Life’s Work: An Interview with Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson overcame partial deafness, stage fright, mental illness, and drug addiction to write, produce, and perform some of the most influential music of the 1960s—first as a member of the Beach Boys, later as a solo artist. Famously reticent, he has a new autobiography out now. HBR: Your songs have been called groundbreaking. Where did the innovation start? Wilson: I first got inspiration from artists on the radio: Chuck Berry, Rosemary Clooney, the Four Freshmen. That’s how I learned to sing and play and write music. Producers like Phil Spector inspired me to want to make creative records. So did bands like the Beatles; they weren’t really rivalries, just mutual-admiration trips. I wanted to grow musically, so I experimented. I wasn’t the type to sit around and be satisfied with an accomplishment, especially not in the studio. And I had ideas coming into my head all the time. Many had to do with using instruments as voices and voices as instruments. I would put sounds together to create something new. Some ideas didn’t work, because they were too difficult to achieve at the time. But most did. And then I immediately moved to the next thing. How did that drive affect your relationship with your bandmates? They believed in me, my process, and what I was trying to achieve. They didn’t know how to produce a record, so I took charge. I was a real perfectionist, and the guys respected that. But we always mixed in some humor to lighten the load. What makes a group work well together? Bands are relationships, and relationships change over time. Some people are leaders, and everyone contributes in different ways. The Beach Boys were a family—three brothers, a cousin, and a friend—which gave us a cohesiveness. But I think the key to our success was respecting one another’s ideas and opinions. Also a lot of practice, and everyone pitching in. Each guy had his own part to sing. Do you prefer to work with other musicians or alone? Both. With other musicians, you can bounce ideas around. But there are times I like to work alone, especially when I want to write my own lyrics. It’s all still the creative process for me. Which collaborators have you enjoyed and learned the most from? Mike Love wrote great lyrics, very fast, and I liked that in those days. Tony Asher had the ability to put into words what I felt in my heart, and the Wrecking Crew musicians helped me achieve what I heard in my head, and that’s what made Pet Sounds so special to me. Van Dyke Parks was incredibly poetic and creative. Roger Christian was the one collaborator whose lyrics I wrote music specifically for. I can’t say these people made me better, but they did fulfill very important and critical needs at the times I worked with them. You’ve put out more than 40 albums despite withdrawing from the business for a period of time. How did you manage such productivity? Back in the early days I had this tremendous energy. The ideas kept coming and coming. These days I take things easier, but I’m cool with that. What’s your creative process like now? I play the piano, and my thoughts come out on it. I always start with chords and chord patterns before a melody comes to me. I keep notes on the song, and I keep pushing until it’s finished. When it’s working, it’s a joy, and you want to keep writing and writing. But I’ve had writer’s block for a few years now. How are you coping with that? By just sitting down at the piano and playing around. Sometimes things happen, and sometimes they don’t, but you can’t force it. It’s frustrating, but I keep at it. Many people say that Pet Sounds is the greatest rock album of all time. When you hit a peak so early in your career, do you feel pressure to top it? We knew we had a great album going when we did it. But no, I didn’t feel pressure. We started working on Smile —something a little more advanced. My collaborators and I worked on it for a few years. But then we put it on the shelf, because it was too far ahead of its time. We took it back off in 2004 and finished it, because it was the right time. I had inspiration from my wife and others, so I just got it done. You’ve been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. How did you work through that to achieve so much? I’ve dealt with my mental condition differently in different parts of my life. I gained a little bit from drugs, but then they started to become a hazard—something that didn’t work. So I had to unlearn taking them. Then I saw a psychiatrist, Dr. Landy, who overmedicated me to the point where I could be completely controlled, and I felt powerless to do anything about it. Thankfully, Melinda, who is now my wife, gave me love and support and rescued me. When I finally had my freedom back from Dr. Landy, I started dealing with my condition by talking to my friends—I like to be around creative people—doing a lot of thinking, and playing the piano. And how have you overcome your deafness and stage fright? I just tried to hear with my left ear as best I could. And I learned to calm what I call “stage anxiety” by just keeping at it, one concert at a time. It usually starts a few hours before a performance, so I just sit in a big comfortable chair on the side of the stage and meditate or contemplate how the show will go. I know that once I walk out and hear that first note, all the anxiety will go away. It always does. What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment? Pet Sounds, because it’s timeless. Fifty years later, I’m doing a world tour, playing it live, and seeing and hearing the audience respond. That makes me very proud. That record brought and continues to bring love to the world, which was my intent when I wrote the music. Also “Good Vibrations.” It’s my single-song production masterpiece.

Life’s Work: An Interview with Brian Wilson

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