In late 2010, Ms Music Records released the album “California Feeling,” a tribute devoted to poet and lyricist Stephen J. Kalinich’s of his songs covered by the likes of David Marks, The Honeys, Carnie & Wendy Wilson, Carl B. Wilson, and Alan Boyd, among other performers. The compilation producers are Mark Linett and Alan Boyd. Executive Producer is Carol Schofield.

Kalinich, co-wrote the song “A Friend Like You” with Brian Wilson, recorded by Paul McCartney and Wilson a few years ago for the album of Wilson duets, “Getting In Over My Head,” is a former Brother Records and Jobete Music staff writer

Last century, tunesmith Kalinich penned “Be Still” and “Little Bird” with Dennis Wilson, songs that appear on the Beach Boys’ “Friends” album. Kalinich’s “Rainbows” and “Love Remember Me” were featured on the 2008 reissue of Dennis Wilson’s “Pacific Ocean Blue” album.

In addition, the Beach Boys’ anthology, “Hawthorne, CA,” contained Kalinich’s “A Time To Live in Dreams.”

In 2010 on Al Jardine’s EP “A Postcard from California,” actor Alec Baldwin is spotlighted reciting the Kalinich poem “Tide Pool Interlude.”

Over the years Stephen Kalinich has collaborated with songwriter P. F. Sloan on “If You Knew” and “Soul of a Woman,” and previously had his words sung by Mary Wilson of the Supremes, “You Dance My Heart Around the Stars,” Odyssey, whose recording of “Magic Touch” was a top 40s hit; and Randy Crawford, with “Only Your Love Song Last.”

There’s also Kalinich’s seemingly lost literary work, “A World of Peace Must Come,” that was recently rediscovered and appeared on Light In The Attic Records’ 2008 CD boxed set devoted to the poetry of Kalinich. Another early composition, “Leaves of Grass,” was released on this CD, accompanied by Mark Buckingham and produced by Carl Wilson.

In 2012, Kalinich continues to write poetry for films and music from the Southern California area. He is currently teaming with actor and narrator Stacy Keach on the film “War Poems,” while David Marks, an original member of the Beach Boys, is producing “The Circle Continues,” a collection of Kalinich lyrics and music slated for 2012 release.

Stephen Kalinich and Harvey Kubernik Interview

Q: Can you discuss the genesis of your “California Feeling” concept album where various recording artists cover your words and music? Iknow one of the compilation producers, Mark Linett helped start the ball rolling on the album that is out from Ms Music Records. Your CD is Executive Produced by Carol Schofield who helms the label.

A: Mark and I started talking about doing a project and he asked me if I could get some friends to cover some of my Beach Boy and other songs. So I put out feelers and before you knew it I had more than I could handle and I had to set a limit and stop asking for people to work on the album.

“He went to Carol and pitched her the album and he organized and arranged the whole deal for me including business and acted like a manger even though he is a friend.

“Then he brought in Alan Boyd to help as he does on many projects. Mark was my main contact and set up everything. I owe him a great deal and I am grateful. Then Marilyn Wilson got the Honeys involved and Carnie and Wendy as well as Rob Bonfiglio, all offered to pitch in. Stacy offered to do a poem and before you knew it we had a great album in the making. As if the hand of the Divine played a part.

Q: The Honeys are on the disc along with Carnie & Wendy Wilson. Tell me about them and their renditions of your songs.

A: I love the Honeys rendition of ‘California Feeling.’ They capture the essence the hope the scope of the California Feeling a new land a place where dreams can possibly come true a new frontier. Their version knocks me out. On ‘Little Bird’ Rob Bonfiglio produced an incredible version. Wendy and Carnie sang their hearts out. I am very moved and touched by this version. It captures the song in a different way for a different time and it still rings true today.

Q: Musician and songwriter Alan Boyd cut “You’re The Beautiful.”

A: Alan Boyd is a huge unrecognized talent. A great songwriter and an inspired singer. He is a sweet being and ‘You’re The Beautiful’ is a lovely song and something I could have written with Dennis Wilson. I love this song. It gives one encouragement and appreciation for the grandness of life and also this country America away from the politics. It is to a woman a country a state and an inner state and to a country that I love.

Q: Producer and songwriter Jon Tiven performed “Everything’s Exploding.” You are currently working with him.

A: Jon Tiven is an explosive talent a great player producer songwriter. He produced a P.F. Sloan album ‘Sailover,’ which I have two songs on. ‘Soul Of A Woman’ and ‘If You Knew.’

