Beastie Boys
Boy-Coastal
New York vs. L.A. or what? On their new album, the Beastie Boys rock the age-old question.
By Billy Miller
Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys is sitting in a cafe in downtown Manhattan, drinking carrot, beet, and kale juice. He is taking slow, drawn-out sips. Every few minutes he pauses to extract a clot of seaweed-like matter from his mouth. "This stuff tastes like shit, " he gags.
Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys is sidling up the Walk Of Fame in Hollywood, California. The sun is shining down on his Airwalk sneakers as they tromp past the stars of The Beatles Ricky Nelson, and Burl Ives, where he pauses, looks down, and mumbles, "That cat was dope." The sunshine casts these entertainment footnotes in a bril- liant glow. Air quality is moderate. To our left, a homeless man with a gray beard like a wire brush digs through a trash can for something to eat.
Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys is in Mexico City, Mexico, putting on an oxygen mask during a stage-four smog alert. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys is boarding a helicopter in Tsaina Lodge, Alaska for one last run of untracked powder. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys is on a Himalayan trail in Nepal, fighting off oxygen depletion behind the Sherpas carrying his gear. No, wait. That was last winter. Can we start over? I'm sorry. Where were we again? I'm confused. Um, can we get another carrot juice over here?
Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys isn't in any of those places, although he may have been at one time throughout a long, well-traveled 1993.
The truth of location is that Adam Yauch, a.k.a. MCA, and his fellow Beastie Boys Adam Horowitz (Adrock) and Mike Diamond (Mike D.) have spent the last six months at work on a new album, the follow-up to their platinum ground-breaker Check Your Head. Recorded in equal parts of both New York and L.A., its inspiration emanates from the distinctness of each coast's sounds and sentiments. The new recording will check their well-deserved audience--new and old--in on where they're at. And don't worry--thoughtful engaging bassist Adam Yauch is around to drop insight on what it took to get them there.
After growing up in Brooklyn, how long ago did you guys move out west?
We started working with the Dust Brothers on Paul's Boutique around the beginning of '88,1 would say. We first started to come out to meet with new record labels, and we met those guys. Then we took a trip out just to do songs with them. Then we came out to work on some more songs. We were staying in hotels for awhile, until we finally rented a big house for all of us. Then we all met girlfriends and found our own houses. The next thing we knew, we were moving out of our places in New York to avoid paying rent on both coasts. And here we are.
So there was a plan to move out to L.A.?
Uh, well, not by us, but by ...
By the forces?
By the big cheese.
You live a little bit of everywhere though.
Yeah, I'm a little bit more of a transient than the average American. I have most of my stuff in storage right now. Then I'll move to Utah to snowboard in the winter, and then I'll put it all back in storage and go on tour in the summer.
But Mike D. and Adrock both stay in L.A.?
Yeah, those guys both own houses. And I'm just renting an apart- ment here.
What are your personal thoughts on L.A.? Do you like it?
I don't know, it's all right. This city doesn't feel comletely like home to me. I always feel a bit like I'm visiting, like I'm waiting to get someplace else. But I have a lot of friends out here.
Is New York home?
I always feel like I'm coming back home when I go back to the city. My family and most of my friends I grew up with still live there.
New York is the city of the world.
I don't know, you start traveling and there are a lot of amazing cities out there.
Is there something L.A. is missing that makes New York much better?
It's just different. They're starting to build trains in L.A. now, but it's hard to imagine riding around on them. I've never been on 'em.
I'm sure you've been asked this typi- cal rock-journalist question a million times, but what differences do the two places bring to the band's music?
No, that's all right. I like a good rock-journalist question every now and then. I'll try and give you a good rock-star answer.
I think that New York is harder and more immediate, so you're constantly in contact with other people, like when you're walking around or on the trains. You're face-to-face with people all the time. It makes the music feel a lot harder and a lot of times the music we make in L.A. feels more introspective-- more about being in our own little world. The people I come in contact with are | just our friends, and the band. Whereas in New York, you're just walking down the street by millions of people, all day. On your way to the studio you're riding the train with people everywhere. So it has a different kind of feel, more of an outward feel. The good thing about this album is we recorded part of it in New York and part of it in L.A., so it's got both of those things going on.
How does the stuff you brought over from New York fit in with the stuff you're doing now?
We recorded some of the backing tracks that we're rhyming over, and all the instrumentals in New York. We were starting to write rhymes, but mostly playing music. We're just recording the rhymes out here, but a lot of them were written while we were still in New York.
Did you do that with Check Your Head, too?
No, it was all recorded in L.A.
Was it a good experiment? Maybe just for this album?
I prefer being around New York but I see some of the advantages to the stuff in L.A. There's some stuff that we've done in L.A. that we probably never would've done if we were in New York. That's good.
What's the new record like?
It's kind of like the last one in that it has hardcore stuff and rhyming stuff. Some of it's more kinda jazz- and funk-influenced. It's a bunch of different kinds of music, so in that sense it's like the last one.
You guys have really defied categorization and developed your own sound by mixing a lot of different styles. How did it come about?
