New Jersey surfer Brendan Borek was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma when he was 16 years old and died two years later. For the past 16 years his friends and family have celebrated his spirit with the Brendan Borek High Tides Memorial Fund, a charity that assists families of children and young adults with cancer. This year the annual surf contest and fund raiser includes a benefit concert on August 25th in Wildwood, NJ featuring Donavon Frankenreiter, White Buffalo, State Radio and Don McCloskey. In addition, a 2 CD compilation will be released with music by these artists as well as Jack Johnson, G. Love, Ben Harper, Joanna Newsome, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bouncing Souls, McRad and Goons of Doom. NYC locals Dr. Know and Darryl Jennifer of the legendary Bad Brains have teamed up with Chino Moreno of The Deftones to sing a rendition of “Rock for Light.” Donavon gave this telephone interview one caffeinated morning from Laguna Beach.

Michael Machemer: So is this your first time playing the Brendan Borek Benefit?

Donavon Frankenreiter: Yeah, first time. I heard about it through my music manager Mike Soens. He grew up with Brendan and was always talking about the surf contests they’ve been doing in his honor for the past 16 years. This year he decided to step it up a bit with the concert, raise more money and bring more awareness to the community. It’s something that keeps building and it’s great to do stuff in memory of somebody, especially when it’s going to help a lot of other people.

MM: Brendan’s story is so inspiring to hear. It makes sense that someone like you would want to contribute your music and your time. I guess it’s a celebration of life, this kid’s life and life in general, and Brendan definitely sounded like a really positive ‘salt of the earth’ type cat.

DF: Yeah, it’s great. Things like this really rip at you. My son is three and a half, so it’s a heavy thing to lose someone so young. It’s incredible that I’m able to help, and with anything like this, if I have the time, I’ll do it. Same with benefits like Surfrider’s “Heal the Bay” and cancer foundations I’ve done performances for. It’s wonderful when, like you said, people come together and celebrate life and they remember somebody who might have passed and they’re doing it for them and in their name. It always makes people leave at the end of the night and feel good about what they’ve done. They feel good because they know that their money is going toward people who need it. Everybody involved is giving.

MM: Definitely. So, are you on tour now?

DF: Well, I leave on Friday for the east coast leg. We start in Connecticut then drive all over the east coast, end at Brendan’s benefit (August 25th) and then head back west to Catalina Island (off the California coast), where we have a gig. After that we have a couple of things in September, not much, and then we’re off the rest of the month. We get back on the road in October until December 10th, when Gov’t Mule joins us.

MM: Do you bring your family on tour?

DF: I bring my family for sure. I bring them everywhere. But they have a 2 or 3-week threshold and can only see us play so many nights in a row and be on a tour bus, ya know? (Laughs). Then it’s like, “Dude, we gotta get home?” It works out really well, I’m lucky in that way.

MM: That should be fun. How’s the new album doing?

DF: It came out on June 6th and has been doing great, man. We’ve had a lot of really wonderful things happening. We went down to Australia and toured quite extensively when the record first came out, went to Europe for a month and a half and then did the west coast for a week. We’re doing the east coast now and then we’re going out with Gov’t Mule for two and a half months. Next year in March and April we’ll be going out for another two months. It’ll be nice to tour on our own and play the whole album. We just did Leno on Friday night, which was really fun to play on TV.

MM: You guys are now on Lost Highway Records, which is a fairly serious label, putting stuff out by Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline...

DF: Yeah, they do amazing things by Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, and Elvis Costello. It’s crazy to be a part of Lost Highway, because they’re a huge record company, but at the same time they are like a small, independent label. A real class act. So it was wonderful for me when it happened, because there is no one else on Lost Highway doing what I’m doing. It’s great to be somewhere where they look at you like, “Oh, cool man, we’ve got something to work with here that’s not for the people on the label exactly.” So it’s a lot of fun.

MM: Who are some of your influences musically?

DF: It’s really strange, because I listen to everything. I can sit around listening to Sade and Norah Jones and then put on The Black Keys, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, then some Bill Withers or Al Greene, Mavis Staples or The Band. I get influenced by tons of different stuff, but I really love music from ’68 to ’78 - The Eagles, Steve Miller and Tom Petty. Yeah, it seemed like stuff was really happening back then.

MM: What have you been listening to lately?

DF: Driving around in the car I’ve been listening to this new record called “The Golden Smog.” It’s something Lost Highway put out. Jeff Tweedy is in the band with members of the Jayhawks and it’s pretty neat, man. That’s the thing, Lost Highway has a lot of records that come out, and I get sent all of their stuff (laughs). This guy Bernard Fanning just put out a record, and I’ve been listening to that. It’s just neat listening to new music but I’ll still go back and listen to people like Hendrix and Bob Marley.

MM: I read one review of the new album comparing it to Steely Dan and Stevie Wonder, which I definitely felt on a couple of tracks. I could hear that, but it’s a little different, though, it’s got a twist on it.