I owe a lot to Phil Sloan. He has influenced my life greatly. Jon is a rare combination of fun and hard work. He brings work out of me that no one else could except maybe Dennis. It is the side of Dennis I only began to pursue now realized through my new collaboration. We are working on many new songs together. I love ‘Everything’s Exploding.’

Q: You go way back with Brian Wilson. What is your reaction to “The SMiLE Sessions” being officially released?

A: One remarkable thing about this ‘SMILE’ is that this music is the complex patchwork of layered sections woven together and pieced together in sound. This is said from my gut my heart. I love Brian Wilson I love his music. I love the window the door he opened into the soul and it is like The Dark Night of the soul however only something that could occur in the late sixties in California between materialism and poverty a musical experience that would be created in the soul of some young man from Hawthorne who had transcended time country and tapped into the infinite quilt of the many leveled Universe like a leap in Quantum Physics as of sound waves stretching out from a place in time to a Forever echo.

“Brian Wilson is an amazing inspired sweet lovely soul who has given the world so much and through his own tribulations he keeps bringing beauty to the world through his music. I would never have gotten an opportunity of it was not for Brian and Dennis and the rest of the Beach Boys believing in me but mostly Brian and Dennis all those years ago.

Q: There’s a few songs well known by Beach Boys’ fans and collectors, like “Little Bird,” and “Be Still,” tunes you wrote with Dennis Wilson.Talk to me about these songs and Dennis.

A: Dennis was a love. What an amazing friendship and collaboration we had together. Through all our quirks our humanness and limitations that the universe opened up moments between us like a Zen experience that allowed these beautiful tone poems to burst forth songs like ‘Little Bird,’ ‘Be Still’ ‘Rainbows,’ ‘A Time To Live in Dreams,’ ‘Our Love Remains’ and so many more. This in itself partakes of the miraculous. You could feel the presence of our energy in a room when we wrote together. It was Divine love like God pouring himself out through us. The words and notes that came through were celebration and life affirming In the ever present now we touched lives on this planet. Working with Dennis was bliss though sometimes other parts of our relationship could become tense. We were volatile on the edge. Grace swept through and layered cut a quilt a tapestry of harmony a pulse and aliveness that took musical configuration.

A: My first two Beach Boys songs inspired both with Dennis. I sat at the piano at 14400 Sunset in the late sixties and looked out the window and saw a robin a little bird and it gave the inspired song to me. An answer to the question of meaning in a world of Chaos. The Little Bird looked down and sang a song to me of how it began. Before you could snap your fingers an electrifying melody emerged and Dennis and I knew Magic was in the grooves and the air we were a team with a might force divinely put together. Even though we would at times argue about other things never about the creative.

“‘Be Still’ was a Xmas card sent to me by Dr Sue Sikking a Unity Minister mother of James B Sikking, the ‘Hill Street Blues’ actor and that inspired ‘Be Still.’ And be still is a practice I still have to this day. A stillness practice. This song is a spiritual meditation to live every day to get in touch with a place inside yourself that resolves your problems and helps you meet your daily needs and overcomes anxiety and depression. A song to live and be present in. These first efforts still guide my life.

“These songs will live on long after we are gone and they are triumphs of the spirit overcoming limitation left as our offspring to inspire others. Like tired children falling into their mothers’ arms these songs flow into the receptive consciousness. This was one dimension of my experience with Dennis. I am grateful for Dennis in my life helping me to carve a path out of anonymity into a road ever alive where the source of all beings reside. This same spirit is alive today and operative for those who dare to span the path climb the mountain be tossed in a raging sea and come up clearer and more aware of the infinite nature of the creative process. This is what I shared with Dennis Wilson.

Q: You also have worked with Carl Wilson and during your tenure with Brother Records. Mike Love also supported your songwriting efforts.

A: Carl Wilson taught me the power of silence that leads to hush and then a whisper then a note that is sung. Carl taught me vocally and musically that every thing rises out of the silence as he managed to take this untrained not always pleasant voice of mine and turn it into sound and melody that resonates. Carl was my friend. He had a gift a magical voice that could send shivers up your spine. Carl gives shades and emotional tone and colors to a lyric that go straight through you. Carl was my first producer with ‘Leaves Of Grass’ at Studio B Capitol Records. That is a song I wrote with Mark Lindsay Buckingham but not the one from Fleetwood Mac. Carl Wilson’s spirit lives on.

Q: You are also fond of Mike Love. I remember our encounters with Mike that stretch back to 1969. We would on occasion see each other at the West Hollywood health food restaurant and shop named HELP. (Health, Education, Love, Peace). We knew Warren Stagg, the owner of HELP, one of Los Angeles’ first vegetarian eateries. Fellow Pisces Love would often tout seaweed salad and boysenberry shakes.

