The Mix 060: DJ Bone

Next month, Detroit techno veteran DJ Bone will release a six-pronged project spanning different facets of his 30-year career, all in one day. It’s a celebration of his life’s work so far – from the record label that he built and nurtured in Detroit back in 1995, Subject Detroit, to a series of club nights that he runs in his adopted home in Amsterdam, FURTHER. The six-part release, each of which is set to land on June 1, includes a full-length album, a compilation record, separate releases from Yeti Mind Tricks, Azucy and Serge Jansen on his FURTHER imprint, and a debut single under his Doc Ciroc alias – a home for less techno-leant offerings, with a focus on house, disco, and “in-your-face” dance music.

Since his story began in Detroit in the mid-’90s, DJ Bone has always maintained his independence, straying from the pull of commercial clubs, parties, and labels. Today, five years after the discontinuation of his legendary Subject Detroit label, where he released more than 40 of his own projects over 25 years, he’s still holding true to that autonomy. A recent US tour saw him repay his love to the underground, hosting parties at grassroots venues and unexpected spaces across North America, while his own FURTHER club nights hosted in Amsterdam celebrate the scene he’s become an integral part of.

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“Being independent is super important for me. It allows me to flow and create freely, without borders or limitations, without a lot of the politics that unfortunately go into the music business,” he explains. “I don't need accolades or co-signs from a club, event, or festival. I'm me. I've been here, and I'll probably still be here when they're gone. That's just how I work my shit. I'm not competing with anybody but myself, on a daily basis.”

To celebrate the launch of his forthcoming six-part project, DJ Bone delivers a new mix debuting five new exclusive tracks and goes deep on Detroit techno legacy, working under his Doc Ciroc alias, and why he's stuck by his independence after 30 years in the game. Check it out below.

Your recent US tour took you to some pretty unexpected places, from partying in a Chinese restaurant to an underground club in Hawaii. How was that experience? You said it originally started as a small string of gigs before it became a full-scale tour, right?

The US tour was amazing. It started off with just three or four dates, and we ended up with a huge response. They were really quality underground gigs. The whole point of the tour was to try and help the underground scene and promoters across the US to survive. With all these corporations buying everything up, it's tough now for underground promoters, so I wanted to do my part, to represent and to just bring that vibe, so people know that it doesn't all have to be big parties and expensive line-ups.

Washington DC in a Chinese food restaurant on the second floor, that was an amazing venue with great promoters and a great crew. I really enjoyed Portland, too – we had a line around the block before I even arrived at the venue. Salt Lake City was off the hook with a ton of people, it was really special. And who would have thought they have a good techno scene in Hawaii? I met some really special people during this tour, and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of your FURTHER club nights in Amsterdam. How did they start, and what was the vision behind it? Any favourite moments from FURTHER over the years?

FURTHER started off as a sit-down, early evening event. At the time, Amsterdam was on a serious lockdown due to COVID restrictions, and people were feeling down. Everyone wanted to be out and about, so we came up with this idea and approached a local club here, RADION, and asked them if they would host it. They were so gracious, they accepted and went above and beyond in helping to set it up. It was socially distanced at first, everyone was sitting down, and it was in the main room, which on a regular club night, could hold about 750 to 800 people, but with the COVID restrictions, we could only fit about 80 people. It sold out, so we started doing two shows a night.

I was up on stage, sat down behind the decks, and I would start with a topic. Then I’d choose maybe 15 to 18 songs on topic, play each song and talk on the microphone about what it meant to me, to the city of Detroit, certain aspects that are special about it, and there'd be a video that would play behind me to go along with the track. That was the first part of the show, and in the second part, I’d play a mix on the topic. I had topics like Chicago house, broken beats – which included drum ‘n’ bass and electro – booty, ghettotech, Prince, disco, Underground Resistance, UK techno. This ran for 19 weeks, and it was super successful.

