Interview With Ferenc Dobronyi of Frankie and The Pool Boys

This was a great talk with Ferenc Dobronyi of Pollo Del Mar, Frankie and The Pool Boys. I have known this man since the 90s, buying surf CDs from his outlet and covering his band, so this was long overdue!

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

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Transcript

Speaker 2 0:14

Hello everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast. And today I have someone I've known for a very long time, since the 90s actually, when I started buying Surf Music, our friend Ferenc Dobronyi, who is the leader of Pollo del Mar, and also Frankie and the Pool Boys, which I had the experience of listening to most recently and uh reviewing. The album is called Endless Drummer, and it's an excellent album. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And here we are with uh Friends to talk about it. Welcome aboard.

Speaker 1 0:53

Hi Keith, nice to nice to meet uh nice to be here and nice to talk to you. Um yeah, I I you know I ran the popmart in the 90s, and so there was a lot of customers' names who were very familiar to me, and so it's and I always remember sending uh sending you stuff. So nice to talk to you. Yeah, you too.

Speaker 2 1:13

You know, and I still have that CD tower. I'm looking at it right now, actually, um, that holds about 60 CDs, and I'm pretty sure just about every one of those was from you. I just went nuts back then and uh was going back and forth with you in email, and uh it's always nice to to be able to look back on that and see some history there. And I had the opportunity, of course, to review a few of your Pollo Del Mar albums, which are incredibly excellent surf instro albums, and um Frankie and the Pool Boys, wow, I was just amazed at the all the tracks are so different, and the fact that you have a different drummer for each one, and um I looked at it and I went, Endless drummer, mm, endless summer, oh yeah. Is that what that comes from? Or am I off base there?

Speaker 1 2:09

No, it no, I mean, you know, Endless Summer is definitely one of the most important surf songs by the sandals, and you know, it's it's the name of the movie. Uh the Bruce Brown movie about the the surfers who travel around the world looking for the perfect wave. Um and you know, it's just a it's just a pun. I love puns. There's lots of puns throughout the throughout the record, and uh but it it does make a connection for me with what we're doing and with uh and with the surf music scene.

Speaker 2 2:42

So oh so uh a totally different um inference to something else. I was thinking of the Endless Summer album by the Beach Boys, which I got eons ago and I still enjoy to this day. But okay, that totally makes sense.

Speaker 1 2:57

Yeah, no, uh yeah, the original, I mean they the Beach Boys took the name from the movie Endless Summer, but uh interestingly that Beach Boys record was was probably one of the very first albums that I bought when I was a little kid in you know the early 70s. And it's a it's a great collection of their of their early stuff. Um so yeah, I mean I have that album and I love the alb I love the artwork, the colorful artwork, you know, the handline drawings on it.

Speaker 2 3:26

So yeah, that was good. It was it was different, something that really stood out, still does to this day. You don't see a lot of that. And uh Frankie the Pool Boys. Is Frankie you?

Speaker 1 3:39

Well, you know, essentially it is uh uh in the mid-2000s, um I was taking a break from Ploy Almar and I decided to put out my my own uh just like just work without the band situation, although the guys in the band ended up playing on Frank and the Pool Boys records because they're my friends. Anyway, uh I just the Frankie actually came up uh came about from Frankenstein, which was kind of a high school nickname for me by my my beloved friends because I was you know really tall and really skinny. So I was just trying I was I know I'm revealing a lot here. Uh that uh I was just trying to uh get back to my teenage mindset of just having fun with the music and and trying to simplify it a little bit. Um so that's where Frankie and the Pool Boys came out. And in Pool Boy, that was my job in high school too. So that's what it that's all what it was about.

Speaker 2 4:42

Interesting. Oh, okay, that all makes sense. Now, do you still do all the graphic artwork? I mean, I remember back in the day you were doing covers for for groups and and things like that. Are you still into that kind of work?

Speaker 1 4:56

Um, I will I will take a job for friends once in a while, and I still do posters once in a while. But right around the time uh in 2009, uh when Napster started, I I worked for the music business. I worked for Ripodisc and Rounder as a as a graphic artist and did you know CD layouts, and that was my job. But then when Napster came around and file sharing, really like those those small CD companies had to cut way, way back. And so I kind of lost my job. So at that point, um I also just had a career change and I became a school teacher. So I don't do much graphic design, and I've been a I've been a school teacher for the last what 15, 16 years, and uh and I enjoyed being away from the computer, and so now I just do I do music and I'll do graphics occasionally.

