His credentials read like this: three DMC championships, founding member of top turntablist crew the Invisibl Skratch Piklz and “resident” DJ for the Beastie Boys. Not bad for a San Francisco native who got his start 15 years ago mixing on a couple of old tape decks. Mixmaster Mike, (aka Serial Wax Killer) has risen from house party DJ to one of the premier scratch DJs and turntablists in the world.

Since teaming up with the Beastie Boys on their Hello Nasty album in 1998, Mike has been catapulted into the big leagues. Certainly, few Beastie fans can forget his grand arena-rock moment as he cut up Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” for thousands each night. The exposure that comes with working with such legends as the Beasties, and more recently Rob Zombie, has helped Mike to open people’s eyes and ears to what is possible on a turntable. With the release of his first mixed studio album, Spin Psycle (Moonshine), Mike racks up another first for his already lengthy resume. DJ Times recently caught up with the Mixmaster himself to chat about his new album and the further rise of turntablism.

DJ Times: What gear did you use to record Spin Psycle?

Mixmaster Mike: First, I gathered up all the records—they were all on vinyl. I just used two turntables and a mixer—the Vestax PDX 2000 turntables and a Vestax PMC-07PRO. To record I used a TASCAM DA-38 digital recorder. Then for the EQ and stuff I used the Mackie 32 mixing board and a PreSonus compressor. And that’s it. I wanted to make an hour live mix tape, so what I did was hit the record button and just went on for a full hour, all the songs all the way through. I basically mixed it on two turntables live. I went back on a few things to touch up a couple of scratches, but basically the whole thing was made in one take.

DJ Times: In what ways do you think turntablism is growing in the public consciousness?

Mike: The turntable is like the electric guitar when it first came out. Now that we’re in the year 2001, it’s the new futuristic instrument of choice. I even see the turntable outselling the electric guitar. It’s now become the essential instrument for kids to get to apply their musical outlooks on things. Plus, turntablism is a universal art within itself and can be applied to any kind of music: to jazz, to blues, to rock, and even to country. It can be applied to anything. If you get records consisting of just violin playing or drum playing or just guitar playing, you can actually grab those sounds and replay them yourself using incorporated scratch techniques. We even put out these records—they’re called Dirt Style instrumental records—with just sound effects and the sounds by themselves. We laid out a blueprint so kids can pick it up and move the record back and forth in their own way.

DJ Times: Did you realize that your time out with the Beastie Boys was the first time a lot of people got to see a DJ cut it up like you did?

Mike: I think so. Ever since Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” with Grandmixer DST, I feel like it’s something that’s reinventing the whole art live instead of using DAT machines. So being with the Beasties has really allowed me to show people, like the kids in Holland and Germany, what turntables can do. They allowed me to take this art worldwide, that and the battle aspect way in the day with the DMC titles. It kind of spawned this whole turntable craze. The Beasties already have an astonishing fan base consisting of millions and millions of kids and I kind of took advantage of that situation. I took on their fan base and showed them what was up, kind of like bridging the gap between the underground band and the commercial band that wasn’t hip to what was going on with hip hop.

DJ Times: Now that you’ve become more popular how has your show changed?

Mike: Working with the Beasties has really expanded my fan base. More like quadrupled it. Everything is just like big, but sometimes I do smaller clubs. I like doing that ’cause it’s more intimate, but you get into those bigger venues and it’s pretty fun. It’s pretty hectic, but it’s hard to get that feel. It’s so huge that it’s like you can’t work the crowd as much. I like the more intimate venues, but it’s a rush to play the big venues.