The Daily Swarm

The September issue of Drum magazine is about the hit the stands with a cover feature on the Beastie Boys’ Mike D. Apparently, the band imposed a semi-corporate dress code on themselves for The Mix Up studio sessions: “Suits at all times. No Sneakers. No jeans. Dress down Fridays.”

In the interview, Diamond explains this jacket requirement was in solidarity with hep-cats of yore:

Think back to the photos of those old school session players: they were snazzy dressers, my man. They wore jackets, ties, pressed trousers, polished shoes, hair in place. Attire was part of the game. If you didn’t look the part it was ‘Thank you very much, there’s the door.’ It didn’t matter if you were the baddest cat in town; you were gone and another guy was waiting to take your place. Well, we didn’t want to be shown the door either, so we decided to rock with the suits.

And while Mike D doesn’t really go into detail about his drumming style, he does offer up this bit on his approach:

I don’t kill my drums; I make love to them – sometimes soft and slow, sometimes hard and fast. But I do treat them with respect; I want to see them again the next night.

As for The Mix-Up album, apparently the Beasties initially didn’t have a lot of label support. As Mike D told the Boston Globe:

“There was an incident where the new CEO of Capitol Jason Flom, shortly after coming to hear the instrumental record in the studio, he bungee jumped from the roof of the studio with no pants on with a sign that said ‘please no!’ I don’t know what that referred to. Maybe he should have had his pants on, I’m not sure. So that was a disturbing incident for all of us.”