I've been talking to Frankie "Bones," after his bangin' set at The Quest Club. Still drinking that Heineken, he talks about the famous PLUR speech... [part 1 of the interview is here]

Lunar: Do you remember the specific event when you gave your famous speech?

Frankie "Bones": Oh, yeah yeah. The PLUR thing came about, it was PLUM actually. Peace Love Unity Movement. And it was us living in a time in New York City where the black against white thing was really, really apparent. Like, it was there. It came out of the Palladium, which was in Manhattan in the area where all the kids go clubbing. And these bunch of homeboys started trying to talk to my girl at the time, as if she was a stripper. And I wasn't having it, and usually when you don't have it, you put your hands up and you throw, right? For me, that's too easy, to just fight, I'd rather battle you with words and what I did was just that, "Fellas, fellas, that's my girl. I'll tell you what, I'm given you this tape, right?. I want you to listen to it, and whenever you listen to it, yo, my phone number's on there, and, yo, just realize that you say whatever you want about my girl, man, but I'm not here for that. And in my mind, I'm going home with her and your not." Of course, they listened to the tape, and then they were part of the early rave scene, and they came to all the parties.

People liked strict hip-hop there was no such thing as ravers in 1990. And, I made, actually, a friendship out of something that started off, that, would have been... because the white kids in those days were really stupid. Because it was like, "Let's stop throwing up our arms and let's start throwing down." I think people do right by me, I do right by you. There's no color of skin. I mean there is... actually I'm the biggest racist I know, but I'm an equal opportunity racist. You give me love, I'll give you love back. Don't matter if you're Asian or Puerto Rican, but if you start being ethnically stupid, I'm going to throw slurs at you that are going to make me seem like I'm a racist.

Lunar: OK, man, mix tapes back in the day, I had your A Mid-Summer Night's Dream...

Frankie "Bones": Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah I have it still.

Lunar: Really, that's cool! That's one of the best fucking things I've ever heard!

Frankie "Bones": Yeah, that's why you can't bring back that era. You know, when you asked me how I select my sets, I have to tell ya, I was doing mix tapes, 3 or 4 tapes a week for like years. I was running a business out of the trunk of my car kind of like Bad Boy Bill. If I woulda been in Chicago doing what I was doing in New York, I couldn't imagine how much money I would have right now. Like, Bad Boy Bill must have... and it's not a money thing to me. Don't get me wrong; happiness to me is a positive cash flow. I'm like the Alaskan pipeline, money comes in and it goes right back out.

Lunar: Well, as far as making the mix tapes goes, the trading of them was very big back in the Southeast where I was from.

Frankie "Bones": Well, they definitely went around. Yeah, they went around.

Lunar: Well, what do you think of the modern-day equivalent with all of the file sharing programs?

Frankie "Bones": It's killed it, it's killed it. I'm so pissed off, but you know what, what's going to happen now, what's going to happen is because the Internet thing it's still relatively new; the trading on the Internet, the buying and selling. I've seen the nature of the business changing drastically. I know people that have been in the business 20 years that are going out of business because the market has changed. It's even changed for us, but the whole thing is I'm not going to play into the whole Internet thing. I'm not going to play into the whole... I'll let the time go by, and, people still want them old tapes so, eventually, I'm going to make them available again, but I'm still waiting.

I have people that want to do things, but I want to wait till you know, you know, you want to hit while the iron is hot, but I didn't plug it in yet. But when I plug the iron in, it'll get hot, and I'll just burn it.

Lunar: Techno's roots, man? Mainstream America, if you talk to them about it, you're going to get a mixed response. Detroit, East Coast, West coast...

Frankie "Bones": I won Best Club DJ of the Year in Detroit in 1999, and I have to say I love Detroit. I mean the people there, you know, all the pioneers there Derrick, Kevin and Juan. I love all them guys. But the whole thing was that they were so tight knit with what they were doing with their music. It's just because of... techno was created by their environment. You know, in the wake of the World Trade Center coming down in New York we're living in a different time and a different place. And my city is not what it was. It's like everybody talks about, post-September 11th. So Detroit went through the riots of '68 I think it was. And techno was devised out of the shittiness of their environment. Because you had to escape that, you had to escape it, but at the same time the rave scene came rolling along. These guys' records blew up. I mean, I didn't understand Derrick May until I went to England and went on a hit of ecstasy into a crowd of 17,000 to 18,000 people in an aircraft hangar and heard "Strings of Life." That was one of those pinnacles that I was talking about earlier. In an instant... cause I had a lot of Detroit records and did not understand it. I got "To the Beat"; that I understood cause it was a big record in New York. But, man, when I was in England and I felt that, Detroit changed my life. And I was determined to go back and change theirs. And I did actually, because being a rave DJ, they weren't taking me seriously. I was an out-of-towner. "How can he come into our city and try to do what we're doing?" I just went in there because I didn't play techno, I just played Frankie Bones! In my zone all my own. And I actually have the Detroit Metro Magazine that Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva won Best DJs from that area... Carl Craig won, you know, Lifetime Achievement, Godfather won for the Drum 'n Bass, booty, and stripper club. And I'm like damn, and I'm friends with all these guys and I've seen them in their own environments, and I love the whole... just, Detroit was raw. It's raw! Not the sound just the whole city itself and that there is that one railroad building that the trains used to run out of that's abandoned, it's like 14 or 15 stories and you can walk in and walk around in there. I love that, I love it.

