Learn: Home » CrutchfieldAdvisor Presents Brian Wilson's SMiLE
LP: Do you have anything theories as to why it is happening now in 2004?
DS: His family. He has support and an environment conducive to making music.
LP: Why have Brian's tours all started in England?
DS: He is much more of a household name over there and the markets are smaller. I believe that to them, his music is the sound of sunshine, which they don't get a lot of. I know people there that are so passionate about this music. Even though they don't say it, I can tell it is because their life consists of getting up, driving to work in the gloomy weather, sitting in an office — and that is their daily routine. When you have months and months and years and years of that not only in your own life, but in your parents' lives and their parents' lives — when faced with that, this music just sounds like heaven, and California becomes this mythological place.
LP: Americans seem to take it for granted, and the Europeans get it on a whole other level.
DS: You know what? You can also turn that around, because the English are the same way about their own kind.
LP: I have noticed that feeling about Elton John for instance.
DS: Yes, they are very down on him. They say "Sir Elton John??? What a poof!" They are very self-loathing and we are too, especially on the west coast. Even more so from where The Beach Boys are from, they think, "Who needs that superficial fun-in-the-sun stuff?"
LP: Do you feel that the band and especially Brian have a sense of how important this project is to so many people? There is nothing else in pop music that equals it in terms of historic importance. You can't reunite The Beatles.
DS: It is only recently since we have been seeing the reviews and observing the effect that the music has on people. It's a surreal experience. We were nervous over the summer [before the North American leg of the tour] to see how people would react. But it is selling really well and changing people's lives and affecting them in a deep and real way. We all observe it and I don't really know what to think about it.
LP: In 200 years, I don't think that sort of stuff will be as important as the fact that in the fall of 2004 Brian Wilson's completed SMiLE was unveiled.
DS: That is the exact sort of perspective one needs and is one of the reasons I am so comfortable in the studio, because it is about the big picture. You can have the greatest sounding guitar on earth when you hear it solo; then you put it in the context of the arrangement and it just doesn't fit. It is all about where things are placed and how they are put together. So, in the end, its about how it makes you feel. It doesn't matter what all the individual elements are at all. It is about the music and the feel. There are those who come out of the gate picking the new SMiLE apart, comparing it to the original recordings. I believe they do so because they've invested so much emotional stock in them.
LP: But those aren't the real thing.
DS: Well, if final word from the artist means it's the real thing, then absolutely yes. And that should really take any power away from the critics and give it back to the only person worthy of it, Brian Wilson.
DS: His family. He has support and an environment conducive to making music.
 SMiLE. ©Sue Levinson. |
LP: Why have Brian's tours all started in England?
DS: He is much more of a household name over there and the markets are smaller. I believe that to them, his music is the sound of sunshine, which they don't get a lot of. I know people there that are so passionate about this music. Even though they don't say it, I can tell it is because their life consists of getting up, driving to work in the gloomy weather, sitting in an office — and that is their daily routine. When you have months and months and years and years of that not only in your own life, but in your parents' lives and their parents' lives — when faced with that, this music just sounds like heaven, and California becomes this mythological place.
LP: Americans seem to take it for granted, and the Europeans get it on a whole other level.
DS: You know what? You can also turn that around, because the English are the same way about their own kind.
LP: I have noticed that feeling about Elton John for instance.
DS: Yes, they are very down on him. They say "Sir Elton John??? What a poof!" They are very self-loathing and we are too, especially on the west coast. Even more so from where The Beach Boys are from, they think, "Who needs that superficial fun-in-the-sun stuff?"
LP: Do you feel that the band and especially Brian have a sense of how important this project is to so many people? There is nothing else in pop music that equals it in terms of historic importance. You can't reunite The Beatles.
DS: It is only recently since we have been seeing the reviews and observing the effect that the music has on people. It's a surreal experience. We were nervous over the summer [before the North American leg of the tour] to see how people would react. But it is selling really well and changing people's lives and affecting them in a deep and real way. We all observe it and I don't really know what to think about it.
LP: In 200 years, I don't think that sort of stuff will be as important as the fact that in the fall of 2004 Brian Wilson's completed SMiLE was unveiled.
DS: That is the exact sort of perspective one needs and is one of the reasons I am so comfortable in the studio, because it is about the big picture. You can have the greatest sounding guitar on earth when you hear it solo; then you put it in the context of the arrangement and it just doesn't fit. It is all about where things are placed and how they are put together. So, in the end, its about how it makes you feel. It doesn't matter what all the individual elements are at all. It is about the music and the feel. There are those who come out of the gate picking the new SMiLE apart, comparing it to the original recordings. I believe they do so because they've invested so much emotional stock in them.
LP: But those aren't the real thing.
DS: Well, if final word from the artist means it's the real thing, then absolutely yes. And that should really take any power away from the critics and give it back to the only person worthy of it, Brian Wilson.
