The Tale of An American Daydream by Jeremy Warmsley
Sometimes, the algorithm gets it right. Twitter is obviously aware this particular reviewer is a big fan of American harmony dream-weavers The Beach Boys, and acted accordingly.
The day following the announcement of Queen Elizabeth II’s death was a Friday, and for many musicians, would be a day they’d planned for quite some time. Understandably, it’s difficult to broadcast good news of a release that took months of planning when the world is preoccupied with only one thing. This is where the algorithm navigated a tweet to my news feed from an artist I wasn’t following at the time.
‘Spare a thought for my husband who is self-releasing his album about Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys on today of all days. Spare an even greater thought for me his wife who has to live with him and hear about it.’ – Elizabeth Sankey
I was moved to visit Bandcamp and immediately check it out. The album is called ‘American Daydream’, which is written and produced by Jeremy Warmsley. This article contains an extensive look at this record, with a concluding Q&A from Warmsley providing further insight.
Jeremy Warmsley. Image Credit: Charlotte Rutherford.
Jeremy Warmsley is perhaps best known for being one half of London band Summer Camp with vocalist Elizabeth Sankey. Now a filmmaker, Summer Camp’s most recent album, ‘Romantic Comedy’ serves as the companion piece to Sankey’s written and directed film of the same name. Most recently, Summer Camp played a farewell show of sorts at London’s Moth Club, the duo not entirely ruling out the possibility of a return.
Just as Sankey’s creative pursuits have shifted, so have Jeremy Warmsley’s. His full soundtrack work includes feature films ‘Homebound’ (2021), directed by Seb Godwin and Simon Amstell’s 2017 BBC film ‘Carnage’. His work for the BBC also extends to a 2015 documentary on the subject of horror movies, entitled ‘Fear Itself’, and several television programmes such as ‘Britney’ (2021) and ‘Guilt-Free Pleasures’ (2020). Jeremy’s other scores include works available on Netflix, Channel 4 and Amazon Prime.
A selection of Jeremy Warmsley’s soundtrack works.
Warmsley’s commissions aren’t limited to film and television though. The BBC thread continues into radio and podcasts, with full scores written for ‘Goodbye To All This’ (2020) and ‘The Escape Artist’ (2019). Jeremy has also provided music for video games, in “Linda and Joan Prologue: ‘Four Months Earlier’” (2020) and added some sound design to ‘Landlord’s Super’ (2019). The ska/reggae influenced theme of the latter is at odds with some of his more placid work, including the theme for CBeebies animation ‘Love Monster’.
In addition to his commissioned composition work, Jeremy Warmsley has maintained his own separate solo career. ‘A Year’ was released at the end of 2019 and is co-produced by Elizabeth Sankey. With each song named after the months in a year, Jeremy describes the album as being about ‘the passage of time, about finding and losing someone, about self-discovery and self-reliance, about escape and coming home (and escaping again).’
‘American Daydream’ is Jeremy Warmsley’s latest album, a tribute to the life of Brian Wilson and his work with The Beach Boys. Warmsley’s research in making this album is impeccable, drawing on multiple resources, including the autobiographies of Brian Wilson and vocalist Mike Love. Not only does it make a familiar fan like me SMiLE, American Daydream serves as a condensed history of the band for a new fan to enjoy.
Where else could this album begin? ‘American Daydream’ is a purely a cappella piece, not unlike the album openers from ‘SMiLE’ (‘Our Prayer’), ‘That’s Why God Made The Radio’ (‘Think About The Days’) or the introduction to Brian Wilson’s solo album, ‘That Lucky Old Sun’. Here, Jeremy Warmsley wraps his voice in warm reverb, as if the album is being heard through the hallway of a 1960’s house on a Bright Summer Sunday Morning.
Historically, there’s already mention of The Four Freshmen and their album, ‘Four Freshmen and 5 Trombones’, an LP that greatly inspired Brian Wilson in his youth. The record also featured arrangements of George Gershwin pieces, a composer he’d pay homage to in his 2010 album ‘Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin’. The album opener for that record, the classic ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ is also namechecked in ‘American Daydream’. In less than a minute, Jeremy Warmsley manages to squeeze all this history in, plus a mention of The Ronettes song ‘Be My Baby’, another track seminal to the musical development of Brian Wilson.