After the lockdown ended, RADION asked if I wanted to do a FURTHER club night. We do that four times a year now – New Year's Eve, King's Night here in Amsterdam, FURTHER’s anniversary, and we also do our Homeless Homies shows, which is a fundraiser event during ADE where all the funds we raise go to a homeless shelter here in Amsterdam, and also in Detroit.

FURTHER turning five is very special, and we're gonna really blow it out this year and actually take it on the road to bring that vibe to venues in other cities. It's about the old skool vibe, but with a new attitude. For everybody who pays to come, for every artist that comes to play, it's gotta be special from beginning to end. That's how we programme it, that's how we book it, that's how we run it.

We've had some special ones, like mine and Goldie’s back-to-back show, or when we had Laurent Garnier play with us a second time. We also had a special show with Ben Sims, we played back-to-back under our house and disco aliases Doc Ciroc and Ron Bacardi, followed by a main room B2B set playing techno. That line-up was heavy – Kenny Larkin, Marshall Jefferson and Nastia also played. It's almost a mini-festival in a club today. We've had some great line-ups with artists like Moodymann, Stingray, and Detroit In Effect, all in the space of five years! We're ready for another 20.

You’re releasing six projects in one day next month, including a new full-length album. Why did you decide to release these projects together on the same day?

To celebrate five years of FURTHER, we're doing six releases at once with my label Subject Detroit, which is now dormant. I stopped Subject Detroit a few years ago, but it’s been 30 years since it was launched. Detroit music has affected the world, and I need to reflect that with the music I make and release. When Subject Detroit was running, we did 10 all-vinyl releases and released them all at once. People thought we were crazy, they said nobody would order them, and that no distributors would order 10 releases from the same label. At first, they would order in two or three, but after a week, they’d order the others. I like to be unconventional – I like to go against the grain. I like to do what people think is impossible, but it's really not. It's just being brave, it's about being yourself and believing in what you do and what you release. These are six hot releases.

We’ve got releases from Yeti Mind Tricks and Azucy, who is one of my mentees and a protégé that we've been helping in the techno scene, and a surprise album from me. We’ve also got my premiere of Doc Ciroc, my first track under the alias, and we're gonna start the first release of remixes to honour Subject Detroit with killer reworks from Mark Broom, Vinicius Honorio, Marco Bailey, Jack Fresia, Azucy, Tälor, and more.

It's gonna be really monumental for me – I didn't want to stagger them, I just wanted them all out at once. The way I see it, I'm not big on release dates. If it's out there, eventually, people will gravitate towards it. The focus for me isn't on when I release, it's just about making sure that it's as timeless as possible, so that when somebody stumbles upon it, it won't sound old. That's the key: timeless music never dies. If you can keep that in mind when you're creating, you never have to worry about having a time stamp on your tracks where people will play them for two weeks before forgetting about them. I want people to play this for years and years to come, and that's what has happened with Subject Detroit releases, and I’m looking forward to the same happening with FURTHER.

Under your Doc Ciroc alias, you’re releasing a new single titled ‘Living Life’ on the same day. How do you separate those monikers, and what do you hope for the future of your Doc Ciroc alias? Or is it just an outlet to have fun?

It's another side of me, because I've always loved house and disco music. I chose the Doc Ciroc name because I needed a new moniker, and Ben Sims, who had his own alias as Ron Bacardi, suggested I use a different name for a back-to-back we were playing. I was like, ‘Okay, I drink Ciroc, so I'll run with Doc Ciroc’. I looked up the meaning of Ciroc, and I saw that it actually meant ‘more’, so it fits perfectly.

It's a whole different side to my sound, and it's meant to be fun but also super serious when it comes to the dancefloor – serious grooves to make people dance. That's the goal: no sleepy, laid-back house. This is in-your-face, for-the-dancefloor house music. I have a bunch of ideas, and a bunch of people I'm hoping to work with. It's gonna be a very exciting project for me, to step outside of my normal DJ Bone area and make some quality house music. It's good for my soul!

You’re also dropping a new compilation album celebrating 30 years of your Subject Detroit label – how did you go about selecting the artists to take part in that project?

