Frank Maston and his Latest Album, "Souvenir" with the Swiss Band, L'éclair

Any good collection has a great number of different niches and subcategories: music and record collecting is no different. Some of us focus on rare soundtracks or hard-to-find instrumental music from Europe and the US that was released in the 1960s and 70s. One could scour record stores for years and spend a great deal of money trying to chase down these revered sounds, or you could just pick up some releases by Frank Maston and be done with it. 

Frank Maston - who goes just by Maston - is an American musician, composer and producer who pays homage to those sounds, but through his own lens. In fact, Maston has chosen to live abroad in search of authenticity and finding musicians to work with who share his own visions. What’s most interesting is that, while Maston is a musician and composer, he appears to be most at home producing and arranging his projects much the way that record producers like David Axelrod or Jack Nitzsche did. While Matson creates the pieces of the puzzle, his true art comes to light in putting it all together. 

Recently, Maston teamed up with the Swiss sextet, L'éclair to produce an album titled, Souvenir which has all of the deep, funky, melodic grooves of those rare records we crazy collectors are always chasing. If you’re listening to us at The Vinyl District, you’ll hear our conversation, but if you’re joining us on the radio at WFDU, 89.1 FM, you’ll be treated to the music taken directly from vinyl. On this episode, Maston joins me from his apartment in Paris, France to discuss the makings of the new album, leaving his home to set out in search of his musical destiny, and how he sets the stage to bring his musical concepts to life.