°_mullethead_°
06-18-2004, 05:10 PM
made for austria in italy by a journalist living in london. click (http://fm4.orf.at/rotifer/169124/main)
i also recorded it off the radio, maybe i'll put it online
I saw your show in London, and I was really impressed. I hate to use the word Old School because it has been used too often...
Adam Yauch: "It's so new school to say old school."
Is it?
Adam Yauch: "I don't know, I was just trying to have fun."
But there was no pretence at making a big show of it, rather the basic set-up of one DJ and three MCs as though nothing had happened in-between, and I thought it seemed to be a nice way of saying that you still can't beat that kind of format.
Adam Horovitz: "Sure."
Yauch: "I mean it's just kind of what we're doing. I don't know if we're seeing it like that. But it does work, I mean, it works for us anyway."
Mike Diamond: "But I don't think it's a statement like 'You can't beat it.' There's times in the past and probably times in the future where we do tour in a more complex manner."
Horovitz: "But we'll challenge other people, if it's a matter of beating and competition and stuff."
Diamond: "We're up for the competition!"
A lot of people have become very shy about using samples because it's easier to cream off all the royalties if you have your own session guys doing it. Is there a little bit of a statement in there as well about what currently passes for hip hop in the charts?
Diamond: "No, it's just with samples and such I think we can't help ourselves. We grew up on some of the stuff we sample, and there's also just a certain vibe or something that happens when you have a bar of music or a half-bar or a quarter-bar or whatever it is. In the repetition of that there is a very different feel than having someone play something similar."
Yauch: "Sometimes it's nice when a loop is a little bit off. A Wu Tang kind of vibe."
Diamond: "Or detuned or whatever."
So when you're working with digital, do you sometimes get to the point where you say: We have to stop now otherwise it's becoming too perfect?
Horovitz: "I don't think we worry about ever having to be too perfect. I don't think that's an issue. I do, personally, in life, but musically?"
Diamond: "Actually, in a way digital gives you more chance to fuck with things and manipulate things because you can try so many things out quickly."
The reason I'm also asking this question is that there is this line: 'All you spazzes and you freaks, do your thing ?cause you?re unique' in 'All Lifestyles'. This got me thinking about how every rap star now seems to have this perfect six-pack.
(Horovitz lifting his T-Shirt)
I'm sure you do! But then you don't hide your grey hair.
Horovitz: "I put that in! A lot of kids in the states are doing that these days. I sprayed some fake grey hair on."
"If it makes people feel shitty about themselves that's great."
But do you mind that music video body fascism that has taken hold?
Yauch: "Whatever floats your boat, you know."
Horovitz: "If it makes people feel shitty about themselves that's great."
Yauch: "If it makes people happy to do a billion sit-ups that's cool. If it makes you happy walking around fat that's great too. Whatever, you know. It's all cool."
It's cool that your cool with it all being cool, but in essence, isn't it all a bit intolerant these days? You hardly get to see ugly people or 'spazzes and freaks' on pop stages anymore. And when you started out, wasn't that also a little bit of what it was about as well? Because the eighties were also a period were everyone was supposed to be perfect.
Yauch: "Get the spaz out."
Horovitz: "We were the pimple people! We put the pimples back into pop music."
Would it be possible to do that today? Or wouldn't everybody say 'That's great!' and then they'd airbrush it out anyway.
Horovitz: "No, you couldn't. I mean, pop culture now... It'll change maybe. Who knows."
Diamond: "There's always room for that."
Yauch: "Biggie came out, you know. He's not exactly Britney Spears."
Horovitz: "He's really not Britney Spears."
Diamond: "You're always going to have that element within pop music that is kind of anti-pop that becomes pop, if that makes sense. I mean, we came along, even Eminem..."
Horovitz: "No, but you're not gonna have someone like Mama Cass from Mamas and the Papas coming out. That's not gonna happen. That happens about once in a decade."
Tolerance stops when it comes to women, doesn't it?
Horovitz: "That's what I'm saying. And then you have bands like Jet. Phew... I'm sure they're nice guys, but they're not pretty boys, let's just say."
Yauch: "Like us."
Horovitz: "Like us. And definitely, sexism is huge in society, not just music. But that's another part of it."
'All Lifestyles' is just one of many overtly political songs on your album. The line I quoted doesn't just come in there just like that. The song is generally about tolerance, even though that in itself is kind of an iffy word. You could say acceptance of different creeds and different...