I wanted to make sure that there were people who appreciated Subject Detroit first off, and who are really good at production. People I admire, from artists whose tracks I play and DJ sets I listen to. When we got Mark Williams, Marco Bailey, Vinicius Honorio, and Mark Broom on board, we knew it was gonna be really special. This is just the first compilation, and there are so many people in the wings who are gonna be remixing other tracks, so I’m very excited. The wheels are in motion, so it’s just a matter of time before the second, third and fourth. I can’t wait – I’m lucky to have some cool peers who are willing to do remixes. It's basically a matter of talent, skill, respect, and love for techno. That's what goes into choosing who does these remixes.

You’ve always prided yourself on being independent. Why is that important for you?

Being independent is super important for me. It allows me to flow and create freely, without borders or limitations, without a lot of the politics that unfortunately go into the music business.

I'm very honoured and blessed to be in a position to be independent. It took a long time, and it took a lot of hard work and dedication, a lot of sleepless nights, packing up orders, making tracks, doing attack mixes, you name it. But it's a DIY thing for me, and that's how I feel art should be. Music, paintings, sculpture – it shouldn't be overshadowed by the music business or the politics of business. Of course, music is political, but the politics of business in music are overwhelming the creativity right now – the hunger for fame and fortune is outweighing the quality of events. You might get an event with 20,000 or 30,000 people – but is it quality? You're paying a ton of money to go to this, and you should get your money's worth in sound, not just performances from people waving their hands and dancing around. You should be able to go into an event with your eyes closed and feel like you got your money's worth, and be wowed just by what you hear. That's what music is for. We're here to facilitate that.

We're not supposed to be, first and foremost, entertaining with theatrics. That's people's prerogative, but if the music isn’t as frontal as the performance, something's wrong. If a track is good, people are going to dance, they're going to feel it. You shouldn't have to convince people that the track is good – you should have quality tracks that you're playing. Being independent allows me to do that. It allows me to play certain events and refuse others. It allows me to release six records at once if I want to. Our US tour skipped major clubs, only going to underground venues, and we even turned down a lot of big European clubs – they act like it's an honour for me to play there, but realistically, they're making tons of money and don't want to pay anybody. That's not good business for me – I don't need accolades or co-signs from a club, event, or festival. I'm me. I've been here, and I'll probably still be here when they're gone. That's just how I work my shit.

Independence is great. I talk to so many DJs who are afraid to take a break because they think they'll lose momentum and be forgotten, and that's sad. If you think you're timeless, people will never forget about you. You should be able to disappear for two years, and people will still ask for you, and when you come back, you'll be busy again because you're you. That's how I feel – I'm me. I'm not competing with anybody but myself on a daily basis. So get that independent streak, and you can have longevity.

Since you came onto the scene surrounded by pioneering Detroit techno talent, how do you feel about the state of techno today, and how does the scene differ over in Amsterdam, where you’re now based?

I was very lucky to come up when I did in Detroit. I grew up there, lived my whole life there until my late twenties, and then moved away. It was in the city, not the greater Detroit area, not the suburbs, the city of Detroit. I still have the 313 area code on my phone. Coming up around that time was special, because I discovered that this thing existed and that it was from my hometown. I went to some parties and heard these tracks, and I didn’t know they were from Detroit. I heard it on the radio, people like Mojo playing ‘Cosmic Cars’ and ‘Alleys of Your Mind’. It blew my mind when I found out they were from my hometown.

I’m very blessed to have heard, seen, watched and experienced some of the best that techno has ever had to offer. I’ve watched history, and I’ve participated in some of it. I never consider myself any certain wave because I’ve always been solo and independent, not really down with a clique, but my timing, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I witnessed some amazing shit, and to this day, I still hold it in high regard. That’s why I do the FURTHER nights – the feeling that I got back then, I want others to experience that.

