E-mail a friendBrian Wilson
airdate January 21, 2009
Brian Wilson is one of the most gifted pop composers of the last 50 years. Writer, producer, arranger, musician and lead vocalist of The Beach Boys—the band he formed with his brothers, cousin and a college friend—he discovered his flair for writing and arranging music as a teen and went on to produce landmark records that changed the course of popular music. He won a Grammy in '04 and is an inductee in both the Songwriters and UK Music Halls of Fame. Wilson's newest release is the concept disc, "That Lucky Old Sun."
Original Beach Boys member talks about his return to songwriting and shares his views on the creative process. (1:25)
Full interview. (8:26)
Brian Wilson
Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome Brian Wilson to this program. The iconic singer-songwriter was, of course, an original member of the Beach Boys, a group whose classic songbook helped define a generation. He's enjoyed tremendous success as a solo artist, including his latest CD, "That Lucky Old Sun." A companion DVD to that project is out next week. Here now a small sample from "That Lucky Old Sun."
[Clip]
Tavis: Brian, nice to meet you.
Brian Wilson: Nice to meet you, Tavis.
Tavis: Honored to have you on the program. I like this song, but why "That Lucky Old Sun" for you? What do you like about this song?
Wilson: Well, because I like the - it's a spiritual song about a guy who really works hard and breaks his back, and it's a spiritual idea, so I used that for the concept of the album.
Tavis: There are a lot of folk - I've always wanted to ask you this question - there are a lot of folk who are in California, born and raised in California, have come into their own in California, who didn't choose to write so many songs about California. What is it about this state, this place, that so turns you on that made you want to write about it?
Wilson: Well, it's just the beaches, the restaurants, the clubs, the nightclubs, the streets - it's just an inspiring place. I like it very much.
Tavis: Was there a particular message about California, since it was inspiring for you, that you wanted to communicate in your music over the years?
Wilson: Well, it's the sunshine and the California girls that really did it for me. (Laughter)
Tavis: Can't get no more direct than that - the sunshine and the girls. Did you ever have any idea, though, when you created this sound that is clearly your - when you hear your records, you know it's Brian.
Wilson: You mean like the Beach Boys sound, you mean?
Tavis: Yeah, yeah.
Wilson: Well, we had a bass singer and we had three mid-range singers, and I was the falsetto. So we covered a span of notes, yeah.
Tavis: Did you have any idea that the kind of music you were doing would end up having the kind of impact on a generation that it's had?
Wilson: I never, never, ever thought it would, but it did. Yeah, it did.
Tavis: Tell me about this DVD that's out with the - the companion to the CD.
Wilson: Well, the DVD is just about the making of the album, and it shows the different processes that you go through to make an album.
Tavis: Why - not why, let me ask it a different way. What do you make of the fact that when you started there weren't all of these ways to market and promote a product, and now you've got videos, you've got DVD, so many ways to get your stuff out there now?
Wilson: There are videos and DVDs, but there's no market on the radio anymore. The radio has gone dead for artists - it's gone dead. Absolutely gone dead.
Tavis: What do you make of that?
Wilson: Well, I feel sad, you know? I feel like crying. I feel sad that the record business died.
Tavis: Had there been no radio for you guys to get the airplay back in the day, would the Beach Boys have made it?
Wilson: I don't know. I don't know.
Tavis: Your name, the Beach Boys - it seems easy, where it came from. Was there some rule of thought that went into naming the group the Beach Boys?
Wilson: Well, we were first called the Pendletones.
Tavis: The Pendletones?
Wilson: Yeah, the Pendletones.
Tavis: Beach Boys is a lot better.
Wilson: Right.
Tavis: Yeah. (Laughter)
Wilson: And as soon as we delivered our record to the company, our new company, Candix Records, the promotion man said, "Why don't we call them the Beach Boys?" So then when we saw the record, it said, "Surfin' by the Beach Boys." We went, "What? What?" We liked it, though - we liked the name Beach Boys.
Tavis: How have you - over the years, how have you decided musically what works for you? The sound that you want to create, the songs that you pick out?
Wilson: Well, it depends on the record or the song. If it's a ballad, then you can play easier instruments. If it's a hard rocker, you thump, thump, thump it.
Tavis: We all know in your history there was a period where you kind of stepped away from the music. What brings you - when you decide to step away or have stepped away, what brings you back? What's brought you back?
Wilson: Well, my wife said, "You've been laying around for a couple of years, why not get going?" (Laughter) "Why not get going again?" And I said, "All right." So I started writing songs again.
