ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/FREE
GRAEME FORBES/ADRIEN ANNE/NICOLAS SCHOPFER/TRAVIS RHODES REAL ESTATE/ALIAS/SERENGETI/MARTYN/BOTANY
Contents
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 03
06 07 08 09 10—11 12—13 14—17 18—19 20—23 24—25 26—30 32—37 38—39 40—43 44 45 46—49 50—51 52—53 54—55 56 57 58—60 62
West Coast Clash Spotlight Chihiro Azuma Gardens and Villa 22 Pete Rock The Love Language Sam Brookfield Fucked Up Travis Rhodes Real Estate Graeme Forbes Alias Adrien Anne Gavin Drumm Serengeti Nicolas Schopfer Behind the lens: Dom West Botany James Pearce Inside the Industry Denial and The Conference Justin Brasco Martyn Andy Kruse Austin Paz Album Reviews Fun Page
Issue 03 August 2011 © Wheel Scene Ltd. Editor David McNamara Sub-Editor Chris Delaney Designers Gareth Lindsay Graham Patrick Web Design Ewan McDonald Stuart Chown
Words Nina Glencross, Ian Macbeth, Colin Chapman, Fiona Slimmon, Jeanie Rogers, Louis Flood, David McNamara, Andrew Halls, Alexander Rigby, Austin Paz, Paul Daly, Jonah Falco. Photos Sam Cooper, Adam Kola, David Andrew, Matty Pearce, Jeremy Dalbis, Antoine Dujoncquoy, Dustin Werbeski, Austin Paz, Alex Pittet, Corey Oringderff, Hayden Golder, Nick Demarchi, Richard Manning, Kiku Comino, Lewis Bowden, Ami Brammell, Sandy Kim, Shawn Blackbill. Cover Nicolas Schopfer – topsoul in Bulle, Switzerland Photo: Adam Kola
Wheel Scene is the UK’s largest rollerblading and music publication, and offers a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business. Get in touch to find out more. Online www.wheelscene.co.uk www.facebook.com/wheelsceneblading Email info@wheelscene.co.uk Address: Wheel Scene 54U Wyndford Road, Glasgow, Scotland, G20 8ES All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or publisher. Printed by Mortons Print Limited, Horncastle.
Introduction
Hugs and Kisses
It has been a strange couple of months since the release of Issue Two. There was a lot of hype surrounding the “rollerblading demo” at the X Games in California and it seemed like our sport might once again get a shot at the limelight. Unfortunately, X-Mini, the speaker company that paid for a time slot at this year’s event, got screwed over and the athletes that showed up were only allowed to skate a pathetically-small mini ramp when they could have easily tore the vert ramp and park course a new one. Oh well, at least they tried.
First and foremost, we would like to thank Loco Skates, Hedonskate and Rampworx for supporting this publication since day one. Without them there would be no Wheel Scene and with their continued support we hope to bring rollerblading to the masses all over the world. We would also like to thank Neglected Truth in Philadelphia for becoming our first North American stockist. We hope this shop will be the first of many. To our advertisers:
On a more positive note, The Blading Cup in Santa Ana, California was a roaring success. The event, organised by Jon Julio, captured the general public’s interest and featured some incredible skating from some of the world’s most respected professionals. We need more events like this so the world can see how great blading has become. Politics aside, this issue is crammed with even more editorial content than ever before. We have a heap of interviews with some of the most exciting bladers in the scene at the moment, including Adrien Anne, Gav Drumm, Travis Rhodes, Nicolas Schopfer and more. We also have the pleasure of giving Graeme Forbes, one of Scotland’s most prolific street skaters, some well-deserved exposure.
Loco Skates Hedonskate Rampworx Kaltik We love you long time.
There are also a bunch of music interviews with some incredible independent talent from both sides of the Atlantic. In this issue we speak with New Jersey indie darlings Real Estate, Anticon founder Alias, Dutch techno producer Martyn and many more. If all of the interviews get a little too much, we have some bite-size columns featuring Austin Paz, Andy Kruse, Fucked Up and Denial. The only way you are going to be able to finish reading this while taking a dump is if you have a serious case of sickness and diarrhoea.
WIN! Rapp Watch, the sponsor of professional female rollerblader Jenna Downing, are giving you a chance to win one of their buckle-less, interchangeable silicone watches. To get your hands on one, simply visit our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ wheelsceneblading ) and post your favourite online blading edit. www.rappwatch.com
West Coast Clash 2011 On July 16 and 17, West Coast Clash took place once again at Evolution Skatepark in Stevenston. As always, the park hosted a great event and even created a couple of new obstacles, including a curve rail linking two of the bowls, to ensure there were some fresh challenges for skaters that were returning to the event after last year. Saturday was a fun, chilled-out session for everyone that showed up, mainly due to the fact that the sun was shining from start to finish, and skaters from all over Scotland came along to shred the concrete playground and enjoy the summer vibe. There were even a couple of travellers from further afield, as Remz UK riders Si Coburn and Ollie Jones ventured up from the south of England to attend. On Sunday, Mother Nature started messing with the process, as grey clouds gathered overhead and it looked like the event might not happen. Thankfully, the girls event was completed without any problems, as well as the qualifiers for the under 16s and the open event. Unfortunately, before the finals it began to rain. There was a short interval between rain showers and the park staff did their best to dry the transitions in order to proceed but, just as it looked like we might get a little bit of respite from the poor weather, it came down again in buckets and the event was called off. On the bright side, the organisers of the competition decided to reward all of the bladers that qualified for the open event by giving them a share of the £2,800 prize money. This meant that each of the ten competitors walked away with £280 each – not bad for a few minutes blading!
Safety grab
Left is a photo of Dominic Bruce styling out a nice safety air from the vert wall into the street course. The Aberdeen local is only 14-years-old but he out-classed the rest of the riders in his division with an impressive first round that consisted of technical switch-ups, various grinds on the sub box above the quarter pipe and creative lines all around the park. West Coast Clash may not have gone according to plan this year, but it did show that Scotland has a lot of promising young skaters rising through the ranks. Hopefully the weather will be a little kinder next year.
Living in Okayama, the capital city of the Okayama Perfecture in the south of Japan, has offered Azuma the best possible start for any promising young blader. Until June of this year, she had an incredible practice facility on her doorstep (Action Sports Park Okayama) and regularly skates with two of the country’s most talented skaters, Yuto Goto and Valo pro Soichiro Kanashima. Now that the park has closed, she is currently perfecting her street skating skills and Goto and Kanashima are guiding her every step of the way. If anyone is capable of helping this young woman progress at lightning speed, these guys are. After all, it’s not easy keeping up with a guy that has defeated Chris Haffey at X Games.
Since discovering rollerblading at the age of five, Azuma has been on a rapidly inclining tangent of progression. She has spent most of her life to date on rollerblades and it shows in her skating. Azuma has the confidence, technical ability and style to match any of her peers, male or female, and some enviable endorsement deals from Valo, Eulogy, Triple 8 and MFTbrand. According to Azuma, her only goals for rollerblading are to increase awareness in Japan and to someday see it included in the Olympics alongside other extreme sports, like snowboarding. After taking top honours at two of the biggest rollerblading events in the world before turning fifteen, it is quite possible that Azuma could be the next female superstar to bring the sport to a wider audience. However, in the immediate future she will be taking part in the Bonds Blading Tour, a week-long excursion that will see the promising young athlete visit some of Japan’s biggest cities, including Tokyo and Osaka, with an all-star cast of blading talent lead by the legendary Chiaki Ito. Over the next twelve months, the junior high school student hopes to return to Winterclash to defend her title and also plans attend the Chaz Sands Invitational. If her contemporaries have any sense, they will start practicing now. Words: Jeanie Rogers Misfit
Spotlight: If the name Chihiro Azuma doesn’t ring a bell, take a look at the results from the women’s events at some of the biggest competitions in the world over the last two years - she is all over them. The 15-yearold prodigy from Okayama, Japan won last year’s Chaz Sands Invitational by defeating world number one Jenna Downing on her home turf. This year, she won the biggest event on the European rollerblading calendar, Winterclash, by overpowering USA’s Fallon Heffernan. It looks like the dominance Downing and Heffernan once held over international events is about to come to an end. The fact that Azuma is almost ten years younger than both of the aforementioned female blading veterans means that she still has many years of first class blading ahead of her and her body is still resilient enough to take the punishment that comes with it. Be afraid, ladies, be very afraid.
