Beastie Boys - Interview: London, UK - Autumn 2007
By: Thomas Hannan
The Beastie Boys, all in suits, Mike D with sunglasses, shuffle in to the conference room at the Soho Hotel, and sit down to face their press.
Mike D: "What's up with my mic? Yo, sound man, make my mic sound nice! Make it sound nice like... [to Ad Rock] sound nice like what?"
Ad Rock: "[whisper] KRS One?"
Mike D: "Make my mic sound nice like KRS One, before I...?"
Ad Rock: "[whisper] Bust you in the mouth?"
Mike D: "Before I bust you in the mouth. Shall we introduce ourselves? We're the Beastie Boys from New York City!"
Most people in the room - supposedly the cream of the UK's alternative music press - look somewhat stunned.
Ad Rock: "Does anybody want to ask a question? You don't have to..."
Mike D: "It's not obligatory, we could just monologue..."
We're in a room with our heroes here, authors of at least three of the greatest albums ever made. We're bursting to ask a question. But the microphone we need to do that (it's one of those things) is currently on the other side of the room, and the people controlling its whereabouts don't see our arms waving about like saplings in a storm. They're concentrating on people at the back of the room, who seem scared by the very existence of the microphone. Maybe it's because holding a microphone, talking to the Beastie Boys... well, it's clear that they know how to use a microphone a lot better than you do. But that's no excuse. We're here for a reason. So eventually, someone tentatively pops up with a question about what effect the band think their new, wholly instrumental album The Mix Up will have on the staunchly hip hop element of their fanbase.
Ad Rock: "I think it will affect them in a way, not in a bad way, I think in a good way. In an emotional kind of way, a thoughtful way. They might sit by the window, and kinda look out the window, and... (makes bird noises)... but really, I mean, who cares? If they like it they like it, if they don't... I mean, I care, but..."
Mike D: "...I think they'll love it."
MCA: "People who listen to us, they know we're in to some weird shit, so..."
Ad Rock: "Weird shit like, adult / baby stuff?"
Mike D: "I'm very in to covering furniture with cow hide (he says in reference to the bizarre décor in the Soho Hotel)."
MCA: "Mike came in early and did this work."
Mike D: "Yeah, just as a prank, a goof. I'm also in to weird sneakers that have roller skates on the heels."
MCA: "I hear those are called 'heelies'."
Mike D: "Yeah, you'll see a kid just walking down the street and then suddenly, zoom..."
Ad Rock: "Jamie Lidell, who we saw the other day, he had on MC boots and a garbage bag hoodie."
MCA: "As far as outfits go, he was on some weird shit."
Mike D: "I call it a disco blouse."
MCA: "It had a silvery sheen to it, it was shiny. A disco poncho."
Mike D: "It wasn't really a poncho. Was it long sleeved or sleeveless?"
MCA: "It was made out of material that, like, an old woman might wear on New Years Eve, but in the shape of a hoodie... It was pretty cool."
I don't know why they're telling us this. But it's clear that in conversation, the Beastie Boys are at their most entertaining when they're indulging in a tangent. But amusing though their banter, formed over nearly three decades together, can be, it's also far from revealing. One journalist to our left gets angry with their dedication to all things off topic and decides to put things back on course, again preventing the microphone from reaching our palms, clammy with excitement. Problem is, her question is embarrassingly ill informed. It starts off badly and gets worse.
"In your concerts recently you've been doing a mix of three different genres...", she says... and Mike immediately looks baffled. Well, as baffled as you can look when you refuse to take your sunglasses off. Perhaps he's just uncomfortable about being told his band can only do three things...
Mike D: "What are these 'three' genres?"
"Well, you've been starting with the punk, and then going on to all the other bits...", she continues.
Mike D: "OK, so like, hardcore, hip hop and instrumental stuff?"
They got there in the end. She continues. "Yeah, so I'm assuming that's going to be reflected in this album?"
Ad Rock: "Uh...This one is instrumental..."
A tumbleweed blows across the floor. Or at least we think we saw one. Really, do some basic research! You got Google, right? She scrambles to bring it back...
"But... your upcoming work, though? Obviously you're going back in to the studio again soon..."
