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Meet the Prez: Mike D Takes Charge
Swill, August, 1993

WARNING: THIS IS NOT YET ANOTHER, RUN-OF-THE-MILL BEASTIE BOYS INTERVIEW!!!

If you asked some teenage kid in a wool hat, baggy jeans and Phillies Blunt t-shirt who Mike D was, he'd probably shout at the top of his lungs "BEASTIE BOYS!!!" But there is more, oh so much more, to Michael Diamond than his successful recording career with Ad-Rock & MCA. Witness the arrival of his X-Large clothing sores, and most recently, the birth of Grand Royal Records - the label which he helped found and is President.

What's up with this new label? Is it for real? Has D turned into a record exec sleaze? (What the hell do you think?!?) With their first release of Luscious Jackson's "In Search of Manny" doing strong out of the box, and more cool stuff on the way, Grand Royal is without a doubt in the proverbial house. Our own BRUCE WHEELER sat down with "President D" to get some straight dope.

SWILL: I hear you're starting up a Grand Royal fanzine. Tell me about it.

MIKE D: To be honest, it started because our mailing list is really big right now. It's too expensive even doing local mailing, so we're gonna switch over and do a subscription, quarterly kind of a thing. It just covers whatever. It has some of what we're doing and what we're up to, but it's more of a fanzine by us and about us.

SWILL: So it's like the Teen Beat issues on Pearl Jam or something, right?

MIKE D: Yeah, very similar to that. (hearty laughter in unison)

SWILL: Like those individual magazines you see on one band, and every photo is about the band, and every advertisement is like "buy our record!"

MIKE D: With us, like every advertisement is going to be fucked up, and every article will be dissing ourselves.

SWILL: Tell me why you wound up starting Grand Royal?

MIKE D: It's something that we as a band had talked about doing forever basically. I mean, even when Def Jam first started up, we always talked about somehow putting out records that just we wanted to put out, and even back then we were pretty involved in terms of running it out of Rick's [Rubin] dorm room. It was kind of a more communal feel than I think it is now. Like I said, it was always something we always said we were gonna do, and finally I guess it was a combination of getting Jill and Debbie who are old friends of ours and are in Luscious Jackson giving us a demo tape, which usually we expect to just kinda cringe and be in an uncomfortable position with friends of ours and being like "Oh, I wasn't really into it"...but here was a case where someone gave us a demo tape and all of a sudden it became our favorite thing to listen to in the tour bus. So we were like fuck it, we're in a position now where we can put this out, people will listen to what we have to say, so let's do our friends a favor and get this out.

SWILL: Where did the Grand Royal name come from?

MIKE D: It kinda came from the old expression "Grand Royal - Guaranteed." Actually, Biz [Markie] came down to the studio when we were making Check Your Head, and anytime we played a track that was really funky that he was real into, he'd just go "Grand Royal - Guaranteed!"

SWILL: And it stuck.

MIKE D: And it stuck.

SWILL: So what else besides Luscious are you working with these days?

MIKE D: We got the Luscious Jackson EP that we're gonna do a follow-up album on. We've got Hurricane, who's our DJ, who's just finishing up his album now.

SWILL: Didn't he have something on the CB 4 soundtrack?

MIKE D: Yeah, his album's real, real good. Then we have our old [Beastie Boys] stuff that we're gonna be re-issuing, like Cookiepuss and Pollywog Stew. We have Adam's [Horowitz] first band, Young & The Useless. We're putting that stuff out. Then we got some instructional records. An instructional 7" series about to come out.

SWILL: Tell me about that.

MIKE D: We're gonna have different guest stars, finding friends of ours and whatever they're into in terms of sharing insights with the rest of the world - teaching the world a certain trait or whatever. Like Too Short, the rapper - a lot of people don't know he's an expert bowler. So he's gonna do an instructional bowling record.

SWILL: There's some live comedy stuff I was hearing about by Ricky Powell.

MIKE D: Oh yeah, Ricky Powell. We're still waiting on completion on that one. Ricky's waiting for just the right vibe.

SWILL: What kind of problems if any did you have with putting out your first release - The Luscious Jackson record?

MIKE D: It's almost too numerous. The way I look at it is, unfortunately the only way to really learn to be a good record company is by being a record company. And the only way for us is kinda like look, we love this music, let's put it out, and we'll figure it out as it goes along and we'll learn whatever we can learn. And that's exactly what we're doing. So we've learned a lot, and there's still a lot we have to learn. {Mike's other line rings and he has the audacity to put the mighty SWILL on hold. He returns quick as a flash, however.} Now see, there's another problem right there! The phone's fucked up. Eventually we're gonna get a new phone system and someone to even answer the phone, one day here at Grand Royal - so us higher-ups won't have to spend our valuable time answering the phone. The weird thing for us and the one thing I realize for sure is I would never ever want to end up in the position of having to put out records that we don't really like, because it's hard enough for records that you do really like, you know making everything happen.

SWILL: Were there any preconceptions you had when you started the label, like when you said, okay we're gonna put out this Luscious Jackson record and we're going to form a "record label?" Were there any preconceptions that wound up coming true, or thinking something was going to be this way and it was or it wasn't?

MIKE D: With Luscious Jackson, we literally did rush right into it. WE could have taken more time and waited and tried to take it to a bigger label which to us is a name on it or something. But you know, our feeling was really, look, enough time had gone by, we like this, & we're in a position where we can afford to press some records and go for this and start putting out music that we like. It took us forever. We always talked about oh, wouldn't it be cool if we put this out, wouldn't it be cool if we put that out. Well fuck it, let's go ahead and do that. So, the fact that we actually stopped talking and started doing is very miraculous for us. Usually we sit around the studio and talk about what we could do, rather than what we are doing and now it's more like, okay, we got this out. When do we want to do a video? What about this group? When do we want to put their record out? Just the fact that it's made that transition is enough for us.

