Find out which legendary band is making a New Mexico stop

The Beach Boys are surfin’ into New Mexico with all the good vibrations.

Original member and vocalist Mike Love carries on the legacy of The Beach Boys, 65 years after the band formed in 1961.

“It’s just been a lifetime of music, and we’re just very blessed to be able to continue on,” Love said. “Everyone on our stage just loves music. We’re thrilled to be able to perform.”

The band began with Love and his cousins, Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, along with family friend Al Jardine.

“I am mainly a lyricist. I sing and write songs,” Love said. “I’ve come up with plenty of musical ideas, but my cousin Brian was just gifted at working in the studio with the greatest musicians. They were called the Wrecking Crew back in the day … and I would come up with lyrics to complement his efforts.”

He said it was good to find partners to be creative with.

“In my case, it was my cousins Brian, Dennis and Carl, who were the band members to begin with,” he said.

It was always about the music for him.

“My cousin Brian and I just started writing some songs together, and they caught on,” Love said. “And here we are, 65 years later, talking about doing a concert in Albuquerque.”

Love said it is a blessing to be playing and carrying on The Beach Boys’ legacy, especially as many of the original members have died.

“We lost my cousin Brian last year in June, and I got a chance to see him a couple of weeks before he left us, and all he wanted me to do was sing to him,” Love said. “In fact, we even harmonized together on a song that we did many years ago.”

The cousins sang “Their Hearts Were Full of Spring,” by The Four Freshmen, Love said.

“It was really sweet, because he was in not great shape at all, but he still wanted me to sing to him,” Love said.

Love said when The Beach Boys first formed, he never thought about how popular they would become, wanting to focus more on the music.

“What I did think, though, was what kind of messages and what kind of positivity will last,” Love said. “Because I think harmony lends itself to longevity, rather than negativity and dissonance that wears upon you.”

The words to “Good Vibrations,” one of the band’s most well-known songs, Love said were written during the Vietnam War. He just wanted to make lyrics to accentuate the positive.

“I came up with a poem about a girl who was in the peace and love and all kinds of nice, positive things, and that poem, which accompanied the track …,” Love said. “It became like the No. 1 song to make people feel good.”

“We need more positivity and harmony and peace,” he said.

Over decades of performing and making music, Love said, The Beach Boys have touched generations of listeners. Love has seen music evolve from vinyl to 8-track to CDs to streaming, but said his preferred way to listen to The Beach Boys’ old music is the radio.

“I often listen to ’60s on the Sirius XM, out of curiosity, to see if they’re gonna play our songs,” Love said.

The band will be putting out a new collection on Friday, Feb. 13, “We Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years,” which includes 73 tracks covering everything from never-heard-before music to remastered songs.

“This will be a whole incredible collection of outtakes and different things that maybe some people aren’t familiar with,” Love said. “It gives a chance to listen to a whole variety of songs that are done by many of the group members over the years.”

The collection includes Brian Wilson’s previously unreleased “Adult/Child” sessions from his return to The Beach Boys. 

Love said the collection was a good way to give their songs new life and a reincarnation for the younger audiences.

“I think it’s a fantastic thing that our music is not just buried in the past, but rediscovered and uncovered, and hopefully people will enjoy the experience of listening to it,” Love said.

He said over the last 65 years, he has seen his music touch people all around the world.

“It’s a huge blessing for us, because our songs have meant so much to so many people over the years,” Love said.

Love said he has never looked back on his career and thought it was time to hang it up. His philosophy is as long as he is able to go out and perform as close to the original as possible, he will, because it is a joy and a pleasure.

“I think as long as a person is healthy and can perform and sing and enjoy it, it’s a blessing,” Love said.

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.