Kristin Burns for AOL Music

Brian Wilson sits at a keyboard in the AOL Sessions studio and starts to play, looking as if he's in a world of his own, which is how Wilson often looks when playing music. Bit by bit, the other musicians around him start to join in as they prepare for a set highlighting material from the former Beach Boy leader's new album, 'That Lucky Old Sun.' One starts plunking a vibraphone, another revs up the organ, then there's the sound of a low-register harmonica, some guitars and even a French horn. Soon five of the band members have gathered in a circle to engage in some complex, wordless harmonies.

And Wilson still seems in his own world -- because this is his world, a world of sound that he created and that remains one of the most distinct and beloved (and imitated) in all of popular music. Since the early ?60s, the Wilson sound has been the soundtrack of Southern California, from the simple portrait of 'Surfer Girl' and 'Fun, Fun, Fun' to the pained instrospection of 'In My Room' to the glory of 'Good Vibrations.' And after many troubled years, in recent times Wilson has reclaimed his spot in the pop sun, with series of acclaimed concerts and the long-awaited completion of his legendary "lost" opus 'Smile,' recorded and released in 2004.

Full interview

AOL: How did you decide to use 'That Lucky Old Sun'? What attracted you?

BW: I was playing the piano one day and I remembered when I was a kid. (Brian starts to sing) I knew that much of a song, and one day I said I'd like to learn the rest of it, so I went to a record shop and I got Louis Armstrong's version. I took it home and I learned the whole song, then I rearranged it and taught it to my band members.

AOL: Were you inspired by the Louis Armstrong performance?

BW: I liked it, but I had to improve on it a little bit.

AOL: So what gave you the idea to use that as the central feature to the whole album?

BW: Well, I just thought maybe that the idea of a Negro spiritual slave song would be appropriate, and [then] write five sets of 35-second narratives about L.A. and California, poetic images and so forth.

AOL: From the start you saw this as an album with a thread running through it. How did that develop?

BW: Well, it developed naturally at my keyboard, and it was like a labor of love. I slowly developed it until it was done.

AOL: In classical music, we'd probably call this an oratorio.

BW: Right.

AOL: Did you think of it in those terms?

BW: Yeah, actually, I always wanted to experiment in that area.

AOL: From the start, was it a portrait of California?

BW: It's a look at California, Los Angeles and the life of a slave.

AOL: Did you feel you were revisiting some things here from a new perspective?

BW: Yeah, I felt like I really relived my life in some of the places I've been.

AOL: It feels like these are characters that you know and that you've lived with.

BW: They're very, very close friends of mine.

AOL: Can you talk about the people you worked with?

BW: Van Dyke Parks, who I think is a great lyricist and a great music person, and Scott Bennett, of course, who wrote all the lyrics to most of the songs. He is one of my band members. He also is a hero. He also sequenced the album to put the different pieces together in a good way.

AOL: You bring back one of the characters from one of your earliest hits, 'Surfer Girl,' with the song 'Forever My Surfer Girl.' Talk about her -- how does she look different now than she did in 1961?

BW: There's still a surfer girl. There was one in 1961 and there's one now. She's still the same girl.

AOL: How much of the album's about you?

BW: A lot of it's about me. 'Oxygen to the Brain' -- it's all about how I laid around lazy, didn't do anything for years and then all of a sudden I stepped on the gas and got some oxygen to the brain.

AOL: Is that hard to do, in song, to examine yourself that way?

BW: It's hard to do because it takes out the soul and it exposes it to people. It's almost like being undressed in front of people.

AOL: One of the key songs is 'Going Home.'

BW: 'Going Home' is a song about how he's been away from his house, his town for years, and he finally got home. He was happy to be home to his friends and to his loved ones.

AOL: This album also represents a different kind of going home. You're back on Capitol Records.

BW: Well, it was a very sentimental experience to go back to Capitol after 46 years. A very deep, sentimental trip.

AOL: Talk about the opening of the album. Is that a scene setter?

BW: Well, the theme is 'That Lucky Old Sun,' but we thought we'd rock and roll from the very first. We all got together and said, "How can we start this album?" One guy goes, "How about 'Morning Beat' 'cause it rocks?" I said, "Lets try that." And it worked!

AOL: Let's talk about Van Dyke Parks a little bit and you're partnership with him that spans more than 40 years now. What kind of relationship do you have?

BW: Well, I don't talk with him very often, but when I do, we really have a good conversation.

AOL: The last album you did that involved him was 'Brian Wilson Presents Smile.' That must have been a huge thing for you to get that finally finished after all these years.

BW: Yeah, well, we put it on the shelf for 38 years, and we finally did it in 2004. Nobody could believe it. They said, "This is an unbelievable album."

AOL: How long have you been working with this band?

BW: I've been working with them for 10 years.

AOL: These guys can do anything you ask them. As an artist, what does that give you?

BW: It gives me a sense that they love me. It gives me a sense of direction, a sense of tomorrow, a sense of next week, a sense of a year ago, a sense of all the harmony that we could put together in one harmony.

AOL: Was there some point in your career when you realized that you had a body of work that people were going to keep for who knows how long?

BW: Well, as soon as we finished 'Good Vibrations' I said, "You know, this is going to be something for people to like for the next 50 years." It's a timeless record.

AOL: After all these years, people are still trying to imitate or still learning from thing's that you've done, things you are doing. How does that make you feel?

BW: Well, I say to myself, "My God, someone thinks my music is good enough to do something like that. I think, "My gosh, that's unbelievable." My soul says I'm proud.