‘Will this story have a happy ending?’
‘Sing From The Heart’ takes musical cues from Beach Boy classics such as ‘Surfer Girl’ and ‘In My Room’, with a mention of ‘vibrations’ in the words, a recurring theme in Mike Love lyrics following ‘Good Vibrations’, released in 1966. The title of this piece itself refers to a phrase Brian Wilson’s father Murry used to yell at The Beach Boys when he felt they were underperforming. Murry Wilson served as their mentor in their earlier years, and was their first manager until 1964, a significant year for the band.
This album builds gently without jumping into the mega arrangements Brian Wilson became known for. Adding to the vocal ensemble of the album opener, Jeremy Warmsley takes a core band approach with ‘Sing From The Heart’. Outside of his gorgeous vocal arrangement, this piece is driven by drums lightly ticking along. Clean electric guitars either side of the listener are picked in ‘full dimensional sound’, with all aspects of this track played solely by Warmsley.
‘Those California boys got sunshine in their eyes, the Pacific Ocean running through their veins. And when you hear them sing and play their Fender guitars, I know you’re gonna remember their names…’
The Phil Spector influence is evident on ‘California Boys’, which features Paul Dixon (whose musical output is better known as Fyfe), beefing up the low end on a Fender Bass VI. Phil Spector was the mastermind behind the sound of ‘Be My Baby’, as well as Brian’s favourite Christmas record, ‘A Christmas Gift For You’, both released in 1963.
In ‘California Boys’, Jeremy Warmsley takes a roll call of the band members from the 1960’s. Brian Wilson is their leader. He also writes, produces, arranges, plays bass, piano and sings the trademark falsetto vocals in the band’s music. Dennis Wilson was the band’s original drummer, but would later become a tremendous songwriter in his own right. He was the one who suggested the band write a song about surfing, a new craze in the early 1960’s - ‘Dennis is the only one that really surfs.’ Carl is the youngest of the three Wilson brothers, playing lead guitar in the band, but would be most famous for singing lead on ‘God Only Knows’.
‘Mike sings low and he dances like your dad.’
Mike Love, cousin to the Wilson brothers and the oldest member of the band, would play the crucial role of lead vocalist in their earliest days. His on-stage charisma would be a major factor in winning over their early audiences. Mike Love’s lead vocals can be heard in ‘Surfin’ USA’ and ‘California Girls’, the latter of which this song is a nod to. It’s Love’s voice who Jeremy Warmsley beautifully imitates on this track.
As well as the family members of The Beach Boys, Warmsley talks of both Al Jardine and David Marks, who swapped in and out of the band early on. We wrote about Al Jardine’s career with The Beach Boys back in 2021, who played rhythm guitar and most famously sang ‘Help Me, Rhonda’. David Marks has occasionally been referred to as ‘the lost Beach Boy’, appearing on their earliest records playing rhythm guitar. He would finally return to the band in 2011 and 2012, performing lead guitar and vocals on their 50th anniversary tour.
Upon my first listen of ‘California Boys’, I remember thinking, ‘what about Bruce?’ But Jeremy once again has you covered:
‘And let's not forget about Bruce Johnston...’
With the intro pouring out of the speakers like a mono car radio jingle, ‘Top Of The World’ details Brian Wilson’s fall from grace like a news bulletin. In his autobiography, Brian Wilson refers to 1964 for The Beach Boys as ‘The Year Of Everything’.
This is with good reason. In 1964, The Beach Boys released four albums - ‘Shut Down Vol. 2’, ‘All Summer Long’, ‘Beach Boys Concert’, ‘The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album’ and had a number one hit with ‘I Get Around’. They toured Australasia and the US (with a promotional tour of Europe), sometimes playing two shows a day. While travelling, they recorded radio and television appearances, including a BBC session in November, plus giving interviews and continuing to write hit records. It’s no surprise then that Brian Wilson suffered a nervous breakdown in December 1964, during a flight from Los Angeles to Houston.