MCA: "We don't really have a plan. We just tend to go in to the studio and wait, see what happens."
"Are you feeling anything specific though?"
Ad Rock: "What, like a rap opera?"
The relief that it's finally turned in to a joke is apparent on the poor woman's face.
"Yeah, you could do your own musical! Beastie Boys the musical!"
Ad Rock: "What, like (R Kelly's mental YouTube hit) Trapped in the Closet?"
"Do you want to come out?", she continues, a little too far.
Mike D: "I see it being more like Starlight Express. Us on rollerblades all the time. Or those 'heelies'. Rollerskating over the audience."
The microphone has found its way over to me. Don't blow it, Tom. I parp up with a question about if there's anything inherently enjoyable about playing solely instrumental music, or if they decided just to ditch the vocals as a break from the norm. MCA pipes up for the first time. Cool. That grey haired dude was always my favourite.
MCA: "Yeah, it's definitely fun. It's different, you must use a different part of your brain playing instrumental music, it's nice."
"You said when you went in to the studio you didn't really have any ideas set, did you even go in and think, 'we're going to make an instrumental record', or was even that not planned?"
MCA: "No, well, the last record we did (To The Five Boroughs) was all hip hop and we pretty much made it with entirely from programming and drum machines, synths, sequencers... with this one we just started straight in with the instruments and let loose recording a bunch of stuff. Originally we thought we were going to loop stuff and put vocals on it I think, but a lot of it just sounded cool the way it was."
"I remember there was talk at some point of there being another version of the album with guest vocalists, is that something that's still in the pipeline?"
Ad Rock: "Yeah, we're still talking about that."
Mike D: "It's a lot more talk than action though, that's how it usually is with us."
I've lost my beloved microphone to some lesser being. Shit. He asks a question about how much of a challenge the band find it to make a whole record of instrumental music.
Ad Rock: "(feigning sadness) It's really hard, you know...?"
I feel both happy and sad that I didn't get a joke answer yet. I can't tell if my heroes like me more or like me less than the rest of them. Whilst I sulk briefly, the Beastie Boys are discussing playing their recent headline shows at Brixton Academy, and instrumental shows at the newly refurbished Camden Roundhouse...
Mike D: "Well, truth be told, calling it an 'instrumental show', we actually lied a bit. But we are liars."
And how much did they lie?
Ad Rock: "It's all hip hop."
We laugh, MCA doesn't, and provides us with the real answer.
MCA: "We are doing instrumental stuff, but we're doing a lot of instrumental stuff with vocals on it. It's a show based around the instruments, but not all instrumental. Maybe half instrumental."
Mike D: "It's hard to articulate in a very concise way what that show is. But for us it's more fun, it's made the tour more fun. At places like Brixton there are the songs we have to play, and these other ones we can throw in to mix it up, and then we've been doing these other Gala Event shows to mix it up again, getting to play songs which we wouldn't ordinarily play in the show. It just like what Adam said earlier, you are accessing a different part of your brain for each show."
Yeah, like Adam said earlier, when I asked my question. Give me the microphone back, they like my questions so much they even quote them in answers to other, lesser questions. I could do with the ego boost right now, please. Don't just ask them the same old questions like "what are your thoughts on the current state of hip hop?".
Mike D: "I knew that was coming."
Ad Rock: "I think it's totally awesome. The way, you know, people... rap. It's cool. They cut it up. On the.... uh... decks. It's cool. Ah, you know, we've been asked that question before, I don't mean anything bad by that but... OK, rap music is kinda like the only form of music that's always changing, the only form of popular music that evolves every few months. Like, there'll be another 'Hey Ya' coming out again pretty soon and yet another one'll come out in a couple of months after that. Just wait. It's always going in crazy directions. I think it's in a great place right now."
Mike D: "Is 'Hey Ya' coming out again?"
Ad Rock: "Yeah, they're bringing it back out."
Mike D: "A remix, or the same one?"
Ad Rock: "Funk Master Brizzy Brizz is bringing out 'Hey Ya' again. A dirty version."
