SFBG: So I take it you used to do graffiti.

Primo: Yeah, I was around right after Barry McGee started getting really big. He’s the dude who used to do all those characters, The TWIST characters. You know, like the sad simple characters?

SFBG: Oh yeah, but now he does those weird intricate patterns, right?

Primo: Yeah, he and my friend Chris used to hang out, so they influenced me a lot. And also TIE.

SFBG: Oh he was the dude who died, right?

Primo: Yeah, he died, but that kid was a real case. He stole everything he ever owned and got kicked out of his house at 17 for writing. His style was like, just, this crazy street bombing. There was something inherently beautiful about it, but also really angry and shitty. He would just throw up these huge things that would dominate walls. But he always did it in such a way that it was cool to look at. Sometimes you look at shit like that and it’s like “Ew, that’s a lot of graffiti.” But his shit always managed to straddle art and sheer vandalism in a way other people couldn’t. And he was always doing weird things like throwing ice cream sandwiches through Barry McGee’s window.

SFBG: What do you think about some of the people you see around now, like Neckface and that Ribbity guy?

Primo: I don’t like Ribbity; I think his shit’s annoying. Neckface is all right though. I mean it’s fairly derivative, but it does stick out. His shit is good. I mean it’s totally like right now. He’s actually sort of similar to TIE. I mean you see Neckface before you read it.

SFBG: So do you still write?
Primo: Well, not so much anymore, but I went out last night. I’m sort of just like fooling around these days, though.

SFBG: How long did you do it as a serious thing?
Primo: Well, I moved down here from Arcadia for graffiti in 1997. So I did it from then until 2002.

SFBG: Wow, that’s a long time.
Primo: I did that for years, but then I got really into music.

SFBG: How did that come about?
Primo: I was living in the Tenderloin, in a studio apartment, with two other dudes. I mean one dude was in the closet, the other guy was in the kitchen, and I slept on the floor for like a year. We were just drunk and doing speed all the time. There used to be a huge speed scene around here. But anyway, yeah I was living there, and not really doing anything, when my friend, another graffiti guy, played me this song that just set it off for me.

SFBG: What was the song?
Primo: He was a mod, so he played me My Baby Likes to Boogaloo by Don Gardner and it was this immediate, powerful, fucking tough song. It was tough like a garage record, but it had those soul vocals. I was dabbling in disco punk stuff at the time, but when I heard that, I was like, Fuck, I wanna Deejay this. So I just started buying lots of records and took it from there.

SFBG: Were you immediately successful?
Primo: No way man. I met this dude named Steve and he was into the same shit, like The Marvolettes and stuff. So we hooked up and tried to start a DJ night at the Attic, but we’d always be playing to like four dudes. Plus we were on a lot of drugs, so it wasn’t really working out. I was just, like living in a ghetto speed freak hotel, working at North Beach Pizza, and doing nothing. I was barely even holding on to my day job because of the drugs. But then I kinda cleaned up so I started focusing on Deejaying.

SFBG: Was it the same kind of stuff, like soul?
Primo: Yeah I did soul, but I wanted to branch out and spin other stuff too, like R&B and Doo-Wop and shit, because you could hear soul at mod events, but that other stuff wasn’t around much. I wanted to mix it up. I mean I just loved the records and I just loved the music. But you couldn’t ever hear all that stuff at the same time and I wanted to change that.

SFBG: So what did you do?
Primo: Well, it was just a thought for a while. After the Attic thing went south, I got another soul night at The Casanova, and I eventually met this dude, John, who asked me to spin oldies at this event called Mod Vs. Rockers. Then he decided to ask my friend Daniel to spin soul at the same time. And it was so much fun. It was like all these different songs from the same time period, but mixed up to the point where you couldn’t pin it down and the categories weren’t so defined. That’s when people really started to notice me because it was totally different than anything else around. I mean you had your soul nights and you had your oldies and rockabilly nights, but this was different. We called it Oldies Vs. Soul.

SFBG: And then what?
Primo: Well, we got another night at The Attic and people just loved it. It started off slow, but by the end we were packing in like 400 people every Sunday. But then the cops took notice of the crowd and shut us down. By then I had gained some notoriety and I just started working more and more. Now I do The Knockout, The Deco Lounge, and I even do the Attic by myself sometimes. It’s awesome.

SFBG: So when was the last time you had to wait tables?

Primo: Shit dude, it’s been like a year. And it’s crazy. You’d think I’d be partying more since I’m at clubs every night, but now that I never have to be at work, I’m able to do other things. Like, I quit drinking and started running. It feels really good.

SFBG: Well shit man, that’s a hell of a story.

Primo: Thanks. Hopefully things just keep getting better. Hey, did I give you the flyers for my next shows?

SFBG: Why yes, you did.