‘On top of the world, that’s where it all went wrong, you freaked out on the way to Houston and had to call your Mom to come and pick you up, and take you home.’
‘Top Of The World’ namechecks Glen Campbell, who in the mid-60’s was a session musician that would appear on some of the band’s music, and would be Brian Wilson’s first replacement on the band’s immediate tour dates. His more permanent live stand-in, and sixth member of The Beach Boys, would be Bruce Johnston, joining the band in May 1965 just in time to add his voice to ‘California Girls’.
By now you’ll notice Jeremy Warmsley’s dedication to recreating the sound of an album cut in the 1960’s. For ‘Top Of The World’, Jeremy takes a rock and roll approach, utilising the stop/start playing technique that can be heard on ‘Surfin’ USA’ and later on ‘California Calling’ from 1985. Warmsley adds handclaps to bolster the percussive element as many groups would’ve done whilst cutting their vocals in this era. Elizabeth Sankey lends her voice to the harmony arrangements, and Jeremy even plays sleighbells for a strictly non-festive sound.
‘Now you need your Freedom…’
Following his nervous breakdown, Brian Wilson insisted he stay at home to write the band’s music, which is where the style of their musical output really began to change. This change is reflected in Jeremy Warmsley’s arrangement of ‘Freedom’, which is kept pace early on with a sole keyboard accompaniment to his lead vocal. This style is translated from Wilson’s piano writing format, which often made it into his final arrangements – see ‘Look (Song For Children)’ and ‘Child Is The Father Of The Man’ from SMiLE. Following up his keyboard, Warmsley uses a springboard bass part similar to one used in The Beach Boys single, ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’, released in 1965.
Jeremy’s arrangement of ‘Freedom’ is tremendous, from top to bottom. More elements make themselves known to the listener with each successive spin, from the horn parts, woodwinds, subtle lead guitar and expressive bass performance. With Warmsley performing most of these parts, Pete Fraser can be heard on this song playing saxophone. This is all aside from the vocal ensemble, which blows like a breeze beneath the second verse, carrying it through to another chorus.
‘You don’t need to sing about guys and girls and surfing. You could sing about real things, you could sing about feelings…’
Narratively, Jeremy Warmsley stays in similar territory, where several people in Brian Wilson’s life at this time warned him not to ‘fuck with the formula’ for fear of the band losing their commercial appeal. Though The Beach Boys had dispensed with his services by 1965, Warmsley mentions Murry Wilson’s use of the phrase ‘got any guts’, which Murry can be heard saying to Brian on the band’s early session tapes. This is followed up by a lyrical mention of the Wilson family’s home life - ‘I’m so sorry he hit you.’ ‘Freedom’ also hints at what was to come later in Wilson’s life:
‘Years from now, your friends and family will help you get your Freedom…’
The Beach Boys had been including instrumentals on their albums from day one, but none would be more sophisticated than those Brian Wilson wrote for their 1966 album, ‘Pet Sounds’. This album would feature one instrumental on each side, ‘Let’s Go Away For A While’ and the album’s title track.
This is Jeremy’s take on the former, noticeable for its ping-pong percussion and lead guitar part. Pete Fraser returns to add a soulful saxophone performance, which is followed by a beautifully brief string arrangement. The crown on top though is Warmsley’s climbing vocal addition, lifting his voice up as he sings ‘Daydreaming…’ in a fade-out that comes too soon.
‘You were the woman he loved…’
‘Beach Girls’ is Jeremy Warmsley’s tribute to three women essential to the Brian Wilson story. Audree Wilson is his mother, whom the band maintained an excellent relationship with through the years, Marilyn Rovell, Brian’s first wife, and his second wife Melinda Ledbetter.
Audree Wilson can be heard singing in a ‘20/20’ album session from 1968 on a song entitled ‘Is It True What They Say About Dixie?’ Marilyn Rovell was a vocalist in a group called The Honeys, who Brian wrote and produced for. Her voice can be heard on many Beach Boys recordings from the 1960’s and 70’s. Finally, Brian Wilson married Melinda Ledbetter in 1995, a stabilising force in Wilson’s life, influencing much of his career up to the present day. All three figures are depicted in the Brian Wilson biopic ‘Love and Mercy’ (2014), a film endorsed by Wilson and Ledbetter, and one used as a source by Jeremy Warmsley in the making of this album.
