the exciting rockabilly bands, surf, 60's, soul, funk? Where are the new Bach and Beethoven's? I'm very curious about what the great music of the future is gonna be like.
Art: What are your future plans?
Frank: I'm missing the live performances a lot. Although my arm will never be cured, I've decided to form a new band. I'm looking for musicians right now to form a quartet. I wrote a completely new repertoire with a lot of Spanish and gypsy influences. In the meantime, I'm recording a new album with DJ-duo The Easy Alohas under the name Spy-Fi. It's gonna be oriental-oriented music. And I'm working now on a Hawaiian album (it's almost finished). I've learned to play the lap steel during my injury so I got very interested in Hawaiian music. It was very popular in Holland in the 40's and 50's. I've already done 4 gigs Hawaiian-style and people are interested. There will never be a Treble Spankers reunion with me on guitar.
Art: Now, I'd like to ask you about some of my favorite Treble Spankers songs: "Ultra Wave":
Frank: One of my favorites as well. I had to write that song in one day, because we needed a B-side for the CD-single, Samira and a studio was hire for the next day . I always work well under pressure.
Art: "Dilmohammed":
Frank: This was the first song I wrote for the Treble Spankers. It's named after a Turkish butcher in Amsterdam. The song was recently bought for advertising purposes by Amstel Beer and you can hear it a lot on Dutch television.
Art: "Mirananda":
Frank: It' s now the tune for a well-known radio program in The Netherlands. It's a sort of gypsy melody and it took me a few years before I could finish the song. (That's how I work, I've always got about a hundred ideas in my head and it can take years before I work something out)
Art: "Araban"(the band's best-known tune):
Frank: I thought we needed some vocals on the record, so I wrote that song and named it "Araban," but I didn't know what it meant (nobody does). Then a friend wrote the lyrics and did the parlando. We had great fun doing it and I still like the psychedelic part.
Art: "Go West" (Yes, the Village People's "classic!) :
Frank: They sing this song at soccer stadiums in Holland. It's also the song of Ajax (Dutch soccer league). Our manager, Bert, is a big fan of Ajax and he once financed a single and the conditions were that we should record "Go West." It turned out to be a difficult song to play but it was on television, in sports programs.
Art: "Hasheeda" (title track for the band's second record):
Frank: I really like the melodies. It's a sort of Indian song and you need to play it with a capo in fourth position. I once saw a band in England who played that song and I was very surprised, not only by the fact that a band was playing my song but the guitar player (a girl) didn't use a capo. She later said it took here a few months to study and when I gave her a capo she couldn't believe it was so easy.
Art: "Backfire" (a live favorite):
Frank: We played this song with the guitar on our necks (like Jimi Hendrix). Even the drummer stood there with his back towards the audience. We even recorded it that way to get the right feeling.
Art: "Red Hot Navigator":
Frank: I wrote that song in 10 minutes and it became our biggest hit (and our only one). It's still used a lot on national television whenever there is a program about cars.
Art: "Popcorn" (the Moog classic from the 70's):
Frank: That one started as a joke but became very popular with students and at parties. God how I hated that song.
Art: "Wella Flex Blue" (one of my favorites):
Frank: Indeed! It's my favorite as well. I don't know what inspired me when I wrote that song, but it took me months to finish the job.
Art: "Toenggoe Mati":
Frank: Typical "Indo rock"-style (great music made by Indonesians who came to Holland in the 50's ). The song was used for a documentary / video about a well-known soccer player from Finland. He's now playing in the UK so I hope they sell a lot of copies of that video because he's playing very well now and I get some money for each copy. The sad intro-melody is the way I prefer to play.
Art: There's a couple of more things I want to ask you. For those here in America that enjoy good "spirits," can you tell us about good Dutch beer and liquor?
Frank: In Holland we drink Heineken, Amstel or Grolsch beer. The best beer comes from Amsterdam and is called IJ-bier. Hard liquor is Jenever and Beerenburg, a Dutch liquor from the north that keeps you warm in the cold winter. I like all kinds of liquor, even the ones made by people themselves in their cellar and which contain 80% alcohol.
Art: That explains a lot!!! OK, thank you very much, Frank, for talking to us. Any message for your fans out there?
Frank: Enjoy instrumental guitar music, for it's the best and most exciting music there is!
Art "Phibes" runs the label he founded in 1996, MuSick Recordings, in Los Angeles, CA. MuSick will be releasing a Link Wray tribute compilation later in the year with contributions from Deke Dickerson, Boss Martians, The Fleshtones, The Woggles, Calexico, Space Cossacks, Hypnomen and Spy-Fi (featuring Phantom Frank).
Art Bourasseau, 'Treble Spankers: "Speaking" Instrumentals with Instro Meister Phantom Frank of The Treble Spankers', in: Garage and Beat!, Number 5 early 2002, p. 29-32