Will these boys ever grow up? Bloody hope not. With all three Beasties hitting their 30-plus marks, thank god absurdity is still the group's middle name. It's been four long years between Ill Communication and the release of Hello Nasty. But the wait's been worth it. Yep, truly.
Hello Nasty follows Paul's Boutique's innovative experimentation back in '89, producing different styles sometimes pumped to the max, other times totally laid back, but usually just plain daft. Here's what the boys have to say for themselves...
Can you describe the new album?
Adam Yauch (aka MCA): [Hello Nasty] is just a new album. I guess each one of the records just kind of documents a period of time of where, you know, whatever we were doin' at the time. So it's just kind of like stuff updated, I guess.
Adam Horowitz (aka King Ad Rock): The last record came out four years ago, so I guess there's a lot of songs on this record [cos] we've been doing a lot of things.
Michael Diamond (aka Mike D): It's just like a lot of ideas. But maybe, I mean, it's always limitless - like the ideas when you make a record. Maybe this one, 'cos it took a little more time, had even more possibilities and more different things that we worked on and more different sounds or whatever.
Did moving back to New York and recording Hello Nasty there have any effect on the result, as opposed to having stayed in Los Angeles?
Ad Rock: Los Angeles, you're driving in your car, you're sitting around, and hence, there's long grooves that you get into. In New York City, you're getting different sounds all the time. 'Honk honk', 'Wee wee', 'Hey you!' And so it's a different approach, a different sound. It's a feedback and reaction that you just can't avoid, wherever you live. New York has a lot of different things happening; a lot of actions, reactions, sounds.
Mike D: It's an in your face...
Ad Rock: In your face.
Mike D: ...kind of place.
MCA: But it's just nice to be home in the city, too. Cos like we grew up there and that's where our families are at, our friends we grew up with.
Where do you see yourselves going musically in the future? Any particular interests you want to pursue?
Ad Rock: Well, there's always things to do. There's so much music that's been made that's inspirational, from all genres, and it's nice to hear new material, new music and sounds being created cos that is very inspirational.
I think the one thing that I like about what we are doing these days and have been before and will be doing in the future is exploring, um, new territories, fields, sounds...
MCA: Dimensions.
Ad Rock: ...dimensions in music. So it's difficult to pinpoint a particular thing that motivates you to make a sound. But there are several things such as...
Mike D: Croquettes.
Ad Rock: Food, um...
Mike D: Science.
Ad Rock: Electricity.
Mike D: Air, mathematics...
MCA: Cheese.
Mike D: Space.
Ad Rock: And, um, speed garage, techno, jungle, rave, house - early, from Detroit.
Mike D: Yep. And another thing I think, you know, we're asked about like, you know, bein' on the road and how you continue to make music or whatever, but Adam Horowitz is actually working on a custom-built box that's gonna contain a battery-operated turntable and a battery-operated mixer, which are both available in Japan now. And then, uh, his team of scientists are working on developing a battery-operated sampler that then ties in with special full, um, mobile recording capabilities. So actually, it's gonna be like an ambient sound recording built into the box too.
Ad Rock: The entire system is all powered by one AA battery.
Mike D: That's what so amazing about it. And that AA battery has a special energy compression system. So that AA battery is actually gonna last, you know, a hundred times longer than like a, a traditional AA battery would last, even just running an ordinary Walkman.
Hello Nasty is sure to be one of 1998's most memorable albums. It's fun. It's rockin'.
It's hip-hop-sterism.
The Beasties are back.