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 07 record deal. The five-piece from Santa Barbara had only been together for just over a year and a half when they got signed to the Indiana-based label, but they had known each other for years as a result of playing in various bands in the local music scene. The band, completed by Chris Lynch, Levi Hayden, Shane McKillop and Dusty Ineman came together through their mutual appreciation of Talking Heads, The Human League, Peter Gabriel and Fleetwood Mac. The five-piece eventually moved into a house on Villa Avenue, located on the west side of the city, and decided to name the band after their street and the beautiful garden that belonged to the property.
Producer Power If it wasn’t for a certain Oregon-based studio connoisseur, Gardens and Villa’s debut album may never have seen the light of day. Never underestimate the power of a producer. If it wasn’t for nu-metal studio pioneer Ross Robinson, Long Island post-hardcore outfit Glassjaw would never have been signed by Roadrunner Records and released the seminal 2000 album Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence. And if it wasn’t for Richard Swift, Californian stoner pop ensemble Gardens and Villa would never have been signed to indie label Secretly Canadian, according to keyboard player
and founding member Adam Rasmussen. “We got to meet Richard Swift,” begins Rasmussen. “He recorded the album and we vibed with him really well. We lived in his backyard in tents for two weeks, with no shower or kitchen, and spent all our time in the studio. He showed it to Chris Swanson, who owns Secretly Canadian, and he called to find out more about it. Before we knew it, we signed on with them.” It sounds like every band’s dream; meet a producer, forge an instant connection and create an album that scores you a
Exposure: 22 Norway has been a little hit and miss for talent in the past, with the likes of Dum Dum Boys, Röyksopp and *ahem* a-ha all hailing from the country. But upcoming futuristic math-pop rockers 22 are the latest new act to break out from their native surroundings with ambitions of taking the world by storm. Following the release of their debut EP Plastik, Nina Glencross caught up with drummer Andreas Kjøl Berg to discuss, among other things, the band’s ultimate goal to reach the top.
There are so many words that could be used to describe 22’s music. For instance, it could be described as dramatic alternative rock with elements of flamboyant pop, coupled with seductive hints of R’n’B and funk - but even that would still be far off the mark. Andreas describes it as simply, “energetic pop rock” or “a mix between rhythms and fine melodies.” While he takes care of the rhythms, guitarist Magnus Børmark is the brains behind the band’s melodies and explains that his inspiration comes
Their self-titled debut album is a collection of Ketamine-infused new wave indie pop with electronic flourishes and melancholy, nostalgic lyrics crafted by chief songwriter Lynch. As far as Rasmussen is concerned, all of the songs were inspired by their years spent growing up in a city that is widely regarded as ‘The American Riviera’ due to the Mediterranean climate and long stretching coastline. “I think this album is about coming of age and dealing with going to school, coming out of school, trying stuff and finding out that music is what we are cut out for. It’s also about the dream landscape of Santa Barbara, the ocean and everything that we grew up with.”
This statement may suggest that the album is full of happy-go-lucky anthems by a group of men in their mid-to-late twenties that have had the luxury of spending their lives in a picturesque, warm environment with many lazy days at the beach and relaxing bike rides. However, Rasmussen is adamant that there is much more to their music than that. “I would say there is definitely a theme of darkness and a bit of nostalgia. I think the album as a whole reflected upon the previous ten years when we all lived in Santa Barbara and worked in bars and cafes and tried to find time to make music. It’s a reflection of that time. ‘Sunday Morning’ is about waking up and seeing people going to work and feeling like you don’t have any part of that as a musician.” It looks like the members of Gardens and Villa will not feel any connection to the monotony of a nine-to-five for the foreseeable future, as they are currently in the middle of a nationwide US headline tour, followed by a European tour in support of Antony and the Johnsons and other touring commitments that will keep them on the road until the end of the year. Who knows, if they plan their travels well enough, they could find a way to enjoy summer all year round. Words: Jeanie Rogers Photo: David Mount
from “experiments and experiences with polyphasic sleep, astral projection, breathing and channeling.” To most people, that would sound like pretty deep, complicated stuff and even Andreas isn’t too clear on what it’s about. “Magnus has a bit of experience with astral things and he’s very into that,” he explains, “so a lot of the songs or ideas that Magnus gets, it just feels like they more or less come to him, if you know what I mean. It’s like an epiphany for him, almost.”
heard, I really like them both. They’re cool bands.” However, one act he isn’t shy in praising are London’s angular riffripping Arcane Roots, whom they made good friends with when they visited in May for The Great Escape Festival. “They’re really good guys, I love the band,” he declares. And it seems the feeling is genuinely mutual as Arcane Roots’ Andrew Groves has said they are “a band that finally realised that being in a band spans further than the music itself.”
The recording of Flux was done over a period of one and a half years. Andreas explains: “When we started recording the album, we didn’t have a singer at the time so we recorded everything and just continued to look for the right singer.” This ‘right singer’ came in the form of Fox, whose front man presence is entrancing, if slightly unnerving. With everything recorded for the album, the EP tracks were then passed on to producer Machine to mix. “We were very happy with the work he did,” says Andreas. “He gave it a good sound.”
“You’d have to ask Andrew what he means by that, I really don’t know,” says Andreas. But as he goes on to describe what the band aim to achieve with their live performances, you get the sense that he’s describing exactly what Groves was originally trying to say. “22 is what I like to call a ‘live band’. One of the main reasons why we’re doing this is because we get so sick of going to the same rock concerts and seeing shows where the people onstage don’t look like they’re having fun or they’re performing bad live,” explains Andreas with a real sense of purpose in his voice. “We want to give people an experience out of the normal, out of the usual, so we put a lot into our live shows, we want people to go home and feel like they’ve actually experienced something... different.”
