The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hi everyone,

Greetings from NYC! My name is Chris Katzmann, and I co-produce the 'Break a Bat!' Podcast here in NYC. Been fan of your board for a long time...

Wanted to pass along this interview that my host Al Malafronte just completed with Al Jardine recorded a couple of days after he and Brian Wilson played the Beacon. Really outside the box interview that touched on anything from baseball, a successful Broadway musical featuring The Beach Boys' music, lots of SMILE and Holland talk, as well as some stories behind the creative peaks and turmoil surrounding the band's history. Al Malafronte is also a big Beach Boys fan so I think it'd hit home for y'all. Real intimate conversation. Here's a link to the interview on the Broadway Podcast Network:

https://broadwaypodcastnetwork.com/6-now-batting-al-jardine/

As well as iTunes:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/6-now-batting-al-jardine/id1465846187?i=1000455461106

Really hope you all enjoy it.

Best,
Chris

Welcome to the board! And thanks for the link. Enjoyed this very much. Al seems to be such a nice guy to talk to.

Thank you!!! Yes, I wish I was in the studio with them but everything leading up to it with him was an absolute pleasure. Glad it came across in the interview too.

Kudos and congrats on a terrific interview with Al! Man, that was a lot of fun to listen to and I'm sure even more fun to conduct. Thank you for posting and sharing here! It is so refreshing to hear an interview where the questions come from a truly informed person who knows and loves the band and the music, and is a real fan talking to Al. Again I use the terms refreshing because - specific to this band - so many interviews can come off like lectures versus conversations, or can sound like someone doing a gig who just crammed 15 minutes of research into the topic before actually talking to the person, or even worse...can try to push whatever agendas or talking points either the interviewer or interviewee wants to promote. No names need to be mentioned... ;D

This was great, I could have listened to a few more hours!

Thanks again, that's great stuff.

I'm familiar with the style of interviews you're alluding to  :lol  Thank you so much for the kind words. Now we just gotta cross our fingers that his big reveal happens sooner rather than later!

I just moved this topic to the main board here - It's such a good interview with Al that more people need to check it out and listen, and I'm surprised more seem to have not listened or commented. It's well worth the time to hear Al in such a setting for an interview and where he opens up as he did with an interviewer who clearly knows his stuff. This is an interview light years beyond the usual run of the mill interviews we get with band members.

Maybe the lack of response was because this got posted on the "Media" sub-forum rather than the main board, which is why it has been moved. Consider giving it a listen.

Fantastic interview.

So cool to hear such an in depth, comfortable, and well researched interview with Al.

Interesting to note that Blondie sang the high parts on Cal Saga.


Nice to hear Al talk about the Long Promised Road biopic, looks like progress is still being made.

And did Al accidentally (as always) hint at Love & Mercy broadway show at the end?

Love Al's idea for "Smile - The Musical."

Was also intrigued by his brief discussion of The Old Master Painter.  To my knowledge, the Beach Boys never recorded the traditional TOMP lyrics ("the old master painter in the faraway hills" etc), yet Al sorta implies that they did.  Could they have rehearsed those lyrics at some point in '66-'67 or in the '70s?  Who knows?
I do remember that Brian and his band DID sing those lyrics a few times for the Smile tour in 2004.

Thank you for the kind words! Fingers crossed on all those little teasers...