oscilloscope-labs

Beastie Boys' NYC studio Oscilloscope Labs is now part of NYU's recorded music program

Beastie Boys at work in Oscilloscope Labs (via Oscilloscope)
oscilloscope-labs

The Beastie Boys‘ NYC studio, Oscilloscope Labs is going to be used a portion of the year as a learning center, part of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The studio was built in 2002 by the late Adam Yauch, Matt Marinelli and Mark Edwards. The Beasties made To the 5 Boroughs and Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 there, and it’s also been used by Phoenix, Metric, Jon Spencer and others.

Beasties manager John Silva contacted NYU program chair Jeff Rabhan who told The Village Voice, “We went over there and looked at it, and you could feel the energy of the space. It’s like, ‘Holy shit.’ It’s an unbelievable room that screams Beasties. Instantly we were like, ‘We’d love to do it.’ ” Oscilliscope is currently open to students in the program 30 days per semester. More from the Voice story:

“To them, it’s like, ‘Let me get my hands on the Beasties’ studio,’ ” he says. “There’s no trepidation on the part of students to get in there and start playing with the gear. They’ve been beating each other up to get on the sign-up sheet.”

‘There’s no trepidation on the part of students to get in there and start playing with the gear. They’ve been beating each other up to get on the sign-up sheet.’
Keeping the studio afloat was the endgame, but there’s also a full-circle quality to giving students access to the Oscilloscope space. In their infancy, long before they became MTV darlings and generational spokesmen, the Beastie Boys were just another group of teenage kids trying their hand at punk rock and hardcore. It was Dave Parsons, then owner of Rat Cage Records, who gave the trio their first ingress to recording, and the rest is history. For Dechen, there’s comfort in knowing that Oscilloscope now has the potential to offer the same kind of support to younger musicians.

“It would be great if Oscilloscope could do something similar for young bands,” she said. “This partnership seems like a meaningful step in that direction.”

Oscilloscope is now one of four recording studios associated with NYU.