From mixing to remixing, the band’s first single, the EP’s self-titled track has been ripped up, spread out and caressed by both Rolo Tomassi and Dananananaykroyd so, naturally, it had to be asked what they thought of those bands. “I haven’t heard that much of their music,” admits Andreas.“But from what I’ve
Words: Nina Glencross Photo: Ami Brammelll
Pete Rock Return of the Soul Brother
Born in 1970 in the Bronx, Pete Rock was surrounded by musical inspiration. Best known for his work alongside CL Smooth, Pete cemented himself as one of the greatest producers of hip hop culture. His use of obscure jazz and soul samples gave him a unique flavour, which has been emulated by producers and beat makers around the world. His classic track with CL Smooth, ‘They Reminisce Over You ’, was a tribute to fallen friend “Trouble T-Roy” Dixon, a member of Heavy D & The Boyz, who died in 1990. This song literally set the scene on fire and is still a classic tune which will no doubt get an airing at any self-respecting hip hop jam. Nearly 20 years on and several solo albums deep, Rock returns to the UK shores to promote his new album, Monumental. This time he has teamed up with Brooklyn’s legendary hip hop duo Smif-N-Wessun and the whole project has re-ignited that spark of heavy old school flavours. Wheel Scene thought it would be a crying shame to miss out on an opportunity to catch up with one of the all-time greats, so here is what he had to say about the new album and how important hip hop culture is to him. Wheel Scene: So as we speak you are currently in London. I would firstly like to ask what you are doing over here? Pete Rock: Well, I’m over here in the UK with the legendary Roy Ayers. I’m in the process of doing three live shows with him at the Jazz Café and have been touring now with Roy for the last three weeks. We are off to Birmingham next, then a couple of other shows, then it’s back off to the States and, let me just say, it has been a great tour so far. I have really enjoyed doing my thing alongside such a great musical talent. And with that said, you are yourself a rather multi-faceted musician; you rap, produce and DJ, so do you feel that has held you in good stead throughout your long-standing career? I think because I have always kept myself inspired, I know what good music is and how to make it. I have been in this game for 23 years now, so to use the adage or saying ‘when birds are nesting as chicks and they grow up and fly the coup’, that’s how I feel about my music: Once I took off I never came back to the nest. That’s how I feel about hip hop being such a huge influence on everyone involved, but there are certain people that are being led astray and not really understanding what real music is and I’m not even gonna use the term ‘real hip hop’, I mean just real music. That’s what I’m trying to put back into the game and make it a factor because today’s artists are making music that
really doesn’t stick to you! The lyrical content is kinda offensive to listen to for the kids growing up and I want to try and put things back on the right track. In short, being more responsible about what you’re saying on record. So let’s talk about this new album with the legendary Smif-n-Wessun (aka Cocoa Brovaz). How did the project come about and how do you feel about the end result? Well, when I was in the process of making this project I did not know how to feel, but towards the end I started to feel really good about it. To work with such talent as Smif-N-Wessun was a pleasure. I had befriended those guys back in 1991 and we had always talked about getting together for a collaboration but never really had the time or the availably to do it. I felt when we finally hooked up that it would be great to do a full album, because I look at it like this; I’m very in who I am and what I do and I felt like I could handle a full LP and knew that I could do it. I used their first LP, Da Shining, as a guideline to make this new album and put my Pete Rock elements into the mix. I in no way wanted to emulate Da Beatminerz but I defiantly used them as a reference point in the way that I approached the album. With the years of experience that you have had within the game, what advice would you give to people just starting out? I would tell them to use their ears to learn, and to be responsible for your lyrical content and whom you name yourself after. You need to follow what’s right. What I see in today’s music, and I would even go as far as to say today’s society, is a lot of possessed people! In the wrong way they are following the wrong things and being taught the wrong things and we need to know that being responsible is so important for our youth. If you have kids, you don’t want them to be growing up listening to the wrong messages and hearing negative things in people’s raps that are glorifying everything that is wrong rather than looking towards the positives. You know, it may sound a little preachy, but at the end of the day the truth is the truth. You can either help your community or you can destroy it, and myself I have never lended (sic) a hand in destroying my community and what’s good for my people. I have always been the cat that has said good music and good musicians have inspired me and I feel that is my message to the people out there just starting, be true to yourself and your culture.
What have you got on the bubble at the moment? I heard a rumour that Camp Lo had been working with you on a project. Could you elaborate on that? Well, you would be right. The album is done and so is the mixtape, and we are just in the stages of finding the right place to put it out and do the business right. I have also got the Pete Rock vs Premier album dropping along with solo project PeteStrumantals Vol. 2 and another solo album entitled New York’s Finest. I really have a lot of things going on at the moment. I’m also trying to push through new and unheard artists because there is such an untapped resource of talent out there that can lyrically murder a Pete Rock beat, you know what I mean? Words: Jesse Keene
“If you have kids, you don’t want them to be growing up listening to the wrong messages and hearing negative things in people’s raps.”
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A Fresh Start
“If you want to make it in music, you need to drink a lot of vodka, get in trouble and the rest will work itself out.”
North Carolina singer-songwriter The Love Language swaps vodka for coffee and steals ideas from Outkast on new album. Stuart McLamb almost let disillusionment ruin his life. After graduating from university he realised his career options were limited and the failure of various musical projects, as well as a destructive relationship, led him to dull the pain with alcohol. Thankfully, an altercation with the police provided the wakeup call he needed to change his life. McLamb adopted the moniker The Love Language and released his 2009 debut album, a deeply intimate collection of heartbreaking lo-fi indie pop songs about love, loss and regret. This year marks the release of the singer-songwriter’s sophomore release, Libraries, in the UK. It has been almost a year since the album came out in the US but when the storytelling is this good, it’s worth the wait. The 30-year-old discusses how life has changed since his capricious youth and why he is learning to adopt a more optimistic approach to life in general. Wheel Scene: Your new album, Libraries, is about to be released in the UK. How does it differ from your debut? The Love Language: I think the themes of the songs and the musical style are very similar to the first record but the first was pretty much done by myself on some cheap home recording equipment - not a lot of engineering expertise went into it. On Libraries, I worked with a good friend called BJ Burton in his studio in Raleigh and it was pretty much the two of us working on it. I think the
fidelity is different. Everything is a little clearer, but we tried to retain the same charm. What effect did Burton have on the outcome of the album? Before I moved to Raleigh and made the record with him I was in a 7-pieceband and trying to incorporate each of them by turning what was essentially a solo project into a big band. I had some trouble with the band but BJ encouraged me to go into the studio with him and approach the record the same way I approached the first, where I recorded most of the instruments myself. He gave me the courage to make that move. Why did you decide to call your new album Libraries? It was kind of a joke and we just kept it. I don’t know if you are familiar with Aquemini by Outkast, but it’s just a combination of their astrological signs. BJ is an Aries and I’m a Libra and it was pretty much just the two of us that worked on the album, so we put the two of them together to form the word Libraries. You’ve said that the songs on your debut album were written for an ex-girlfriend. If she was the intended audience for your last album, who is the new one meant for? The first record was essentially sparked by a particular relationship I was in but even the first album wasn’t a concept album for her. A couple of the songs were about her and other people, and some were about nothing at all. It’s kind of the same thing with Libraries. I’m a single man now, so there’s been some ups and downs with relationships that I have written about and some of them
are fictional situations. I think I am just inspired by different interactions. It seems like your life was on a downward spiral for a while. Can you tell us about that? I finished school and had a degree in graphic design but I figured out that I wasn’t that enthusiastic about it and decided to pursue music. I joined a couple of bands and the band I put a lot of time into fell apart. I was disillusioned about what I wanted to do with my life and I was in a relationship that wasn’t very healthy and things came to a boiling point when I drank way too much vodka and all these demons kind of exploded. Let’s just say, it involved police officers and me trying to hit them. I woke up in jail and at that point I decided I had to get out of that situation and get my life back on track. I got a job, bought some music gear and started making demos. The next thing I know, I was getting a good response from friends and formed a live band. If you want to make it in music, you need to drink a lot of vodka, get in trouble and the rest will work itself out. Would you say you are happier now? Some of the new songs just came from a natural place and I’m having a lot of fun working on new material that is not so heavy emotionally. I can tell stories and write about different themes other than loss or regret because that can get kind of old after a while. I’m doing a lot better – more coffee, less vodka.
