Born Delton Edward Kacher in 1938, at the age of twenty Del became the new guitarist for popular instrumental group, The Three Suns.

While on tour for their album The Three Suns In Japan, he introduced his new invention, the Ecco-Fonic, a tape echo device that was portable and could create echo effects that were previously possible only in the studio using large, expensive tape machines. At that time he became friends with Ikutaro Kakehashi, who was the founder of the Roland Music Corporation of Japan.

Casher used his new gizmo on the soundtracks to a number of films, including The Ghost And Mr. Chicken (1966), Don’t Make Waves (1967) and The Shakiest Gun In The West (1968). He also met and worked with Frank Zappa in 1966.

In 1964, he had made brief appearances in the films Roustabout and The Patsy, alongside (respectively) Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis.

In 1978, using the pseudonym Kay Leodel, he composed new music for a soft-core porno called Italian Stallion, which starred Sylvester Stallone. The film had originally been released in 1970 as The Party At Kitty And Stud’s, but was edited, re-named and re-released to cash-in on Sly’s subsequent fame as Rocky Balboa.

Casher later composed music for a number of other flicks, including 24 Hours To Midnight (1985), Nightmare Sisters (1988), Tropical Heat (1993) and a Hendrix style piece for Reindeer Games (2000), as well as copping a ‘post production sound’ credit on the 1987 sexploitation movie, Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity.

In the 70s, the afore-mentioned Kakehashi (the chairman of Roland), invited Casher to Japan to perform and introduce the first Roland guitar synthesizer. He signed on with Japan Victor and Japan’s Union Records as a featured artist and appeared on more than 16 hit albums.

Casher can be heard on The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAA Birthday Bundle 21.12.2014 and Zappa ’66 Vol. 1: Live At TTG Studios, and also seen in the Freak Out! Classic Albums documentary – oh, and on the back cover of the Finer Moments album too!

In 2021, Casher officially released the much bootlegged 1966 song Space Boy. It featured actress Florence Marly on vocals with FZ on drums. The song was co-written by Casher with Marly, and Frank co-produced the recording with Del. Long associated with the film Queen Of Blood (made the same year in which Marly played a blood-thirsty vampire alongside co-stars Basil Rathbone and Dennis Hopper), there appears to be no earthly connection betwixt the two– though Marly did write a sequel to Queen Of Blood in 1973 titled Space Boy!, in which she played a character called Valerna who is mentioned throughout the song Space Boy, which she naturally re-recorded for the film!

But let's go back to 1966...or rather, 2021.

 

Del, thank you so much for finally issuing Space Boy! featuring Frank Zappa. What can you tell me about it?

Frank came by my Hollywood garage studio one day, said he’d heard about me from Van Dyke Parks, and said he wanted to record something for a singer who had a song about a Russian cosmonaut who was lost in space!

He said he was interested in playing guitar, and asked me what was the most expensive guitar. I told him that the most expensive one was a Gibson ES-5, like the one I had. So he went out and bought one.

He asked me to play guitar and bass on the record, laying down tracks using the Ecco-Fonic to get the spacey sounds, while he played on a snare drum I had in the studio. He was very pleasant, and he looked as weird as the sounds we created. But boy, was he talented! When he played the drum, I knew something great was going on.

Does Frank play the snare on all five tracks on the EP?

No, only two tracks are with FZ. We are removing the other remixes.

We enjoyed that session so much, Frank asked me to join his new group. I politely declined because my studio schedule was beginning to happen.

But you did guest with the Mothers a few times?

Yes. Frank asked me to perform at the Shrine Exposition Hall in September 1966. We played many shows in LA for ABC TV, but I did not want to travel.

Later that year, I developed the first wah wah and gave Frank a pedal and asked him to show it to Jimi Hendrix in New York.

Steve Vai took over later and made good use performing with it!

True! Did you have any further contact with Frank after that time?

Strange how life events unfold: in 1982, I worked on his ES-5 Switchmaster – because Frank wanted to use it – but several others had already ‘been inside’ before me. I had it for a week at Valley Arts and got it working.

Frank’s quest was finding a tone of his own.

 

Interview concocted from an email I received from Del on 22 December 2021. Photo of him with Thomas Nordegg taken at the LA Amp show in 2017. Sadly, Del passed away on 1 October 2026.