Money Mark serves as the performing name for keyboardist Mark Ramos-Nishita, whose retro-tinged, groove-heavy playing earned him an informal reputation as an extra member of the Beastie Boys. Born in Detroit to a father of Japanese-Hawaiian descent and a Chicano mother, Nishita relocated to the West Coast at the age of six. Years afterward he connected with the Dust Brothers and began contributing additional keyboard parts for releases on the Delicious Vinyl imprint. At the time employed as a handyman, he took on a repair assignment at the Beastie Boys’ residence in Silverlake, California; the encounter quickly integrated him into the group’s Grand Royal circle, where he played on both Check Your Head in 1992 and Ill Communication in 1994.
His first solo effort, Mark’s Keyboard Repair, was tracked in his own studio and issued in 1995 by the Los Angeles label Love Kit as a limited edition of three 10-inch discs filled with loose, vibrant organ sketches captured on older instruments. The modest run sold through immediately, yet one copy reached the United Kingdom and the desk of Mo’Wax founder James Lavelle, prompting Lavelle to fly to Los Angeles for a meeting. An agreement followed, and the largely instrumental album was re-released on Mo’Wax before the end of 1995. Two further projects appeared next: the vocal-leaning Push the Button in 1998 and the purely instrumental Change Is Coming in 2001. In 2007 a mutual connection to Jack Johnson, arranged through longtime Beastie Boys producer Mario Caldato, Jr., secured Nishita a deal with Johnson’s Brushfire imprint, resulting in the pop-oriented Brand New by Tomorrow.