Warmsley’s ‘Pet Sounds’ influences continue with ‘Beach Girls’. An album known for using a wide range of instruments, just in the opening moments of this song, Jeremy can be heard using woodblocks, glockenspiel and timpani. His intermittent use of percussion is reminiscent of Pet Sounds too, eschewing the use of drums as a timekeeper, instead opting to use them to add flair in his arrangement.
‘Beach Girls’ is co-written by Elizabeth Sankey, who lends her voice to the vocal ensemble. Probyn Gregory also makes an appearance on tannerin, the science fiction-esque sound heard famously on ‘Good Vibrations’. Gregory has been a member of Brian Wilson’s band since 1999, and was part of The Beach Boys touring band during their 2012 reunion.
‘Dogs are barking as you walk away, and we see you on the back of the train…’
This opening lyric to ‘Brian, We Know’ is a reference to the final moments of ‘Pet Sounds’, which sees ‘Caroline, No’ concluding with the sound of a train passing by the listener, and the barking of Brian’s dogs, Banana and Louie. Brian, We Know refers to the shift in Wilson’s mental state following this period, which would affect the rest of his life. The title itself also references the original fleeting title to Caroline, No, which lyricist Tony Asher heard as ‘Carol, I Know’.
Of all the songs on ‘American Daydream’, Jeremy Warmsley’s voice is at its most breathtaking on ‘Brian, We Know’. For the most part, Jeremy sings a sole lead, until the song’s final moments, where he builds up his vocal arrangement in a way heard many times in Wilson’s music. This, and Warmsley’s delicate approach of the subject matter in his lyric makes Brian, We Know the most beautiful song on this album.
‘So much love and joy in your music, and it breaks my heart knowing what comes next…’
Brian Wilson’s next creative endeavour would be the unfinished masterpiece, ‘SMiLE’, recorded between 1966 and 1967. Though there were many reasons it was left unfinished in the summer of 1967, one of these was the sheer task of completing it. This was because it was created in a modular way, with each song recorded in pieces, then edited together to create the final track. ‘Good Vibrations’ was constructed in this same manner, becoming one of the most expensive singles ever made.
This is also the reason why ‘Fathers & Sons’ begins with ‘Part 2’, and not ‘Part 1’. With most of the other songs on ‘American Daydream’ being recorded within two to three days, both parts of Fathers & Sons each took a month to complete. This forced Jeremy Warmsley to abandon his work on Part 1, making Fathers & Sons his own great unfinished masterpiece.
As well as the production, Jeremy fully indulges in the writing and arranging style Brian Wilson took when recording ‘SMiLE’. This includes the dense musical presentation, completed with equally complicated vocal parts, the pauses between sections in this piece laying out Warmsley’s modular production. ‘Part 2’ is particularly influenced by ‘Heroes and Villains’, one of the great centrepieces of the SMiLE story. Wilson makes use of recurring lyrical and musical motifs across SMiLE, so it’s fitting to hear Jeremy chanting ‘American Daydream’ amongst the music heard in this piece.
‘Seems to me you were always looking for love…’
For ‘Part 3’, Jeremy Warmsley directly references the father figures in Brian Wilson’s life. Eugene Landy was a psychiatrist hired to ensure Wilson’s self-destructive spiral would come to an end. Twice he was hired, first in the 1970’s, and again in the early 1980’s. It was the second time that would have the most profound effect on Brian Wilson’s life, alienating him from his family and friends, with moral lines erased, and Landy even infiltrating his music. Wilson’s second solo album, ‘Sweet Insanity’, remains unreleased for this reason. Made in the early 1990’s, Jeremy Warmsley refers to it in his lyrics: ‘Stole your music, what made you human, Sweet Insanity with Eugene Landy…’
In many of Brian Wilson’s sadder songs hang some of his most beautiful melodies and harmonies. The same can be said for ‘Fathers & Sons (Part 3)’, with Warmsley layering vocal parts, including his own Father’s voice, the deeper and smoother of the vocal textures. If only there was more of this lyrical round to listen to.
