BRIAN WILSON
The Beach Boys principal songwriter and recording producer Brian Wilson’s musical career, with The Beach Boys as well as a solo recording artist, has transcended generations of pop music fans, around the world. Brian Wilson is one of international pop music’s most deeply respected recording artists. Wilson is a legendary pop songwriter, recording producer, music arranger and concert performer, who has created and sung, of some of the most cherished music in pop history.
Many fans and critics call Brian Wilson the most influential pop composers of the last 50 years. Wilson’s music with The Beach Boys, has yielded many classic hits. There have been many films, television programs and books, written about the Brian Wilson’s fascinating life story. Yet, his success in the world of pop music, does not tell his entire story. While few pop music recording artists have achieved the status that Brian Wilson has achieved, less have been able to overcome the profound personal setbacks along with professional frustrations that he has endured.
Now Brian Wilson has not only survived his personal problems, he says in the following exclusive interview, he feels better then he has in the past thirty years and is ready to begin a second phase of his musical career. In the following interview, Brian Wilson talks about the broad spectrum of ages in the fans of The Beach Boys music, which provides The Beach Boys’ songs with global appeal. As well as the influence his classic pop album, “Pet Sounds” had on The Beatles music.
(Brian Wilson was born on June 20, 1942 in Inglewood, California.)
(Q)- How are feeling today, is the big question, many Beach Boys fans want to know the answer to.
Brian Wilson- I’m feeling great, I’ve been exercising daily. For about a year and a half now. So I’m really ready for this tour, because I’m in such good shape.
(Q)- You’ve finally regained the confidence you once possessed so you can perform as in the old days?
Brian Wilson- Yes, I’ve got it back.
(Q)- What or whom inspired you to get back into the swing of things once again?
Brian Wilson- My wife and my manager got together one day and they said, “Look, why don’t you do a solo tour, it can be a smash success.’ I said to them,’No way, my name isn’t good enough.’ And they said, ‘Oh yes it is.’ So, so far so good. It’s all coming together well.
(Q)- A lot of people wrote you off twenty-five years ago. Now, not only are you the only surviving “Wilson Brother” of the original Beach Boys lineup,
you’re renewed in that you’re feeling better then you have in years and your poised to make a major impact on the world once again with your music. How do you feel about this Brian? Brian Wilson- It feels great to be where I am today. The only way for me to get people to like me and my music once again is to knock them dead with a really bang up good show. And then they walk away from the show saying, ‘Hey, I like Brian Wilson, he’s really great.’ So, that’s what I’m setting out to do this time around.
(Q)- Has there been a problem for you as, “Brian Wilson, the genius behind the Beach Boys” that, in that view, people don’t put your face to The Beach
Boys classic music? Instead they see the group, The Beach Boys and not you.
Brian Wilson-No, it hasn’t been a problem for me, because when I used to tour with The Beach Boys, they used to come out and see us and people liked us. I’m not Mike Love(Co-founding member of The Beach Boys.) I still can sing a ot of his songs (in concert) and people still seem to like me.
(Q)- What is going to solve that problem for you Brian?
Brian Wilson-This tour is going to solve that whole problem. This tour is going to take care of it. I’m in the ‘hot seat’ now and I love it.
(Q)- After a considerable hiatus, you’re back in the spotlight with a new album “Live At The Roxy” and a concert tour (Of the USA with Paul Simon)
Why is the time right for Brian Wilson to come out of his reclusive world and make a statement with his music once again?
Brian Wilson- Well, I’m feeling pretty good. My latest album has sold pretty good. I’ve got a great band and this time out (on tour, he canceled his previous tour dates.) we’ll knock them out with our music. I’m going to do this tour with Paul Simon and I’m excited about it, it should be a good show and I’ve worked on an hour and fifty minute set.
(Q)- What material will your concert play list include?
Brian Wilson- I’m doing a lot of Beach Boys songs. Like, “Surfin’ U.S.A.”, “California Girls” all kinds of really neat songs. I do mostly beach Boys songs during my new show. We have a much better grasp on or music now. We’re doing much better. We’ve really got everything rehearsed really well.
(Q)- How have rehearsals been going?
Brian Wilson- Very good, we have been rehearsing our heads off. I’ve been going through the process of educating my band as to the songs. You’ve got to practice it until it becomes second nature. Then when You’ve got it down to second nature, you’ve got it man, you’ve got it.
(Q)- In your own words and you’re opinion why do the classic Beach Boys songs still remain so popular with people of all ages around the world?
Brian Wilson- The voices to the songs have love in them. The songs always had the love of music in them. We were able to bring love to people, you know what I mean? I think it’s the love of the music, that the people like. We were known for our love and it was well taken. I really get behind the love part of it (In his songwriting.) People relate to the love of our music that we had for the songs and the love we sang about in the songs. (Of the music and projecting images of love in many songs.)
