Donavon Frankenreiter's fall tour brings him to Tucson Friday night for a concert at the Rialto Theatre.

Scott Soens

Other articles by Sarah Mauet:

Form over function Catching some air Let's do lunge, correctly Writing book nearly a must for candidates Dealing with food Exhibit explores nature of creativity Everyone has a secret ... Walking good for both man and beast 'The Dog Diet' Out there among us Perfecting the push-up

Education
Flowing Wells Schools
Spanish Teacher/High School Trades/Construction
ARS Service Express
Plumbers Education
Flowing Wells Schools
Maestrp de Espanol Trades/Construction
Webb Equipment Company
Laborers Trades/Construction
Pioneer Landscaping
Yard Person/Loader Operator Production and Manufacturing
Pioneer Landscaping
Crushing Crew Engineering
Senior Project Manager

Professional surfer Donavon Frankenreiter is well into his second career as a musician, and he hasn't really given up his first yet.

"I still have a lot of obligations to Billabong and different endorsements," he said in a phone interview from his Laguna Beach home. "We do two to three to four movies a year, and I go on about four surf trips a year as well."

Frankenreiter, a professional wave-rider since his early teens, has loved music almost as long as he's loved riding waves.

"I started to play guitar when I was 16 and it was a big passion of mine, but I was so focused on surfing that there was no way in my professional surfing career that I could break away, nor did I want to," he said. "I was so focused and so driven in the surfing world."

He played in cover bands in high school — always sticking to rhythm guitar and avoided singing or songwriting — but eventually soured on the "human jukebox" aspect of the cover band. After 18 years of surfing and plenty of wave-related accomplishments to his name, Frankenreiter began taking his music a lot more seriously.

"I started to write my own songs, and I started to sing for the first time five years ago," he said. "It felt like a new beginning in music for me."

His debut, 2004's eponymous album, was a collection of mellow acoustic pop tunes released by another surfer-tuned-musician, Jack Johnson. For this summer's follow-up, "Move by Yourself," Frankenreiter made a big move to another label — and another sound.

"I wanted a really kind of laid-back, soulful, funky feel to the record," he said.

Using vintage gear and analog tape and reaching back to his favorite sounds — old blues, soul, gospel and rock — he achieved just that. The title track starts the album out with '70s-inspired clarinet-driven funk grooves and blazing guitar lines. The album transitions to the disco-sounding "The Way It Is" and continues on with a variety of soulful and bluesy pop songs.

"After being out on the road touring on the first record and getting the band together, I kind of really heard and felt a sound that I wanted to capture on the second record so we went in there and did that," he said. "It was definitely a lot more band-oriented. I utilized all their instruments and all their playing as much as I could so they definitely had a big say."

While Frankenreiter is pleased with his current album, there's no telling how the next album will sound.

"I love all different types of music," he said, "and the next record we put out might be different in a lot of ways."

Frankenreiter's fall tour, which stops in Tucson Friday, is the beginning of a very busy few months. He'll film another surf movie in January, and the band will tour Japan in February and then America in March and April. Then Frankenreiter plans to take a break to spend time with his growing family.

"My wife is pregnant and she's due May 1 so we're going to definitely try to take some time off in May and June," he said, while his almost 4-year-old son, Hendrix, talked in the background.

The surfer/musician won't know the gender of the new baby until December.

"I think we're not going to have the doctor tell us, we're going to put it either 'boy' or 'girl' in a box under the tree so it's our Christmas gift," the excited father said. "We'll open it up and see if it's a boy or girl, and we'll have time to think of names."

Again, his love of music is clear: "If it's a boy, I think Ozzy would be cool."