Another tangent. My favourite bits. But for some reason someone wants to talk about Mark bloody Ronson instead. Someone mentions, for some reason, that he's just been asked to do a set at the BBC Electric Proms.
Mike D: "Did you just say electric prawns? How do you electrify a prawn?"
Ad Rock: "A prom, that's like, graduation?"
The lady who decides where the microphone informs the Beastie Boys that the Electric Proms are a big concert with a twist, the normal Proms usually being a classical event held at the Royal Albert Hall, the Electric Proms being the pop version, where for example a rock band can hook up with a big orchestra.
Mike D: "So they asked Mark to do it?"
MCA: "So there'd be like an orchestra and some fool with a synthesiser, wailing? Sounds cool."
Mike D: "So Mark will have to work out arrangements?"
"He'll probably have to go up to Abbey Road and work out with them", says the drone.
Mike D: "He's going to work out with them? Push ups and stuff? I can't picture Mark doing that, but that's cool. Do they run? Do they go for like jogs in the park and stuff?"
Ad Rock: "Mark Ronson running with the London Symphony Orchestra in Hyde Park, I'm coming for that. That, and the electric shrimp."
Mike D: "I like Mark, he's a good producer."
Ad Rock: "We could work with him in the future, you never know. He's a good guy. A good looking guy. And he's got great hair. It's healthy."
At least even the silly questions go off in to funny tangents. Someone ask a serious one though, please. Let's all bring up a big issue, I don't know, politics, or climate change, or something other than Mark Ronson. Pity the man who asks about Calvin Harris (Ad Rock - "I'm sure he's a nice guy, I just have no idea who he is..."). Live Earth, that'll do. They played at that, after all.
Ad Rock: "The climate change issue is definitely something we feel strongly about. We were happy to take part in that event - as soon as we got called we thought it was something that needed people's focus and needed people's action. And that was something we could help with. The good news is that it's something that can be impacted by everybody taking action."
Mike D: "In terms of doing that event, it's really hard to know what kind of effect it had on people's actions in daily lives. I was surprised, I wasn't ready for the degree of cynicism that it was met with, especially in the UK. That surprised me a lot. It definitely struck a chord with us. With our tours, we hooked up with a non profit organisation to make sure it was all carbon neutral. The busses, they get around on bio diesel fuel, and all the venues cooperated with heavy recycling programmes."
A girl called Megan asks a good question. Thank you Megan. She asks what bands the Beastie Boys see as carrying on a trend they popularised in the mid nineties with the Free Tibet concerts and such like, a trend of being a socially conscious, politically active band. But the band are disappointingly stumped.
Ad Rock: "I have no idea."
Mike D: "Any suggestions?"
A lightbulb goes off in my head (I need to get that seen to). I grab the microphone (I feel wrong called it a 'mic' around the Beastie Boys). I begin.
"Just to follow on, what with To The Five Boroughs being a really overtly political record..."
Ad Rock: "I'm, sorry, yes, Mike is texting by the way."
Hmm, so he is. I wonder if he can make out what's on the screen properly behind those glasses. Anyway...
"That's OK Mike, carry on... you didn't try to hide your politics on the last record at all, in fact they were at the forefront of it, so why the change to do an instrumental record after going down that path, and saying so many important things?"
MCA: "It was just something that we started on that just sounded kinda cool. There wasn't really any thought process like that, like we were leaving anything behind."
"So there are still some things that need to be said?"
MCA: "Oh definitely. It does seem weird to me that there's so much crazy shit going on in the world and there's so little about it in music."
Ad Rock: "There is that Lil'Wayne video at the minute on YouTube going against George Bush, and I don't know, I didn't see that coming. Lil'Wayne - rapper, from, America... So yes, Lil'Wayne, that's what I'm saying."
Lil'Wayne, the new political compass for America's youth. Who'd have thought. Let's indulge in another tangent, shall we? The boys look good today...
Ad Rock. "We just bought these suits this morning. Whilst we were recording the instrumental record we just thought that we should get in to jazz cat mode, so we started getting all these sixties suits. We looked like the Rat Pack. Every day in the studio you had to turn up in a suit."
Mike D: "Except for Fridays. Friday was more casual."