Tavis: And that's all it takes is for your wife to say, "Come on, Brian, get busy."
Wilson: Yeah, right.
Tavis: Were you surprised or not surprised? I don't know what the result was when you actually sat down. So when your wife says get up and do something, you'd been sitting around for a couple of years, were you surprised at the ease, the flow, that it came back to you?
Wilson: I was very surprised.
Tavis: Or did it take a while?
Wilson: Well, no, no, no, no, I was instantly surprised - it was instant karma. As soon as I got inspired, I said, "Hey, I know this is going to happen." And it did.
Tavis: So how does this stuff just - this may be hard to explain. So how does this stuff come to you? It just comes, is there a process for you? The music.
Wilson: Well, the process is the piano, the keyboard. You play the keyboard and you like what you hear. You play a chord - (humming) - you say, "I like that." And then a melody just pops in your head. It's a magic trick. I don't know how to explain the creative process. It's magic.
Tavis: I'm so jealous of you.
Wilson: No, it's magic.
Tavis: I'm still jealous.
Wilson: No, no, no.
Tavis: That you - no, I'm serious - that you can just sit down and go (humming) and it just comes to you.
Wilson: Well, yeah, yeah.
Tavis: Are you comfortable with the lyrical content over the course of your career?
Wilson: Oh, yeah.
Tavis: Have you gotten out what you wanted to get out?
Wilson: Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm very happy with the lyrical content, yeah, yeah.
Tavis: You talked earlier about how the music comes to you. You sit down at the piano and the music comes to you. Speaking of lyrics, how does the lyrical content come to you? How do you get that part?
Wilson: The lyrical content comes after the melody. Then you think (humming) - let me see - (singing) "Little surfer, little one." It's hard to explain how the ideas come, the lyrics. It's impossible to explain. You'd have to be a songwriter to know. But you just say, "Okay, I'll write a lyric," or "I'll write a melody," or "I'll write a whole record."
Tavis: What do you make - here's an impossible question, but I want to ask it anyway - what do you make of the gift that you have been blessed with?
Wilson: Well, I thank God every day of my life for my gift. I have a gift to not only write, but I have a gift to sing and stuff like that.
Tavis: Music is, as you said earlier, inspiring for so many people. Talk to me about your fan base over the years and what you think you've done to inspire them. Tell me about your relationship between you and the fan base, because you've got fans all over the world.
Wilson: Well, we started it out in just California, in Los Angeles, and we touched base with the fans at that point. And then later on when we did "Surfin' U.S.A." we went nationwide. Then we had a following from around the country. And then after that, a few years later, we had a following around the world. So it took - it went in stages: L.A., California, United States, around the world.
Tavis: You ever surprised by the fact that what is so L.A.-centric, so L.A.-focused could have caught on around the world? There aren't beaches all over the world.
Wilson: No, but people want to come to California because we write songs about the beach, and people were interested in knowing what California was all about.
Tavis: So now that your wife got you up off the couch and you're back at this again, you going to stay up off the couch, or you going to lay back down and hibernate for a while?
Wilson: No, no, no - I'm going to stay writing, stay good. (Laughter) I just wrote a song yesterday.
Tavis: And how did that one come to you?
Wilson: How did it come to me?
Tavis: Were you at the piano again yesterday?
Wilson: Same process. I said, "What am I doing? What am I doing?" I said, "Oh, I'm playing my synthesizer." And I said, "What for?" I said, "Well, we'll write a song." "What song?" Like that, and then it just slowly happened.
Tavis: Wow. (Laughter) Like I said, I'm really jealous of this guy. I think when I leave the show tonight I'm just going to - you think if I just leave the show and just go sit down at a piano that the same thing may happen for me?
Wilson: It might come to you. You never know. You just might surprise yourself. (Unintelligible) oh my god, I can write a song.
Tavis: Yeah, whatever. Anyway - (laughter) it ain't going to happen. But that's okay, because it works for Brian. The record - I love this - I like this throwback thing, these old LPs, (unintelligible) out on vinyl, I like this.
Wilson: Right, yeah.
Tavis: Brian Wilson, "That Lucky Old Song." Of course it's out on CD now, and in just a matter of days the DVD, the companion DVD to the back story of the making of a great song, "That Lucky Old Sun," will be out. Brian Wilson, honored to have you on the program.
Wilson: Thank you very much.
Tavis: It's a pleasure to meet you, sir.
Wilson: Okay.
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