Yauch: "You mean like celebrating? Even beyond tolerance and acceptance, celebrating the variations."
Exactly, and in a way that's how I understood the album. It's about celebrating New York as a place where those kind of differences are celebrated.
Yauch: "Definitely."
Diamond: "Exactly, and that's where I was going to cut in: To us that's one of the things that are uniquely wonderful about the New York that we reflect upon and that we grew up in. There's other cities in the world that have a huge population, but New York City is unique in its ever shifting, ever changing multicultural population."
Yauch: "Obviously, there's quite a bit of that multiculturalism in London or in Paris, but New York has it on a whole different level because New York in the last 400 years or whatever was completely founded on this influx of people from all over the world, so it's sort of on a different level of the experiment."
Diamond: "We're an anomaly having been born and bred New Yorkers. That's actually really quite a rare and uncommon thing in New York City."
A place like London is always quite proud of its multiculturalism, but you could notice ever since the war started that the whole thing can split at the seams really easily, so it's important to keep that in check that you're still working on that premise. I certainly noticed that while people get along they still live in different worlds, and when certain prejudices come back into fashion those different worlds can drift apart very rapidly.
Diamond: "We shouldn't candy-code it. You also have to be realistic. New York is not above racism. Unfortunately, it's an ailment that can play in New York as well."
Yauch: "I was just going to tell you a story. A friend of mine who's Asian who was born and raised in New York was in a store and I don't know exactly what the scuttle-butt was, but some guy, a white guy, said to her: 'Why don't you go back to where you came from?' And I said: 'Why don't you go back to where you fucking came from? What are you talking about?'"
Horovitz (to the others): "Scuttle-butt was not used in the song 'Brouhaha'."
Yauch (explaining): "We were looking for synonyms..."
Horovitz: "Got to do a remix."
One thing that you must have been asked in every single interview: The WTC is in the panorama of New York on the artwork for the album. What made you decide to do that?
Yauch: "You know, the drawing was done before. It was an existing drawing. We were talking about something to use that would be celebrating New York, and we had even talked about a line drawing, and then the idea of using that came up. We tried taking the World Trade Center out but then it seemed almost weird taking it out because it's part of the New York that we grew up with."
i also recorded it off the radio, maybe i'll put it online
I saw your show in London, and I was really impressed. I hate to use the word Old School because it has been used too often...
Adam Yauch: "It's so new school to say old school."
Is it?
Adam Yauch: "I don't know, I was just trying to have fun."
But there was no pretence at making a big show of it, rather the basic set-up of one DJ and three MCs as though nothing had happened in-between, and I thought it seemed to be a nice way of saying that you still can't beat that kind of format.
Adam Horovitz: "Sure."
Yauch: "I mean it's just kind of what we're doing. I don't know if we're seeing it like that. But it does work, I mean, it works for us anyway."
Mike Diamond: "But I don't think it's a statement like 'You can't beat it.' There's times in the past and probably times in the future where we do tour in a more complex manner."
Horovitz: "But we'll challenge other people, if it's a matter of beating and competition and stuff."
Diamond: "We're up for the competition!"
A lot of people have become very shy about using samples because it's easier to cream off all the royalties if you have your own session guys doing it. Is there a little bit of a statement in there as well about what currently passes for hip hop in the charts?
Diamond: "No, it's just with samples and such I think we can't help ourselves. We grew up on some of the stuff we sample, and there's also just a certain vibe or something that happens when you have a bar of music or a half-bar or a quarter-bar or whatever it is. In the repetition of that there is a very different feel than having someone play something similar."
Yauch: "Sometimes it's nice when a loop is a little bit off. A Wu Tang kind of vibe."
Diamond: "Or detuned or whatever."
So when you're working with digital, do you sometimes get to the point where you say: We have to stop now otherwise it's becoming too perfect?
Horovitz: "I don't think we worry about ever having to be too perfect. I don't think that's an issue. I do, personally, in life, but musically?"
Diamond: "Actually, in a way digital gives you more chance to fuck with things and manipulate things because you can try so many things out quickly."
The reason I'm also asking this question is that there is this line: 'All you spazzes and you freaks, do your thing ?cause you?re unique' in 'All Lifestyles'. This got me thinking about how every rap star now seems to have this perfect six-pack.
