Probyn Gregory interview - new album, tour & grammy's info

[mickey]

Crack  works for me too!

[Awesoman]

80's beach boys?  so like what, a bunch of getcha backs?  i just hope it doesn't SOUND 80s. please. pleeaaaaseeee no 80s production.

and how good can this "god made the radio" song actually be???  stop hyping me!!

I concur.  I've decided that I already hate this song.  If this damn thing is so great, maybe they should just scrap the new album, release the song as a single and call it a day.   

[Awesoman]

80's beach boys?  so like what, a bunch of getcha backs?  i just hope it doesn't SOUND 80s. please. pleeaaaaseeee no 80s production.

Getcha Back doesn't really sound like most of the songs on  BB85. But I'd imagine he was referring to the Kokomo / Still Cruisin' sound when he meant 80s Beach Boys.

You mean like Island Fever...? The "cousin of Kokomo" ?  

Wasn't that whole album basically the "cousin of 'Kokomo'"?  Or at least its illegitimate children?  

[Wirestone]

80's beach boys?  so like what, a bunch of getcha backs?  i just hope it doesn't SOUND 80s. please. pleeaaaaseeee no 80s production.

Getcha Back doesn't really sound like most of the songs on  BB85. But I'd imagine he was referring to the Kokomo / Still Cruisin' sound when he meant 80s Beach Boys.

You mean like Island Fever...? The "cousin of Kokomo" ? 

Wasn't that whole album basically the "cousin of 'Kokomo'"?  Or at least its illegitimate children? 

Still Cruisin was the son of Kokomo. SIP was the crazy backwoods relative who's hooked on meth.

[Paulos]

Probyn gives a great interview, that's for sure.  Very interesting to read his comments about the Grammys and the new album.  The "80's Beach Boys" thing scares me, but at least we seem to have one great track to look forward to. 

Where I Belong was an 80s song and that's brilliant, no need to be scared (I hope)!

[phirnis]

80's beach boys?  so like what, a bunch of getcha backs?  i just hope it doesn't SOUND 80s. please. pleeaaaaseeee no 80s production.

and how good can this "god made the radio" song actually be???  stop hyping me!!

I concur.  I've decided that I already hate this song.  If this damn thing is so great, maybe they should just scrap the new album, release the song as a single and call it a day.   

With that title I can only imagine something along the lines of "Slightly American Music" or "The Spirit of Rock'n'Roll" coming our way.

[Aomdiddlywalla]

80's beach boys?  so like what, a bunch of getcha backs?  i just hope it doesn't SOUND 80s. please. pleeaaaaseeee no 80s production.

and how good can this "god made the radio" song actually be???  stop hyping me!!

I concur.  I've decided that I already hate this song.  If this damn thing is so great, maybe they should just scrap the new album, release the song as a single and call it a day.   

With that title I can only imagine something along the lines of "Slightly American Music" or "The Spirit of Rock'n'Roll" coming our way.

I would imagine mid tempo chorus only, then a sublime verse fur sure.

[hypehat]

80's beach boys?  so like what, a bunch of getcha backs?  i just hope it doesn't SOUND 80s. please. pleeaaaaseeee no 80s production.

and how good can this "god made the radio" song actually be???  stop hyping me!!

I concur.  I've decided that I already hate this song.  If this damn thing is so great, maybe they should just scrap the new album, release the song as a single and call it a day.   

With that title I can only imagine something along the lines of "Slightly American Music" or "The Spirit of Rock'n'Roll" coming our way.

Hopefully more like the former.

Is it terrible I keep writing this song in my head? My chorus sounds pretty amazing, tbf, they'd be fools not to have used it 

[Craig Boyd]

Am I the only one who likes Crack at your Love?   

I'm a big fan of it. I love BB85.

I think compared to some of the albums before and the ones after it's really decent. If you strip away most of the synths you have a bunch of decent songs there, if they had songs that matched the calibre of the better efforts on BB85 and with some nice production they could have something really nice on their hands. I love Al's vocal on Crack at Your Love, it's great when he goes into that little falsetto part.

[Rocker]

Am I the only one who likes Crack at your Love?   

I'm a big fan of it. I love BB85.

I think compared to some of the albums before and the ones after it's really decent. If you strip away most of the synths you have a bunch of decent songs there, if they had songs that matched the calibre of the better efforts on BB85 and with some nice production they could have something really nice on their hands. I love Al's vocal on Crack at Your Love, it's great when he goes into that little falsetto part.