It comes about from everybody listening to different stuff. People are going to coin you no matter what, so we're just trying to keep it interesting for ourselves. Part of it is we make a lot of mixed tapes--we actually have battles to see who can make the best pause tape.
Who's winning?
Adrock has a pretty sweet finger on the pause button, but I'm not going to just sit back and let him walk all over me. I've got some top-secret shit that'll blow everybody away. I'm working on this helmet that's got a tape deck head- phones, and microphone built into it. And it's hooked up directly to my brain, so I can just think of pauses and automatically bust out. When those guys see me coming with that shit forget about it.
Tell us about the Beastie Boys' studio, G-Son, in L.A. I almost got to play ball there. That would've been a rock-journalist thing to do.
Yeah, it's got a little court and a skate ramp. It's a good place for us because we know the ins and outs real well. In a new studio you don't know where everything's at or how it's hooked up. We recorded all of Check Your Head there, so we've been in there for three or four years now. Anything we want to do we can do real fast now.
Is that learning process why Check Your Head took a while?
A few years. And this one, six months.
How come?
I guess from what we figured out doing our last one--the time we spent playing our instruments and trying new stuff. We took some time off last winter, and it started coming together real fast when we got together. Not like we wrote ahead of time, but a bunch of ideas came out real fast when we hadn't really played with each other in five or six months.
Is there anything new or different you specifically set out to do with this one?
Me personally? I played an upright bass.
The whole time?
Yeah, I played a lot of upright during the snowboarding season. I was practicing while I was up In Utah. And I brought it out to Alaska with me.
That must've been a bitch.
Well said.
Did you play it on Check Your Head?
No, actually I bought it right when we were finishing Check Your Head. And then I played it on a remix for one of the singles.
Is it a lot harder to play?
It's different muscles. It's like a totally different instrument.
Do you prefer it over standard?
Just in different circumstances. If I'm playing rock or hardcore I'd rather play on the electric.
It's kinda hard to get those 64th notes on the standup.
Indeed. But if I'm playing more jazz-sounding stuff I can get some real rich tones out of it.
Let's see ... I wanted to ask about Madonna [laughs]. Before your first album had even come out, you guys got invited on her Like A Virgin tour. What was that like?
It was the first time we really went on a real tour, instead of all piling into a van and road-tripping to Boston.
Did she hear you guys and line you up on her tour?
Naw, her manager called up our manager and said they wanted the Fat Boys for the tour. Our manager said the Fat Boys weren't available but how about Run D.M.C.? He didn't even actual- ly manage the Fat Boys at the time [laughs]. And they didn't want to pay enough money for Run D.M.C., so he said, "I have just the band for you." "You're gonna love these guys." "I have something for you at just $4.95 a night."
So did she dig the band?
I guess so. They were going to throw us off the tour after the first few nights, but then our manager went and pleaded with Madonna in her dressing room and she decided not to kick us off.
How come?
For sucking [laughs]? I don't know.
What was the experience like?
Forty dates in two months all over the States? It was just weird. We were used to playing at CBGBs in front of people we knew. Then we switched over to hip-hop, and most of those shows were done in front of hip-hop audiences--like opening for Kurtis Blow or Run D.M.C. Then all of a sudden, we were playing in front of little teenagers wearing little lace tops and rolled-up shirts--all dressed up like Madonna.
How old were you?
Twenty or so. 1985? Twenty- nine now? I was 85 at the time [laughs]. There's your math problem.
Now I have to do rock-journalist math? Eight years ago. You were y twenty-one.
Yeah, it was pretty cool. It was pretty interesting. It was the first time anyone ever asked me for my auto- graph. I was like, "Whaaat? What do you want that for?"
And then after that you guys just went global.
Ballistic.
After that we made Licensed To lll. And it was all downhill from there.
One last conceptual question: what would you do on a day off in L.A. as compared to a day off in New York?
Would it be a nice day in New York?
It would be a nice day in both areas.
In New York, I'd probably call my man Evan and go out to Horatio Street Park, play some ball. Then, go eat somewhere. Go see a movie. Go out to dinner somewhere, go to a nice restaurant--Chinatown, or some shit [laughs]. Go out to some nightclub, go bullshit for a while, go to the Soul Kitchen, listen to some music. Maybe go see a jazz show.
So in New York you got it going on.
Yeah. Go out and eat again at four in the morning. Now in L.A., what am I going to do? I don't know, man, I'm beat, I'm in L.A.!
You just got done with a transconti- nental flight.
I'd probably go over to Mike D's house and swim in his pool, which I hardly ever do these days anyway. Meditate a while. Read a book. Work on some lyrics, work on whatever the f--k I'm working on out here so that I can be done with it so I can get the f--k out [laughs]. Go over to Mario's house, work on some editing ... I don't take days off In L.A..
So basically, in one of those all- encompassing rock-journalist assumptions: L.A. is for work and New York is for fun.
Word. But I can do good work in New York, and I could definitely have a good time out in L.A., too. You just got to be in the right place at the right time.
