Brian Wilson • 1976 Full Interview (The Beach Boys)

Brian first of all can we talk about the new recordings what actually doing in the studio right now well we're basically working on new stuff 15 big ones our current album as about half and half oldies and newest we call them new these new songs and old song classic songs you know and but the new album which we don't have a title for will have a little more new material than old this time one of them is named hey little tomboy it's about a little girl who's sort of a roughneck you know what a tomboy is anyway and this guy convinces her to become a pretty girl and sure enough she slowly turns into pretty start shaving her legs and wears short skirts and you know and put some lipstick on a makeup so she's a little tomboy and that's one of the songs so we're very happy with it yeah how much of you goes to put together Avada ten out of twelve we're going to have 12 cuts 15 big ones had 50 has 15 cuts on it this album will have 12 cuts probably 12 or 13 so we have around 10 out of the 12 so we're ready it'll be ready to late September 1st of October yeah he's augmenting the band what musicians have you gone with the musicians are basically Dennis Wilson Carl Wilson Billy Hinchey who's in the Beach Boys right Eddie Carter Steve Douglas who zoom does used to plan the Phil Spector Rick we have several of the Phil Spector recording studio artists with us that we have for our sessions so it works out fine we have a ball we use it we don't we don't ever record without more than 10 guys because the last time I was over here talking with the Beach Boys Brian I was over at the studio in Santa Monica and you were doing quite a lot of recording there at that at that point and then took some of the material up to Caribou now there are about three or four tracks that were kind of half finished at that point are they going to be among the things that are your tracks are do you remember only the tide I remember titles except the one is related to water very closely so yeah River thing oh that was Genesis song that's right the rivers all right a little something that's complete yes most of those things that you heard are complete now so we're rolling we're rolling away hey so when do you think that will be finished not well it should be finished week like I say we should have the album done by late September I hope hopefully and it should be a good album should be a very good album hmm I'm gonna call the album Brian's in love hahahahaha I don't think they'll go for it though because rock and roll music and now it's okay I've just come out as singles here rock'n'roll music was the biggest new hit single you've had for quite a while isn't it really it's very big we haven't had a single that big in a long time last one we had was do it again I think in 67 I we haven't had very many really big singles we've had big albums you know but rock'n'roll music because of the course you know rock roll rock getting a ROI they had that feeling you know it's your Chuck Berry feeling so we really got some spirited hmm because the thing that interested me so much about the album too you know with sunflower first then Surf's Up and Holland going off in much sort of gentler direction really wasn't it now you've come back again to much closer to the Sun people associated with the Beach Boys i years ago you see the basically our forte is harmonics we have a harmony blend because we're brothers in a cousin we're a family like the King sisters you know there's a certain family blend our throats are similar or something I don't know if the cases we all have different voices but nevertheless we blend well and we do have a lot of harmonies coming up coming up for the album so it'll be much will it be close to 15 big ones in terms of field it will be close but they are like for instance we have a song called my solution which is a very odd song that has chrome a top strange chords not regular triad chords it's their chords the notes are bunched up and it tells the story about how a guy found an old damsel outside his castle decided to make her part of an experiment anyway he goes on to say what have I done with my solution my intern aide to evolution it's about a guy who found a solution you know it's a very odd sits a Boris Karloff eerie type of thing so it's one of them are more far-out left-field things that we've done who are you collaborating with most now and you're all I collaborate with Mike love mostly and sometimes Carl there's a guy named Van Dyke Parks that I used to collaborate with on we are row heroes and villains with him that's giant and he's but but we don't work as much anymore yeah said what how are you enjoying getting involved back with about nothing Brian well the band playing on stage you mean yes on stage well I played Anaheim which is a very famous stadium in California and I play that show and I was very nervous I was a little shaky I'm intending to play Washington DC which is going to be a very very big show 80,000 people the guys played a 60 to 80,000 people a night I mean they play outdoor gigs all the time pulling in very big crowds so I'll be playing with them and if we come to England I'm sure I'll be there to play yeah I want eyes yeah because it amazed me at the time you know that you took all the equipment that you took over to Holland yeah to record the Holland album and then bring it all the way back I mean the first of all I know the cost was was ultra consciousness