The scene in Amsterdam right now is strong. It’s always been strong and vital. But with so many events, so many club nights, so many festivals – especially in the Netherlands and Belgium – where’s the vibe? You need the whole experience. I think that’s what the scene is lacking in a lot of ways right now. It’s either the OGs and the old school cats who are really bringing it, like when you go hear Leron Carson play – It’s an education. The same goes when you hear younger people now, like I’ll go to New York and hear AceMoMA or Kush Jones, or in London, where there’s these all-Black collectives just laying it down – they know their history. They know where this music comes from, and they’re resonating and letting people hear that, and that’s a vibe. I had some good talks with these young people, and I think the scene is going to be in really capable hands. The roots are going to be protected, and they’re going to be shared. That’s super important. But that’s where I think the scene needs to evolve, to be a historical place, but also pushing things forward. Newer songs, younger people and all-age crowds. Diverse crowds and diverse line-ups, not just for the sake of having diversity, but quality – that’s the mission. I hope that more and more clubs and festivals, especially can figure it out without having to copy everyone else. Create your vibe and have your own thing, I think that’s key for the scene to flourish.

What have you got coming up next?

We have a new booking agency kicking off. It's about taking back control, as I’ve said, the independent streak in me runs strong. I need people who understand me, what I do, and how I want to do it. Me and my wife are going to kick off the FURTHER Agency, she used to do my bookings back in the day, and now we have some help. We’ve got a great crew, like our Amsterdam family, our ‘Amster-fam’, who will be running the agency alongside my wife. We have amazing talent on the roster and are trying to get more young people in as well. I want to break some new talent, which is important.

The Doc Ciroc alias is going to continue. I've been recording a ton of music this year, so there will be a lot of releases coming. I have my DJ Bone Goes FURTHER channel on Apple Music, I'm the first true underground artist to have my own channel on there. We've got mixes from all over, from a bunch of people, hot, quality mixes, the vibe is there.

I also have some radio shows I’m going to start up that I’m really excited about, including a couple of residencies. One will be structured almost like our original sit-down FURTHER nights, with a lesson followed by a mix. The other show will be a straight-up mix, just me banging it out. We’ve also got our FURTHER t-shirts coming, and we’re going to do some retro Subject Detroit tees because people have been asking for them.

There’s a lot more to come, but I’m not just going to burn myself out trying to do it all at once. So keep your eyes peeled, I’m very excited.

Can you tell us about your Mixmag Mix?

For this mix, I actually did something really special. I’m premiering the remixes from the Subject Detroit compilation, and I’ve also created five new tracks specifically to play in this mix. There are a couple of other tracks from some amazingly talented artists in there as well. The focus is an uptempo, danceable, but super funky techno mix – not sleepy, not slow – just Detroit style. That’s what I love to do. It’s got to be funky, but it has to have that pace and danceability. I can’t wait for everybody to check it out. Thanks Mixmag, DJ Bone out. Keep deep.

All six new releases from DJ Bone are due to land on June 1. Find out more here.

Tracklist:

1. DJ Bone - Critical
2.⁠ ⁠DJ Bone - Unreleased
3.⁠ ⁠DJ Bone - The End of Never
4.⁠ Yeti Mind Tricks - ⁠Around The Way
5.⁠ ⁠DJ Bone - Thursday Night (Vinicius Honorio Rework)
6.⁠ ⁠DJ Bone - Body Bags (Tälor’s Tribal Remix)
7.⁠ David Bau - ⁠Father Fader
8.⁠ ⁠Electric Rescue - Control Your Mind
9.⁠ ⁠Ackermann & Vinicius Honorio - X9
10.⁠ DJ Bone - ⁠Unreleased
11.⁠ ⁠Yeti Mind Tricks - Wannabe Gangsters
12.⁠ ⁠Neo - You Silly Goose
13.⁠ DJ Bone - ⁠Unreleased
14.⁠ ⁠DJ Bone - Wardance (Marco Bailey Remixto)
15.⁠ ⁠DJ Bone - It’s Over (DJ Bone Rework)
16.⁠ ⁠No More Heroes (Mark Broom Mix)
17.⁠ ⁠DJ Bone - Unreleased
18.⁠ ⁠Doc Ciroc - Living Life