Like I said earlier, I really like the '85 album. Of course today it sounds datedwith the synths but it is the last Beach Boys album where they tried to be contemporary and create new music. "Male ego" (I know it wasn't on the album) is one helluva catchy pop song. When the chorus starts and you hear Carl in the background doing that beautiful ascending line while Brian is singing very strongly in his mid-range, I really get the feeling this should've been a hit. The lytics could be better but the music is cool

[Melt Away]

Ok. HOW do we get to whose ever in charge here and tell them Joe Thomas is going to make this album sh*t. Even if it has some "amazing" songs on it (like BB85), still the production is going to have that cheesy/slick feel to it. God, even if you did make radio this is making me SICK.

[stack-o-tracks]

Ok. HOW do we get to whose ever in charge here and tell them Joe Thomas is going to make this album sh*t. Even if it has some "amazing" songs on it, still the production is going to have that cheesy/slick feel to it. God, even if you did make radio this is making me SICK.

Yeah, the Do It Again remake has that same kind of "clinical" vibe to it. Though I feel the same way about SMiLE '04, TLOS, Gershwin and Disney.


I blame computers. People thinking they can make stuff sound better with computers. I think it's time to start a new retro fad and record stuff exclusively to tape. No more of this digitally manipulating sounds to make them sound the way you want them to sound.

I also blame the government. But I can't let me reasons be known, yet.

[Autotune]

I say listen to the album first and THEN hate it!

Just give them a fucking chance.

[Melt Away]

I say listen to the album first and THEN hate it!

Just give them a f*cking chance.

I'll give and I've given The BB's many chances but, Joe Thomas, a former professional wrestler turned the most cheesetastic "producer" in history. I gave him a chance with Imagination and that's all I needed to hear. Still, I hope for the best.

[stack-o-tracks]

I say listen to the album first and THEN hate it!

Just give them a f*cking chance.

Whoa. Man. Whoa. Hate is such an ugly word. I don't hate, I masturbate. 

[Wirestone]

I say listen to the album first and THEN hate it!

Just give them a f*cking chance.

I'll give and I've given The BB's many chances but, Joe Thomas, a former professional wrestler turned the most cheesetastic "producer" in history. I gave him a chance with Imagination and that's all I needed to hear. Still, I hope for the best.

It's still not been established exactly what his role is in the new album. It's been confirmed that he recorded for a few days last year with Brian, and that the two have written songs. It has been confirmed that his company will be producing the PBS special.

It has not been confirmed that he's actually a producer on the record. Indeed, one press release suggested Brian alone was. And Probyn explicitly stays Joe is acting like an "executive producer" -- that is, running traffic and scheduling work on the record. Not necessarily producing the sessions.

But we shall see.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Just an idle thought... as JT is helming the DVD... and the Grammy performance will undoubtedly be on the DVD... maybe that's why the TV feed differed so markedly from the hall mix ?

[Phoenix]

Speaking of that difference, does anyone have a link to that cell phone video of the house feed?  I was just thinking about it today.

[stack-o-tracks]

Speaking of that difference, does anyone have a link to that cell phone video of the house feed?  I was just thinking about it today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPs5r2mcoEM

[stack-o-tracks]

They really fudged that up. The people I know who watched it think it was lip synched. Brian sounded fine. Not a good mix. Hopefully the DVD version will do justice to the actual performance. Though they already blew it since not nearly as many people are going to watch that.

[Craig Boyd]

Just an idle thought... as JT is helming the DVD... and the Grammy performance will undoubtedly be on the DVD... maybe that's why the TV feed differed so markedly from the hall mix ?

That could be the case, I still can't believe how much it differed and it wasn't just Brian's vocals either. Mike sounded kinda washed out and echoey when he came in on the "I'm picking up" line on the tv feed but those bass vocals boomed in the hall mix. If it's on the dvd they'll likely sort out the levels of Brian's vocal like they did with the Live 8 dvd. Brian was inaudible on the live broadcast of that but (for better or worse) you can hear him much more clearly on the dvd version.

[Phoenix]

Much oblidged, Mr Stacks!

[The Shift]

Okay, where did the interview go?

Link seems gone.

[c-man]

Since the link no longer works, does anyone know how else to access this interview?  Or did anyone save it?

[Wah Wah Wah Ooooo]

Yes, does anyone feel like sharing this interview now that the tour is over and whatnot.  I missed it the first time around and have been wanting to read it for 9 months.