Written by Beastie Boys co-founder Mike D has announced details of his first solo album.
Thank You, set for release on Fontana on August 28, is the first album of new music from a Beastie Boy since 2011’s Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. The New York rappers have been inactive since the 2012 death of Adam Yauch, aka MCA, but Mike D’s return comes after he began writing music with his sons Davis and Skyler, who play in his backing band 5D.
“It’s been so much fun making this music with people I love and I have grown to really appreciate in our collaboration,” says Mike D. “And I just hope it’s fun for others and not overly serious, because let’s be real, I’m releasing this music into a very strange and dark and power-fixated world that really devalues art and feelings and compassion and empathy and equality.”
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Mike D, aka Michael Diamond, has already shared two songs from the record, Switch Up and What We Got, and today (June 8) he’s offering up another preview of the record in the form of new single True Colors.
Talking to NME about the record, Mike D says, “The way I describe the record is that musically it’s still pretty immature, and lyrically it’s a little bit more mature. I just feel like there’s more of the things I had to tap into. I had to learn how to feel all over again.
“On the one hand, there’s a lot of commonality in terms of how I worked with Beastie Boys – plugging in seemingly random instruments and falling in love with how certain things sound and starting to play around with that and building up from there, keeping all the happy accidents that occur every step along the way. Then getting a bit further down the line and really editing fearlessly and cutting stuff back.
“The difference was that I had to get myself into a place of being very free in terms of doing my vocals,” he continued. “In the band, we were all each other’s best editors. There was almost a little bit of competition and one-upmanship, in a good way. Here, I realised early on in the process that even with a lot of amazing collaborators, my kids were my best editors. They don’t relate to me [in that way]. They haven’t listened to Hello Nasty a gazillion times. They were extremely frank with me on my vocals, which was super helpful.”
The track list for Thank You is:
1. Switch Up
2. What We Got
3. True Colors
4. That’s Right
5. Secrets Pt. I
6. Secrets Pt. II
7. I Don’t Care
8. Make It Stop
9. Crypto
10. Here We Are
11. Back To Start
12. It’s Time
13. Thank You
The album can be pre-ordered here.
