The Pet Sounds Band (formerly the Brian Wilson Band) is an American touring ensemble that served as the backing band for the Beach Boys' co-founder Brian Wilson from 1999 until his retirement in 2022. The band was largely drawn from the Los Angeles power-pop group the Wondermints, supplemented by Chicago-based session musicians who had recorded with Wilson on his 1998 solo album Imagination.
Under the musical direction of keyboardist Darian Sahanaja, the ensemble accompanied Wilson on continuous international touring for over two decades, performing the complete Pet Sounds album live, staging the long-delayed premiere of SMiLE, and celebrating the 50th anniversary of Pet Sounds. Following Wilson's retirement and his death in June 2025, Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine reassembled the band's core members in 2025 under the name the Pet Sounds Band to continue performing Wilson's music as a tribute.
History
Background and formation (1998–1999) Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys had largely avoided touring for most of his adult life, citing anxiety and mental health difficulties stemming from a breakdown in late 1964. Wilson's third solo album, Imagination, released in June 1998, prompted plans for his first proper solo tour. On May 9, a few months after the death of his brother Carl Wilson, Brian performed a concert for the Brian Wilson: Imagination documentary at the Norris Cultural Arts Center in St. Charles, Illinois. The eight-song set mixed Beach Boys classics with live debuts of tracks from the forthcoming Imagination album, and Wilson was joined onstage by Christopher Cross, Eagles bassist Timothy B. Schmit, and the Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston, who provided vocal support throughout the evening. On October 3, Wilson performed at Farm Aid at the New World Music Theatre in Tinley Park, Illinois, backed by Matt Jardine, Christopher Cross, long-time Beach Boys bassist Ed Carter, Paul Shaffer, Nelson Bragg, Joe Thomas, and Todd Sucherman. Toby Keith joined for "Do It Again", and Willie Nelson joined Wilson onstage for "The Warmth of the Sun".
In late 1998, Wilson's wife Melinda approached the management of Wondermints, an LA-based power-pop group formed in the early 1990s by guitarist Nick Walusko and keyboardist Darian Sahanaja. The Wondermints had come to Wilson's attention through a tribute concert in Hollywood and subsequent informal meetings. Multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory, who played horns with the Wondermints, was also recruited. Wondermints members Sahanaja, Walusko, percussionist Mike D'Amico, and Gregory, were joined by Chicago-based musicians Scott Bennett (various instruments), Paul Von Mertens (woodwinds), Bob Lizik (bass), and vocalist Taylor Mills, all of whom had worked with Wilson on the Imagination sessions. Former Beach Boys touring musician Jeffrey Foskett, who had toured and recorded with the group since the early 1980s, joined as lead vocalist alongside Sahanaja, who served as musical director.
Imagination, Pet Sounds Live, and early touring era (1999–2003) The band's first shows took place in March 1999, with the opening run also featuring Imagination co-producer Joe Thomas on keyboards, Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl on backing vocals and guitar, and drummer Todd Sucherman, all of whom had contributed to the Imagination sessions, appearing at the first four dates before departing the touring lineup. Sucherman, who had become a full-time member of Styx in 1996, was subsequently replaced on drums by Jim Hines, a Chicago session musician who stayed with Wilson until 2008. Wilson initially toured in support of Imagination, but the setlist quickly evolved into a wide-ranging survey of Beach Boys classics and album tracks rarely heard in concert. Wilson's first live album, Live at the Roxy Theatre, recorded at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood across two nights in April 2000 and released that same year, documents the band in their earliest formation.
As part of the 2000 touring cycle, the band performed the complete Pet Sounds album live for the first time, backed by local orchestras at each venue on an international run. In the summer of 2001, Wilson and the band embarked on a co-headlining North American amphitheatre tour with Paul Simon, performing as the opening act across 31 dates; a Variety review of the tour's Los Angeles dates listed the full band lineup as Foskett, Sahanaja, Gregory, D'Amico, Bennett, Walusko, Mertens, Hines, Lizik, and Mills. Wilson returned to performing Pet Sounds in full on his 2002 touring dates, including four sold-out nights at the Royal Festival Hall in London; recordings from those January 2002 performances were released as Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds Live. The ensemble developed a reputation for unusually meticulous reproduction of Wilson's studio recordings, with each member studying the original arrangements in depth. Probyn Gregory has described the challenge of sourcing a bicycle horn tuned to the correct pitch for a passage in "You Still Believe in Me" as emblematic of the group's approach — Gregory ultimately modified a horn using half a clothespin to flatten the pitch to the required C#, drawing on his classical French horn training.
Mike D'Amico, who had served as the Wondermints' drummer, transitioned to percussion and guitar alongside vocalist Taylor Mills. D'Amico took a hiatus year in 2001 to spend more time with his family, during which Andy Paley, who had collaborated with Wilson on an unreleased album project in the mid-1990s, served in his place as percussionist and vocalist.
Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE & Al Jardine's brief stint (2004–2007) The band's most celebrated achievement came in 2004 when they performed the premiere of Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE at the Royal Festival Hall in London, completing a project Wilson had abandoned in 1967. The performance was met with widespread critical acclaim and was subsequently toured internationally, with the accompanying studio album released to universal praise. The SMiLE sessions required the band to master complex, unconventional arrangements that had never been performed live, a task led by Sahanaja, who spent months sequencing and arranging the original fragments using Pro Tools before presenting them to Wilson. For the live performances, Wilson presented a revised version of "Good Vibrations" that partially altered the rhythm and doubled the length of the "gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations a-happenin'" section, building additional harmonic tension before the song's final resolution, a structural change unique to the SMiLE concert performances and subsequent recording.
The demands of the SMiLE material also required several band members to take on additional instrumentation beyond their usual roles: drummer Jim Hines contributed backing vocals and mallet instruments, including marimba and vibraphone, throughout the performances and recordings. Mike D'Amico, who had filled the percussion role since the band's formation (minus his hiatus year replaced by Andy Paley), was unavailable to tour in 2004 when rehearsals for SMiLE began; in his place, Darian Sahanaja and Jeff Foskett recruited Nelson Bragg, a Los Angeles-based drummer and vocalist who had come to their attention through the local club scene. Though hired primarily as a percussionist, Bragg quickly expanded his role to encompass an extensive kit of mallet and hand percussion instruments, including whistles and celery. Along with Bragg's unique instrumentals, backing vocalist and percussionist Taylor Mills also used a power drill and knee-slapping to add to the album's complex instrumentation.
After that tour concluded in 2005, the band began performing the complete Pet Sounds album at dedicated concerts around the world. Paul Von Mertens, playing woodwinds, and Probyn Gregory, on brass and theremin, were central to reproducing the album's dense studio textures live. Jeffrey Foskett served as the band's lead vocalist and musical co-director throughout this period. Al Jardine, co-founder of the Beach Boys, joined Wilson's touring band for select dates from November 2006 through January 2007 before the collaboration was interrupted by legal disputes among the Beach Boys.
That Lucky Old Sun and Reimagines Gershwin (2007-2011) In 2007, Wilson and the band were commissioned by the Southbank Centre to create a new work for the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall in London. The resulting song cycle, That Lucky Old Sun, was written by Wilson in collaboration with bandmate Scott Bennett, with spoken-word narrative passages from Van Dyke Parks. The work received its world premiere over six nights at the Royal Festival Hall from September 10 to 16, 2007, performed by the band alongside a 40-piece orchestra, blending vocal harmonies, orchestral arrangements by Paul Von Mertens, and visual projections evoking Southern California themes. The band then took the piece to the Sydney Festival, performing it at the State Theatre in January 2008 accompanied by Australian string ensemble FourPlay. Following those live performances, Wilson and the band recorded the studio version between January and April 2008 at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, with the album released on September 2, 2008 by Capitol Records. The album was recorded with the core touring band, credited collectively on the release as "That Lucky Old Band," with Bennett and Von Mertens receiving additional production and orchestration credits respectively. That Lucky Old Sun received generally favorable reviews, with Rolling Stone awarding it four stars and the record peaking at number 21 on the Billboard 200 and number 37 on the UK Albums Chart. Also around this time, bassist Bob Lizik departed the touring lineup; he was replaced by Brett Simons, who performed with the band and contributed to the recording of That Lucky Old Sun before Lizik eventually returned after the 2012 reunion. Mike D'Amico also returned, taking over drums from Jim Hines.
In 2009, Walt Disney Records approached Wilson about recording a collection of George and Ira Gershwin songs as part of the Disney Pearl Series; Wilson agreed, with the Gershwin estate granting him access to over 100 unfinished fragments for the project. The resulting album, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, was released on August 17, 2010, and reached number one on the Billboard Jazz Chart. The album's orchestrations and musical arrangements were developed by Wilson in close collaboration with band member Paul Von Mertens, whose woodwind and conducting work was central to the project's distinctive sound, while band member Scott Bennett co-wrote and supplied lyrics for two tracks completed from unfinished Gershwin fragments: "The Like in I Love You" and "Nothing But Love." Wilson and the band toured the album in 2011, performing the record in its entirety alongside Beach Boys classics in a format similar to the earlier Pet Sounds and SMiLE concert runs. The Reimagines Gershwin tour comprised 35 dates across North America and Europe, including a return engagement at the Royal Festival Hall in London in September 2011. Backing vocalist and percussionist Taylor Mills also departed the touring lineup in 2011.
The Beach Boys 50th Anniversary reunion (2012)