Al Jardine, founding member of The Beach Boys, is bringing the Pet Sounds Band to the Weill Center on Friday. Jardine took time to speak with Kevin Zimmermann of WHBL News about the Beach Boys experience, and about bringing the California surf scene to the “Malibu of the Midwest.” A full transcription is below.
K: You do know that we call this the “Malibu of the Midwest”?
AJ: Oh, that’s right!
K: First, tell us what touring with Brian Wilson’s Pet Sounds Band has been for you since his passing?
AJ: Well, it’s been subdued…you know…it’s been great, the audience has been sympathetic. It’s been a great outpouring from them, because they all appreciate his contribution, and we’re offering a very important album within the context of our performance called the “Love You” album, which we’ve particularly enjoyed making, so they’re enjoying that experience as well.
K: And who’s all involved in putting that album together?
AJ: Hmm…good question! My musical director, Darian Sahanaja is his name. He was one of the hand-picked people that Brian selected for his band, and I thought it’d be a good idea to bring Darian onboard again and all the guys from the band and reproduce the album on stage.
K: And I was looking at some of the credentials of some of the band mates you’ve got in the band there. Some of these guys go back almost as far as you do. You also have your son in the band.
AJ: Oh, of course, yeah, Matt …Matt Jardine. He’s my Brian Wilson. He’s been that voice for some years now that Brian hasn’t been singing the falsetto parts from the earlier albums, so Matt’s doing that for us, and continuing to do a great job.
K: Nothing like having dad for a teacher to get the music faithfully reproduced.
AJ: Yeah, no kidding!
K: I’d like to go back to the beginning when…how did you ever get involved with the Wilson brothers and Mike Love with The Beach Boys?
AJ: Jeez, that’ll take an hour! But simply, we went to high school together. Brian and I and his brothers all went to the same high school, and we knew each other then, and then when we graduated Brian and I went to junior college together, and that’s when the band…I suggested to Brian we start a band, and he introduced me to his family. And from that point on, we were The Beach Boys.
K: The Beach Boys stood out so much for their harmonies. Is the story true that Brian learned about harmonies singing in church?
AJ: No, I don’t believe any of that. He never went to church, it started with Brian’s passion for “The Four Freshmen”, and his amazing intellect. Brian had a genius musical intellect. And so he would pick all the parts from the Freshmen music, and play the piano and then teach us the very same parts. And it was more like a music class working with Brian. We would just simply become The Four Freshmen, but we didn’t have a name at the time. And so when we finally ended up doing a song it had nothing to do with the Four Freshmen, and we didn’t have a name, and so we were called “The Beach Boys” by the label, and it was a song called “Surfin’”. It was amazing when I think upon it, but we learned to sing all these beautiful things, and then we end up, we start off with the music of describing the surfing trends. It was kind of ironic in a way, and then we did develop harmonies later on, really beautiful harmonies.
K: Some of the best-known harmonies of the era as a matter of fact. Let me use an analogy here, but you were in an ocean with a lot of fish like Dick Dale, Jan & Dean, The Surfaris, the Challengers and The Ventures…how did you rise to the top of the wave? Maybe you can describe what that felt like because there were lots of people in the surf scene.
AJ: Well, because we put the lyrics to the music. Before we came along, it was just instrumentalists…instrumental groups doing that trend…that sound. It was really a sound – it was a Fender guitar sound. It started with a group called The Ventures. The Ventures really started it with their guitar sound. And then Dick Dale came along. And then, finally, someone came along with some lyrics to describe the experience…The Beach Boys.
K: And the rest, as they say, is history.
AJ: Yeah.
K: One other point of history, as it were: What did it feel like to have drawn the attention of the Beatles, as saying “How are we going to answer the Beach Boys?” Because that happened with Sgt Pepper and Pet Sounds.
AJ: How do we answer the invasion? Yeah, it was massive. And we did OK. I knocked them off the charts…my song “Help Me Rhonda” knocked ‘em off. “Ticket to Ride” was number-one and we came along & knocked ‘em off the charts. So we did OK.
K: And having heard you at Summerfest in Milwaukee in 1975, I think it was all the original group, I was amazed with how you were reproducing your studio productions on-stage. That was no small feat!
AJ: No…no kidding! I think in ‘75, we were touring with Chicago, if I recall, in our first debut with them. We traded being opening acts with each other. Yeah, we had some pretty good singers with Carl and Dennis in the band, and I thought we did pretty well!
K: Every band undergoes changes, and you’re at the era now where you can look back at all these different renditions of the band, put the best of it together, and that’s what you’re putting into the show that’s coming to Sheboygan with the Pet Sounds Band. How do you feel about the show? How would you sum it up?
AJ: I’d say they were perfect, I mean in every way. The guys are hand-picked by Brian, they really reproduce everything to-the-letter. When you hear the strains of California Girls, which opens our shows, it sets the tone. And we have an intermission and we come back and do the “Love You” album, and we end up with the biggest hits ever, probably, of all time…all time Beach Boy hits as an encore.
K: All I can say is for anybody who has never heard this live…or felt the vibe…which is another whole thing of that because there is nothing like live music, and for this music to be done live on stage, number-one it’s going to feel great as an audience member, but I know that as a performer, there’s nothing like being able to present that to a crowd that just eats it up. What’s that like…how’s that feel, because I’ve always felt that performing music keeps you young.
AJ: Yeah, I think so. I think it is a fountain of youth if you think about it. Brian always kept us young with that music, with great harmonies. Once you start…once you engage, once you start singing, you feel it…and the audience feels it, and it’s very nourishing to have great…to be able to sing. For us to sing is one thing – but for the audience to hear it is another. So it’s amazing to reproduce those great harmonies.
K: And does the audience give you “fuel” to do even better?
AJ: I think so. It helps to get a response…but it’s really for us. We do it for ourselves, if you want to know the truth. It’s kind of selfish, but you know, we enjoy singing, and playing of course, especially the more subdued – the lesser-known stuff is quite a challenge. And I think a lot of people will enjoy that, too.
K: Will you be doing any new material during the show?
AJ: No, I don’t think we should put new material in the show until people become aware of it and request it, because right now we’re concentrating on Brian’s legacy.
K: So that’ll include California Girls, Good Vibrations, Wouldn’t It be Nice?
AJ: Oh, yeah, boy…when you hear that it just settles you right now. “The Overture”, I call it – California Girls is our overture.
K: How perfect. You know, in a way they don’t make music like they used to, but maybe that’s a good thing because this is singular…it stands out on its own. I don’t know of anything else that quite sounds like The Beach Boys.
AJ: Yeah, it’s really remarkable. We’re a combination of so many different styles in one band. You know, the Four Seasons, the Four Freshmen…the four this and the four-that…we’re a “fiver”…we added one harmony.
K: Well, I can’t tell you how much we’re looking forward to having Al Jardine and the Pet Sounds Band at the Weill Center. And I hope you get to tour a bit and get a taste for “The Malibu of the Midwest”.
AJ: Yeah, the Malibu of the Midwest – I look forward to seeing it.
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