(Horovitz lifting his T-Shirt)
I'm sure you do! But then you don't hide your grey hair.
Horovitz: "I put that in! A lot of kids in the states are doing that these days. I sprayed some fake grey hair on."
"If it makes people feel shitty about themselves that's great."
But do you mind that music video body fascism that has taken hold?
Yauch: "Whatever floats your boat, you know."
Horovitz: "If it makes people feel shitty about themselves that's great."
Yauch: "If it makes people happy to do a billion sit-ups that's cool. If it makes you happy walking around fat that's great too. Whatever, you know. It's all cool."
It's cool that your cool with it all being cool, but in essence, isn't it all a bit intolerant these days? You hardly get to see ugly people or 'spazzes and freaks' on pop stages anymore. And when you started out, wasn't that also a little bit of what it was about as well? Because the eighties were also a period were everyone was supposed to be perfect.
Yauch: "Get the spaz out."
Horovitz: "We were the pimple people! We put the pimples back into pop music."
Would it be possible to do that today? Or wouldn't everybody say 'That's great!' and then they'd airbrush it out anyway.
Horovitz: "No, you couldn't. I mean, pop culture now... It'll change maybe. Who knows."
Diamond: "There's always room for that."
Yauch: "Biggie came out, you know. He's not exactly Britney Spears."
Horovitz: "He's really not Britney Spears."
Diamond: "You're always going to have that element within pop music that is kind of anti-pop that becomes pop, if that makes sense. I mean, we came along, even Eminem..."
Horovitz: "No, but you're not gonna have someone like Mama Cass from Mamas and the Papas coming out. That's not gonna happen. That happens about once in a decade."
Tolerance stops when it comes to women, doesn't it?
Horovitz: "That's what I'm saying. And then you have bands like Jet. Phew... I'm sure they're nice guys, but they're not pretty boys, let's just say."
Yauch: "Like us."
Horovitz: "Like us. And definitely, sexism is huge in society, not just music. But that's another part of it."
'All Lifestyles' is just one of many overtly political songs on your album. The line I quoted doesn't just come in there just like that. The song is generally about tolerance, even though that in itself is kind of an iffy word. You could say acceptance of different creeds and different...
Yauch: "You mean like celebrating? Even beyond tolerance and acceptance, celebrating the variations."
Exactly, and in a way that's how I understood the album. It's about celebrating New York as a place where those kind of differences are celebrated.
Yauch: "Definitely."
Diamond: "Exactly, and that's where I was going to cut in: To us that's one of the things that are uniquely wonderful about the New York that we reflect upon and that we grew up in. There's other cities in the world that have a huge population, but New York City is unique in its ever shifting, ever changing multicultural population."
Yauch: "Obviously, there's quite a bit of that multiculturalism in London or in Paris, but New York has it on a whole different level because New York in the last 400 years or whatever was completely founded on this influx of people from all over the world, so it's sort of on a different level of the experiment."
Diamond: "We're an anomaly having been born and bred New Yorkers. That's actually really quite a rare and uncommon thing in New York City."
A place like London is always quite proud of its multiculturalism, but you could notice ever since the war started that the whole thing can split at the seams really easily, so it's important to keep that in check that you're still working on that premise. I certainly noticed that while people get along they still live in different worlds, and when certain prejudices come back into fashion those different worlds can drift apart very rapidly.
Diamond: "We shouldn't candy-code it. You also have to be realistic. New York is not above racism. Unfortunately, it's an ailment that can play in New York as well."
Yauch: "I was just going to tell you a story. A friend of mine who's Asian who was born and raised in New York was in a store and I don't know exactly what the scuttle-butt was, but some guy, a white guy, said to her: 'Why don't you go back to where you came from?' And I said: 'Why don't you go back to where you fucking came from? What are you talking about?'"
Horovitz (to the others): "Scuttle-butt was not used in the song 'Brouhaha'."
Yauch (explaining): "We were looking for synonyms..."
Horovitz: "Got to do a remix."
One thing that you must have been asked in every single interview: The WTC is in the panorama of New York on the artwork for the album. What made you decide to do that?
Yauch: "You know, the drawing was done before. It was an existing drawing. We were talking about something to use that would be celebrating New York, and we had even talked about a line drawing, and then the idea of using that came up. We tried taking the World Trade Center out but then it seemed almost weird taking it out because it's part of the New York that we grew up with."