This “5 and Dime” interview was conducted in person with Frank Hannon Band guitarist/vocalist Frank Hannon, who was on tour with his main band TESLA. They played at Sayreville, New Jersey’s Starland Ballroom on March 2, 2005.
Tell me about your band, your sound, yourself and your bandmates.
It’s me, Frank Hannon, on guitars and vocals. My guitar tech in TESLA, Robbie Furiousi drums and Joel Krueger is our bass guitar player. Robbie’s played for almost 15 years in a cover band I had put together called Kaliedoscope. He’s a great guy and a great drummer. He plays alot like Mitch Mitchell. We started as a Jimi Hendrix cover band. It turned into a classic rock cover band doing Led Zep, Hendrix and stuff like that. Joel, who played with me in Moon Dog Mane, is a helluva guy and a phenominal bass player. He’s classically trained and can improvise real well. The spirit of the band is improvising and experimenting. We always toyed around with the idea of taking it more seriously because the chemistry was so good. So we took it to the next level and changed it to the Frank Hannon Band with more original songs that I’m writing.
Tell me about your band’s current, or soon to be released CD, its musical direction, where we can hear it, and where we can buy it.
“Guitarz From Marz” was an EP that we stopped selling. We’re changing it into a full-blown CD. Everybody around me critiquing it tells me that they hear many musical directions, but that’s my style. Like Spinal Tap says, “changing our style is our style.” For me, musically, I love to experiment with a ton of different stuff like bluegrass and country. The direction of Frank Hannon Band is improvisational and we jam a lot. When we play live, it’s not structured at all. The CD should be out by this Fall, depending on if I retain complete creative control. I feel it’s finished and ready to go, but I probably need to take some advice from other people. I’ve gotta let my pride and ego go. “It’s like a big jet airliner sitting on a runway. Being the pilot, I need to decide whether to push the throttle and take it off. Or, should I wait and check in with air traffic control for some advice. That’s where it’s at right now.”
Tell me about your band’s current tour.
There is really on time for a tour because TESLA is working full steam. We sneak in some West Coast shows when we can. I’m really dying to play out here on the East Coast because I think the fans will like all the jamming we do.
What does your band have in store for your fans in the next 12 months?
The Frank Hannon Band CD will honestly be available late summer if I do it right and don’t rush it. It’s really hard to forecast the next 12 months. TESLA’s going into the studio to record, and our plans always change, depending on the creative juices at any given moment.
Feel free to promote anything else you’d like that applies to your band.
My website is www.frankhannonband.com and TESLA’s is www.teslatheband.com. All the latest info will be posted there. I’ll eventually be selling guitar instructional books, TESLA tab books, and instructional DVDs.
Please share your thoughts on Dimebag Darrell.
Dimebag Darrell is the one person I never had the opportunity to meet. I’ve heard so many good things about him, including how friendly he was. I loved his Dean guitar and I even owned one. His death was horrible and such a tragedy. It’s mind boggling, the reality of how those things happen, like Dime or even Rhode Island. In an instant, people’s lives change forever.