A BRECONSHIRE music lecturer has had a book published about the maverick musician Frank Zappa.

53-year-old Paul Carr lectures at the University of Glamorgan and heads up the Division of Music and Sound, courses in Sound Technology, Music Technology and Pop and Music and the publication of Zappa And The And coincides with the 20th anniversary of the American guitarist's death.

The author who lives in Talybont-on-Usk with his wife and two teenage children told The Brecon & Radnor Express: "I took Frank Zappa as a case study, using musicology to explore and explain what his music means.

"Zappa documented culture as it was, albeit in a sarcastic way, as he saw the world.

"He had a technique of making his musical characters tell the story in a clever way. It was a deliberate way of not preaching."

Zappa And The And is an academic appraisal of Zappa's music, not a biography. Paul says that's already been done.

He says: "Music is consumed these days on laptop speakers. Zappa didn't have his music released on iTunes until this year because he didn't think that the quality of digital was good enough."

Originally from Newcastle Paul studied for a Diploma in Light Music In 1979 at Newcastle College, a music course virtually unheard of in the 70s and completed a PHD at Herfordshire University in 2000 under cult composer and looping pioneer Gavin Bryars.

Having played in bands since he was a teenager including amonst others the James Taylor Quartet, Paul's musical memories goes back to the vinyl age.

He says: "Despite digitalising, we still display traits of analogue behavior when using things like Spotify, making files for our absolute favourite bands and songs. Of course, this comes up on Facebook so it's the modern day equivilant of telling people what you listen to, in the same way that we used to lend albums.

"Sadly, vinyl albums and record shops are from the history books now."

Research for the book on Zappa involved interviewing guitarist Steve Hillage.

He says: "Gong were the first band I ever saw live. It was 1971 at Newcastle City Hall and the live performance film of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells was shown with Gong's Steve Hillage playing on it."

Although nothing like a household name, Paul says that Frank Zappa's appeal is global.

Paul says: "Frank Zappa is huge in Germany, his music represents freedom there. In fact, there's an annual festival called Zappanalle in Bad Doberham with loads of Zappa influenced bands. He's very mainstream in Germany.

"Actually, he wanted to be a classical composer but he knew that he couldn't make money from it. He would sneak in bits of Stravinsky for the listener, in what he used to refer to as a 'get acquainted offer'.

"And he would use the studio in a classical way - working on eight bar sections and creating tempo changes. People always say about Les Paul and the first multi-track studios but Zappa owned a recording studio in 1959."

Zappa And The And by Paul Carr is published by Ashgate Publishing. Paul talks about his book and signs copies at Hay Festival on Friday, May 31.

Paul says: "The book's about Zappa's music with regard to things like cultural phenomena, technology, the avant garde, cut and paste and horror. I think the appreciation of what he did in his 27 year career and his influence on today's music will just keep growing."