New Brian interview

[Amy B.]

Sorry if this has already been posted.

http://www.thebrag.com/2010/11/02/interview-brian-wilson/

Brian Wilson
Just Keep Breathing
By Oliver Downes

Brian Wilson is a survivor. It can be heard in his voice; in a life which has overcome more than its share of turbulance, his is a stubborn yet graceful vitality that has found its purpose and expression through a persistent dedication to music. “Love means… to breath is to love I would say,” he affirms. “I’ve got a lot of love in my heart; all you gotta do is breath to love.”

At 68, the pioneer of Californian surf pop, iconic frontman of The Beach Boys and composer of one of the most influential pop albums of the sixties, Pet Sounds, isn’t resting on any laurels. Speaking down the wire from Los Angeles ahead of an extended tour of the Australian capital cities, Wilson is crisp, matter of fact and to the point. That he’s still performing at all is in no small way miraculous – but a mechanical quality to some of his responses and a tendency to repeat himself are the only audible scars of the psychological illness that has ravaged his career.

As principal songwriter of The Beach Boys, Wilson propelled the group to international fame in the early sixties with singles like ‘I Get Around’, ‘Surfin’ USA’ and ‘California Girls’. Pet Sounds, generally regarded as Wilson’s masterpiece, was released in 1966 to muted acclaim, its import only becoming clear in subsequent decades. But his lush vocals, innovative production and densely experimental arrangements did have an immediate impact on at least one other group… “Pet Sounds inspired the Beatles,” he explains with enthusiasm, “which I think – the most famous group in the whole world, influenced by us? That’s a trip for me! John, Paul called me when they heard [it] and they both said they loved it … they flipped for it.” Tragically, from this watermark, Wilson imploded; band and label turmoil, the birth of his first daughter, the release of Sgt. Pepper (Wilson felt he was in deep and personal competition with the Beatles), and LSD overuse all combined to send him into a creative and psychological no man’s land. His follow-up to Pet Sounds, Smile, emerged stillborn as Smiley Smile in 1967, Wilson only returning to complete the project as originally envisioned in the early noughties.

Releasing new material only intermittently through the 70s and barely at all through the subsequent two decades, Wilson’s creative stagnation was accompanied by an ongoing battle with inner demons. He was diagnosed with schizo associative disorder in the late 1980s, the development of which he directly attributes to his drug intake. Considering the enormous personal cost his youthful experimentation has exacted from him, it’s perhaps not so surprising that his views on psychedelic substances are these days less forbearing than in the past. “Do I have any regrets? Oh, of course I do!” he exclaims. “I wouldn’t have taken DRUGS if I’d had a marble in my head – if I’d had a brain in my head – and thought to say, ‘Well, what does this do to you when you take this drug?’ Well, I wouldn’t have taken the drug, right? When I found out how much damage it did to my brain?” – he chuckles, drily. “Very bad. That’s what I would have not done, taken drugs – and I would advise young people who get this interview not to take drugs.”
The last decade has been considerably kinder to Wilson; his wife and four adopted children, as well as many productive collaborations, have provided him with much-needed stability. “I keep myself motivated by exercising, and I’ll play the piano and keep in touch with music, y’know? I walk about two and a half miles a day. Which is pretty damn good.”

Apart from concluding his thirty-plus year labour of love with the release of Smile in 2004, he has released two collections of original material, as well as this year paying homage to one of his own idols on Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin. The result of an alliance between the Gershwin estate and Disney (Wilson is to record an album of Disney covers as part of the deal), the collection features a dozen covers of Gershwin classics as well as two Wilson originals, constructed from fragments left uncompleted at Gershwin’s death. “It was a joy because I love Gershwin, and I love his music,” he says. “They sent us over 104 unfinished Gershwin songs, with George himself playing piano. Can you believe that? That I’d get to work with George that way? This Gershwin album was a rough album for me to make, because I didn’t want to let my band members down or anyone down with the vocals, y’know?”

Driven by a prodigious work ethic, Wilson continues to perform as much for its rehabilitative effects (“there is a therapeutic element to being on stage, it is good for you”), as for a belief that someone really needs to bring back the good vibes. “The music nowadays is not as positive and as warm, y’know? The music of this time, 2010, is very, very, very, VERY unbecoming to how I think music should be … I think people should write better melodies and sing a little sweeter, and knock off that stupid rap crap, y’know? Rap is really ridiculous.”

What matters most, though, is to just keep on breathing. “What I most want to do is I want to get my health to the point where I’m not like, ‘Oh I can’t do this, or I can’t do this tour, I can’t write songs’ you know, stuff like that,” he says. “That’s where I want to be.”