SWILL: As far as the Luscious Jackson record and things you have coming up, is there a Grand Royal "sound" we can expect to be hearing, or is it pretty much gonna be diverse where if you like something that comes in you'll go with it?

MIKE D: Yeah, I would like to think that certainly I know that the music we listen to is very diverse and to me the music that we as a band make definitely reflects that. So the idea is really just stay true to that. I mean I don't think you can look at us and say well, they're a hardcore band, or well, they're a hip-hop band, so I think what we put out is going to reflect that. To me, if after a couple of years the records we put out is really as varied as the music is that we make as a band, then I think we've been totally successful.

SWILL: What are you listening to these days? What's tipping your ear?

MIKE D: Other than Luscious Jackson? The Jerky Boys are big right now. Royal Trux a little bit. I got an instructional record on how to teach your parrot how to talk.

SWILL: If you as a label could sign any band, whether they're signed or not, who would it be and why would you sign them?

MIKE D: Well that's a hard one. I don't know if you could pick out a single band. My idea would be more like combining people. If I could combine James Brown maybe a few years back when he was funkier with say Archie Shepp. Maybe get George Clinton in there.

SWILL: So it would be like the Grand Royal supergroup.

MIKE D: Yeah. Exactly. That's what we're going to get into, the supergroups.

SWILL: So what are your views on the shrinking stature of vinyl and the LP?

MIKE D: I think people are gonna wise up pretty soon. We're vinyl people. To me, our whole thing is that we're Grand Royal RECORDS. We're a RECORD company. We're always gonna make vinyl. I don't care if no one wants it. We're a record company. If you call yourselves a fucking record company, make a fuckin' record! But I think people are coming around - the format, the sound, the whole thing.

SWILL: Well there's always been a huge 7" market out there, and there still are people, those purists who just gotta have it on vinyl. It's not legit unless it's on vinyl.

MIKE D: Yeah, that's true. It's just a great sounding medium. The artwork it superior.

SWILL: Running your own label - what's it like being on the other side of the coin; being a record exec versus being the recording artist. What kind of insight does that give you in dealing with The Beastie's label, [Capitol]?

MIKE D: Well, I guess I just kind of realize now the entire time that people have been freaking out on us as a band in terms of deadline, that that's just what the whole thing with the records label is all about. That basically it all ends up being around timing, figuring out when certain things are going to happen, ultimately when your record is going to be released and all that. But basically, as a band you're just completely always fucking that up. But you know, that's just the way it is.

SWILL: Is it difficult balancing the band and the label? Do you find it hard finding time for both?

MIKE D: It's crazy. It's definitely crazy sometimes, but you know - fuck it. There are twenty-four hours in a day. I can use most of 'em.

SWILL: I guess being on the road so much, you're used to just getting a couple hours of sleep.

MIKE D: Especially the past couple of months. We've been recording our new album, the band.

SWILL: How's that coming? When's that gonna be released?

MIKE D: It'll probably come out in the Spring.

SWILL: Is it in the same vein as "Check Your Head", or are you guys branching off into a different direction as you've pretty much done through all the LP's that you've put out?

MIKE D: I don't know. It's kinda like, I think we'll figure that out once it comes out. Then we'll figure out really what it is. We always want to do something different, but it's never like okay, we can't do this because it's too much like something we've done. It's just a matter of wanting to definitely do something different each time.

SWILL: What's up with the clothing store X-Large? How's that working out?

MIKE D: Well, we got the store here in LA. We got one in New York now on Avenue A. Then there's the Tokyo store.

SWILL: You have one in Tokyo?

MIKE D: Yeah. We're getting into making our own stuff more.

SWILL: So you're carrying your own clothing as well as other brands?

MIKE D: Yeah. We're switching more and more to carrying mostly our own stuff. Everyone gets kind involved. Adam and Eli are my partners and the main guys that run it. I just complain a lot.

SWILL: You've got the band, the label & the clothing store. All those things are at the same time. That's definitely a handful, huh?

MIKE D: Yeah, plus I got to eat. I got my dog Rufus, I gotta hang out with him.

SWILL: What kind of dog?

MIKE D: He's an exotic North American M-U-T-T.

SWILL: One more question. What type of music do you think is going to come to the forefront that hasn't already in the next or so? Is there a new form of music?

MIKE D: Well, I don't know if it's a new form, but one thing I would say that we all think is that a lot of times when I go to see bands play live and it's kinda bass, drums, guitar - obviously there's something in that format that works. But my real problem is that there are not enough people really doing anything new with it. To me if you're not doing anything new with it...why waste your time. It's like if you're not really going to do something new with that format. You know there's something about when I go see bands like that, I just feel like going up and knocking them all over and putting on a really loud hip-hop record and just fuckin' yelling at everybody. So maybe if there's some way that you could combine all that.

SWILL: So it's kind of a combination of the yelling, the hip-hop and the three piece.

MIKE D: Then maybe we'll be getting somewhere. And just the idea of really extending beyond the traditional. One thing that always bugs me out is all these people talking about alternative music, well how fuckin' alternative is a band that has a guitar, a bass player and drummer playing a bunch of jingly-jangly fuckin bullshit, goddamnit!

SWILL: Is there anything else you want to add?

MIKE D: Well you asked me [about how] we got all this going on with the label, the store and this and that. It's true, but on the other hand we still do actually enjoy doing what we're doing. Somehow we've actually managed to do some of the stuff we always talked about doing as opposed to just talking about it. But fortunately, at least the fun still remains. If nothing else, then fuck it, we'll just go back to talking shit about it.