(Q)- Its amazing how you’ve created a body of music that will live on for many years to come and continues to relate to generations for listeners.
Brian Wilson-I think that the audience for our shows is anywhere from like twenty to sixty years old. It crosses all age groups all brackets, we draw twenty, thirty, forty as well as fifty and sixty year olds out to our shows and so we have a pretty wide spread audience. That is amazing. So, it’s a very, very big thrill for me.
(Q)- May I go back and ask you about the album, “Pet Sounds” if I may?
Brian Wilson- Sure.
(Q)- Why has “Pet Sounds” been voted by so many different polls and so many people who are recording artists say that “Pet Sounds’ is super influential to them and their music.
Brian Wilson- That’s what some people say, yes that is true.
(Q)- Paul McCartney formerly of The Beatles has stated that “Pet Sounds’ which was essentially your ‘Masterpiece’ album, was very influential for The Beatles. Why did that album influence and continue to influence so many people to this day?
Brian Wilson- Well, that is an album for everybody. That’s how we made it. It was a competitive album. I mean we really got behind it, you know? In fact, it mad (other recording artists) get on their toes because they saw how into it we were so they got into it (The music and the symphonic mix for pop music.) too.
(Q)- Wasn’t “Pet Sounds’ released in mono first?
Brian Wilson- Uh yeah.
(Q)- Was it recorded in stereo first?
Brian Wilson- I think so. Yeah.
(Q)- I’m just wondering why The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” came out in 1967 in stereo and was so critically and commercially successful. Yet, in 1966, your pop music masterpiece “Pet Sounds”, which Paul McCartney has admitted was a major influence for his contributions to The Beatles music and was available to the public, was in a way overlooked. Perhaps if “Pet Sounds” had been released in stereo in 1966, maybe the “vision” you had for the music on “Pet Sounds’, which was your statement at the time, would have done so better both critically as well as commercially.
Brian Wilson- I never thought about that one. Perhaps that was the case.
(Q)- That record made everyone (Other pop recording artist ad record producers) stand up and say, “Hey, wait a minute Brian Wilson and his brothers and the guys on The Beach Boys have upped the standard for us all now.
Brian Wilson- That’s true. That album was a big turn on for people. It really was a big turn on. They were turned on, so they started thinking that they’d better do one like it. It made everyone become more competitive.
(Q)- is the magic which enabled you to create “Pet Sounds’ and the other Beach Boys classics still within you and ready to be expressed through your music once again?
Brian Wilson- Yes. The magic creates itself. I sit down at the piano and it goes through my brain, then into my soul, into my fingers and then it comes out when I’m hitting the (piano) keys. That’s how I write songs, I’m totally inspired. I don’t write songs when I’m not inspired. I only write when I’m inspired.
(Q)- Are you still into the (recording) mix of the music?
Brian Wilson- The (recording studio) mix is the trick, the mix is important. It’s now a matter of getting behind the board, sitting back and looking at the overall picture and trying to make some music that sounds like a bigger picture. It’s now as back when, about the bigger picture.
(Q)- Do you follow any of today’s pop music?
Brian Wilson- I can’t seem to get into mostly what’s going on. Because I’m so into Phil Spector’s records. (Brian Wilson’s recording musical hero, is pioneering pop producer Phil Spector.) I’m into Phil Spector’s records, because his are all I’ve got.
(Q)- Do you hear anything in the current pop music scene which moves you all that much?
Brian Wilson- No.
(Q)- Do you hope that more of the international pop recording artists in the world of the pop music , will re-discover The Beach Boys and your music so there may begin another significant period of change back to getting into the music first and their stage image second?
Brian Wilson- Maybe. Maybe there will be a time when the song is based on he (musical) material. So, it’ll be where the material is the source. I can only see until the end of this year.
(Q)- Then what about the end of this year for Brian Wilson. What can fans expect from Brian Wilson in the next few months, or at the end of this year?
Brian Wilson- I can see where we have to go back into the studio and finish recording the song, “Proud Mary”. I mean the song by John Fogerty. We’re probably going to go in and finish it this year. And, everybody who has heard it has said that it is a fantastic track! And, everybody who has heard it has said it has the potential to become a Number One record. And, that excites me very much so. You see first of all, I try to emulate Phil Spector’s records and to bring that music to the people. And to try and let them understand what The Master did after all of these years. We’re proud to do it. Mike and me and the boys, we’re still very proud to be his (Phil Spector’s) messengers. Now that’s the way I see it, I don’t know about if he (Phil Spector) does or anybody else. That’s what this is all about for me in a nut shell. “Pet Sounds” means PS, Phil Spector, that’s his initials.
(Q)- It puts hope in your heart that the golden era of pop music for Brian Wilson has another episode to yet be written?
Brian Wilson- Yeah, it does put a little hope in my heart once again. It feels gOod to see that things are coming around once again.