Who: Brian Wilson
With: Chicago, America & Peter Frampton
Where: Hope Estate Winery, Hunter Valley
When: Saturday November 6
More: Brian Wilson is playing his own show on November 5 @ The Enmore

[The Shift]

“The music nowadays is not as positive and as warm, y’know? The music of this time, 2010, is very, very, very, VERY unbecoming to how I think music should be … I think people should write better melodies and sing a little sweeter, and knock off that stupid rap crap, y’know? Rap is really ridiculous.”
Who: Brian Wilson

Fighting talk? Is this an inkling of some competitive spirit smouldering away in there?

[Myk Luhv]

The only reason he's hating on hip-hop is because he remembers "Smart Girls" and... well, I was traumatised by that too!

[Jason]

Perhaps a Brian Wilson diss track is in our future?

[donald]

I've noted Brian's rap loathing before.  Let me just say I second his loathing.  But I realize I'm just another old fart like Brian     I once fantasized taking a black marker into a mall music store and putting a bold "C" in front of rap on the music section cards.  Old but still immature

[rab2591]

Most rap sucks. No doubt. But I enjoy a small percentage of it. Jeesh, I remember back in Middle and High School I was obsessed with Eminem and 50 cent. Virtually, for no other reason but to fit in with the crowd. In college it starting wearing off. Got out of school and started thinking for myself....and thus, my love of the Beach Boys flourished.

I still enjoy listening to some rap songs, but obviously none have the spiritual power that Brian's music has.

I think most rap feeds off (and feeds) the crumbling social life of the inner-city. If more rap were uplifting, or about love, I think it would have a more powerful influence on getting ones life turned around. Seriously, youtube 'Space Bound' by Eminem or 'Dead and Gone' by Ti. There is some good rap out there, but there's a lot of crap out there too.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

The main problem I have with most hip hop is the negative messages being sent out. Such violent lyrics that glorify gang life. I think it can be a decent artistic expression at times, but why do the lyrics have to be that way?

[18thofMay]

Because in reality that is their life.. Brian painted a picture of Californian sunshine, surfer girls and cars. Reality was alot harder for Brian and the fans.. Catch a wave to how deep is the ocean! If Brian and the boys told the truth from the start it was all over. Reality can be very very negative! The deeper Brian got into the music and life I think the harder he found the reality to cope with. Sad hey

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I care way more for music rather than lyrics, so none of that bothers me.  And actually, I do happen to like a decent amount of hip hop. Best thing I can say is if one were to replace the rapping with someone actually singing and have it sound good, then it's a good cut. Eminem was brought up...if you can look past the image you should see the man does have talent.

Back on subject...

I wonder how Brian feels about the music his kids listen to. Hell, what DO they listen to?

[The Shift]

I wonder how Brian feels about the music his kids listen to. Hell, what DO they listen to?

Wheels On The Bus?

[A Million Units In Jan!]

I wonder how Brian feels about the music his kids listen to. Hell, what DO they listen to?

Wheels On The Bus?

Jonas Bros.

[absinthe_boy]

Not a bad interview, pretty good by Brian's standards.

As for rap....nothing wrong with rap per se. As an art form it is valid. Some of the earlier rap stuff from the 80's has appeal, but 95% of what is out there today is just awful, garbage....regardless of the message (which itself is pretty unattractive).

However some of what Eminem writes is almost poetry. And the music he sets it to ebbs and flows with the story that his lyrics tell. That's pretty clever stuff....he's not merely setting words that scan nicely to a repetitive beat. He's composing music which strikes a chord within human beings.

But 99% of rap, and indeed modern 'pop' music is aimed at vapid teenagers who don't know autotune from autofocus.

[Roger Ryan]

Brian would do better to condemn the state of popular music today instead of just using hip-hop as an easy target, but it's Brian, so...

For me, the problem with hip-hop, or at least the popular R&B variation that tops the charts, is not "gangsta" subject matter but the emphasis on material goods and acquiring status. This plays into the worst aspect of American culture which promises you will achieve self-actualization by driving the best car and drinking the right champagne. The idea that this sentiment comes "from the streets" is very disheartening...right along with out-of-control auto-tuning. Comparing today's popular hip-hop to such progenitors as Public Enemy is like comparing Barry Manilow to Little Richard.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

This plays into the worst aspect of American culture which promises you will achieve self-actualization by driving the best car and drinking the right champagne.

Isn't that what the Beach Boys did in the early 60s? Maybe not the champagne, but songs about driving the best car? Although, they did eventually grow up and write more mature lyrics (until Mike decided to go back to it in the late 70s).