DF: That’s great I love Steely Dan! The twist for me is that I can only do what I know I can do. I don’t have a musical voice where people will say, “Wow, this guy can really sing. He’s got a range everywhere.” I just like to play that laid back groovy music that has an Otis Redding “Sitting On the Dock of the Bay” feel. I feel real comfortable singing that kind of music. When I’m on stage or when I’m singing, the loudest my voice gets is like my talking voice. If I start screaming, like “RAGHHHHHHHH” I just go out of key and it sounds like crap (laughs). I just lay back, sing and do my thing, and that’s the music that really embraces the voice. I really enjoyed making that last record, man. It was a lot of fun and I’ve got a great band.

MM: It was recorded down in St. Augustine, Florida?

DF: Yeah, right there at Crescent Beach.

MM: And you guys used mainly analog equipment?

DF: Everything. The studio is called “Retrophonics” and this guy Jim DeVito engineered it. It’s definitely because of him and his studio that the album sounds the way it does. The guy is an incredible engineer and we got along really well. It was one of those things where I just sat back and watched him work his magic. He’d be like “Get away, dude. I know exactly what to do.” And I’d be like “What do you think of this mic?” And he’d be like “Dude, are you kidding me?” He has so many things, so many guitars, amps, organs, and drums. You can imagine for a musician it’s just a fantasy- land. I’m talking all vintage gear. It’s like, “Are you kidding me?”

It’s so cool to have a studio where the guy is so passionate about what he’s doing. He’d say, “I don’t care if that guitar is worth twenty grand, fucking play it on this track and play it like you mean it.” The guy loves his gear and wants people to play it. It was real cool. He wasn’t like “See all that shit hanging up? Don’t touch it.” There was shit lying on the ground and he’d be like “Watch out for that $20,000 bass you stepped over.” It was like a surf shack but with the most bitchin’ pre-amps, mics, Neve channels, and tape machines ever!

MM: What did you guys record on?

DF: We recorded ‘live’ onto 2” tape and into a great mixing board. What you heard was what you got. When we went into it I told the guys I wanted to capture a vibe. I didn’t want us all being on a grid on ProTools. I told the drummer, “Fuck it, don’t wear a headset, don’t play to a click and let’s fucking sway! If we’re going to sway we’re going to sway together.” I’ve always wanted to make a record where it was just me and the guys in the room and it’s like “Let’s lay it down, let’s have fun, let’s do our thing” and that’s the way it came out.

MM: More in the moment…

DF: Yeah, more in the moment. Just record that moment. What’s really neat about doing that is there’s a point where you’re like “It’s good, let’s walk away, it’s done.” Instead of when you get it up on a (ProTools) grid you can be like “Ah, hey let’s move that over there and let’s put this here” and then all of a sudden it’s perfect but it wasn’t really you guys playing. It’s funny, we’d go in every morning and do a little trial run and Jim would throw up the sounds, get the tones ready and go “Cool, run through it, let’s record and see how it goes.” It’d always be the takes we thought were just warm ups that actually wound up becoming the final tracks. We’d go back and listen to them and be like “Oh yeah, that sounds great, but we can do it better!” Then we’d all go back in the studio and over-think it, and it wouldn’t have as good of a feel. So it was really great to be able to go in there, do it and then walk away from it and be satisfied. I didn’t want to sit there and over-analyze this shit, because somehow I believe that the first thing you do is usually some of the greatest stuff. It’s coming out of you naturally. I think when you start to over-think things, you just get crazy and weird. I mean, for me that’s how it is.

MM: (Laughs) I hear you. I play guitar with a buddy of mine, more atmospheric noise that starts out as improvised guitar duos. Usually we’ll do our warm up session and be like “Alright that sounded good, let’s record” and then we record, and it’s like “Shit, we should’ve been recording as soon as we sat down.” It’s totally true, usually the first stuff you play when you aren’t trying to play anything works out and sounds almost better.

DF: Somebody told me that a long time ago. I started writing songs six years ago, basically just lyrics. I’d sit there and write a song down and then I felt like I was in school or something and overanalyze it. I’d start crossing words out and put something else here and something else there and my friend would be like “Dude, the first thing you wrote was the best thing you wrote. Why are you crossing shit out?” It was always so weird because I’d be like “I can make it better.” Like I was going to turn it in like homework or something (laughs). Obviously there is time to tweak stuff here and there, but I think lyrically and musically right when you capture that thing, when it happens, is when you should leave it.

MM: Surfing is similar in that sense too. If you just surf without really thinking about it you can pull off maneuvers and not even realize it.

DF: I really relate to stuff like that. Surfing is really unpredictable and everything happens in a split second time zone, even quicker than that. You don’t take off on a wave and go “Hmm…Okay, I want to drop in here and get barreled there, I’m gonna do a cutback and then I’m gonna take a breath.” So much shit happens in the midst of like 15 seconds. You kick out and you’re like “What the fuck just happened?” You did so much stuff in a matter of 15 seconds and it’s always a weird sensation, because you kick out and you’re like "That was incredible! How incredible was that?” You have that feeling deep down inside where you recognize that was a unique wave and there’s never going to be another one like it. Surfing is especially trippy because the playing field is forever changing. You can’t go out and be like “I want to catch 10 perfect waves today.” Who knows when the waves are going to get perfect, you know? You’re always chasing the weather, you’re chasing this or you’re chasing that. You can’t just go to a golf course or a skate park and go, “There it is. We’re going to conquer it today.”

