Ernesto De Pascale intervista Darrian Sahanaja e Jeffrey Foskett

Ernesto de Pascale: How difficult was to put together the Brian Wilson sound on stage?
Jeffrey Foskett: I don’t think it was that difficult…It was fun. It is fun to be in a band with so many people. And we had the right amount of instruments, the right amount of people…If we had less instruments and less people it would be very difficult, because I’ve been in situations where we had less people, and the sound isn’t true. But with the ten players plus Brian it becomes very true, and we play everything with real instruments, very few things are synthesised.
Darian Sahanaja: But also very important is that all of us have backgrounds where we grew up with the music. It is not just like putting ten “anybody” together to play the music, it’s the way we feel the music. I think it’s very very important that the feeling is there. I have a band, called Wondermints, and we were of course very big fans of Brian. Jeff as well, and Jeff actually was a member of the Beach Boys for many years. So a lot of it is in the feeling.
EDP: Darrian, it has been a dream come true to play with Brian Wilson, I imagine…you dreamed of it many many times before join’ him…
DS: I don’t know if I ever dreamed about performing with him… the music was very important for me, it moved me for years, just since I was a child. It is one of those things in which I followed the music doing what I wanted to do, and formed the band and… It’s a sort of…like magic, and things joining together… So, this is what happens. And I didn’t think about it going into it, but of course I can now lay down in my bed and think : wow, I played with Brian Wilson!.
EDP: Jeff, how was moving from playing with the Beach Boys to being a part of the Brian Wilson band ?
JF: It was slightly difficult, because the first thing that I know is that when we were in the Beach Boys we only had five singers and some times there are more vocals on one record then five voices, and sometimes there were two parts joined together to make one. And when Darian and Brian got together and we re-assessed all of the parts, we turned out that sometimes there were eight voices. And so I had to go back to sing one line which was different from the one I used to sing sometimes. And several of the other people…I would show them harmonies and say “well, this is how we did it in the Beach Boys” and then we go listen to the record and it turns out that it would be slightly different or very different. So we had to readjust it always
DS: I Imagine that when they went out, when the Beach Boys for many years had the five guys, they had to simplify the arrangements that Brian did on the record… When you are in the studio you have the multi track for many voices, but when you go out to play live you have to simplify…And when the Beach Boys where touring , with Jeff, they did simplified version of that…which were fine! But when you go out as The Brian Wilsn Band I think it was important that we go back to the established Brian’s original vision.
EDP: Do you think we can consider Brian Wilson at the top level of the American composers ?
JF: I think of the world’s composers. Let’s say that the composers that fit into that, in pop-music, are Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, John Lennon and Paul Mc Cartney. That’s my opinion, for popular music.
DS: Your question was about American music, right ? For American music of the last century I would say so for sure. He is in the tradition of George Gershwin , Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers . I think he is definitely in this group. I think he will be remembered as being in that lineage of songwriters.
EDP: Is it simple to keep all the energy of all the guys in the band together in such a situation? with ten people on stage… not to overplay the other… how is it going with the other guys?
JF: It works out very well. We’ve been together for seven years now. And, we were talking about it at dinner last night, how much fun it is to be together with each other still after seven years. It is very unusual in a rock n’ roll band to want to get together and to be with your people you don’t have to be with on your night off, but we chose to have dinner together and celebrate how fun it is to be with each other.
DS: And I think it is a testament to Brian’s music that his music celebrated… There was no star, there was no front man like the Doors had Jim Morrison, The U2 have Bono. The star of Beach Boys’ music is The Music. And the importance is in the ensemble, the sound. So it was really important, and I think it’s great, that we have a group of people who respect that, so it’s not about ego, it’s not about anybody’s ego but it’s about how we all work together to create
JF: And that’s how Brian feels. It’s not about him, it is not about his ego either. It’s about the band and the music. His music is the star of the show. He is not necessary, in his own mind.
EDP: Do you push him to compose more or…
JF: No, he freely composes. He writes currently, I mean today he is writing his songs.
DS: of course we encourage him, we love it. We just encourage that
EDP: He’s going to have a Christmas Record out, with some original compositions as well. How did you go trough this seasonal kind of stuff ? Does it go back to the Phil Spector’s Christmas album idea?
DS: Yes, you could say so. Christmas music is always like that, it sounds very ethereal…it’s ornate. So Brian comes in and say: “ok, you get on to that instrument, you play this, you play that…” and…before you know it, it is the sound.
