sorry but the way this thing was printed, it's hard to know who said what at times...*

Beastie Boys

Hello future

Hello Nasty reigns in the kingdom of Billboard chart and any chart around the world. The Beastie Boys are currently on tour promoting the album (though I think it doesn't need any particular promotion).

Meanwhile, they don't seem to forget or neglect their "side projects" such as their annual Tibetan Freedom Concert and the Milarepa Organization or their Grand Royal record label with the new album from the Scottish band Bis being out now.

Let's dive into the world of the Beastie Boys and learn about their future plans and their way of thinking and creating music… Adrock, Mike D and MCA have some… confessions to make…

It would be very interesting to know what the Beasties think of their album…

"It's just a new album… Each one of the record it's kind of a document… it's kind of an updated document, I guess" says Adrock.

It took them so long to record new material. It's been four years since their last album…

"The last record came out four years ago. So, there's a lot of songs in this record and you can see we've been doing a lot of things…" MCA apologizes.

"The last thing we did was doing a record" adds Adrock.

" We've been up to a lot, basically", MCA agrees and continues...

"There was a lot of ideas but there's always a limit when you make a record… Maybe that's why it took us a little more time. We worked on more possibilities, more different things, more different sounds…"

They have a really common songwriting process… Read what MCA says about this…

"On this one we went back to swithching up a lot more of the rhymes. We spent a lot of time hangin' out in each other's appartmnent working on rhymes together and then split them up".

And what about the decision of what is going to make it to the record?

"We just record a whole lot of songs and then we go through and start picking out and figuring out which is going to be on the record…"

"This album was a little harder. There's a lot of material written for it and a lot of different stuff and stuff that we didn't finish" Mike D explains.

There was a bunch of people collaborating in the album… What made them to work with these people?

Mike D explains: "Most of the people in there are people that we couldn't even dream we could have the opportunity to work together. It's kind of inspirational…Most of them were friends from New York we used to hang out with"

And what is their opinion of Mix Master Mike?

Adrock: "He's a funny cat, that Mix Master Mike"

MCA: "He's incredible. When he's at the turntables everybody in the room have their eyes glued on whatever he's doing"

Mike D: "His dream is to perform the tweak scratch to a capacity audience and we think that we shared that dream with him…"

What is like working with Mario Coldato, Mr Yauch?

"On this one we started working on our own for a while and then Mario came out… In the past records he was with us from the beginning.

MCA: "Mario's work with us is like an image consultant. Tells us what to wear, what socks, what comfortable… and what hair styles are in… basically, he lets us know what's going on out there…"

Mike D: "Also, I have to say that Mario keeps it clean, keeps it very clean! He's a very clean kid."

Can the Beastie Boys sound be defined?

Adrock: "There's definitely no definition. Is not like one person picks this out and does this… It's more like a definite lack of definition"

And what about the samples, mr Yauch?

"It's what it comes down… The sound…"

Mike D agrees: "The right sound, the right tamper. A timbre tamper… We like the skinny sounds rounded from bass sounds and trappy like the sea… Titanic sounds. We start with a trappy sound for instance but then we add some effects and if we find out that this session doesn't work at all we try a different sound that might not work again and then we try a different and… that is more fix!"

What kind of music have they been listening to lately and how this influence their recordings?

Mike D has a surprising answer to this… "Well, yes, we all happen to listen to different kinds of music… Everything works its way to the mics… Mostly it's not the music that we listen to. It's the sounds. Like, you coming down in an elevator and that guy next to you is doing some sounds with his throat…"

MCA: "I have a cold a lot of times, that's why I'm doing it…"

Mike D: "Then I record that, put down a sample of it and put it in an album".

Are they satisfied with the Tibetan freedom Concerts' results?

"The really good thing of the last two concerts has been that they really did stayed focused on the topic and what it was about. I think they didn't dive too deeply into the bands and things like that… We used the attention on all the bands to put the ideas forward. But it is exciting that always there's a different artist". How did they learn about the situation in Tibet and become involved in trying to help them gain their freedom? MCA gets serious… "I was in Nepal traveling in '92 and I met some Tibetans who were refugees just escaped from Tibet and someone who was with us spoke Tibetans and translated and explained that they couldn't go back until they were free. I was really moved hearing about that. I just tried to imagine what it'd be having their own homeland invaded. Try to imagine New York taken over by some other culture and not having freedom of speech… There's something really moving with those people. I know it's kinda weird to hear some musician talking about it. I probably wouldn't pay any attention if I didn't meet those people myself. There's something really moving about people that really going through that".

The Beastie Boys in 1998 are different than the Beastie Boys of the beginning? I just wonder…

"We've been around for a while… A long while… and we like to change our styles, basically. We like to change outfits, styles… musical styles, hair styles, food styles, visual styles, styles upon styles".

And what about the early styles, the later styles, the middle styles…

"In the middle styles. I'll be the one who likes to talk about the styles, especially the fashion styles that we spread around… The cookie pussy hero"

"I remember having high top sneakers with fat laces, a plat hat… I used to have the laces tied up on my legs sometimes. Not tied together but individual"

"There's one time we were on our way to a gig in Boston to play at this tiny club and I tapped the pants into my shoes because they were too long…"

"He set up a huge style in America. Now everywhere you turn people have their pants tapped in their shoes".

"The Run DMC boots were really popular. It was a standard having MC boots aver the pants but Run DMC came out with the sneakers without the pants tapped in. That was a big phenomenon in America for a while… Wearing shoes with no pants. A lot of kids were wearing that hence the new latest style. Other new things are happening now. Now you got many things. You got men without pants".

And their transition from hardcore to hip hop?

"There are a lot of similarities between those kinds of music. They're both musics that came out like sins. We grew up playing hardcore but listening to that terrorist playing hip hop records downtown. We used to listen to hip hop also".

"Basically, what you say is that we just listen to a lot of punk rock and sort of got inspired to play it and at the same time listened to a lot of rap and inspired to play. It's kind of experimenting with music with things we were listening to and things like this".

A band with a huge success such as theirs and so many changes in style must have future aspirations and inspirations in music…

"There's always things to do. There is so much music that's been made that's inspirational… From all genres. It's nice to hear new material, new music and sounds being created. I think that one thing I like about what we are doing these days and happened before and we'll be doing in the future is exploring new territories, new sounds, dimensions. It's difficult to pin a particular thing that motivates you to make a sound. But there are several things.

Such as…?

Food, science, electricity, air, mathematics… space and… Speed Garret's techno-rave-house early from Detroit.