Mike Loves Talks To Paper Via Telephone
By DJ M on November 12th, 2006
In Brian Wilson/B. Boys
SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE Regarding his long talked-about solo album, Mike Love says:
"I've got 14 songs. Since I spoke to you, I've done a couple more songs. I hope it'll come out in the spring."
At the moment, Love says, he has an independent distribution deal available to him and he hopes to "be able to work something out through them."
He also needs to settle on a title. Two other contenders [besides "Mike Love, Not War"] are "Only One Earth" and "Unleash the Love," both titles of songs on the album.
"('Only One Earth') has to do with appreciating the world and not destroying it," he says. " 'Unleash the Love' has to do with appreciating the differences among people and not killing each other. What a concept, huh?"
More of Mike's Thoughts:
"We learned a long time ago to take it easy and to do as good a job as we can for people who came to listen to the music and for people who came to socialize. We've done every conceivable kind of venue, from Washington, D.C., on the mall to clubs, so we learned a long time ago not to get upset about that unless somebody's being rude."
"The theaters and performing arts centers are great because they're designed for musical performances. We can do a two-hour show with all different types of music, from a cappella to our up-tempo stuff and everything in between. We get to stretch a little more artistically than we can in an amphitheater or fairgrounds or baseball stadium. If you do 'In My Room' in a baseball stadium, the subtlety of it is lost."
"I'm able to sing in the same range, and being the lead singer on the original recordings, it sounds pretty similar. What I do to take care of my voice is to not destroy it with smoking and drinking. If I have a late night, it's probably with the channel changer."
"Using the voice actually helps keep it strong. If I don't sing for a month or two and then we go out on tour, the first night is OK, I can get through it, but if we have two shows, halfway through the second show my voice starts to go out. I've found that the amount of singing we do helps."
"There's a reason things are unreleased, because you felt what you came up with was better than what was in vault, so all this scavenging to me is a little bit desperate, desperation from a record company. Once in a while, you find something that could be redone, worked up a little."