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The Heather Frahn Trio
 Heather Frahn first took self-assured steps towards becoming a full-time musician when she was only 14 years old. Now, almost 14 more years and several CD releases later, Frahn has not only built up a credible name both here and nationally, but overseas as well, met by the same enthusiasm and positive reviews everywhere she goes.
With a booking secured for a three-piece outfit headed by Frahn at a major Victorian festival earlier this year thwarted by the sudden unavailability of the other members, this plucky upbeat Adelaidean hurriedly recruited two more thirds for what was to be a one-off engagement. Six months further down the track, the Heather Frahn Trio, completed by Ryan Maguire (harmonica) and Daniel Seymour (drums/percussion), are now set to release their debut EP, the aptly titled, 'Synergy'.
Produced by former Little River Band guitarist, David Briggs, 'Synergy' bristles with Frahn's trademark powerhouse blues and roots music, which she energetically fuels with her strong scat-peppered vocals and dynamic custom-built hybrid eight-string guitar/bass. "Definitely a lot of trial and error," she says of her learning to navigate her way round this unique instrument made by renowned local guitarsmith, Steve Salvi. "Since then I've discovered three main ways of playing it; one is like a lap slide, and another is like a slap and pluck thumb kind of thing like on a bass and the other is just strumming with a pick, and it sounds great.
"The idea came to me when I was playing solo and wanting a much bigger sound than just a normal six-string guitar. And because I used to play the double bass and have a love for the bass, I just wanted more from the guitar; more notes and more depth. I just got fed up with the lowest being what it is on a normal guitar, so I thought 'why can't I make it into a bass as well?' I started looking into other hybrid instruments, and Harry Manx has a half sitar, half lap slide, so I saw there are some instruments out there like that. It took a year for Steve to make because the technical aspect of it is so involved. The added tension needed by having so many more strings, getting all the risers right and still be able to give the body a live sound and have enough response from the timbre to give it some tone, I think would've taken a lot of hard work to get all the types of things to match up.
"Before we met with David we'd already had a bit of a go at arranging the songs ourselves," Frahn says of the recording process. "Because they evolved live, which means often a live song is five minutes longer than a radio song should be, we went through a whole culling process and did a little demo. He then gave us some input in terms of song arrangements, which we quickly rehearsed and then we went out and played them for the rest of that tour where some of them settled in and others didn't. When he came to Adelaide we had another rehearsal with him to go over some final finishing touches. David was really onto us in terms of making us redo certain things again to really make sure we got a good performance, and I really think that comes through on all the tracks."
Setting their sights firmly on more touring and cracking the festival circuits, this committed threesome are definitely keen to proceed: "Tomorrow!" Maguire expresses their readiness, with a snap of his fingers. "I think that festivals is where an act like us really do belong, so hopefully now having a good quality product should appropriately open things up for us in that neck of the woods."
Steve Jones
The Heather Frahn Trio launch 'Synergy' on Fri 14 Sept at Jive with guests Alias and The Jams.
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