About a year after the band's successful 50th anniversary reunion tour, the Beach Boys have been sidelined in the writing and touring process for their new album and concert schedule. According to singer Mike Love, he would like to write songs with his cousin Brian Wilson like they used to 50 years ago but the direction has changed. Love, who has feuded with Wilson in the past, does not blame his cousin for this snag in the progress, however.
The good news is that these setbacks have not deterred Love from wanting to tour and make an album. In a recent interview with Billboard, the legendary vocalist explained the situation.
"It depends, because the way it was run and the people who were running it I have serious issues with," Love said. "It will happen only if I can do it with people who I trusted and liked and were honorable. I have no problem with my cousin Brian (Wilson) and I in a room with a piano, but it's not that uncomplicated."
When discussing the 2012 album "That's Why God Made the Radio," Love talks about his desire to work on new material with Wilson as they did in the 1960s.
"I talked to Brian about a year before we even started doing any of the recording for (the album)," he explained. "He and I talked about doing a project and he was excited about doing it, but it never came to fruition at all. It was given another direction -- not by me and not by Brian but by others. We were supposed to be allowed to get together to write songs from scratch like we did in the 60s, but that was never to be, and that wasn't because of me. So I think there are issues related to that whole thing. It was great to be in the studio and listen to those harmonies coming back, but it wasn't the opportunity it was supposed to be, which I'm upset about."
"I was pretty involved in the sequencing and the song selection and the overall concept," Love added. "Everybody has their own appreciation of the Beach Boys depending on where they're coming from with their musical tastes, so we tried to be representative of all eras and of everybody in the band and their contributions. Of course it's never going to be the whole story, but it's a pretty extensive one. There may be a couple of things missing that I would have liked to have seen in there, but then everybody else would probably have the same point of view."
Brian Wilson is currently working on a new solo studio album, so any new Beach Boys music will have to wait.