In imitation of the more psychedelic SMiLE moments, Warmsley descends Part 3 into the waves, his own son’s voice breaking through as organ begins with some shaker. ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’, the 19th century nursery rhyme is included here for Wilson’s fondness of the track. Indeed, this reviewer’s first concert encounter of Brian Wilson featured an impromptu performance of the piece. Elizabeth Sankey can be heard as part of the vocal ensemble here.
‘Merrily, merrily, merrily, an American Daydream…’
Another SMiLE clue is sneaked in right at the end, referring to ‘Brian Fell Into A Microphone’, a skit he recorded during the making of the album. There were several of these skits recorded, featuring collaborators of the band, Brian’s SMiLE co-writer Van Dyke Parks being one of them, who we had the fortune to interview in 2020. Though these skits were intended to be humorous in nature, Jeremy Warmsley uses this section of Fathers & Sons to illustrate Brian Wilson’s declining mental health.
‘They never got their dues but they wrote some really great tunes…’
By the time The Beach Boys were making their ‘Friends’ album in 1968, it was clear Brian’s creative output isn’t what it once was. Jeremy’s song, ‘Brother Sound’ illustrates the era in which The Beach Boys took up the slack, and wrote some of the most treasured music in their catalogue.
Musically, Warmsley reflects this change in ‘Brother Sound’ by utilising the more simplistic style the band returned to following the complex arrangements of ‘Pet Sounds’ and ‘SMiLE’. This includes sparser brass parts, the only element of the more symphonic pieces Wilson had previously written. The bubbling trumpet and flugelhorn performances are laid down by Ethan Zimbelman, with bongos by John Brode. With this track, Jeremy Warmsley has written something that could easily have been included on the ‘Wild Honey’ album in a mixture of soul and pop influences.
More historic clues can be heard in this song, Warmsley’s reference to Wilson being ‘struck down dumb as an angel’ refers to the original title of the SMiLE project – ‘Dumb Angel’. He also talks of the band suing their label. Their deal with Capitol records was coming to an end, and by the end of the 1960’s they sued for unpaid royalties. This song is also a nod to the label The Beach Boys formed after they left Capitol – Brother Records.
‘Brother Sound, they found the Brother Sound…’
After this period, Brian Wilson remained housebound for the next few years. The records The Beach Boys made in the early 1970’s were cut at his home studio, where Brian would occasionally come down from his bedroom to participate in the sessions. The title for this piece, ‘A Day In The Life Of Brian’ is based on the title of a song from the band’s ‘Surf’s Up’ album called ‘A Day In The Life Of A Tree’, released in 1971. Though that is where the similarities between the songs end.
Lyrically, Jeremy explores the turmoil Brian Wilson went through during this period. He’d seen the value of eating healthily during the SMiLE era, which prompted him to open a health food store called the Radiant Radish, ‘working the register at the Radiant Radish…’ The store was referenced by The Beach Boys in an unreleased song from this period called ‘H.E.L.P. Is On The Way’. It soon closed due to lack of profitability and drive from Brian to make it successful, with his health falling into decline through the 1970’s.
‘You just wanna be left alone, hide in the wardrobe…’
There are some truly heavenly moments on ‘A Day In The Life Of Brian’, including the first time Warmsley vocalises the song’s title. This is bolstered by violin from Kristin Weber, as Jeremy’s layered voice lifts and is caught by the resumption of his band arrangement. But it’s the last thirty seconds of this song that drives home how serious this time was:
‘There’s no music in death…’
‘When it's gone, it came so fast and now it's gone, like a love you thought would last, and now it's gone.’
‘Spiral’ has a dual narrative, Brian Wilson’s anguish of not being able to write music and produce to the level of his youth in the 1970’s, and of Jeremy Warmsley’s trouble with finishing ‘American Daydream’ as a whole. The first verse relates entirely to Wilson, ‘When you were young, it came so easily and now it's hard to get out of bed, hard to get out of your head.’ But the second verse flips the song and describes Warmsley’s writer’s block in completing his album, ‘Now more than ever I relate to you, because finishing this thing is like pulling teeth, and I just wanna close my eyes.’