tremendous I mean the equipment in the first place cost one hundred and ninety thousand dollars to build it was it's an elaborate system built by a genius Steve Moffat and it cost quite a bit to make so but the shipping costs were tremendous to to bring back yeah but we brought back our tapes of haul and we've brought him back to America we dubbed him down here in America and put the automat was a pretty big success mmm did you do the fairy tale and all yes well Oh fairy tale was written as a matter of fact I played the Randy Newman album sail away I don't know if anyone's heard that but it's a great album I used that for inspiration I played that album over and over sit there with a pencil writing this fairy tale but I had to have that album plank for some reason for inspiration it was the wildest thing I couldn't do without it there was I wasn't concentrating on what he was saying I was just concentrating on the lyrics of the fairy tale there was a mansion on a hill but deep in a secret King Kingdom where a young prince lived you know like that say what happened then you go back from Holland bran because that's the point then that I didn't hear that much about what he was pierced yeah I started generally with what I considered a recluse period where I was confined in my bedroom I was taking drugs I was snorting cocaine which I don't agree with I mean I don't get behind anyone snorting cocaine it's a very bad drug but I did and I did it I had a lot of money course I'm a millionaire and I was able to get a hold of all these drugs you know and they I was able to get a whole all these drugs and they messed me up they they messed my mind up so so how did you begin to get the motivation to start playing and recording with the band again what did it happen first in the studio well what happened was I was called my wife called a doctor dr. Jean Landy and I began a series of experiments with them for rehabilitation and social control and social grace and a series of therapy meetings and it's done me a lot of good and I've stayed off the drugs and come back into my own and the guy and between my wife the doctors and my brothers and my mother and a couple friends they all convinced me to get out on my room get back in there in the studio and get to work which I did and I'm very grateful for because it's making me a lot of money and it's making people happy which is my first goal mm-hmm to make people happy cos said when I was over here last time people were saying and I can remember almost word-for-word a quote that Brian Wilson more than anybody Alice's had a profound effect over American rock music for the next 30 years yeah when you look around and you can hear it your influences everywhere I mean do you feel that's a strong responsibility yes I do sure because once you've established yourself as an artist a producer somebody who has a style to say something to say with it with a definite profound effect you feel obligated to fulfill commitments in other words it's it's it's an artist obligation to continue his his constructive work you know his work every art any artist that you find has that feeling he feels the need to please you know and it's a very personal thing and it's something that that you work on it's it's something that comes with its natural you know it's natural thing explain to me some of the techniques that you used for example some of the marvelous percussive techniques on Pet Sounds well on Pet Sounds which is generally considered an interpretation of the Phil Spector recording style or utilizing instruments combining say pianos with guitars to form a unique instrument in other words if you combine them electronically well enough you're not going to have a guitar or a piano you're going to have piano guitar a new instrument and if you use two pianos and two guitars it's going to be more profound combining flutes and Piccolo's and French horns and trumpets you see in the 40s and 50s arrangements would consider okay here listen to that French horn or let's listen to this string section now you know what I mean it was all a definite sound there weren't combinations of sound and with the advent of Phil Spector we find sound combinations which scientifically speaking is it's a brilliant aspect of sound production so just to pick up for the cameras in Braun we're talking about Pet Sounds and the marvelous percussive and instrumental so techniques you used on that album and you're just explaining to me the way that you are putting things together again yeah please in pet sounds we utilized up what we call the Phil Spector technique which in the twentieth century it's quite a scientific advancement in music and sound namely that uh it's taking instruments in combining them to form them into a new sound in other words if you took a piano and a guitar and combined them properly sound wise mix the two sounds together you come up with a new instrument or a new sound and say you use three guitars and three pianos well that's six right there it's it's a great sound and such as combining different forms of horns together and strings and voices combined together to make certain sounds these are technological advances in music and we've used them we're using them in sin in our new album - and in 15 big ones also utilizing the voice where you have a one you used to hearing a voice singing alone well in a lot of cases artists will put their voice on again singing the same notes over the same notes which is two voices sounding