NELESS
SENIOR BENCH
The Boneless Ones members (from left) Luke Skeels, Troy Takaki and Max Fox; not pictured, Tim Stilleto
Emerging from a steadfast East
Bay skate scene, a true skate, rock,
and roll band, known as the
Boneless Ones, are making head-
way in the music business. The
band members are Max Fox, 19,
vocals and belching; Luke Skeels,
23, guitar and odd sounds; Troy
Takaki, 19, bass; and Tim Stilleto,
23, on drums. These four guys live
for the energy that only music and
skating can provide. For the fun,
love and addiction of skate music,
the Boneless Ones share some
words of their circumstances.
Interview and photos
by Bryce Kanights
66
First of all, how did the Boneless
Ones come about?
Max: The band came from an idea.
It consisted of a picture in a magazine
in which Joel Chavez appeared do-
ing a boneless one over some friends
and myself.
Troy: It was a magazine published in
Berkeley that uses a different name
with each issue. It has been around
for about five years.
Max: I remember some chick came
up to me at a show and asked,
"Aren't you in the Boneless Ones?"
I was dumbfounded but responded
accordingly, "Uh, yeah, oh, yeah, I'm
in the band." This was before our
band really even gigged. Soon after
that we played a joke show with Dave
Chavez (Verbal Abuse & ex-Code of
•NES
CALIFORNIA
LACROSS
Honor) who was playing bass for us.
Luke: And boy did Dave laugh.
Max: It was just a joke show, but then
when you think about it, it's funny
how far things can go.
Luke: I wasn't in the band then.
Tim: Neither was 1.
Luke: We're the new wing so to
speak.
Max: A hell of a lot of people and
non-skaters say. "No way, a boneless
one is a skateboard trick?" We'll res
pond with, "What the hell do you
think it was, since you've seen us
play for the last year?"
Troy: The original idea for the band
was to have Joel Chavez sing for the
band.
Luke: Max was to play bass, he rips
the riffs. He knows four chords.
THE BONELESS ONES
Max: I know four strings
The name of the band is definitely
skate-related. Does the entire band
actually skate?
All: Of course!
Tim: I can get down the street.
Max: I've been skating since I was
eleven; I probably had the first ramp
in Berkeley.
Luke: I've skated since I first saw
Tommy Guerrero as a little spud
skating with the Alotaflex team at
Alameda Skatepark.
Max: I beat Tommy in a contest and
he cried.
Do you guys have a favorite local
skate spot?
Troy: Joel's ramp in Richmond, Ca.
His ramp is connected to his house
which makes it rad for windowsill
grinds.
Max: The freestyle area at Del Mar
Skateranch. I could just live there and
be happy with that as far as skating
is concerned.
Luke: Milpitas Skatepark was the
best ever-every part of the park was
shredable there. Although nowadays
I skate the Blood Bowl.
Troy: My favorite spot was Alcatel. It
was a closed down miniature golf
course in Berkeley that hosted many
sessions, parties and contests. That
place was the best.
Luke: I won a contest there and won
$5.12.
Max: We used to give away the
coolest prizes. The various items in-
cluded pizzas, elephant wrenches,
tube socks, cases of beer, etc.
Troy: I remember at one contest
there were prizes to 19th place.
Max: We gave out rocks, shoe horns
and bags of garbage. The con-
testants loved it. It feels good to
receive something when you've
skated hard and slammed.
Troy: I got seventh place and won a
Batman boomerang.
Who are your favorite bands/
musical influences?
Luke: I like Exodus, Free Beer was
a really hot band. Ozzy Ozbourne is
cool.
Tim: Motley Crue, Led Zepplin and
the Mahuviesha Orchestra.
Troy: Cindy Lauper and Verbal
Abuse.
Max: I like Orb's band, the Vague
Grants. Actually J.F.A. is cool, but I
don't understand the company/pro-
duct thing they're doing.
Luke: Promoting skate music is cool,
though, like the Ramp Aid show that
Troy put together.
What was the "Ramp Aid" show all
about?