JF: Exactly. And he can hear it into his head before he translate it into the parts. But he can say to Darian “you have got to play that keyboard, I’m going to sit down at this keyboard…” And then I need a Vox guitar, and two electric guitars…and everybody plays together, there were very few overdubs in that records
DS: Yes. That’s the good thing about it. The old tradition of having a whole bunch of people into the room playing together. These days with the modern technology you can do one thing at the time, then do overdubs… Brian doesn’t like it, that’s not his natural approach. He wants to hear the whole thing in one time.
EDP : Did Brian push you as a composer in a way or another, being you both composers ?
JF: He was my biggest influence, as far as composing and arranging mostly
EDP: What is to live close to your biggest influence like?
JF: Of course it is a joy and a dream. It is the biggest blessing in my life, honestly. Because to do something I really love and to make my living doing that is…unbelievable, really
EDP: And to Darian ? Did he push you to compose?
DS: I don’t know if he so much pushed me, but he definitely inspired me. Again, at a really young age. I told this story many times but…When I was twelve years old, it was not very “cool” to like the Beach Boys. Most of the neighbourhood boys liked Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin and the really rocking bands. And there was a lot of pressure. People having fun of me… but it didn’t matter. It proved how strong this music was and how much it mattered to me that they didn’t change my opinion. It is pretty easy to change, to adjust your taste to the pressure.. So I look back to my life and say “well, I was twelve-thirteen years old…I could have change, but I didn’t”. I think that it really sort of…made me the person I am now. Who is someone that really do what he likes, it doesn’t matter what everybody else thinks. And Brian…he is on stage with me. And I think “wow, he developed myself as a person”.
EDP: You are at the end of a five-weeks-European tour, and you toured Europe many many times in the last years It looks like European audience is particularly keen to the sound of the band. Have you ever thought of this ? It sounds weird… I mean, it would be easier to the American audience to be part of the Brian Wilson experience…
JF: You would think that . But I think that European and Uk audiences are more keen on Brain Wilson’s music. And I think they have always had a higher respect for Brian as a composer, arranger, producer. And I think in general their taste in music is much more defined that in the US. And I think that is why so many of the greatest artists came out in the Uk and Europe. Not that the US didn’t produce a lot, they have. But I think they were obviously influenced by the other American artists
DS: I also think that a lot of Brain’s music derives from classical music, as opposed to maybe more R&B based…I don’t know, music from other parts of the world…contributed more to his music then like dance music or R&B in the States. Brian’ s music is more directly in line with European folk music and classical music. You hear a lot of that classical timeless elements in Brian’s music…just integrated with rock n’ roll!
JF: He says that Chuck Berry was his biggest influence, and maybe in three or four songs you can hear of that, but it’s funny to me that he says that. He must know it.
EDP: Jeff, you have the task of singing some Carl Wilson’s song. It is not easy to be in the shoes of somebody else, but you kept singing for many many years…
JF: I have the at most respect for Carl, and it is an honour to sing the songs and some of the parts that he used to sing. And my love for him continues even thought he’s passed away and my respect for him grows markedly everyday, so it’s not a challenge at all it’s a honour and a pleasure
EDP: Darrian, you went through many different parts in the arrangements of the songs. Was it fun to discover such small fantastic tricks ?
DS: I was doing it, like I said, since I was a kid, just for fun. It’s just one of those things, when you hear stuff that’s so beautiful… maybe it’s just the way I am… I want so badly to know why it is so beautiful, so I go in and I try to track it down as well as I can …and I was doing that just to encourage my own expression…to understand what that is. Of course later, after playing with Brian, It became part of my job as well, to work with Brian and to maintain the integrity of it, the arrangements. And that is the thing that a lot of people think of the Beach Boys “oh, vocal band, harmony…”, and you hear “uuh aah uuh” (canta una semplice melodia, ndr), they sort of generalize it like that. They don’t realize that that’s only half of the magic. The instruments, instrumental arrangements, the sound that he chose...that’s just as great. So I love to hear just the tracks, the instrumental tracks
EDP: Do you like the place where you are going to be playing tonight ?
DS: Yeah, it seems cool
EDP: Doesn’t it look like the Colosseum?
JF: It looks just like the Colosseum. I thought it was the Colosseum when we arrived
EDP: Do you think that the characters in “Heroes and villains” are similar to the ancient Romans?
JF: They are the ancient Romans!
EDP: Exactly, that’s what I wanted to hear!

Ernesto De Pascale, Roma 22/07/05
Trascrizione di Giulia Nuti