like one only there's a mellow effect because you never can get the two notes exactly the same so they waver so you get the wave effect which is very good if they're very sweet sound mm-hmm so talking about the Pet Sounds period of time bran and just on from there a bit because there's there's still some confusion relating to the smile album the smiley smile album and the fire tapes right yeah can you explain that well initially we wanted to do an album called smile which when we first began it I had crazy ideas I was smoking hashish and the boys were smoking it and we were laying on the floor singing from laying on the floor we put the microphones down on our heads doing crazy things and we got into a very strange bag and we came across a tape a song called fire which I was getting pretty far out by that time well it so happens that a building burned down the same day we were doing that down the street of the studio that we were doing fire tapes I had the musicians wearing fire helmets I had a guy bring in a bucket with burning wood to smell a smoke in there in the studio I mean I was crazy anyway I thought I began to think that we started that fire somehow mystically and we ended up destroying the tape plus destroying a few others of the smile tape as a matter of fact an album called 20/20 society head-on a cabin essence that's Ryan's that was one of the smile tapes yeah and it was anything on the sunflower Brian from the smile no no no nothing on some say cabin essence was in fact the end run uh-huh yeah that's interesting which of you would albums now in retrospect that is your favorite I think friends is my favorite album it's got some cute little songs on it it's got a person we didn't overdub our voices using to lead voices we only used one separate single voice I got talking about the two voice technique basically it was a more intimate sound and they had a very personal little folksy kind of a feeling to it so friends and wild honey I think of my two favorite albums because 2020 was was interesting at the time too it seemed to go on again to get it from that point I wasn't thinking particularly never learned not to love oh I love that song my brother Janice did that yes yes yes I love that song so sunflower then this took a little bit about sunflower because again that that that was even mellower in many ways wasn't it some yes how far was a very mellow album it had it had very articulate a little love I went to the waiting if there's a song called at my window I think on sunflower which was about a little bird in it it's a cute little almond had a lot of delicacies to it it was a delicate album which I like very much I like delicate sounds anything delicate I loved Donovan I think Donovan is a very delicate artist I've always loved him and surf so you see that two things that occurred to me just going back to pet sounds for a second because at the time I think the pet science was an absolute milestone and still most people regarded as perhaps one of the top five albums ever made and yet in California the reactions of that album at the time was kind of disappointing Brian yeah it was very disappointing we we didn't understand that we thought that we put a lot of work into it and we figured that we deserved some recognition and success for it it was relatively successful but disappointing on the overall scale and I can't I can't explain it I don't I can't explain failure of an album I mean from one to the next you never know I mean there's a Art Garfunkel hat I think he's great I mean he had a number one album so you never know who's going to break through with a number one album whose you know it's very hard to determine because I felt in a way that the same happened to Circe up in America that that didn't quite actually in terms of record sales hit the mark that it really should have done because I think that that's a magnificent the right thank you sir so so it but anyway let's talk about the future wine and and you're recording now there's this concerts on the way yeah what are the long-term plans medium to long-term plans well I'm not familiar with all the long-term plans of the group they do plan to do a lot of touring and I think they plan to visit England which I'll be going with them they plan to we plan to do a lot of recording we want to do another fairy tale I'm not quite sure on the content yet but it'll have little pieces of music like it did and the other one not Verne in a fair way and but the plants are to do a lot of television and and we're going to do a movie we did a special a TV special I think is going to be aired in Britain are already has been and we we plan to do filming television touring and records we plan to do the whole works say when will you be edited written we don't know exactly I think it'll be sometime in in the in the spring of next year oh look forward to that very much indeed Ron Wilson thanks a lot thank you

Channel: BK Pictures

Views: 602,555

Keywords: Brian Wilson (Songwriter), 1976, interview, The Beach Boys, classic rock, pet sounds, 15 big ones, beach boys love you, sunflower, surf's up, marijuana, weed, holland, genius, wild honey, friends, 1970s, carl wilson, dennis wilson, old grew whistle test, al jardine, mike love, van dyke parks, brian wilson, bruce johnston, smile, carl and the passions, rock music, smiley smile, 20/20, marilyn wilson, feelflows

Id: A9AenU9iWEs

Length: 17min 24sec (1044 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 30 2016