Do you feel that life has improved since the release of your debut album? Yeah, but it’s a slow change. It’s not like you get a record deal and all this money falls in your pocket, but I do feel very fortunate that my line of work has changed. I am not working tables or in a bar. I’m working on new music and touring with the band. I’m not any better off financially than I was five years ago but I’m doing something I’m passionate about. I understand that several members of your band left after the first album. The way the band was set up, it was essentially a solo project and I recorded all the parts. When I perform live I require other people. I have been blessed with a lot of good friends and musicians in my life, so for the first record I had six other people help me tour with it. They can’t devote all their time to a project they don’t have a lot of real estate in. Being musicians, they went on and formed their own projects. My brother plays drums and he has been in the band since the beginning and Missy, on keys, has been there since the start. It will probably always been somewhat of a revolving door of friends. Words: John Wozniak Photo: Julia Bond
Backslide
Introducing:
Sam
Brookfield
Topside soul
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Chester’s Sam Brookfield is one of the most promising young bladers the UK has to offer at the moment. He is one of the new breed of skaters that is able to skate street and park with the same level of consistency and his natural ability on blades has helped him to rapidly progress through the ranks of the national scene in a relatively short period of time. The cheeky young buck has been making friends with some of the most respected athletes in the country thanks to his outgoing personality and he has become renowned for being a bit of a party animal. In addition to his obvious talent on skates, Brookfield is a keen videographer and has been responsible for some impressive edits over the past few years. The aspiring filmmaker can be found at Slamm Jamm most years, helping Dave Bell and his media team film for promotional videos. He is currently living in Manchester and attending film school, which also happens to have one of the best rollerblading scenes in the country, so it looks like we are going to be seeing a lot of the up-and-coming blader, both in front of and behind the camera. That
is, if he can stay away from the pub long enough to develop his talents further. The twenty-year-old is currently island hopping off the west coast of Scotland, so we decided to catch up with him and find out how he got involved in the sport. How did you get into blading: I first got into rollerblading about ten years ago. I used to do the odd bit of skateboarding at Boneyard Skatepark until I fell flat on my face dropping into the vert. This is when Lee Devereux came over and said I needed some skates. He sorted me out with some Salomon Vinny Minton skates and with all the older guys being such good skaters at the time, I suppose it gave me inspiration. I wanted to skate as good as them. What keeps you motivated? I’m still skating today probably because I still get a buzz from doing tricks. Also, I’ve got some very good friends that still do it. Going to competitions and getting to chill with everyone you’ve not seen in ages keeps me interested.
What are you doing at the moment? At the moment I’m studying TV & film at film school. I choose not to have a job because I enjoy rollerblading and alcohol more. Haha! What do you get up to in your spare time? I generally just chill out with friends and stuff. I visit the local pub fairly often and I am regularly organising videography projects. I love going to places where you have amazing views of the landscape and sea. I’m in Wales quite often so I get to see a lot of that. At the moment I’m on a five week long trip floating and hopping through the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, and it’s the most amazing place I’ve been yet. What do you think about the current state of the sport? The standard nowadays is very high. I love seeing new things being done. And there’s a lot of young kids that I can see are gonna be big in a couple years - so yeah, looking forward to it.
Fucked Up Five Albums that Changed my Life:
Toronto-based hardcore punk outfit Fucked Up recently released their third full-length album, David Comes to Life, an epic rock opera about a factory worker with an appetite for destruction. Drummer Jonah Falco was kind enough to take him out of his busy tour schedule to share some of the gems from his record collection.
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 13 When you consume a great quantity of music at a great pace in a relatively great period of time, the standards by which you define “impactful” seem to change not only in their source, but also in their impact. You often hear people talking about “phases” in their life of listening to music: “I’m having a techno phase” or “I’m so into prog right now”. Truthfully, after a while, that’s what it’s like. Stations of focus for the sake of a broader understanding of the waves that music make through time. There is a time in every person’s life, though, where those waves are only just reaching our bows and every pitch, yaw, and shudder that comes our way is a memorable one. By no means can I truly narrow this down, but here’s a snapshot of a few high points:
Motorhead - On Parole
Nirvana - In Utero
Infest - Slave
Listening to this record led me to the epiphany that there is room for a lot of finesse in otherwise bludgeoning and heavy music. This is far from the most violent and wild Motorhead record, but in the wrong hands, these songs could have been a lot worse off. Particularly, I focused on the drumming. If memory serves, the story goes that the original drum tracks on this record are by someone else, whose fate was sealed when his performance in the studio did no better than to track ink all over an invoice. With an unusable LP in their hands, Animal Taylor stepped in like rhythms’ bespoke tailor and turned a potential mess into the crafty, flexible, swagger that Motorhead would blast into in the next decade (and beyond). So what does finesse have to do with impact? Well, it’s important to have learned that force can be accompanied by craft. Even though it’s the least iconic, I listen to On Parole more than any other Motorhead record (Overkill is actually my favourite favourite), if only for the good graces and untameable, civilized, forcefulness of their playing.
For someone my age, (29) Nirvana will almost always grace a list like this. They were just the most important band you could imagine, and every record delivered. I had already heard Nevermind at summer camp and was pretty hooked (also a fine cassette purchase), but this one came home with me on a solo mission to Sam The Record Man (a now gone-bust music institution in Toronto). After hearing this record, the rest of rock music made perfect sense. The one thing they all had in common is that they weren’t as good as Nirvana. ‘Heart Shaped Box’ was the most frightening thing I think I’d heard. Again, sort of coming back to force and finesse. I had no idea what he was saying and, even if I could read the lyrics, I don’t think I then understood what they meant. It was incredibly loud - the drumming reaches Bonham territory - but it’s also dynamic. All the info about Nirvana was distributed in magazines and TV, most of which I didn’t have access too, so there were so many rumours and questions floating alongside every listen to colour the experience. This is still my fave Nirvana record, even though Incesticide is probably the more punk choice.
This is maybe an odd choice. Infest’s first LP really doesn’t have anything directly in common with the other picks on this list and, let’s face it, you might not even know who this band is. They are a hardcore band from Southern California that were mainly active in the mid to late ‘80s - slightly inched in to the ‘90s, too. The reason this LP is on this list is because of my experience playing it for the first time. In any number of documentaries about The Ramones, there will be a section of talking heads discussing the first time they heard the self-titled album. The reactions ranged from maniacal laughter to determination that they were listening to the greatest music ever recorded. In any scenario, though, people are flabbergasted and silenced by the new sounds they’re hearing. I bought Slave in high school on the same day as my closest pal. We both brought our copies home to my place and rushed up to the stereo to break out this slab of wax that we’d been hearing about for so long, but had never heard. The wax whooshed silent for a few seconds as the groove started out and then Infest smashed through the wax for the most intense fifteen minutes of my life. I thought it must be a joke. The vocals were barked, the drums sounded like popcorn popping, it was so fast. The guitars screamed out of control, the bass sounded like a bandsaw breaking and tempos changed on what seemed like completely nonsense turns. My friend and I sat there screaming with laughter throughout the whole thing until the run off grooves crackled away on ‘Fetch the Pliers’. We wiped our eyes and caught our breath and then, with all seriousness, looked at each other and said: “Play it again.” Infest is some of the most undeniable USHC ever produced, and all of their records are classic and crushing, too.
Track pick: ‘Motorhead’ - better than the s/t version in my opinion. — Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger This is one of the first cassettes I ever bought that was a real rock band. I believe some member of my immediate or extended family preceded the permission of this purchase by asking: “This isn’t some of that devil worshipper music is it?” Anecdotes aside, I was absolutely floored by hearing this record. I was lost in a sea of trying to figure out pre-teen and understanding how to get plugged into the things people were talking about and, for some reason, buying this cassette made the most sense as a start-up. I worshipped it and played it until the tape was transparent. Basically, my whole introduction into rock music (I discovered classic rock/ punk etc well after this tape) was ‘Rusty Cage’ and ‘Jesus Christ Pose’. In fact, I made my first friend in middle school (Carter Smith) when he walked up to me and asked “what are you into?” and I said, “Soundgarden”. In something that could have been cut dialogue from Repo Man he said, “Cool. Let’s start a riot.” Though, instead of turning the trash upside down, I went back to the record store. Track pick: ‘Rusty Cage’ —
Track pick: ‘tourette’s’ which at the time I thought meant “short stories about tour”. I am naive. — Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols & The Ramones – The Ramones These two are a must, of course, and therefore get equal footing. Never Mind the Bollocks was the first punk record I ever bought (also on cassette). It was purchased on a school trip to Ottawa (Canada’s capital) in grade 9 (age 14). After I bought it, I went to the It Store and bought some orange hair dye in a spray can and came home a punk. I couldn’t shower or else the dye would wash out, so I also came home smelling like garbage - possibly also punk. Track pick: ‘Submission’ The Ramones record was inherited from a good friend whom I’d often accused of being too “trendy”. But when it came to liberating this classic punk album from a lot of inherited LPs, and saving it from certain trendy death, I suddenly didn’t mind him being so on the up and up. My reaction to this record was monumental and actually came in three waves over the next ten years, each wave intensifying and reshaping my whole identity as a “punk”, then a music fan, and then as a song writer. One of the most important records I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to. Track pick: ‘I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You’ —
Track pick: “Head First” —
Restless wanderer Travis Rhodes discusses drunken tattoo parties, chasing foxes and living out of a backpack for the sake of blading.
