The legendary musician on the Beach Boys biopic Love & Mercy, incontinent dogs – and why 70s music really wasn’t his bag

Beach Boy Brian Wilson: ‘Punk rock? I don’t know what that is’

Hello Brian. We’ve just seen Love & Mercy (1) , which tells the story of your life. It must have been quite painful in parts for you to watch.

Yes, it shows some of my darker hours. It kind of depressed me a little bit. Some of it was a bit tough on me. I’ve seen it twice. I don’t know if I’ll see it again.

John Cusack (2) is exceptional playing you. The tiny details he has observed are amazing and very moving.

He was great. John Cusack is a real music guy – he loves music. He tried out for the part and he got it. He’s a good actor.

What would you like people to take away from the film?

The truth about my life and the things I went through.

Love & Mercy review – a warm tribute to the extraordinary life of Brian Wilson Read more

As we’re in Berlin ( 3) , can I ask if you’ve heard Autobahn by the German group Kraftwerk? It was almost like an electronic reworking of the Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann.

No, I haven’t heard that. Kraft-what? I don’t know them, but that sounds good.

Do you recollect the first time you heard the Everly Brothers?

It was that song called Dream. [Sings] “Dre-ee-ee-ee-eam.” That was the first song I heard from them. I loved it. I really liked the harmonies.

You effectively studied under Phil Spector in the early 1960s. What did you learn from him?

I learned how to produce records. I picked up his positivity. He was quite cool.

How did you feel when you heard he was going to jail for murder (4) ?

I was depressed.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paul Dano as Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy. Photograph: ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS/Allstar/ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

Were there any guns in the studio when you were working with him? Leonard Cohen once told me that there were guns all over the place (5) .

I don’t know.

Spector said, perhaps unkindly, that Good Vibrations was “an edit record”.

Edit? It was. I agree with that. That took a lot of work. I still don’t know how I did it.

Is it true that there were no hi-hats used on any Beach Boys records?

No, we didn’t use them, they sound too funny.

What is the first chord you play when you sit down at a piano?

F sharp. No, E. That’s the first chord. Then maybe a chord sequence like on Be My Baby – the Ronettes. I just love the drums on that record. The kick drum, the echo.

You’ve said that songs are little bits of magic pieced together.

The combining of different instruments can make magic.

Remember that big beard you grew in the late-1960s?

Yeah.

They’re highly fashionable now. You started a trend.

Really? That’s cool [laughs].

Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Cusack and Elizabeth Banks in Love and Mercy. Photograph: ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS/Allstar/ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

What did you make of punk rock?

I don’t know what that is. Punk rock? Punk? What is that?

It was a loud, aggressive musical movement that happened around 1976.

Oh yeah. I never went for that. I never went for the fast kind of music. I go for the more medium tempo. Spencer Davis, I liked that.

Has it taken a long time to record No Pier Pressure, your new album?

Well, yeah because we were trying to perfect the album’s sound. We wanted a pleasant sound. Pleasant and mellow. Soft rock, not rock. My album is not rock’n’roll.

But part of you must still enjoy rock’n’roll.

I love Chuck Berry. Oh my God, what a lyric writer. I met him one time – you want to hear how it was? I say: “Hi, I’m Brian Wilson.” And he goes: “ALLLRIIIGHT!” Then he turned away and that was it.

That sounds a little like the time you met our Queen (6) and shouted: “Hey, Queen!”

Right! I couldn’t believe it, I was like, “What?” And I yelled it out. She didn’t say anything back.

You’ve don’t meditate these days, is that right?

No, it didn’t work anymore. I was so nervous I couldn’t sit there and meditate – I just can’t do it. I used to be able to in the mid-1960s and early 70s but I can’t do it any more. It stopped working.

When you hear songs that you wrote as a young man what feelings do they invariably stir?

Sadness. Most sadness. My life has been sad in parts. I don’t like being 72. I just don’t like it. I haven’t got as much energy as I used to have.

What age are you in your mind?

40.

What do you remember about your sandbox (7) ?

I wrote some songs with Van Dyke Parks but then I put my piano in that sandbox – it was actually in the sandbox.

And your dogs enjoyed using the sandbox as an en suite bathroom.

[Laughs] Yeah, the dogs liked the sandbox.

So it wasn’t just sand between your toes.

Right! [laughs]

Was Van Dyke Parks the best lyricist you worked with?

Yes.

Has watching the movie made you reflect on any mistakes you may have made?

I took too many pills, too much cocaine, too much LSD. It didn’t do any good.

When you first took cocaine, did you initially enjoy it?

Yeah! But then … not so good.

What is your daily routine these days?

I get up, I have breakfast, I go to my park and I take my walk. Then I go to my piano for a few hours, then I watch television. I do that every day but I still haven’t finished a song. It takes a little longer these days, because I don’t have the energy I used to have.

Which song required the least effort?

I wrote God Only Knows in 45 minutes. Me and Tony Asher.

And it just happens to be one of the greatest songs in the history of humankind.

It’s my favourite song. Of mine.

God Only Knows made Paul McCartney cry (8) when he performed it with you.

Yeah. How about that?

Footnotes

(1) Directed by Bill Pohlad.

(2) Cusack portrays the older Wilson, Paul Dano plays the musician in his younger days.

(3) Wilson is in Berlin for the premiere of Love & Mercy.

(4) Spector was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 following the 2003 shooting of Lana Clarkson in his California home. He is serving a 19-years-to-life prison sentence.

(5) “People were skating around on bullets, guns were finding their way into hamburgers …” Leonard Cohen, 1991, on the death Of a Ladies’ Man sessions with Spector.

(6) Wilson could not contain his excitement upon seeing British royalty in the flesh at a 2002 royal gala.

(7) Prior to recording Heroes & Villains in 1965, Wilson famously had a sandbox installed in his living room for “inspiration … we’re at the beach!”

(8) McCartney performed God Only Knows with Wilson at Century Plaza hotel, Los Angeles on September 18, 2002.

No Pier Pressure is released on Virgin EMI on 6 April.