Troy: It was a benefit show that I ar-
ranged at the On Broadway to raise
money for the H.P. ramp in San Fran-
cisco. Five local bay area bands
played that night, there was a good
turn out and everyone had a good
time. We raised enough money to
resurface the entire ramp with
plywood and masonite.
You guys have an album that came
out in June called "Skate For The
Devil." Tell me about that.
Luke: It's a party album, dude.
Max: It's a mockery of a heavy metal
band. It was produced by Tom Flynn
and is on Boner Records in the US.
Luke: The European label is Bunker
Records. We're fortunate to have a
cool dude like Tom Flynn behind us.
He's done a lot for the band.
Max: The cover concept was pretty
much my idea, although the entire
band contributed. At first we were go-
ing to have a skater connected to
puppet strings with the devil in con-
trol behind him. We had a bunch of
artists who showed us various ideas
and sketches. None of them were
quite agreeable among the band.
Kent Mathieu came up with the art-
work that appears on the album. He
is a ripping artist.
Troy: The original idea for "Skate For
The Devil" came about at Derby Park
in Santa Cruz. It was really hot that
day. I saw this heavy metal looking
dude skating among the locals with
a leather jacket on in the unbearable
heat. On the bottom of his board he
had written "Skate For The Devil." It
was one of the most hilarious things.
that I have seen, so I wrote a song
about that fool and we decided that
the song would be the title track for
our album.
Are there any plans in the near
future for the band as far as record-
ing is concerned?
Troy: We're planning to record more
songs on a demo tape to provide
various record companies with.
Max: We're looking for a larger
record label.
Luke: Being on an underground
label is fine as long as you are pro-
moted and distributed well.
Max: We just plan to skate, play
music, and have fun doing it, like
always.
You guys just came back from a
tour of the U.S. Where did you go?
What were the highpoints?
Troy: We drove down to Los Angeles
then through Arizona and Texas.
From there we drove through the
Midwest to Chicago, then over to
Vancouver, down through Oregon
and back to the Bay Area. All of the
skaters we met during our trip were
really cool and showed us their local
skate spots. There weren't many up-
tight skaters with head trips.
Max: At every town we stayed and
played we would pull up to a phone,
call 411 and ask for skateboards. We
would find the local skateshop, talk
to the skaters who happened to be
hanging out, and skate their skate
spots or ramps. Most of the skaters
we met were way cool to us.
Troy: John Sills, who is a raging
skater in Tucson, Arizona, was a
prime example of this. He took us to
hoards of ramps and ditches during
our three day stay.
Max: We never ran into a situation
where someone would deny us
skating their ramp or local skate spot.
A lot of skaters in California have
head-trips about that kind of stuff.
You know, they say things like, "I
have a 24 foot wide ramp with pool
coping, but you can't skate it."
Do you uphold a certain attitude as
a band?
Troy: Not really. We just play good
rock music. It has a drive to it that is
fast-paced. It's kind of a parody of
heavy metal I guess.
Max: We're playing what we make
fun of. It's a blast. There's no attitude
to uphold as far as I can see. We're
not in it for the glory. We played a
show with D.R.I. in Chicago to a
packed house of metallers. There
was a whole front line of head-1
bangers during our set. I was sing-
ing and running around with Silly
String and spraying it in their
feathered haircuts. I was pissing
them off bad. I was threatened, they
flipped me off and resumed head-
banging. It was total comedy.
Luke: We just play to have fun. You
gotta have a sense of humor to en-
joy it. Otherwise you'll get too serious
and get bummed out all of the time.
It's just like skating, be serious about
having fun.
Share some closing comments.
Max: Demonic worship is ques-
tionable. Send checks and money
orders. I'd like to thank the people.
who helped us on our tour.
Luke: No thanks to the people in
Cincinatti who are too lame to name.
Special thanks to John Sills in
Tucson.
Tim: I'd like to thank my mother for
making this all possible.
Luke: Corned beef is good. We ate
it on our tour for many days.
Troy: No way. Top Ramen, dude.
There's no substitute.
Max: Skate like there's no tomorrow.
Seek, skate and manipulate-
Max shows how it's done.