Stail grab over barrier
Rebel Without a Cause
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 15 Travis Rhodes is an absolute beast. The guy parties like he is not afraid of death and skates the exact same way. I only discovered his exciting, raw talent when I watched the 90 Seconds edit that he filmed for Revolution Skate Shop and it was mind blowing. Rhodes has the perfect combination of fast skating, creative trick choices and the exceptional ability to visualise a stunt on the most unlikely obstacle. Needless to say, I had to know more. After a little research, I discovered that the Chicago native’s reckless attitude extends beyond rollerblading. During a house party one night, Rhodes and a few of his friends found a tattoo machine and decided to experiment on each other by creating some very questionable skin art - seemingly oblivious to the various health (not to mention aesthetic) implications. “Yeah, they are pretty ghetto,” says Rhodes between fits of laughter. “That night was a lot of fun. We all just got really drunk and our buddy had a tattoo machine, so we gave each other tattoos. Who wouldn’t do it?” At the risk of sounding like a square, I would imagine that most people of sound mind would not let a wasted guy with a tattoo gun anywhere near their skin.
at it again ‘til a bunch of dudes came outside and started yelling at us and chasing us down the street. We jumped in the car after throwing a couch in the street and went back to the house. On our way we came across a fox in some random parking lot and tried to catch him for about 15-20 minutes ‘til I ended up falling in some hole in the grass and messed up my ankle.” When Rhodes isn’t getting wasted and causing mischief he is couch surfing his way across America in search of new spots and good times. For the past twelve months he has given up the luxuries of living at home in order to do what he loves the most. Any thoughts of the future or career aspirations have been put on hold in order to embrace his youth and make the most of this exciting period in his life. “I’ve just been travelling around, sleeping wherever I can, just so I can go skate some new stuff and hang with new people. I think once I get back to Chicago there will be a little skate shop opening up downtown that I will probably work at a few hours out of the day.”
On another occasion, the 21-year-old found himself in Phoenix, Arizona and decided, after a lot of booze, that he was the bastard love child of Steve ‘The Crocodile Hunter’ Irwin and embarked upon a brief wildlife excursion, after causing havoc in a residential neighbourhood.
The Valo rider was first introduced to the limitless possibilities of rollerblading in the fifth grade, when his school teacher allowed the class to watch a video after they had completed all of their learning objectives for the term. Fortunately for Rhodes, and for rollerblading, a fellow pupil unwittingly brought a Disney drama to class instead of the intended Hollywood action film.
“The crew and I bought a bunch of bottles of 75 South Whiskey, which is the cheapest whiskey you will ever find and then we went to some house party down the street. I ended up walking back to the house with my buddy Sergio and, while walking down the street, we decided it would be a bright idea to take everyone’s trash cans and put it all in the middle of the street. When we got back to the house we told everyone about it and decided to go check it out. Brian Bina and I hopped out of the car and started to go
“We were learning about outer space and when we were done our teacher was going to let us watch the movie Rocket Man, so my buddy brought in a VHS recording of the movie and when we popped it in what came on first was the movie Brink!. As soon as I saw the first scene where they are skating to The Pit I told myself that I wanted to learn how to do that. So I went home and asked my mom if she could buy me a pair of skates and she told me: ‘If I buy you these, Travis, you have to stick with it.’ She probably regrets that now.
Haha! But I did, and it’s been 11 years now.” The vagabond rollerblader is not currently filming for any projects, but after the popularity of his 90 Seconds edit and the fact that every stop of his state-hopping journey creates new friendships, thanks to his larger-thanlife personality, it seems inevitable that the world will be seeing a lot more of Travis Rhodes over the next twelve months. The $1,500 prize money he recently acquired for winning the Windy City Riot should assist him in continuing his travels for a few months yet, unless he spends it all on booze. “I was filming a part while I was living in Arizona for my buddy Devan Stewart’s video Evil Never Dies, but I ending up leaving before my section was finished. But when we go out skating I usually let whoever wants to film me film me for whatever they want to use it for - online edits or what not.” Rhodes is the first to admit that he doesn’t really pay attention to any of the industry politics that continue to plague the sport. For him, all that really matters is having a good time and exploring the country on his terms. However, there are certain things that he would like to see improve and he is more than happy to vocalise these desires. “To be honest, I would like to see thicker magazines,” he offers. “I remember the last time I picked up a One and a Be-Mag - they were just the tiniest things I had ever seen.” It is very rare that a vibrant, and almost volatile, personality like Rhodes’ is seen in blading. The last person that possessed any similarity in terms of rock star status was Josh Petty. Every other wannabe icon has just looked like a little kid that stumbled upon a fancy dress shop and had a brainwave. Hopefully we will see a lot more from this promising young talent because, let’s face it, blading is in desperate need of a little attitude. Words: David McNamara Photos: Corey Oringderff
If Travis Rhodes could slap one person in the face: I would slap any kid who thinks it’s ok to wear shorts while they skate. Hey dudes, it’s not. Please stop.
Backside torque slide
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“We all just got really drunk and our buddy had a tattoo machine, so we gave each other tattoos. Who wouldn’t do it?”
Soul (from ground)
Backside backslide
Alleyoop negative topside soul
Hometown Pride Martin Courtney, lead singer of indie pop outfit Real Estate, defends his New Jersey roots and advises why their sophomore album will be a more honest affair.
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 19 People from New Jersey don’t have it easy. For starters, their home state is often referred to as the ‘armpit of America’. To make matters worse, the popularity of MTV’s reality series Jersey Shore has led all of its mindless followers to believe that the place is crawling with slutty girls wearing a winning combination of too much make up and not enough clothing. If that wasn’t bad enough, there are the infamous steroid-popping, eyebrowwaxing guidos dragging their knuckles around who possess so little intelligence that the only things they know how to do with any kind of competency are fight and fuck. Fortunately, Martin Courtney, lead singer of indie pop darlings Real Estate, is ready to set the record straight. “Jersey gets a bad rap,” he says. “It is called ‘the armpit of America’. People like to talk shit about us, which makes me have a lot of pride for being from New Jersey. Because people don’t really know what it is like – it’s amazing. I had a great time growing up here.” Clearly, talking about the stereotypes associated with New Jersey has hit a nerve, because he then feels the need to defend his home state further: “The Jersey Shore has all the guidos that are all muscles and fake tan – that is real. I now live in Jersey City, which is just across the river from Manhattan, and it is pretty much just like living in Brooklyn. It’s like every other city; there are lots of different parts.” Thank God. Just when it seemed that we had laid the common misconceptions of life in New Jersey behind, Courtney launches into a rant about the state’s nearest rival. “People in New York love to talk shit about New Jersey as if they are so much better, but 80 percent of people from New York are from Ohio or Kansas or other places. People from New Jersey are from this zone - this is our turf.” Sounds like fighting talk. The sense of pride that Courtney holds for The Garden State has manifested itself in Real Estate’s promising 2009 self-titled debut album; an endearing example of lo-fi indie pop escapism filled with narratives about long nights spent at the beach and nostalgic references to a time before the responsibilities of adult life came into the equation. The fivepiece, completed by guitarist Matthew Mondanile on guitar, Alex Bleeker on bass, Jackson Pollis on drums and Jonah Maurer on keyboard released Reality EP, an equally-impressive collection of emotive tales in a similar vein, shortly afterwards and found themselves the new favourite band of sentimental indie geeks the world over.