MCA: "Period, but casual."
Mike D: "Like, you can't just wear a white t shirt on Friday."
Ad Rock: "You can wear it under. We're doing these instrumental shows, Gala Events.... but I'm told people don't say 'Gala Event' here.?"
"Well, we don't use the term regularly..."
Ad Rock: "Well, it's not like we say 'Gala Event' all the time..."
Mike D: "That's the whole point of a Gala Event, it's not something you do every day. It's a very special occasion."
Ad Rock: "That's why there's the dress code, people come in cargo shorts and T bird sandals usually but..."
Mike D: "...but this is a Gala Event, we figure people should dress up a little. At least a smart coat would be nice. Make an effort."
MCA: "It's just dress to impress."
Mike D: "No sandals. Even if they're Birkenstocks. No flip flops. Just whatever kind of ensemble you think is making it more Gala. It's very important to us. We've got spare suits if people need them. We're a similar size to our audience."
Forthcoming, yet more dumb questions that elicit funny answers. "You guys started a record label quite recently?", asks another ill informed, poor kid.
Ad Rock: "I started some dubstep house thing recently, with the singer from Nickelback. It's pretty hot, kinda grindcore punk. Kinda two step. Um... we had a record label, maybe like fifteen years ago, but we stopped doing that, so no, we don't have a record label."
MCA: "Well, what's your definition of recent?"
Ad Rock: "Good point. I took a shit in Australia, in an alley, but that was over six months ago and I don't count that as really that recent."
Mike D: "And that's within a year..."
"What kind of person does it take to be a Beastie Boy?"
Ad Rock: "Well, looks. It sounds kinda shallow, but we're all good looking boys."
MCA: "Do we have any application forms?"
Ad Rock: "I might be leaving the band soon, so..."
Mike D: "We're always open to trades. We're in discussion with R Kelly, in a trade for Adam. He wanted to give us... what's the woman's name in Trapped in the Closet? Bridget! He wanted to give us Bridget. We wanted Bridget coupled with the little person in exchange for Ad Rock, he thought that was too much of his cast to give up. But we're open, even though it's in the middle of the season and we're past the trade deadline. Our tour ends in soon, a couple of weeks after that it's off season, we can start talking about trades."
Ad Rock: "They tried to trade me to Blink 182, I'm still mad about it."
Mike D: "That's another thing, Blink 182 were so mad they had to make a whole different band with two of the dudes because they couldn't work it out. It's not just us, every band is looking to get better, it's a competitive sport, a competitive league, and that's our job, everyone needs to get better each time, each season."
"Despite doing an instrumental album, is there any instrument you'd never work with? Bagpipes maybe?"
MCA: The sousaphone.
AD Rock: "No, That'd be cool, that'd be cool to work with the sousaphone. And I actually like bagpipes."
Mike D: "I think bagpipes could be hip hop. It could work out. What would I not ever work with... I'm going to say French Horn, but you never know, French Horn in the right way could be something nice, it could be a lovely somethin'."
MCA: "I can't think of anything."
Mike D: "I'm gonna say, and I might get some heat for this, but I'm going to say digeridoo... I've nothing against Aboriginals or anything but..."
MCA: "Don't we use some digeridoo? We do... on 'Alright Hear This' (from Ill Communication), there's a digeridoo on 'Alright Hear This'."
At this point I can't help but start singing 'Alright Hear This' to myself.
Ad Rock: "You know what instrument I don't like, I don't like the splash cymbal. Every time the drummer plays it's like a horrible "kisH!" sound."
Mike D: "What about the Steve Miller Band, 'Take The Money And Run'? The splash cymbal plays a big part in that."
Ad Rock: "That's not a splash cymbal."
Mike D: "Well maybe it's a triangle, I don't know."
Ad Rock: "I don't know if I should bet with you or not..."
Mike D: "Are you saying a splash or a china boy?"
Ad Rock: "What's wrong with china boy? I like that."
Mike D: "What about the ones that are just like a little splash, and you wouldn't even know?"
Ad Rock: "I'm sorry we have to end on this."
MCA: "You see what I have to put up with?"
Artists in this article: Beastie Boys