The end of ‘Spiral’ may represent the fragmented nature in which Brian Wilson appeared and reappeared in the career of The Beach Boys. Not always adding to every studio track, never completing a full tour, and never being around long enough to continue contributing meaningfully to their legacy. The last of these fragments at the end of the song brings us to the late 1980’s/early 1990’s, when Brian Wilson was in Eugene Landy’s second stint of treatment:
‘…Landy caught you in his grasp…he controls every aspect of your broken life, can’t see your daughters or your ex-wife, and you just wanna close your eyes…’
‘The waves roll in and then they roll back out…’
‘Lonely, Scared, Frightened’ begins by bringing us back to where it all began, with waves and a harmonious ‘American Daydream’. This song signifies the turning point in Brian Wilson’s life, career, and most importantly, his mental health. While looking at cars in a Cadillac showroom with Eugene Landy and his associates, he slipped the salesperson a note which read ‘lonely, scared, frightened’.
The salesperson was Melinda Ledbetter, Brian Wilson’s future wife. In the years following, a restraining order was issued against Eugene Landy, preventing him from further contact with Wilson. He was soon free to marry Ledbetter and received proper psychological care under new health professionals, sparking a renewed artistic pursuit.
By the end of the 1990’s, Brian Wilson began releasing a string of solo albums, including finally completing ‘SMiLE’ with Van Dyke Parks and debuting it live in 2004. Jeremy Warmsley drops this into his lyric as Wilson’s ‘teenage symphony to God’ as it was often referred to over the years. In 2011, Brian Wilson reunited with The Beach Boys to celebrate their 50th anniversary, releasing their last album, ‘That’s Why God Made The Radio’ the following year.
As the album’s introduction included music that inspired Brian Wilson, Jeremy Warmsley closes ‘American Daydream’ with Brian Wilson songs that have inspired him. This begins with 1963’s ‘In My Room’, leading us through to more memorable ‘Pet Sounds’ songs such as ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’, to ‘Til I Die’ from 1971. Replicating Brian Wilson’s parting message, and a song used to round-off many of his concerts, Warmsley concludes with the 1988 lyric, ‘Love and Mercy to you,’ before signing off with finale chants of ‘American Daydream…’
Jeremy Warmsley has created a masterpiece in ‘American Daydream’. The thought and care this artist has put into the sonic representation of this musical formulative era is simply astounding. The love and appreciation for Brian Wilson and his music is evident both in Warmsley’s lyrical content, and by the sound he lovingly imitates. Typically, biographies exist within the pages of books and on the shelves of libraries, but ‘American Daydream’ tells this story as Brian Wilson himself would’ve told it – through the music.
And if you wish to dive deeper into the sound of ‘American Daydream’, Jeremy Warmsley has included a bonus track on his Bandcamp page entitled ‘I Love Pet Sounds’. Any fan of this album can understand Warmsley’s jubilation in his lyrics, and another Brian Wilson bandmember features on this song, that of Paul Von Mertens.
Continue reading for our Q&A with Jeremy Warmsley. We ask him about the genesis of this album and the musicians who accompany him, as well as many things Beach Boys related. Beyond this, we ask Jeremy about playing live with Daniel Johnston in 2007, his recent performance with Summer Camp, and his future work. All this and more below!
Jeremy Warmsley. Image Credit: Elizabeth Sankey.
1. Your new album 'American Daydream' tells the story of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys through your songwriting. Let's begin at the beginning - what made you decide to make an album in this style and to tell this story?
Well, I've loved the Beach Boys ever since I really got into music. They've been a huge influence on my work over the years, both in their use of harmony and also Brian Wilson's completely original production techniques. There's so many aspects to Brian Wilson's life story I found fascinating, from the tragic circumstances of his mental illness, to his fraught relationship with his father, and the abusive conservatorship he suffered under in the 80s - which he was finally rescued from by his family and friends a few years later. And yet to contrast all this tragedy and disaster with the love and beauty in his music is very compelling.