Real Estate is more than just a name: The band settled upon the moniker due to the fact that songwriter Courtney has a real estate licence and drummer Duguay previously rented out apartments for his landlord in exchange for free rent. Fortunately, the group signed a deal with Domino this year that allows them to pursue music full-time, much to Courtney’s relief. “For a while I was doing the real estate thing and Alex was working at a fried chicken joint in Brooklyn,” he says. “Now we are at a point where we are just about able to pay the rent and we are going to be touring a lot, so it is kind of hard to hold down a job.” Since the release of their debut album on small independent label Woodsist, the band has been touring relentlessly across America and Europe, but the country that had the most profound effect on the group was Japan. “It was amazing,” declares Courtney. “We got flown out by the label that released our first record in Japan and played three shows. We played two shows in Tokyo and one in Osaka, and then we had ten days to just travel. My girlfriend came out and two of my friends from school were living in Beijing. We were told that the audiences were really polite and wouldn’t make a sound until each song had finished. Everyone was dancing and freaking out - it was awesome.” Two years on from the band’s debut, Real Estate are set to release their eagerly anticipated follow-up and it seems they are happy with their efforts. At the time of the interview, Courtney advised that all the songs were completed but they were yet to decide on a name for the album. However, it is rumoured that their sophomore effort will be called Days, and it will merely be a continuation of the aesthetic they created with their first album – but perhaps a little more polished. “We recorded our first record at home,” begins Courtney. “This one was done in a studio and that was our first time going to a studio to do anything. Basically, the main difference is the fidelity is a lot higher. Other than that, it is still a guitardriven indie rock album. It is in the same vein but it sounds a lot nicer and I think the songs are a little better.” It looks like the loved up slacker kids are going to have another soundtrack on their hands. It may worry fans of Real Estate’s debut that they have opted to go for a cleaner sound on their second long player, considering the waves of reverb and Courtney’s sometimes-hidden vocals were so charming first time around. However, the front man has offered that,
despite going for a less rugged sound, the lyrics will be even more introspective than before as there is more truth to his words these days. “The first record was written while I was living at my parents after college. It was about documenting that period of time and being in our hometown where I grew up. Some of the tracks on the first record were made up. ‘Beach Comber’ was a made up story, but everything on the new record is drawn from reality. It’s a little bit more real. However, it is still a reflection of growing up in the suburbs.” When Real Estate’s new album drops later this year, fans can expect more affectionate ponderings on simpler times, offering a relief from the sometimesdeflating realities of everyday life. Courtney sees his group’s output as a way of taking people’s minds off their problems. After all, there are enough reminders every time you turn on the television or read a newspaper. “I guess it is just not really in vogue for people to make serious music these days - maybe in the ‘60s. If you want to know what is going on, read the news. Music, to me, should be about making you feel good. I hope that’s what people take away from our music.” Words: David McNamara Photo: Shawn Brackbill
Aberdeen’s resident local hero, Graeme Forbes, takes us through over a decade of rollerblading nostalgia and discusses why there is no end in sight.
Urban Legend
Backslide
The young prodigy had only been blading for two years when I moved to Aberdeen in 2001 to attend university, but he was already regarded as a local hero. Respected Scottish icons Chris Doughty, Dale Heenan and Chaz Sands would travel to the north east simply to trawl the streets for obstacles and marvel at the progressive tricks he was capable of. Every time I was taken to a new spot in the city, I would be told by local skaters, “You will never believe what Gamby landed on this.” Before I got the chance to meet him I was already immersed in the knowledge of the impressive feats that he had landed at some of the city’s biggest spots. After one session with the Huntly-born skater, I knew that all
Forbes emerged from the small blading community that existed in the late nineties in Huntly, a small town situated approximately 40 miles north west of Aberdeen. “I got into blading through my friends,” offers Gamby. “ Sammy Brownlee, Joe Coghill and Mikey Barron were doing it and I thought it looked fun. I used to borrow everyone’s Fatty Pros until I eventually got my own skates. We would do soul grinds and unities on benches and jump off small roof gaps - those were the days. I think that was summer ‘99.”
Graeme ‘Gamby’ Forbes has been at the forefront of Scottish rollerblading since the late nineties and he remains a prominent force within the gradually expanding community. Some of the most respected rollerbladers in the country describe him as a naturally gifted talent and with good cause, as he continues to astound his contemporaries on a regular basis by performing stunts that are normally associated with internationally-recognisable professionals. At 28-years-old, he is edging ever closer to middle age, but still continues to perform awe-inspiring tricks with startling ease.
When you ask any blader if there is anything they would like to see change within the sport or the industry, everyone has something that they wish was different. Gamby is no exception: “I’d like to see kids and haters getting their arses off Rollernews and actually go skating! We get enough hate from people who don’t rollerblade, never mind hating on each other.”
As a rollerblading fanatic, Forbes is optimistic about the direction in which the sport is heading. “The current state of our sport is good,” he enthuses. “There are loads of new parks popping up all over the UK and loads of new amazing kids doing shit that took me years to learn. In Scotland, over the past couple of years, the scene has grown massively thanks to all our events that the Scottish Rolling Collective organise. On a global scale, people are doing mad shit these days - rollerblading will just keep getting better.”
takes part in competitions and takes a pretty laid back approach to the sport – like everything in his life. That’s not to say he does not obsess about it with the enthusiasm of an excitable teenager.
Words: David McNamara Photos:Matty Pearce
When Forbes is not out destroying street spots up and down the country with unwavering control, he is holding down a steady job in the massive Aberdeen oil industry, but hopes to find a way to spend his days working doing Apart from a brief endorsement deal what he loves the most in the near fuwith Chris Doughty’s clothing brand, ture. “I work as a materials controller Enigma, and some freebies from local for an offshore accommodation compaskate shops Gamby has never had a ny in Inverurie,” he says. “That consists major sponsor, which seems surprising of stocktaking, order processing, forklift considering how respected he is by his driving etc. Obviously, like every skater, peers and his obvious talent on skates. I dream of working Then again, it is or being involved pretty clear that the in our industry simple act of bladsomewhere but, as ing is all that re- “When I’m not blading I’m usually it stands, this is my ally matters to him. watching or talking about it. My steady income. After all, he never girlfriend says I eat, sleep and shit rollerblading.”
“Sheer love and addiction for the sport is what keeps me motivated to go out and blade every weekend,” he says. “You can’t beat that feeling of accomplishment when you land a hard trick. I guess it’s my way of trying to better myself.”
It is testament to his dedication that to this day he continues to build a legacy by maintaining a high level of blading and representing his local scene on a national scale. On the recent Loco Skates LoveScotland Tour stop in Aberdeen, Forbes went head to head with USD pro Nick Lomax and Valo wunderkind Elliot Stevens and managed to stack a heap of clips for the upcoming tour video, impressing Loco Skates owner Jake Eley. In a sport where everyone seems to drop out in favour of pursuing a career or getting wrecked at the weekend, Forbes is an inspiration to older bladers everywhere. According to him, it has never been a particularly difficult choice as this is the only way of life he knows.
the hype surrounding him was justified. It’s not only his impressive trick vocabulary that leaves you dumbfounded; it’s the fact that he makes complicated feats like truespin alley-oop topsides and 360 grind variations look like they are the most natural thing in the world to him. It is disgusting to watch and will make you sick with envy – or is that just me?
