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Did everybody support what you were trying to do?

No, not everybody. There was a lot of “oh, you can’t do this, that’s too modern” or “that’s going to be too long a record.” I said no, it’s not going to be too long a record, it’s going to be just right.

Who resisted you? Your manager? The record company?

No, people in the group, but I can’t tell ya who. We just had resisting ideas. They didn’t quite understand what this jumping from studio to studio was all about. And they couldn’t conceive of the record as I did. I saw the record as a totality piece.

Do you remember the time you realized you finally had it?

I remember the time that we had it. It was at Columbia. I remember I had it right in the sack. I could just feel it when I dubbed it down, made the final mix from the 16-track down to mono. It was a feeling of power, it was a rush. A feeling of exaltation. Artistic beauty. It was everything.

Do you remember saying anything?

I remember saying, “Oh, my God. Sit back and listen to this!”

At that time did you feel it was your most important song? Did you think in terms like that—reaching a new plateau in music?

Yes, I felt that it was a plateau. First of all, it felt very arty and it sounded arty. Second of all, it was the first utilization of a cello in rock & roll music to that extent—using it as an up-front instrument, as a rock instrument.

Not to mention the theremin.

It was also the first use of a theremin in rock & roll.

By the time you did “Good Vibrations” you had matured your artistic concept far beyond the sort of thing you were doing, say, in “Surfin’ .” Was there any particular time period when you realized that you now were totally into creating music on your own terms?

Yes. Pet Sounds would be that period when I figured that I was into my own . . . via the Phil Spector approach. Now, the Phil Spector approach is utilizing many instruments to combine for a single form or a single sound. Like combining clarinets, trombones and saxophones to give you a certain sound, rather than hearing that arrangement as “oh, those are piccolos, oh, those are trombones.”

How much was Spector an influence on you, artistically and competitively?

Well, I didn’t feel I was competing as much as I was emulating, emulating the greatness of his style in my music. We have a high degree of art in our group. We’ve come to regard Phil Spector as the greatest, the most avant-garde producer in the business.

Yet he’s not really a composer of songs.

Well, I’m a firm believer that he wrote those songs and gave the others credit. In order to produce them the way he did, he had to write them.

Mike Love mentioned the time you composed “The Warmth of the Sun” within hours of the John F. Kennedy assassination and how it illustrated that even during a very negative time you could come up with a very positive feeling.

Yeah, it’s a strange thing, but I think we were always spiritually minded and we wrote music to give strength to people. I always feel holy when it comes to recording. Even during “Surfer Girl,” even then I felt a bit spiritual.

What’s the nature of your spiritual outlook today? Does it present you with a kind of attitude toward the world?

No, not really. I’m not as aware of the world as I could be.

Is that necessarily a bad thing?

Yeah, because I think if I became more aware, I could structure my lyrics to be a little more in tune with people.

Are you working on that process right now?

Yes, I’m working on that right now, I’m working with people who I know know where it’s at. Like Van Dyke Parks—he’s a guy who’s a link to where it’s at for me. He keeps me very current on what’s happening.

At one time you and he were working on a revolutionary album called ‘Smile,’ which you never released.

Yeah, we didn’t finish it because we had a lot of problems, inner group problems. We had time commitments we couldn’t