A Conversation with Wilson Phillips’ Carnie & Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips – HuffPost 4.4.12

Mike Ragogna: Ladies! How the heck are you?

Carnie Wilson: Good, Mike.

Wendy Wilson: We are great!

MR: I want to ask you about your new album, Dedicated. One day, did any of you just kind of blurt out, “Hey, let’s do an album that’s more about our families than us”?

CW: (laughs) I’m laughing because it’s like a no-brainer, and then it’s like brain surgery. I’m telling you, it was really not easy to do these songs. For many reasons, it was not easy to do them. First, in the selection process, that was hard, because how do you choose? “Choose your 12 favorites of Beach Boys and The Mamas & The Papas.” So how do you do that? That was totally hard. Wendy, why don’t you tell him about recording it, that was a challenge, right?

WW: Oh, yeah. We had no idea what our parents did in the studio, which means we weren’t there, but now that we’ve done these parts because we had to dissect them, we’re so impressed with that. I mean, they probably did it in two takes, and for us, we do it until it’s right. So, we’re just really enamored with them, and have a new respect for the music.

MR: Learning through hands-on experience what your families went through.

WW: Oh, yeah.

MR: Not sure if that’s ever been done before. And the album being titled “Dedicated” seems exactly right. It’s you giving back to your families, isn’t it.

CW: Yeah, this is a tribute record. It’s a tribute to our parents; it’s a tribute to that era. It’s a celebration of these songs that are just classic songs that are never going to go away, with a few more, not obscure, but songs that are some of our favorites like “Got a Feeling” by The Mamas & The Papas and “I Can Hear Music” and “Do It Again” by the Beach Boys, just kind of out of left field a little bit, but ones that we love. But each song has its own life, and the classic palette of “Don’t Worry Baby” and “God Only Knows” is one that just rips your heart out. “Good Vibrations” is something so unique and the way that we did it, in a cappella, was really challenging. So we love how it turned out. The earthiness of the tracks for “California Dreaming” and “Monday Monday,” the way that my husband Rob produced the album, the way that he had these guys play these instruments is a very acoustic guitar. There are 12-string guitars that are earthy, but still reminiscent of the records.

MR: Of course, the material, considering the combined catalogs, doesn’t get much better than this. When you listen back to this album, and maybe even during the recording process, there must be some memories of you listening to these songs for the first time, maybe hearing your parents play them for you?

WW: I think those memories started in utero. (laughs) Honestly, we were immersed in music our entire life, and I don’t think we can remember the first time we remembered The Beach Boys. No way. We were always around them and were on tour as kids during the summertime, on stage…

MR: …well, when you were together with your families, was there ever a sense of dynasty, like your parents would go, “Someday, kid, you’re going to do this”?

CW: No, not really. I think that we have very clear, distinct memories of Uncle Carl on stage calling out to The Beach Boys kid children that were there, “OK guys, you know you’re cute, it’s when we sing ‘Good Vibrations’ and the breakdown part of ‘Gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations a-happening with you,’ that’s your cue.” So, we’d be waiting at the side of the stage to run out. All we knew was that the children of The Beach Boys, believe it or not — Brian’s daughters, Carl’s sons, Al’s sons, and sometimes Mike’s kids — were dying to be on the stage with them. I remember sharing microphones with Carl and him moving over me, and smiling at me trying to sing harmonies! So it was our destiny, and yet at the same time, who knew that it would wind up being with Chynna, when we graduated high school and just started innocently singing harmony on Wendy’s carpet.

MR: You’ve probably told this story ad nauseam, but how did Wilson Phillips get together?

WW: Well, we were friends our entire lives, we grew up together. One day, Chynna had this idea to do a song for charity with children of the ’60s singers. We talked about bringing in Moon Zappa, Owen Elliot, Ione Skye, Donovan Leitch. Ione and Owen Elliot — who was Cass Elliot’s daughter — we placed some phone calls and nobody was interested except for Owen Elliot. So the four of us sat down and we started singing harmonies together, like Heart songs, Fleetwood Mac, and we started harmonizing, and it sounded really good. That was the genesis of the group and then we took it a famous record producer who said, “Wow, I see visions here. You guys are great.” It didn’t really work out with Owen at the time, and it just became the three of us, and we just started writing music. The beautiful thing is that Owen is actually singing Cass and Michelle’s unison part on the song “Dedicated To The One I Love.” Owen is singing that beautiful part. It just reminds me so much of Cass.

MR: Looking back at your career, having the song “Hold On” as such a huge record around the world, what are your thoughts about that at this point?

Chynna Phillips: Well, I’m very encouraged that we get to tag such weight, and even twenty years later, it seems to have new life. It’s really super exciting. Obviously, Bridesmaids really helped put us back on the map and Carnie can tell us, it’s so exciting, about the iTunes store. What happened again, Carnie?

CW: The downloads on iTunes went up 700%. It was really cool.

CP: It’s exciting. It’s nice to know that there’s a whole new generation of listeners, you know? It’s unbelievable. I think that lyric and that melody together is something that happens a couple times in a person’s career if they’re lucky.

MR: What is your advice to new artists?

CW: Advice for new artists? Wow, it’s a different time, a different world for music, but never forget why you make music.

WW: I would say don’t be afraid to be original. Go with your instincts and don’t try to be a carbon copy of anyone else.

CP: Keep your publishing!

MR: Thank you so much for joining us, and all the best with your new album Dedicated, which, of course, is dedicated to the ones you love.

All: Thank you for having us!

Transcribed by Narayana Windenberger