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Topside soul
The best night out was probably when a load of us got into a fight with a bunch of BMXers in Exodus, on a wild night after a Scottish Rolling Collective monthly session. I remember it starting on the stairs on the way out and continuing across the street, like a ball of arms and legs everywhere. Aarron McMurray was throwing some mean uppercuts while James Keyte, Ross Martin and Niki Clark were also involved in the chaos. For the record, I would just like to add that it was all Lewis Bowden’s fault. He started the fight!
Every weekend, the massive population of Aberdeen descends upon Union Street and Belmont Street in order to have a cheeky drink (or nine) and share a laugh. But sometimes it gets out of hand, as Graeme Forbes advises:
Random Nights in Granite City
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Topside acid
Drop soul
Reinventing R&B Alias, one of the founding members of revolutionary hip hop collective Anticon, takes a fresh approach on his fourteenth full-length album.
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 25 It’s hard to believe it’s been over a decade since Oakland-based collective Anticon redefined independent hip hop with their unique mixture of lysergic production, idiosyncratic samples, unashamedly-intelligent, often-introspective lyrics and needlepoint precision raps . Musically and lyrically, hip hop is still largely playing catch-up to the deluge of consistently-astonishing releases that marked the first few years of Anticon activity, while their announcement of a fully-formed, radically new rap aesthetic (as dissimilar to the drearily earnest stereotype of ‘conscious rap’ as it was to the misogyny and materialism of much mainstream hip hop) has very few precedents. Alias, AKA Brendon Whitney, produced and, in the early days at least, rapped on a good number of those classic early albums. His perfectly named new solo LP, Fever Dream, sees him apply to R&B and electronica the techniques he once used to reshape hip hop. Whitney spoke to Wheel Scene from his home in Portland, Maine and offered his thoughts on Fever Dream, fatherhood, the current state of hip hop and coming out of the R&B closet. Can you tell us a bit about how the album came together? I started working on it at the end of 2009, beginning of 2010, and then my wife and I had a daughter, Aiko, in August of 2010 and I didn’t touch any of the music that I had worked on for at least three months or so because I was just focusing on being a new dad. I think the songs probably turned out differently doing it that way as opposed to sitting down and working on a song ‘til I felt it was finished. It was cool to come back and rework things and have that space to let it sit there and do its own thing, I guess. I found this huge amount of inspiration from not working on music and just spending time with her for those three months. I thought my music-making was going to slow down quite a bit but it’s been the exact opposite. I’m really psyched about working on music and it’s really opened up a lot of creativity for me. There’s no one thing about having her that’s done that, it’s just having her around and how happy she makes me; it puts me in a space where I can really open up my creativity. There’s a strong R&B influence on the new album. It’s something I’m definitely influenced by. I grew up listening to lots of hip hop but also listening to a lot of R&B. I was a huge Jodeci fan when I was 17, though I probably wouldn’t have admitted to it then - it was like a guilty pleasure back then. I used to listen to a lot of Jodeci, Shai - a lot of R&B groups. I wanted every song on this album to draw people in with vocals but there’s no way I can sing like that so I started swiping little bits from sources here and there. There’s a girl who does music here in Maine under the name Lady Lamb the Beekeeper and I became friends with her and I took little bits of a song of hers and kind of pitched it up and did different harmonies with it and stuff. I was definitely a closeted R&B fan back in the early ‘90s. I feel like R&B has kind of eclipsed hip hop in recent years. Yeah, definitely. I think people who are into R&B are more open to experimentation in production as opposed to some hardcore hip hop heads. They like their beats a certain way and don’t mess with that formula. Timbaland is probably one of my favourite producers, the way that he pushed things, and he’s been doing it since Missy Elliot’s first album. That’s when I first really started noticing how he was sampling babies mewling and birds chirping and just throwing anything into the mix and making it work. I think that people who are really into R&B don’t so much need their music to be in a certain box for them to enjoy it.
I wanted to ask you about your feelings regarding the current state of hip hop. 12 years ago, Anticon released a compilation called Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop and it feels as if hip hop hasn’t advanced that much since then. Indeed, with the irresistible rise of Odd Future, it feels like it might actually be regressing, - lyrically at least. I honestly don’t listen to too much hip hop nowadays, but there are some people who are trying different things that are successful with having a different approach to it. I mean, the Odd Future guys are doing something different but it’s not something that I listen to on the regular. It’s just not my sort of thing and it’s not the music that I’m into now, but I can see why an 18 or 19-year-old kid is latching on to that and can get down with that because I feel like their music is honest. I mean, they have songs about rape but I don’t think that they’re actually going out and raping people, it’s more just a storytelling thing. But they seem completely honest in all the interviews that I’ve seen and read about them; they just seem like they’re doing their own thing and that’s commendable. But there’s not a lot of hip hop out there that’s really doing much for me. What’s the situation with Anticon at the moment? With you moving back to Maine and Sole leaving last year it doesn’t seem to have quite the same collaborative, communitarian vibe as it had at the start. It’s got a different feel to it, for sure. Everybody’s kind of living in different places and we still collaborate but it’s easy to do that now with the internet. It’s a hard thing to balance art and friendship and business, to make those three things mingle with each other and have it be successful, it’s pretty difficult to do and have it work 100% of the time. I’m not saying that there’s bad blood between any of the Anticon guys, it’s just I think because we started out so strong together and we were so tight and around each other all the time, eventually it was like ‘Well, I have done that, done the whole collaborative thing, now I’m gonna start focusing on my own stuff.’ I enjoy collaborating with people, but I also enjoy shutting everyone else out and focusing on my own thing and not having to worry about whether the snare is too loud for someone else’s ears, all those sorts of things. But it’s progressed in a way that’s healthy I think, because it started out as a collective and now it’s more of a label and we’re all still on the same page about what kind of music we want to put out: we just want to put out honest music that’s interesting. Words: Ian Macbeth Photo: Stuart Lawson
“I was a huge Jodeci fan when I was 17, though I probably wouldn’t have admitted to it then.”
French powerhouse and fitted cap addict Adrien Anne talks about clocking up air miles at an alarming rate and negotiating his way through life.
Truespin alleyoop fishbrain
Business Sense
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 27 If you are not familiar with Adrien Anne you are either blind or have been living in an Amish community with no access to the internet for the past five years, because this kid is everywhere. If he is not showing up at some of the world’s most prominent blading events and shocking people with his ability to hold one foot grinds longer than most people can stand still, he is appearing in self-made online edits documenting his never-ending travels across the globe. Anne is spreading like wildfire and there is nothing anyone can do to stop him. Over the past four years, the blading prodigy from Lille in the south of France has been popping up in online edits with increasing regularity and picking up sponsors at a similarly rapid pace. Anne currently rides for USD, Kizer, Undercover, New Era and Coldstorm, a new clothing company that has emerged from Paris. In other words, the guy is endorsed from his feet right up to his head. There are not many athletes these days that can say the same. While it is impressive that Anne appears to film a new online edit in a different part of the world every month, you cannot help but wonder where he gets the money to pay for his regular excursions to Australia, America and most of mainland Europe. After all, there is no way he can hold down a steady job while being away from home so often and it is not as if the rollerblading industry is doing so well that it can afford to send a promising amateur abroad every few weeks. Perhaps he has wealthy parents that are happy to fund his hobby? Wrong again. As it turns out, Anne has used his entrepreneurial spirit, and undeniable ability on blades, to pay his way from country to country.
that he rides for do everything in their power to enable him to travel as much as they can. “Sometimes USD helps me, like when I visit Barcelona. They used to pay for me to go to contests but now they only really pay for real street contests. Basically, Grindhouse pays for everything now.” When asked about the numerous online videos and podcasts he has released over the past couple of years, Anne admits that he has been quite hyperactive in his attempts to establish his presence online and generate a little spending money, but has decided to take a break from his efforts to make a name for himself on the internet to focus on a bigger project. “I don’t get a wage from USD but they told me if I make edits I will get paid,” he says. “I have stopped doing those, though. Now I am just travelling and enjoying what I am doing. If I have no money I will make some edits but right now my priority is my DVD. I am going to release a new DVD in September or October.” The as-yet-untitled forthcoming DVD that Anne is referring to is the follow up to his 2008 French scene film San Pretention, which is scheduled for release in October and will feature a plethora of European talent including France’s Julien Cudot, Belgium’s Anthony Pottier, Denmark’s Jacob Juul and Holland’s Tyron Ballantine - to name a few. Anyone that has seen the epic comeback edit that Anne made last year for close friend and Razors rider Tyron Ballantine will agree that this upcoming release could make for some incredible viewing.