Speaker 2 5:50

I see. Well, thanks for getting me all caught up on your history. It's been so long since we had communicated, and I really appreciate the fact that you actually remembered me. That was nice. And uh hopefully that search site that I'm working on will get some of the word out about those albums. I mean, back to 1998, 99, I'll look at my reviews and they're they're just terrible, man. So I'm spending some time editing and and adding and you know trying to make them better before I put them up. And uh so far I'm just about 62 of them up there now. And I'll I'll I'll come across the point of Lamar uh reviews, I'm sure, when I get through all my archives. It's probably gonna take me most of the year to get through it, but it's gonna be nice to put up a most recent one from you guys and get the word out about that. And uh I was also wondering how you came up with the concept of getting a different drummer for each song. Where did that come from?

Speaker 1 6:50

Well, um what it happened was uh I had this pile of songs left over, mostly from uh from the COVID era, and when I had a lot of free time to do demos, and a lot of them were kind of uh directionless. So one thing that happened during COVID is that Poi de la Mar got back together. We hadn't been together for for almost 10 years, we hadn't done any recording in a long time. So we got back together and we recorded an album, but for that album I had I had done a lot of demos, and um only a few of them went on the Poyo Lamar record. So I had a bunch of other left over. Anyway, uh in 2023, I wanted to do something with the the demo, so I invited my friend Dusty Watson, who I'm sure you know and is a brilliant drummer, to come over and just work yeah, just just work through the songs and uh with me and give him some direction. And it was incredibly helpful because he you know he brought fresh ears and arrangements, and we so we worked out we worked out these songs. But at that point, there was only nine of them, and it wasn't enough for an album. So I was looking through what else I had, and I had uh I had a rec a left a takeout from the Poitamar session with Jeremy Rexford on drums. Uh now Takaseki from the Surf Coasters had visited, and he had a uh we did a song when he was here, and I had a takeout from a Frankie in the Pool Boy session with Jonathan Rodriguez. So now I had nine songs with Dusty and three songs with other people, and I was like, well, maybe the thing to do is invite uh more drummers to play on the record and just have it all drummers. So at that point it kind of shifted in my head from like from a project with Dusty to a project with other drummers.

Speaker 2 8:51

I see. Interesting. And Dusty uh been around for a long time. Did something happen happen to him recently over the past two years? You're jogging my memory here. Is he still around?

Speaker 1 9:05

Oh yeah, yeah. Dusty, yeah, he's in he's in great, he's in great shape. Um the only thing that I can think of like when I think of Dusty is he cut his beard. He really had the serious COVID beard, and he let it grow for a long time. So he he's trimmed his beard. So like when I think of like that, but he's touring with Nashville Pussy right now in Europe, and uh he keeps very busy. Yeah, he keeps very busy uh as a touring drummer. Um he's also had the the Sonics there had a documentary about them, and he's featured very prominently in that. So yeah, he's definitely out there. So kicking that. Uh which group? In Slacktown.

Speaker 2 9:54

What's that?

Speaker 1 9:55

In Slacktown, uh everybody's gonna be like, Yeah, Slacktown.

Speaker 2 9:58

Yes.

Speaker 1 9:59

Uh I think the only thing that happened in that group is that Dave Ronsky retired finally from Fender. And uh so they have more time to to play. So Slacktown has definitely been playing a lot more recently. That CD.

Speaker 2 10:14

God, I wore that C D out when that came out. It's still one of the I think one of the greatest surf instrumental albums ever recorded. Just amazing.

Speaker 1 10:22

Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Huge. So what's the kick in the ass? I was just gonna say it was a huge kick in the ass for the whole scene to like bring the level of energy and musicianship up.

Speaker 2 10:37

Yes, definitely. Definitely lots of energy. Matter of fact, I got a a video of my daughter when she was like two years old dancing to that, and she had this little pink hat on, and she's looking up at the brim of the hat. And she's uh uh 27 years old now, but so that goes way back. That's uh I had my group my kids grew up listening to that music, and uh they do remember it. And there's just something special about um the community, the surf instrumental community, and all the subgenres, you know. Um, you know, there's the like island type music, the the hot rod stuff. I mean, there's just so many different things. And that's what I heard on Frankie and the Pool Boys. And um if you had looked at my review, did do you think that I I touched upon that well and and and got the word out about the elect how eclectic this album was?