Lunar: I'd like to read you a quote and get your reaction?

Frankie "Bones": I'm fine, keep going.

Lunar: It's a quote of Derrick May from a recent interview regarding the current state of dance music? [To read the interview with Derrick May by Sterling McGarvey click here]

Frankie "Bones": I'm not a big Sasha and Digweed fan, but what I'll tell you is this: I'm very close friends with Sandra Collins. I've known her for 10 years, where at one point I would have called her my sister, you know. It really, she got into Sasha and Digweed in '93, '94 and as time went on I would agree with Derrick in a lot of things he said. But at the same time if you put on Northern Exposure, the first one that they did, and there's not much mixing going on. Because Derrick at the same time— I laugh at Derrick May's skills as a DJ, because it doesn't represent what I know about Derrick May. And, to me he is just a guy that plays in Detroit. I mean, he is not seeing the big picture. I agree with the Paul Oakenfold statement. I agree that Derrick May is a Hell of a lot better DJ than any of those really, really big guys. You know, I think the problem with Detroit is that its always had its head stuffed up its ass so far that they've never seen the light of the real world outside of Detroit. And I'm with Derrick on the whole Sasha and Digweed, Paul Oakenfold thing. But, yo, the English people in England grew up in that, music for the masses. I don't think that they would go home and laugh at the music that they would play because they wouldn't be the people they are if they would laugh at the music they play. You know what I mean? There's certain people out there, [for example] a happy hardcore DJ... there's no way you can take that shit seriously. And I started off hardcore-tech, but I don't stay with it.

Since September 11th in New York, I've been through the best and worst parts of my life within minutes of each other on the same day. Going through, I'm almost like, I should go get on some Paxil or some Prozac or something cause the mood... it's not a mood swing, it's just the nature of ... being miserable, yet I'm happy because certain things that go on in my life. Back to the the Detroit guys, like I said, there's no one there as a DJ that has ever really blown me away. I have a big beef about Jeff Mills because Jeff Mills to me is a sloppy-ass techno DJ. He's full on, he's the man with it, but he's sloppy, sloppy. Listen to me, if you can scratch, then scratch. I had battle at MayDay, the needle came off the record, and bounced off the record. And the record was not playing, and Jeff didn't just put the needle back on and keep going. He did this (Frankie looks side to side while shrugging his shoulders, as if not knowing what to do), and looked around both ways to see who saw what he did, and I was the only one who saw that. And I lost every ounce of respect that I have for him because of that. If I did that, I'd just put the record back on and go (whistles la-di-da) and hope that no one saw it. And I lost a lot of respect for him.

But going back to the thing, Derrick May is part of the original. He is a very intelligent human being. And I think if you look at the rave scene, you find that it's petty and it's not on that level. I mean, everyone I know in Detroit is on a higher plateau, so they're going to look at people and make comments that they are not speaking for the world. I won't say things about Sasha and Digweed and Oakenfold without listening to their stuff. I don't like all of their CDs; I hate the music they play, but that's cause it's music for the masses.

Lunar: Do you think then that it is important to play music where you come from?

Frankie "Bones": Let me tell you what, I love Carl Craig like anybody else, but Carl Craig to me is like one of the most, most intelligent producers around you know. But at the same time Lenny Dee, who is hardcore gabber king from the East Coast, gets almost the same type of respect in a different respect. If people got into any type of genre they did it for a reason: because they liked it. And I'd like to know why some people got into certain things, and a lot of people have to not see how big this is now and get intimidated by it. Just roll with what you do and enjoy life while you can, you know. I listen to everybody, like I said, there's nobody out there that I... well, I can't hate anybody; I don't love anybody either. Laughing. I just want to be... find someone to love. Is there anything wrong with that?

Lunar: Sum up how 2001 was for you?

Frankie "Bones": Well, I used to be able to jump over buildings in a single bound, but now, I just cry. I really do, I cry. I witnessed things, and I was home in bed when that all went down. I didn't get up until noon that day, but the aftermath of that day and having to go into that city, like I said, I'm delivering records to my store the following Monday five days, six days later, and I was like happy that my business was only a mile away from where the World Trade Center stood and still in business and still functioning. Or going to try to function, but just to know that 2001 was probably the worst year of my life. And I'm not going to feel it until maybe five years down the line. Because it's not going to happen. I knew one person that died in that. I mean, overall, it was the best and worst. There's always a shining light at the end of the tunnel.