[Myk Luhv]

Yeah, The Beach Boys were never consumerist at all. Give me a fucking break! If y'all are going to generalise about an entire kind of music, you might want to actually know even a little something about the music you're fixing to criticise. (As for myself, I am no expert in hip-hop history or music, but I think I know at least enough to reasonably defend it.) It's not as if "socially conscious" hip-hop is opposed to "party" or "good-time" hip-hop; folks have been rapping about both of these themes in hip-hop since its nascence in the late 1970s. Even "gangsta" hip-hop is socially conscious, albeit in a less direct fashion than, say, Public Enemy or the Native Tongues posse; similarly, it's not as if Tribe or De La Soul didn't also write songs about having sex or partying or whatever too. The whole gangsta/political subject matter (false) dichotomy in hip-hop is tiring.

[Roger Ryan]

This plays into the worst aspect of American culture which promises you will achieve self-actualization by driving the best car and drinking the right champagne.

Isn't that what the Beach Boys did in the early 60s? Maybe not the champagne, but songs about driving the best car? Although, they did eventually grow up and write more mature lyrics (until Mike decided to go back to it in the late 70s).

I did think about mentioning the Beach Boys car songs in the post above as being comparable, but to me there is a difference between the celebration of a cultural aspect that many listeners can share and the rather elitist consumerism espoused in a lot of today's chart toppers. Midnight Special is correct, of course, in stating that "party" songs are not in opposition to "socially conscious" ones and vice versa. I am just reacting to what I see as a very strict hip-hop formula, as represented on mainstream radio or television, that strikes me as disingenuous and simply uninteresting. Rock music is in the same boat these days, but its a genre I explore more, finding wonderful, creative things happening on the fringes. I'm sure the same is true in hip-hop.

[Day Tripper]

 I think that Brian, being the great melody and harmony writer that he is, sees nothing of musical value in Rap or Hip Hop, which is usually devoid of interesting melodies and cool chord progressions.  I look at Rap kind of the way I do Jack Kerouac reciting poetry while a piano or upright bass riffed behind him. Mainly lyrical, and sometimes clever, sometimes not. 

 I'd actually like to hear more of Brian ripping other styles of music and artists. Brutally honest - yes, but I agree with him.

[Ganz Allein]

I'd actually like to hear more of Brian ripping other styles of music and artists.

...except Wishbone Ash. 

[rab2591]

This seems appropriate considering the topic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84NM-RldOF8

 

and incredible Lonely Island SNL bit parodying how stupid rap has gotten....

[Magic Transistor Radio]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3GyM0ss-TY

Joaquin Phoenix is sort of 70s Brian Wilson meets modern hip hop

[Steve Mayo]

i'm with brian...rap sucks.....

[Empire Of Love]

Brian would do better to condemn the state of popular music today instead of just using hip-hop as an easy target, but it's Brian, so....

This is precisely what Brian did:

“The music nowadays is not as positive and as warm, y’know? The music of this time, 2010, is very, very, very, VERY unbecoming to how I think music should be … I think people should write better melodies and sing a little sweeter..."

Only AFTER this statement condemning the state of popular music in general does Brian go on to specifically criticize rap.

[Roger Ryan]

Brian would do better to condemn the state of popular music today instead of just using hip-hop as an easy target, but it's Brian, so....

This is precisely what Brian did:

“The music nowadays is not as positive and as warm, y’know? The music of this time, 2010, is very, very, very, VERY unbecoming to how I think music should be … I think people should write better melodies and sing a little sweeter..."

Only AFTER this statement condemning the state of popular music in general does Brian go on to specifically criticize rap.

That's true. I was probably reacting to the numerous previous quotes where Brian singles out rap as the thing he has the biggest problem with. I would love to hear Brian discuss his opinion on the changes in the music industry in detail, but that's just not in the cards.

[markcharles75]

Check out this guy on Youtube.  Read what he says about the 60's versus today's music scene.  Couldn't have said it better myself.  I do believe we are in the worst state of music ever.  I do turn on MTV/radio from time to time to amuse myself.  I cannot salvage anything from it.  Lots of teen bubblegum pop (nothing wrong with that...just write something good for pete's sake), rap/hip hop/club songs...pop punk lazy musicianship crap.  We must mine the past for gold....Brian is right..nothing of note in today's music scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W0qZxj1zEw

Mark

[adamghost]

I love Eminem, and hip hop is fine for what it is, but I think it's crazy that a music form that is inherently non-musical (I think of it as beat poetry) totally dominates music culture.

I'm one of those people that dates the decline of music from 1983, and the first widespread use of sampling synthesizers.  The minute it got that easy to make something sound like a record, people stopped trying as hard.  Which brings us to where we are today, where everything is dumbed down and subtlety goes out the window.  (American Idol teaching a generation of would-be singers that good singing is overemoting and glissing over every syllable is another example)