Speaker 1 11:34

Yeah. And yes, and the uh the album has a really wide variety of I mean it's I it's not uh it's not a surf music album by any means. Like there's some people who just want that same beat and the same tones for every song, and that's not that's not what I'm interested in, because at my age I'm interested in in trying to trying to pay tribute to all the influences and all the music that I loved growing up in the 70s. And so there is a tribute to Augustus Pablo, which is a full-on, you know, dub dub number, and there is there's Alecki with Nao Takaseki, you know, Japanese instrumental music, and there's more modern surf, and there's trad surf, and there's really swampy kind of instrumentals, and so I I have wide tastes, and so I wanted that all to come through on this record. So I think of it more like I think of it more like a really like a mixtape that I would want to put together from all my favorite albums.

Speaker 2 12:40

So if I was to tag it, I'd probably have to call it surf rock, instrumental world, something like that, right?

Speaker 1 12:50

Yeah, um, yeah, you know, I don't I don't I I think the surf I think the surf uh tag these days is a big enough umbrella for a lot of different music to fall under. You know, these days I think about like like a maybe like a band like the Scimitars who are who are you know have have nothing to do with surf and more to do with some kind of strange new world music, but I'm still gonna put them under the surf umbrella just because the band members all all came out of surf bands. And so that's it's it's it's pretty wide. And it and it also it does just describe a kind of instrumental that people will understand in that it has melody and it has and it's it's it's gonna be somewhat retro in the in the the recording styles.

Speaker 2 13:42

Right, like I I explained it in my viewers like surf was like the springboard to everything else that you were hearing. Because it's just like you say, this huge umbrella that falls under. And when I first started out, the first wave of surf is as they say, um, it it seems so simplistic, really, and then things just grew and grew and grew. And that's really not any different than the other genre that emerges, and then there's all these other sub-genres that emerge and and push that whole thing forward even quicker. So I I I kind of think that's something that happens naturally in music. Would you agree?

Speaker 1 14:23

Oh, absolutely. And and in surf music, all of that stuff was just kind of being hinted at like uh, you know, like the big like it could have been, it could have grown and it didn't because because the British invasion came along and that was the end of surf music. But like Dick Dick Dale was hinting at exotic scales, and there was mellow surf music, and there was fast surf music, and there was uh more melodic styles, and there was, you know, really aggressive styles. And so all that kind of all those things were being hinted at, but basically from 1963-64, that was the end of surf music. So it never had the chance to blossom and and evolve. It just disappeared.

Speaker 2 15:10

Was he one of the guys that you heard and said, Oh man, I gotta go get offender and start playing? How did that start for you?

Speaker 1 15:17

Uh you mean Dick Dale?

Speaker 2 15:19

Yeah.

Speaker 1 15:21

Um, you know, not so much. Um uh he was my my earliest surf music experience was was was hanging out with my roommate in college, and we went to the library and there was like an album we checked out, and it was like 16 Surf Instrumentals. And it had Pipeline and Ghost Riders in the Sky and Mr. Moto and Endless Summer. And so that was my exposure. And so I think Miserloo was m may or may not have been. I've never been able to find that album again. You know, it was a it was a real wide variety of music, and I was just learning how to play guitar, and so it was really easy for me to to learn those songs, and that was my first you know, foray into surf music in about 1982 or so. Um so I can't I can't point to one guy who who made me, you know, like want to play surf music, but uh but I like I'll say like I love Dick Dale, but I'm more attracted to melodic uh players like like the Sandals or Paul Johnson and uh the belly. Paul Johnson, Mr.

Speaker 2 16:33

Moto, yep. Remember that one. So you say it was easy for you. It's not necessarily easy to learn to play that music, is it?

Speaker 1 16:42

No, but like you said before, there is a there is a simplistic element to it. I mean, it's just kind it's just kind of uh uh you know, just just simpler scales and and I I I I don't know. I'm you know, also the other part of surf music, when you listen to it, it's not just the music, it's like it's the tones and kind of in their own way, they're they're psychedelic with the amount of reverb and it it really kind of takes you to like this transformative fake space, and I was I was I was intrigued by that, you know. I I wanted to be I wanted to like explore like that reverb and that reverb y sound of the guitar.

Speaker 2 17:22

Well, it certainly sounded like you had some fun on that breaking a pool boys album with some of the effects you you come out with. You you have a lot of different pedals that you use?

Speaker 1 17:31

Um so I well yes and no. Um there's a few different things uh you know that I rely on. Definitely reverb, and um I have a bunch of different echoes and echo flexes, and I I like to try and combine stuff uh to get them. And then there's a there's a phaser on a couple of songs, but mostly it's just really guitar, loud guitar amps that you that and playing with the dynamics of of the guitar amp. Um but the like the surf music and listening to the reverb, that definitely for me like led to my love of of dub music and reggae because they were doing kind of the same thing with their instrumentation and trying just putting way too much echo and reverb on stuff. And so I s I I find them very similar.

