Adam Horovitz on "Soft Focus"

Watch a four-part interview with Adam Horovitz (part 1 above) on "Soft Focus" at VBS.tv.

Video transcription (part 1)

Adam Horovitz: Oh, wow. Hi!

Ian Svenonius: So, now I have this whole theory, and I’m really glad to talk to you because I’ve never told you this theory. But this is the real theory, and I’ve been working on it for a long time: I’ve always seen this eerie parallel between the Beastie Boys—your group—and The Beatles, who are the alpha group. Wait! It’s not so crazy. What do you think about that?

Adam: I was waiting for the, you know, uh—

Ian: Well, number one: Your origins, well, a hardcore band, the start of [unintelligible]. Then Licensed to Ill, kind of a “I Want to Hold your Hand” Beatlemania. You guys were a sensation. A massive sensation.

Adam: Huge.

Ian: Huge. And in England, there was this kind of like sense of like they’re destroying culture. Unlike the way The Beatles were viewed with contempt in America. Or people were scared of them a little bit—the establishment. Then Paul’s Boutique. It’s like a kind of psychedelic excursion. That’s when you became critical darlings. And after that, your records sort of guided more, you know, the intelligentsia. What do you think?

Adam: I think that’s great. [audience laughs] Yeah, I’ll be that. I think that’s great.

Ian: Well, I was wondering if that was a conscientious—like if you conscientiously looked at the trajectory of The Beatles and then—

Adam: Or The Troggs—you know, one of those groups, yeah. Uh, no, we didn’t. We weren’t really looking at anybody. But I like that.

Ian: I mean, it’s weird, I think. I’ve told a lot of people this theory but—

Adam: And what do they say about that?

Ian: Well, I just told these people. [addressing audience] What do you guys think?

[Audience laughs]

Ian: I think it’s pretty good.

Adam: I mean, you could fit a lot of things into a lot of, you know, things—

Ian: You can fit a lot of things into a lot of things, but you can’t say The Troggs are The Beatles, for example.

Adam: No. They got—

Ian: You can’t say, like, I don’t know...

Adam: Shit. I know where you are going though.

Ian: Now, I was wondering about these stylistic changes that have marked your career. And, uh, you begin as a hardcore band.

Adam: Yeah, we started as a hardcore band right in this neighborhood. I guess it started while we were all friends in high school. We all used to go to a record store called the Rat Cage, which was right down the street from here. Kids in the city—that’s what we did. We didn’t go to school, but, you know, so you started a band. Or you know, that’s what everybody was doing. So that’s what we did. I don’t know. We were into punk rock records and hip hop records. And, you know, new wave. And all of that stuff. And I guess the hardcore was what was, you know, the easiest to play. Playing in a hardcore band is like playing like, you know, basketball or something. You’re always moving, and you’re kind of in sync with the other people. And you’re kind of doing this thing. And it’s really fun to play. And it was kind of like the punk rock records that we, you know, listened to. But it was easier in, like, that we would never sound like Blondie. You know what I mean? Or something like that. But luckily for us, I guess, growing up in New York City at that time we were exposed to a lot of creative things happening. And so I guess that sort of led us to go in different directions—musically, I guess.

Ian: Yeah, well, that’s what I was going to ask you. How did you make that transition into hip hop? And sort of, like, how did you even figure out how to make beats, for example?

Adam: Well, the thing about rap music is, you know, rap had already started in New York. So this is the early 80s. And so, rap started coming Downtown. And, you know, you’d hear it from radios and car radios and stuff like that. You know, we were drawn to it. As, you know, I guess most people in the world are drawn to rap music. And, so, we were really into it. It wasn’t a thing of where it was like that was the popular thing so we’re like we should do that because that’s going to sell records.

Ian: Yeah. It was underground music.

Adam: So, I got my first money, and I was going to go to this place called Rogue Music. This was my thing. This is real history. I’m gonna keep it real. And I had 250 bucks, and I was going to buy the black and white Paul Weller Rickenbacker guitar. Right. But I had heard about this drum machine called an 808. Right. I had heard about it. I heard it on a record before. I went to Rogue to buy this thing, but they also had a used 808 drum machine. And so instead of buying a guitar because I already had a guitar, I bought the drum machine.

Ian: Wow.

Adam: So that’s how it started for me.

Ian: So, you brought that element into your group.

Adam: Well, I had the drum machine.

Ian: Yep. Yeah.