Money Mark |
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Wed. January 06.1999 3:01 AM EST |
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Money Mark, Ex-Carpenter, Builds Sturdy Musical CareerMusic was just a hobby for keyboardist Mark Ramos-Nishita -- until he met the Beastie Boys. by Contributing Editor Frank Tortorici |
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Mark Ramos-Nishita said his influences include "the sink water running in the bathroom." (Matt Melucci) |
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NEW YORK -- For Mark Ramos-Nishita, better known as sometime-Beastie Boys
keyboardist and solo artist Money Mark, musical fame wasn't part of his original plan. Ramos-Nishita is actually a carpenter by trade. He stumbled onto his
Ramos-Nishita was hammering away in the Los Angeles area when he met the Beasties. The superstar rap-rock trio hired him to build the studio where they recorded their 1992 album Check Your Head. At the time, Ramos-Nishita said in a recent interview here, "I was basically making a living as a carpenter, which was one of my first loves anyway, and I was playing music as a hobby." But he told the Beasties about his hobby. And then, he said, "I ... played on the record. And they asked me to go on tour, and I had to make this life decision: Should I be in a band or should I just keep sawing away and hammering? [Then] I just kept making these records and putting all this music out. [But] it was really just gonna be a detour." It's been quite a detour. In addition to playing on every Beasties record since Check Your Head, Ramos-Nishita has recorded two Money Mark albums for the Mo Wax label. His first, Mark's Keyboard Repair (1995), fused pop, hip-hop, trip-hop, soul and classical sounds and became the first Mo Wax album to enter the U.K. top 40. The British weekly New Musical Express named it one of 1995's best albums. "[Mark's Keyboard Repair] was monumental," said Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simins, who played on the 1998 follow-up, Push the Button. Simins said Money Mark "has a really good pop sensibility while incorporating different electronics. Everyone recognizes that. That's why really good people are putting [his music] out." Ramos-Nishita was born in Detroit in the 1960s (he wouldn't say exactly when) and moved to Los Angeles at 7 years old. He grew up listening to records and making his own recordings in his bedroom. Much of Mark's Keyboard Repair was made at home, too. "[It] was a record that I made when I woke up in the morning and did my little musical calisthenics," Ramos-Nishita said. "And no one was supposed to really hear these recordings. They were personal four-track [recordings], and it was an afterthought to compile and release them." "Push the Button was really meant for the listener," Ramos-Nishita said. "I had that in my mind when I was making this record." The album is well-stocked with melody. The layered harmonies and tunefulness of "Too Like You" evokes the Beach Boys, while "Hand In Your Head" (RealAudio excerpt), with its funky drums and noodling keyboards, would have fit in perfectly on John Lennon's 1974 LP Walls and Bridges. "Hand in Your Head" features Lennon's son Sean on bass and Simins on drums. The Lennon influence is heavy on another track -- the instrumentally sparse, lyrically candid "All the People," on which Mark sings, "Don't always do all the things that I should/ In the meantime, I just try to be good." The title track (RealAudio excerpt) is reminiscent of soul singer/songwriter Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." Other cuts feature Moog synthesizer noise that brings funkster Billy Preston to mind. There are also dance songs, such as "Powerhouse," and even a bossa nova cut. Of all these influences, Ramos-Nishita said, "My environment is really all of my vinyl recorded collection when I was a kid growing up. I stayed in my bedroom making my recordings. My influences range from the sink water running in the bathroom to ... [avant-garde classical composer] John Cage ... and then the pop thing. [I] listened to radio ... anything that had a speaker." Ramos-Nishita, who now lives in a desert home east of Los Angeles, said he hopes to expand his sonic horizons. "I would really like to travel around the whole world and not just this Northern Hemisphere ... some Second and Third World kinds of places, and hear the sounds of those cities [and] of the natural elements," he said. "I'm bored with the rest of the world's city sounds. They all kind-of sound the same to me." As for the Beastie Boys, Ramos-Nishita said, "[Our] collaboration ... is kind of vague. ... It's an ongoing thing, and we do get together -- whether we record or not -- and talk about music and other things, too, which to me is far more important than having a business relationship [in which you] have the pressure. When things do happen, they happen." |
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