Mix Master Mike On The Road With...Guns N' Roses?

Surprising though it may seem, Mix Master Mike — the DJ "Scratch" director Doug Pray said could be the "next guitar god" of the turntables — is the lone opener of the highly anticipated Guns N' Roses tour. In an interview conducted the day before things got going in Vancouver, B.C., Mike spoke about the impending adventure, his new album, his relationships with both the Beastie Boys and Invisibl Skratch Piklz, and his influences. He also spoke with sadness about the passing of Run-D.M.C. DJ Jam Master Jay.

The genesis for Mike's prestigious opening slot on the GN'R tour came a couple of months ago. Mike was touring behind his latest solo album, Return of the Cyklops, and performed at L.A.'s El Ray Theater. "Supposedly Axl was in the audience," Mike said. "He actually came to watch me. And from there, I guess he had found his opening act."

Rose worked quickly to lock up Mike's services. "He called my manager up," Mike said, with a bemused chuckle. "He called my agent up and just requested me."

With over 30 shows planned for the North American leg of the tour, and months of additional touring to follow, Mike was excited at the prospect of exposing an audience that reaches far beyond turntablism's small but devoted fanbase to his music. Mike last performed before arena-size crowds when he toured as the Beastie Boys' DJ for their 1998 Hello Nasty tour (he also performed on the album). "Being on the road with the Beasties kind of helped me to do that," Mike said, referring to his coveted part-time job. "But now I'm branching out. Hip-hop and rock and merging them together on two turntables and sharing it with the crowd. Displaying all kinds of turntable trickery for kids that don't know what's going on with the whole turntable culture."

Mike said he had no reservations about playing nightly in front of 20,000 hardcore rockers who've been waiting a decade for their king to reappear. "I think my set's going to prep them up," he said with confidence. "To get them in gear. To get them ready for GN'R."

Mike's planned his set with the GN'R audience in mind. "I'm dealing with a bunch of rock-heads," he said, laughing. "I'm doing tricks with rock records and then getting them open and breaking out old hits and new hits and kind of meshing them together as a whole meltdown."

Mike said he's been working rock into the mix since his early days of "mixing Slayer with Public Enemy."

Last month saw the release of Return of the Cyklops, which compiled two previously released EPs and a long out-of-print Valuemeal 12-inch. It's dense and unpredictable. It's not the kind of music to dance to. But Mike's uncompromising use of the turntable as wrecking ball to break sounds down and as a generator to re-imagine them new and off-kilter makes it clear why Mike is the man who, years ago, mentored the preeminent DJ Q-Bert.

"A lot of my work started off as very experimental instrumentals," Mike said. "Now it's becoming more formulated, more condensed into audio-scratch-massacre pieces. I want to make some music that's timeless. Something you'd pop in in the year 3000 and be like, 'Oh shit, this is some crazy shit.'"

Aside from his growing presence as a solo artist, Mix Master Mike is also affiliated with two legendary groups, the aforementioned Beastie Boys and turntablist collective, the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. The Beastie Boys have been fairly quiet since completing the Hello Nasty tour and, according to Mike, they will remain so in the immediate future. "We're all separately doing our own thing," Mike said. "The boys are writing and making music and I'm making music. Right now, they're giving me the opportunity to focus on my solo stuff until we all get together."

As for when Mike and the Beasties might work together on a new record, Mike said "nothing is going to happen anytime soon, but you'll know when it does."

Regarding the groundbreaking Invisibl Skratch Piklz, who performed their last show together under that moniker in 2000, Mike sounded positive about future collaborations, at least with DJ Q-Bert. "Me and Q-Bert talk on and off and we talked about hooking up and doing something together as soon as all the other stuff is done with," he said. "Hopefully in the future we can give our fans something to look forward to." Still, Mike said there's "nothing in the works right now."

Asked about "Scratch," Doug Pray's documentary on the history of the DJ, Mike was enthusiastic. "The whole experience has been a good thing," he said. "There's never been really an official movie about what we do, so I think, in the making of this, it's something for kids to go out and grab and learn about how it all started and how it all became. It's a brief lesson on how the whole turntable culture started. It gives the kids something. If they're aspiring DJs, they could grab that video and get inspired."

Never far from displaying his civic pride, Mike made it clear where the best lessons in the art of DJing are being taught. "Like I always said, San Francisco-Daly City is the mecca of the scratch DJ," he said. "What we started, back when we started, we laid down the foundation, and then after that, all these other DJs start spawning out. It's a stomping ground for aspiring DJs. We're in our own world when it comes to San Francisco. It's like our city, and there's talent that's not to be slept on in San Francisco."

And where does the man who has inspired a generation of DJs look for musical inspiration? "For me it's always looking back and reflecting on all the old classics and the pioneers," he reflected. "Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Coltrane, Fela Kuti, the Afro-beat legend. All my inspirations are no longer with us right now, so I'm going to live through them and keep them alive and display my skills, kind of honing their styles and gathering the thoughts and information and interpreting it into my music."

One more pioneer had to be mentioned. After a tragic week in hip-hop, it was impossible not to touch upon the loss of Run-D.M.C.'s DJ, Jam Master Jay. "Jay made music that was timeless," Mike said sadly. "His scratching skills, production skills — along with Run-D.M.C — made incredible music. He is like, I would say, one of our fathers. As a DJ, we've lost one of our fathers in hip-hop. He put the Beasties on, way back in the Raising Hell tour days and he definitely paved the way for artists such as myself and all other DJs. He was a vital part of the hip-hop family tree and we'll miss him." — Jesse Zeifman [Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2002]