Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock and Mike D reunited yesterday (Aug. 6) for an interview with Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 radio show. With the 26th anniversary of their album, Paul’s Boutique, just behind them and the annual MCA Day -- a New York holiday celebrating their late bandmate Adam Yauch -- this weekend, the former Beastie Boys discussed the band’s history at the time of their sophomore effort.

During the conversation, Ad-Rock and Mike D addressed their decision to switch from Def Jam to Capitol Records for Paul’s Boutique.

“We weren’t about to repeat ourselves,” Mike D said. “That wasn’t where our heads were at … We were at a place where we needed to take a break and make something totally new, and Def Jam wasn’t really feeling that, so things got a little funny.”

The band also discussed taking their own press photos at the time in an effort to avoid the strangeness of publicity that many young bands fall victim to -- including One Direction.

“When you’re a band and you just get big, you have to take thousands of photos,” Ad-Rock said. “We were so burnt out with European photographers with 20 assistants telling us to stand on our heads while pouring a beer upside down. We were over that. And you have bands like New Edition, no wait not New Edition… the current New Kids on the Block. What are they called? One Direction.”

Mike D made sure to take a dig at Lowe and the English boy band’s chart position. “Let’s get into that Zane,” he said, “number one on Beats 1 is One Direction? I’m sure they’re really nice guys, but really?”

“You see pictures of these bands and they’re just hating being there,” Ad-Rock added. “They’re tired and they got pimples. So [we] decided not to do those pictures anymore.”

Listen to the entire interview at this location.

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