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A Salute to Brian Wilson: Darian Sahanaja on Growing Up on Brian, Then Basking in His Musical Inner Circle for a Quarter-Century
Darian Sahanaja, a crucial part of Brian Wilson's band since 1999, shares his thoughts about the late Beach Boy's brilliant legacy and last years.
For the last quarter-century, no one shared more musical moments with Brian Wilson than DarianSahanaja, who was part of the Beach Boys architect’s solo band from his return to live shows in 1999 through his final tour dates in 2022.He was also an essential ingredient in bringing the “Smile” album back to life in the form of a solo Brian reconstruction, and served as supervising music consultant on the 2014 biopic “Love & Mercy.” Variety invited Sahanaja to share his thoughts about Wilson, who died this past week at 82. Most all of them were of the newfangled analog synthesizer variety, and so instead of having to get string or brass players, or even having to strap a bass on, he’d simply grab a Minimoog or ARP synth keyboard and lay his ideas down in a quick and raw fashion, getting the immediate gratification he so wanted. Brian Wilson (center) at the world premiere performance of “Smile” on February 20, 2004 with band members Jim Hines, Darian Sahanaja, Scott Bennett, Probyn Gregory, Bob Lizik, Nelson Bragg, Taylor Mills, Nick Walusko and Jeffrey Foskett Tim Whitby/WireImage
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