Anyway, in 2019 I read Brian's 2015 autobiography, which spurred me on to read another book about him, and another, and another. At the same time, I was thinking about my next musical project, being about to conclude my 2019 album "A Year" (where I recorded and released a song every month, inspired by that time of year and telling a story across all the instalments). It was actually my wife Elizabeth (who plays with me in our band Summer Camp and is also a filmmaker) who suggested I write an album about Brian's incredible life.
2. You didn't scrimp on your source material in writing this record, what was the single most invaluable reference in making 'American Daydream'?
Almost too many to mention! I read both Brian's autobiography, including the now-repudiated one from the early 90's that was partly ghost-written by his abuser, Eugene Landy, and Mike Love's autobiography. "Catch A Wave' by Peter Carlin is probably the most comprehensive biography, and 'Beach Boys FAQ' by Jon Stebbin and 'Fifty Sides Of The Beach Boys' by Mark Dillon were also essential reading. But probably the most useful reference was the incredible "Sail On" podcast, created by Wyatt Funderburk. For a Beach Boys fan, or really any lover of music, it really is the best way to completely immerse yourself in all things Beach Boys. As well as incredible interviews and deep dives into the catalogue, I have to say that Wyatt's use of audio and music is really a cut above - it's a gorgeous listening experience. Through that podcast I also discovered an amazing Discord community of Beach Boys fans, some of whom have dedicated hours and hours to pulling apart Beach Boys records, which was a very useful reference from the music production front. There's also a Youtuber called Joshilyn Hoisington who does amazing recreations of Beach Boys tracks, and goes into huge amounts of detail about what instruments are being used.
But the main reference was really Brian Wilson's music. I must have learned the chords and lyrics to hundreds of their songs and have never ceased by his creativity and the beauty of his music. Along the way, I noticed a lot of little musical tricks he likes to use, so I tried to use those in these songs where I could!
The Beach Boys have released a lot of archival material including a cappellas, instrumentals and even session recordings (where you hear Brian and the musicians discussing their parts and what to play) - this was also such a useful reference for me!
3. From a production standpoint, this record even sounds like it was made in the 1960's, how did you accomplish that?
Thank you, I take that as a huge compliment! It was mostly based around colossal levels of nerdy research to ensure that the techniques and equipment I used were as close as possible to what they were using at the time. That said, I didn't go and buy loads of old equipment or anything like that - it was as much a state of mind as it was anything else. For instance, when recording the songs intended for SMiLE, rather than recording a whole song from start to finish, Brian would record songs section by section and only collate them at the end of the process. That's one of the reasons he never finished the album - overwhelmed by possibilities and without the ease of digital editing to literally cut and paste things. I did the same thing on my SMiLE inspired tracks, 'Fathers And Sons (Part 2)' and 'Fathers And Sons (Part 3)'. Even digital editing made it much easier for me, those tracks still took longer to make than all the previous tracks put together, so I really related to him in that moment!
4. Brian Wilson band members Probyn Gregory and Paul Von Mertens added parts to 'American Daydream', how did they get involved with the record? What was their response to the album as a whole?
In both cases I just reached out to them on Facebook and they were kind enough to agree. Actually, Paul Von Mertens' parts are actually on an out-take to my record (free to anyone who buys the album on Bandcamp) - he played bass harmonica and a few other wind instruments on 'I Love Pet Sounds'. Probyn Gregory played tannerin (the theremin-type wailing sound you hear on Good Vibrations and I Just Wasn't Made For These Times) on my track Beach Girls. Probyn was kind enough to listen to the album and was very positive about it, though he did sweetly warn me not to have any expectation that Brian would ever listen to it!
5. Other musicians including Pete Fraser, John Brode and Paul Dixon contributed various live elements to this record. Tell me about the other musicians, had you worked with them all before? Was it all remote recording?