Speaker 2 18:20

Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 18:22

And that comes through on this song East of the Reverb dial.

Speaker 2 18:26

On the other album. Yeah. Um every song I love. Um the one there was one that I would consider as your your your masterpiece. And I'm just looking at my review here. Um Quicksilver, I love that one. Then um Brotherhood Way, Shaya f uh four minutes. It seems like you just pulled out all the stops on that one with all the different merge game sounds, just amazing.

Speaker 1 19:06

Yeah, so uh that one is that one it it it's again comes out of my uh my love for Jeff Beck and Jeff Beck, yeah, he was the best. Well, so I was always a Yardbirds fan, like when I was like learning guitar and like yardbirds, I incredible, you know, I mean, everybody loves the yardbirds, right? And especially the Jeff Beck era. Uh and it took me a long time to get into his later stuff, that you know, the jazz fusion stuff, which you know still, I don't know, it still kind of confuses me. But there is there are parts of that which I absolutely am crazy about now. And so on that song you're gonna hear things like the jazz swing groove, uh, which is which is which he used all the time, and also uh the uh uh Fender Rhodes piano, uh, which was very typical of his uh of his 70s sound. And you know, it's just kind of a big free open guitar tone over a backing track. Uh so yeah, so it really it really pays homage to uh to Jeff Beck.

Speaker 2 20:19

I've always been a fan of of him, and I I think he was on the same level as Hendrix. That's how good he was. Really. He's just amazing, you know. I don't think that's the kind of uh thing that people look at when they're looking at the greatest. And it's funny thing, you mentioned the Yardbird's um more memories than time is where I heard the Yardbird's influence.

Speaker 1 20:46

Yeah. Yeah, great, definitely, definitely. That's the vocal track. Yeah, that's the final vocal track on the album. And yeah, there's a huge, there's a huge Yardbird's influence in there. I mean, both in the songwriting and in the tones. Um but um we, you know, I I I always put a I in the last few albums I've put a vocal track on because there's you know, there's media outlets and radio stations that won't play instrumental music, so we just throw one vocal song on there. Oh that's why you do it. Okay.

Speaker 2 21:23

Is that you singing it on it?

Speaker 1 21:25

No, that's my it's my uh I was in a band with a a guy named uh Johnny uh Vino who is uh he's a great singer, and and he also played the bass uh bass on the song. So I asked him to do it. Um and uh he really delivered a an awesome performance. He did um yeah, but the song was you know, I was out I was out chopping wood one day and I was just like, I mean, I I don't know, Keith, you and I sound like we're about the same vintage, you know, sixty ish or whatever, but um I don't know how old you are. But uh uh I was just thinking like, wow, I've got I've got more behind me than ahead of me. And it was just like a I've I've I've got more memories than time, and it's like, wow, that sounds like a lyric.

unknown 22:10

So

Speaker 1 22:11

wrote I wrote a song about that. But um yeah um I think I think the song uh the shape of the song sounds a lot like Shapes of Things where it's um you know and I've been the guitar solo is is super fuzz.

Speaker 2 22:28

I used uh I used a surfie bear uh fuzz on it and very happy with that song should be very happy with the whole album man that was fantastic and wow man I could talk to you for a lot longer than for almost 30 minutes but fortunately we we need to say goodbye but we can definitely do this again um I don't know what your plans are for the future for Polo del Mar, but you know keep in touch and you know if you anticipate another album coming out from that group I would definitely like to talk to you again about that.

Speaker 1 23:05

Well I'll just have to I'll tell you really quickly about about Puerto Mara so it's Puerto Mar we can't we we we basically we broke up in 2012 um we we played you know we played off and on over the years but we hadn't we didn't really have any plans to record and then when covet happened that's why we recorded the speed of dark which was which was a great you know great experience and I love that record but Poit Omar is a lot of work um it's a lot of work uh just kind of technically and so I I enjoy playing the Frankie and the pool boys music uh more just because it's not so technical it's a little bit laid back and it's just a different kind of attitude. So that's been that's been my main gig for that's where I'm putting most of my creative energy for the last few years.

Speaker 2 23:54

So okay well I'm good with that great music either way.

Speaker 1 23:59

People do want another book so I'll never say no. Anyway I know you want to wrap it up. Anyway it is my pleasure to talk to you Keith thank you so much.

Speaker 2 24:09

You too France uh folks French Debronier of Pollo Delmar and Frankie and the pool boys look out for their music there's a ton out there to check out thank you so much and hope to talk to you soon.

Speaker 1 24:22

All right Keith take care thanks You too bye bye