Lunar: What you have planned for 2002?

Frankie "Bones": Well, I used to say from 1995 on, it was maintaining what I was doing from that point. It just last year a lot of... well, I can't complain. I'm still here. Laughing. But, 2002, I'm just glad to be out of 2001. The only space odyssey that I know is the space left in the Manhattan skyline, and it's really depressing, really. But life goes on, man, and in 2002, just yo, I'm off to a good start. After tonight I'm raw; I'm rolling with it.

Lunar: I got two more questions for ya...

Frankie "Bones": I'm drunk now, man, so keep on goin'

Lunar: I saw the Moonshine interview with you, Keoki, and Micro riding in a limo in Las Vegas. You guys were reminiscing about the early scene in NYC, you were all friends from way back. So just for laughs, You, Micro, and Keoki get in a free for all, who wins and why?

Frankie "Bones": Sternly. Let me tell you about Micro, I mean, me and Micro. I lost a really close friend last year: Micro. In the sense of we were really close friends, and actually from Caffeine just yapping and on the Internet talking about me. I was like, "Man, I've known you for years, and we're friends, you shouldn't be doing what you're doing." In an instant, extreme made me cut... every person from Caffeine... just cut off. And you know what, its funny, I ran into Onionz and I said to Onionz,

"Have you spoken to Micro?"
He's like, "What, what the rock star?"
And I'm like, "What do you mean, man?"
"He don't call me back."

And I'm like, "How many years have we known this kid now." You know, I'm doing good with him doing his own thing now, he's doing good with what he's doing with his own crew. Beause I just saw a friendship dissolve. I would come out of there... I don't know, I shouldn't say that... I always got scared that if Keoki grabbed me in a headlock of the things that would go on. Laughing. I've never committed crimes to wind up in jail because I don't want to drop the soap, and I hate to see what would happen if he got me in a headlock. More laughing. And Micro, he's all pose, all pose. His whole thing... you know, I don't think that Micro goes home after his set and listens to the music he plays. Maybe Derrick May was right. We went on tour, and I loved that kid up until '99, and then 2000, but after that I don't know what happened to him, his brain just went...

Lunar: Give me five records that you list as your all-time personal favorites, your Desert Island Five?

Frankie "Bones": Well, it depends on who's with me on the island. Because I can play for women, I can play for ravers, I can play for...

Lunar: If you had to play for you, what you liked?

Frankie "Bones": Well, I mean, I like ice cream, but I won't choose pistachio over rocky road you know what I mean. Five records, I guess all around the record I started with tonight...

"I Miss Jimi" it's a Charlie Low Noise a gabber-hardcore record, but I slow it down. It's just a classic. The record is like almost 8 years old, and it just rocks them every time. Talking about big DJs, I'll put it this way: you put any big-time DJ up there, and I'll play records that are five years older and better and hold the crowd down as well as they did. But anyways, five records...

"Strings of Life", I have talked about Derrick May enough that I have to give him "Strings of Life." To me, that's that feeling in that warehouse, you know, I can't describe it. I can't. Because I had the record and it didn't do nothing for me.

Steve Poindexter, "Work that Motherfucker" cause it's just so stupid of a record. Just work that motherfucker over and over. It's such a... where would DJ Funk and that whole ghetto thing be without that record?

At the same time, I have to say DJ Funk "Run", I love that record. Its ghetto: it's techno with a ghetto twist. I don't know, you won't hear no Daft Punk in this top five.

"Violet Skies" which is an old rave record from 1992 by this group call Fantasia and that's it.

I'm sad to say that the interview ended when we realized Frankie's plane left in three hours and The Quest Club security knocked on the door. They were ready to go home since all the equipment had been broken down and the club had been cleaned. Many thanks are owed to Stacey Eisenberg at East Music Group and the Sonic Groove family, without which, this interview would not have been possible. Also, thank you to Rich and J.T. of Sound in Motion and Suzy at The Quest Club.

Sonic Groove: Defined
Mixed by Frankie Bones With Adam X. & Heather Heart
Track Listing:

1. System V.01 - Force Legato
2. Sexuality - Blake Baxter
3. Powerbass - Kevin Sauderson
4. Space Cake - Marduk
5. Broken Windows - Adam X
6. All The Way Home - Frankie Bones
7. After It's Done - Reade Truth
8. Lazed In U - Miss Dinky
9. Deggman - Polaris
10. Do it Again - Chris Jackson
11. Shock Tone - Reade Truth
12. Snapped - Adam X
13. Warhead - Distorted Waves Of Ohm
14. Punchbag - Justin Berkovi
15. Advertising - Polaris
16. Parameter - Directional Force
17. Blizzard - X-Heart
18. Tonka - Casey Hogan
19. Come Out To Play - Frankie Bones
20. Audio Imagery Pt. 2 - Adam X
21. Stupid - Abe Duque