Where possible, I played the instruments myself, so I played guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, strings, brass, and a few other bits and pieces. Some instruments I don't play or didn't have access to during the pandemic. Pete Fraser is an incredible saxophonist I've worked with many times before and he played some beautiful sax parts on the album including my favourite track "Daydream Together". Paul Dixon, better known as the recording artist Fyfe, is an artist I produced way back in... 2008 or thereabouts. He mentioned to me he had bought a Fender Bass VI guitar, which was exactly the sound I needed for 'California Boys', so he was kind enough to double my bass part. John Brode was someone I met through the Beach Boys Discord - he also contributes to Sail On and I must say he knows more about the Beach Boys than anyone else I've ever spoken to. He mentioned he was a percussionist so I asked him to play bongos on "Brother Sound", and his friend Ethan Zimbelman contributed trumpet and flugelhorn to that track. Finally, while I was recording the track 'A Day In The Life Of Brian' I managed to step on my violin and literally break it in half! I found a fantastic violinist called Kristin Weber on an online session musician marketplace, and it was only after she sent through her parts that I discovered she had once played violin on a Mike Love project!
6. Praise is often given to 'Pet Sounds' and the 'Smile' period, but what's a favourite Beach Boys album of yours you feel doesn't get enough recognition?
I'm a big fan of "Today", which is sometimes described as a prototype Pet Sounds. But the most overlooked Beach Boys album has to be 1977's "Love You". It was written when Brian was in the throes of his mental illness, so it's hard listening sometimes, but there are moments of incredible beauty. Produced and remixed by his brother Carl, it sounds like a real labour of love for all concerned.
7. If you could pick one song by The Beach Boys you wished you'd written, which would it be and why?
Nothing beats the simplicity and pure beauty of "Our Prayer", from SMiLE. It's just a perfect piece of music.
8. It would be magnificent to see 'American Daydream' performed live, is that at all likely?
That would be a dream come true!
9. Going further back, you performed with Daniel Johnston in 2007, how did that come about and what was that experience like?
I was asked to support him at a tiny venue (the Brixton Windmill) in London, which of course I was delighted to do. A few days later, I got an email forwarded from his brother, who was also his manager, saying that they often asked the support group to back Daniel up on a few songs, with a list of suggestions. It was a real whirlwind, we didn't do a rehearsal or anything! There was a moment onstage where it seemed like he wasn't 100% sure who I was or what I was doing there, but once we started playing he got right into it.
After the show we all hung out backstage. A few of his fans from the gig even snuck in. It was a truly beautiful and surreal experience! I remember him saying that he'd love to have a number one hit, and those fans dissuading him saying "No, Daniel, what we love about you is your rough edges!" It was interesting to note that what people connected to in his music was maybe not what he himself valued in it.
10. You've just played your last show with Summer Camp for a while, how did it go? What was the atmosphere like at the Moth Club?
It was pretty magical! Our first ever gig was in 2010, and our last headline gig was in 2015. That means it's actually been longer since our last show than between our first and last shows, so it really felt more like a reunion than a farewell! Lots of familiar faces and we threw in a few covers. We took some videos and recorded the show so hopefully will do something with those bits and pieces.
11. Live performances might be off the cards, but what about some music together as Summer Camp?
Well, Elizabeth is mostly making films these days (check out Romantic Comedy on Amazon Prime or Boobs on Channel 4), but we still work together in that capacity - I sometimes produce her films, and generally write the music for them. So there's still plenty of collaboration. I can't rule out another Summer Camp record but I wouldn't hold your breath either!
12. Your scoring work spreads far and wide, from TV and film, to video games and podcasts, has there been an all-time favourite project in this side of your career you've worked on?
I've worked with so many talented people who've done some amazing work! I'm really proud of my score to Homebound, which I'll be releasing this autumn on Halloween (it's a horror score!). It's just string quartet, piano and classical guitar - no electric instruments at all, but we still managed to conjure up a lot of the distressing atmospheres you need for a horror film! And I'm really fond of my first ever film score, for Charlie Shackleton's film Beyond Clueless, which we did as Summer Camp. Too many other highlights to list!
13. You're always looking forward to the next commission, the next project, are you able to give us a clue on what you're currently working on?
Elizabeth and I are working hard on her next film - it's a big, ambitious step up for her so I can't wait for people to experience it.
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Purchase ‘American Daydream’ from Jeremy Warmsley’s Bandcamp page, as well as a selection of his previous material and soundtrack works.
For more information about Jeremy Warmsley, visit his official website.
Follow Jeremy Warmsley on Facebook @jeremywarmsley, on Instagram @jeremy_warmsley and on Twitter @jwojwo.
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