Gabor Csupo
"Frank Zappa would become a major influence on me artistically, inspiring me in my career to always go after the new, the pioneering and the challenging, never imitating anything, and always looking to surprise with the unexpected."
Gábor Csupó (Budapest, 29 September 1952) is a Hungarian animator and animation producer, along with his wife, Arlene Klasky. Between 1987 and 1993, their animation studio Klasky-Csupo, produced Matt Groening's The Simpsons. In 1991, they also produced Rugrats and between 1994 and 1997 Everett Peck's Duckman.
Biography
Gábor Csupó followed a music/art education before becoming an animator. He was in his twenties when he first heard Zappa's music on records smuggled in from western countries to Hungary. In 1975, he left Hungary, leaving all his belongings behind, except for his collection of over 500 records. Moving across Europe he arrived in Sweden where he met American Arlene Klasky. When she returned home to Los Angeles he followed her and in 1982 they set up the Klasky-Csupo animation studio.
In 1987, when Matt Groening's The Simpsons debuted as 15-second bumpers before and after commercial breaks on The Tracey Ullman Show, Klasky-Csupo's studio provided animation. By 1989, these cartoons had become so succesful that The Simpsons became a full-blown sitcom. Csupo and Matt Groening tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the producers to hire Frank Zappa to score the show. After suggesting John Zorn, who was also rejected, the producers accepted Danny Elfman to compose The Simpsons opening theme. Zappa later discovered The Simpsons and became a huge fan. He and his family once visited the studio to meet Csupo, Groening and the rest of the crew. Zappa invited Csupo to visit their home which was just a couple of minutes away from Csupo's. They became good friends, sharing an interest in music, animation and politics. In a 1995 magazine article Csupo described one meeting with FZ:
"One Friday night in the fall of 1991, Frank invited me and Arlene, along with a colleague of mine, Larry LeFrancis, to his recording studio to play his new composition that he was working on with the Synclavier. Frank's wife Gail walked in the room too, and before the demonstration, Frank told us that he had cancer and had a maximum of two more years to live. Then he pushed a button on his computer, and the most incredibly beautiful music came out of the six Yamaha speakers that surrounded us. I had to turn away because tears came to my eyes, and I listened to the song for over ten minutes with tears running down my face. Frank noticed, and at the end of the song he said, 'Don't worry, I'm not in the box yet......' "
Zappa agreed to supply the music for Everett Peck and Csupo's new animated series Duckman (1994-1997) and asked Csupo to create the cover art for The Lost Episodes (1996) album. He also wanted to be special guest voice on The Simpsons, but became too ill. He likewise never lived to see Duckman, nor the release of The Lost Episodes.
Csupo founded the Tone Casualties and Casual Tonalities record labels in 1994 releasing his own and other experimental recordings. He co-owned the short lived Lumpy Gravy Restaurant.
Gabor Csupo about Frank Zappa
"Frank's music become an instant favorite of mine. I understood the humor in his music without understanding his words and loved the staccato rhythm, unexpected changes in structure and melody, his excellent virtuoso guitar playing, his deep cool voice and the way he mixed rock & roll with orchestration and jazzy overtones. This guy certainly was not imitating anything or anybody out there. And that’s a sign of a true talent. I still remember the day when I finally got my own, first ever, original Zappa LP. I was walking on the streets of Budapest in late 1974, when this guy in a long coat approached me: "Would you like to buy some really cool LPs, man?" So I followed this strange character behind a dark alley, where he revealed from under his coat about five beaten up, used LPs. The usual stuff: bootleg Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bee Gees, Abba .... "Cool LPs, huh?" I said disappointedly. Then he revealed the last album, and there it was: Frank Zappa’s full-blown face on the cover, with his unmistakable thick mustache. Apostrophe ('), it said on the top. "How much is this?" I asked with a shaky voice. "You can have that cheap, because it’s hard to whistle to," said the guy, surprised by my choice. I ended up paying a "discount price" of 1000 forint for it, (at that time I earned 1200 forint a month working full-time as a window display designer) and although I didn’t gain weight for a while again, I never felt sorry I made that investment. I loved that album so much, I listened to it a thousand times, and yes, I could whistle to all the songs on it. Little did I know then, that later in my life Frank Zappa would become a major influence on me artistically, inspiring me in my career to always go after the new, the pioneering and the challenging, never imitating anything, and always looking to surprise with the unexpected. Little did I also know, that this man who I worshipped so much through the years would become my personal friend almost 18 years later. As it turned out, fate brought me to the same city he loved, and our friendship truly began when he discovered and appreciated my ambitions in animation, and my knowledge about his music. Four years later I left Europe (...). I started to learn English, and when I could understand the lyrics to Frank’s music I truly realized that he was a genius. I laughed so hard to songs like "Dinah-Moe Humm," "Dirty Love," "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow," "Stink-Foot," and "Harder Than Your Husband." When I arrived in L.A, I wrote letters to my friends back in Europe that now I was finally living in the same city as Frank Zappa." - Gabor Csupo, From Hungary With Love, huH, July 1995. [1]