I love that sort of stuff though, an envelope filled with the unknown. You open it up and you have no idea. That’s how it is when you play live every night. I don’t know if I’m gonna forget the words, if my strings are gonna break, if the band’s gonna crumble and we’re gonna be a train wreck. I love that feeling, that sensation of feeling of doing both. Surfing you do by yourself whereas with the band there are 3 other guys, plus this element of an audience. All these people in a room and the vibe they’re their giving off. I mean, you can lose an audience and the whole night goes to shit. It’s classic, that whole element of people being there and having to entertain.

MM: I read a story about you and Gerlach buying boards in Hawaiian thrift stores. When did you first get into riding different boards?

DF: Yeah, I remember that. It was the year after Brad got second and quit the tour. That’s when I started to ride for Xanadu, and Xanadu’s like “Hey man, bring these boards over to Brad Gerlach”, and I’m like “Oh Shit, Brad Gerlach!” I stayed with him and ever since we’ve been friends. I’d stay with him every year and we’d travel around the world together. It was funny because nobody else was into the late 60’s/70’s stuff at that time. I’m 33 now, so that was must have been 13 years ago. You know, 13 years ago Ebay wasn’t that popular. It was just pawnshops, thrift stores, and garage sales. People didn’t even know what they had and Brad and I’d would roll through and score.

It was just a super fun time. There’d be these days at Off the Wall or Backdoor, 1 to 3 foot and just completely blown out and shitty. The beach was deserted and we’d go down there in these 1980 short-shorts with these boards that we just picked up at the pawn- shop for 20 bucks. One of Button’s twin fins, one of Pottz’s. It was incredible. People were like “Dude, you really want that? We were gonna burn it.”

We were surfing these boards to change up the ride. I don’t know, to live in a different time era and still have a lot of fun. It took away that seriousness of being like, “Alright, let’s go out there and just rip and show people what we’ve got on our thrusters.” But instead it was like, “Let’s have fun right now and just fuck around.” It was a really great time and we carried it on for a good 5 or 6 years. Everywhere we went we’d ask people, “Where’s the pawn shop? Where’s the thrift store?” We’d grab a couple of boards and just be freaks. It was great, man.

MM: Do you bring boards with you on tour?

DF: I always borrow them. I go to the beach and just end up borrowing boards. Because when I go on a music tour I really focus on the music, and then when I go on a surfing trip I bring all my boards and get crazy and surf. But I really like calling people up, calling a couple of buddies and being like, “Hey, you got boards?” Where do we go?” (Laughs). Because I don’t really know where to go, where the surf is good that day. It’s always fun to hang out with the locals and get a local’s tip where to surf.

MM: Tell me about that Steve Lis fish you were riding in the Galapagos?

DF: Billabong and Richard Kenvin are doing a movie on the evolution of the fish called Hydrodynamica so they brought down a replica of a 1950’s Bob Simmons balsa wood dual fin. It was crazy; they brought that down along with a bunch of Steve Lis fish. It was just incredible man. That guy knows what he’s doing. Steve Lis shapes some incredible fish. His 4-fin’s are so fast. I loved that board the best. Twin fins are really good too, but there is something about that 4-fin, it’s just crazy. Everyday it was like, ‘What are we gonna ride?” Everyone had a different board and we’d be out in the water switching back and forth.

MM: That’s awesome. I feel like people almost stopped having fun on thrusters for a while.

DF: Ah, man. I mean that was the whole reason. It was funny when I first started riding singe fins and other retro boards because people would be like “Dude, you’re an idiot. That board’s never gonna work as good as a thruster.” I’m like “Well, that’s not the point, dude.” It’s a completely different ride. You know, it’s actually a lot fun, and it’s hilarious. Then my friends started riding them, and all of sudden it became a whole trip. It’s really fun to get a group of guys to paddle out and everybody is on an old beater. I mean you’re almost drowning the whole session because everyone is laughing so hard! Then your friend drops in on a pretty good size wave on a single fin, rips a soul arch and gets hit in the head by a lip. That’s a wave you’ll remember forever! (Laughter) It’s incredible. Instead of everybody out there being all serious going “I’m gonna do a floater for a 100 yards, watch this.” It’s just hilarious and fun when you change it up like that. Because I get over it really quick when you’re in the water and people are just taking surfing too seriously. That’s when I go out there on a single fin, laugh, and have fun.

For more information on The Brendan Borek Foundation, please visit: http://www.brendansfund.org/.
Please click here for more information on the 1st Annual Brendan Borek High Tides Memorial Fund Benefit Concert.

Michael Machemer is a New York surfer, writer, photographer, curator and a frequent contributor to Newyorksurf.com. Michael can be reached at mreesem@hotmail.com