A: He also personally helped me a lot as an individual. He took me around introduced me to people. He brought Sky Saxon of the Seeds down to hear my song and poems when I was working in a flower shop and offered to buy my wife’s painting and offered me his Rolls Royce to drive when he lived in Coldwater Canyon. We came close to doing a solo project together.

“I have wanted to say this for a long time. I have nothing to gain and maybe I will turn some people off but here goes. I love Mike Love even though he never calls me anymore or sends me letters. He is one of the greatest lyric writers and poets in his own right. The reason is he writes what he knows hamburger stands and T Birds and California Girls. He captures the everyday experience the flow of California of the life of Sun. He worked in gas stations and he was an every day young man just trying to work out a life.

“Some of the songs are like Zen. He has more in common with the every day man than Dylan He appeals to real people and not just intellectuals or liberals other people who think they are smarter. I am talking about his work. I learned from him. Mike in his own way did his own thing. Our society and culture then was into all these things. It was a time that had a lot of fun and good within it before serious introspection began and unless you are in someone’s shoes do not judge him. I celebrate Mike.

Q: You still communicate with Bruce Johnston.

A: Bruce Johnston has been very kind to me and he is a great talent in his own right. I do not mention him enough in my interviews. He has always been encouraging to me. He won a Grammy for ‘I Write The Songs’ which has sold over 25 Million records. He has been very supportive with my new projects. He is a great vocal arranger and worked with many people. I want to call attention to him. Back in the sixties when I was the new kid on the block so to speak he introduced me to many people in music and I have never expressed gratitude to him. He is great melody writer and songwriter and I believe He has many songs within him and has more ability than anyone really knows yet and he still has a future in music in his own right.

Q: Al Jardine and I have recently discussed your longtime friendship with him. Some of your work appears on his new solo album.

A: I love Al’s voice. He has included me on many projects and many things and these last years.
He has been a strong advocate of mine. He recorded ‘California Feeling’ my song with Brian
and an Alec Baldwin version of one of my poems we call ‘Tide Pool Interlude’ on his ‘Post Card From California’ album . He had me open the venue with him to a sold out house at the Henry Miller Library last year a 20 minute set of my poems The people loved it. The next night he had me do a recitation for a private event at The Hearst Castle for The Hearst family and founders and people on the Board and it was phenomenal. Al use to have me recite at his parties in the late 60s.

Q: Last December in 2010, Ms Music Records released a Christmas single.

A: “Child Of Winter” a song I wrote with Brian many years ago. Carnie and Wendy played bells on the original Beach Boys’ version. This is a new rendition by Rachel and the Reendeerz on ‘California Feeling’ that I love. We made a video that Alan Boyd directed with help from Chris Allport.

“I love this version. I love the vinyl and I love Rachel. What fun we had shooting the video guerrilla style in downtown L.A. and Carnie and Wendy’s kids add that extra magic with their voices. I love it. My vibe on Xmas is be happy celebrate make it a spirit to carry every day of peace joy forgiveness and love. The flip side from the 2010 first issue is a wonderful children’s story ‘The Violin That Played By Itself,’ with a beautiful score by the great young composer Ali Helnwein, my good friend.

“Also, ‘Christmas Bunny’ also from the 2010 Christmas vinyl by Alan Boyd is a very fun song. We hope to animate the children’s story and that it will be told every Christmas around the world.

Q: Do you have some 2012 products coming out on the Ms. Music label?

A: Yes and a few more in 2011.A new Christmas vinyl with two songs by me and Ralph Stevens’ ‘Christmas Is The Face Of A Child’ and ‘Everything Reminds Me Of Christmas and You.’ I am also working with ‘Christmas Isn’t Christmas Without You’ with Rob Bonfiglio for this vinyl single. I am quite excited

Q: You have been very active for many years in the poetry world, have had books published.

A: I have two new books out on Kindle thanks to Lucy Hall my friend and the person who does my website. I also did a book with Feline Butcher ‘From The Heart Of Love’ that is a lovely project.

(In 2009, Harvey Kubernik penned the feature essay and conducted the stand-alone interview for the Genesis Publications book with Brian Wilson on his “That Lucky Old Son” collaboration with artist Peter Blake published that July. There are 1,000 limited edition signed books and retail for 750 pounds in the U.K.

Harvey Kubernik is the author of “Canyon of Dreams The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon” first published by Sterling in 2009. In March 2012 a paperback edition of the title will be available.

Harvey and his brother Kenneth have written “A Perfect Haze: An Illustrated History of The Monterey International Pop Festival” published by Santa Monica Press in November 2011).