“I am just filming and skating,” he says. “I was recently on the Nomades tour. I stayed for 15 days and got paid about 1,000 Euros. Every time I release a podcast for Razors or a video for The Conference I get a little bit of money, so that’s how I get by. I also get money from the state in France every month because I don’t work.” I am guessing Anne is not paying tax on the freelance filming work he does – naughty boy.
It seems that Anne has managed to survive as a travelling athlete for quite a long time despite not winning much prize money at major events, which is how blading icons like Brian Aragon and Chris Haffey pay the bills. Instead he has used his industrious nature and played to his strengths in order to maintain his nomadic lifestyle. Apparently, it is just this kind of creativity and strong negotiating skills that got him his first pair of rollerblades 15 years ago, by using his games console as a bargaining chip.
Like many of his contemporaries, Anne is feeling the financial strain that all sponsored skaters suffer, trying to get as much exposure as possible and attend all the major events without strong financial support from the companies that provide him with sponsorship, but he is the first to assert that the brands
“I think it was ‘95 or ’96,” he begins. “My cousin received a pair of inline skates for her birthday and when I went to her house I tried them and didn’t want to take them off. A few years later I was going to a football pitch and I passed a long ledge and about 60 people were skating it. I was like, ‘What’s that?’ My
friend had a pair of Roces Majestics and he let me try them. A few days later he got injured and I was like, “You have broken your ankle, so I am going to do a deal with you: I will give you my Sega Mega Drive and you give me your skates.’ It started like that.” Philadelphia native Sean Kelso is often referred to as the master of one-foot grinds, but I am willing to bet cold, hard cash that Anne could give him a serious battle in a game of B.L.A.D.E. After all, he conquered the mighty Adil Farhouni a couple of years ago in a game of H.O.R.S.E. on Farhouni’s home turf. Plus, the fidgety Frenchman has several variations of fast slide, backslide, torque slide and fishbrain on lock, and can seem to hold them on any obstacle for an unfathomable amount of time. However, it seems Anne has no desire to become a professional like Kelso; he merely wants to highlight the sport in a positive light and expose it to a wider audience. “I don’t think I am going to make anything from rollerblading and I don’t look for it,” he advises. “I have a pro frame from Kizer but when Oli Benet told me about it I thought he was joking. I still want to skate a lot more and I still have love for it, so hopefully I will have a chance to show rollerblading to an outside audience. I am helping my friend start a rollerblading company based out of Paris. I also hope to do more videography because it’s quite easy to make money from that.” Rollerblading needs more people with Adrien Anne’s keen business sense. He has managed to turn his globe-trotting antics into a money making scheme by taking a camera with him at all times and documenting his travels in return for regular freelance cheques from some of the rollerblading industry’s biggest companies. Over the next few months Anne will be popping up in various places on both sides of the Atlantic, but if you want to see the footage from these trips you will have to pick up a copy of his new DVD later in the year. “I am going to Barcelona and after that I am going to Bulle Contest in Switzerland. After that there will be a tour of Romania. Then I would like to go to the US to buy stuff like a computer, Glidecam etc. It’s a lot cheaper over there so it makes my trip worthwhile. I can film over there, too.” Words: David McNamara Photos: Jeremy Dalbis, Antoine Dujoncquoy
Backside fastslide
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Drop soul
Switch topside soul
“I don’t think I am going to make anything from rollerblading and I don’t look for it.”
Fishbrain
Gav Drumm Backside Royale
Australia is once again proving that it has one of the most progressive blading scenes in the world and Melbourne’s Gav Drumm is one of country’s most exciting rising talents.
Soul grind
The Rebirth of Aussie Blading
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 35 There was a time when Australia had one of the strongest rollerblading scenes in the world. You could not watch a video or open a magazine without seeing an Aussie face and the competition circuit was no different. Tom Fry, Cesar Mora and Scott Crawford were regular fixtures in the top ten at the vert event and the streets were owned by Dion Anthony, Josh Clarke and Sam Fogarty. Then there were the double threats, like Tim Ward and Matt Salerno, that were at home on either terrain and dominated the podium positions at NISS, ASA and X Games events for several years - then it all went quiet. All of the established Australian professionals seemed to retreat from the limelight and towards the turn of the millennium it was hard work to find a single blader from down under in any form of blading media. Melbourne’s Gav Drumm is the first to admit that the scene in his home country lost its way for a while. “When blading dipped it dipped hard in Australia,” he says. “But people kept doing it. I guess there’s also a combination of the fact that we are so far away and that people were pretty content enjoying life and blading back home that had an effect on how much the rest of the world got to see what was going on down here.” The breakdown of the rollerblading industry obviously had a massive impact on Australia. After all, the country is extremely isolated from the main competition circuits in Europe and the US and, with the lack of money in the sport, sponsors were obviously reluctant to spend large portions of their tight budgets on expensive flights in order to keep their skaters in the public eye. However, it seems that the last few years have witnessed the rebirth of Australian rollerblading. Dom West’s Vine St documented the incredible scene in Sydney and Craig Smith’s Seven Rats showed the world that the skaters in Melbourne also have a lot to offer. Plus, let’s not forget that
the current WRS world number one is Sydney’s CJ Wellsmore. According to Drumm, it was simply a matter of rebuilding the community with grass roots events and online networks. “So much time has passed and so many things have happened that it’s hard to recall but some major things, from my perspective, were getting snuck into clubs at 15 for premieres of Aussie videos that blew my mind. Getting taken under the wing of the older guys and shown the streets by Clarky (Josh Clarke) and the rest of the crew. Tim Ward starting up a website for Melbourne bladers that kicked off his idea of a monthly street session for everyone who could make it called Skatemeets that spread all across the country and had more and more people going every time.” Over the past four years, several Australian bladers have created a massive following using online edits as a platform to display their blading skills. Rian Arnold has been making a name for himself with regular astounding online videos and Dom West’s CJ Wellsmore edit showed the world that the Remz rider is one of the most progressive all-round skaters the sport has ever seen. Drumm has also been doing his part to show the wealth of rollerblading talent that exists in Australia by releasing several online edits for previous skate sponsor USD and Sean Cullen’s INRI clothing company. Last year Drumm switched to Valo after he met Jon Julio while he was visiting the country with his team and the industry mogul was blown away by Drumm’s fast, aggressive style and competency on both street and park. “Jon (Julio) came over here with the crew in ’09,” he begins. “We got chatting and I showed him some blading. I was off the blades at the time due to a bad stack. I guess he heard I was back on the blades at some point because he hit me up with a message online soon after that just said: ‘Valo in 2010?’”
It must be an honour for any blader to get a personal message from a legendary street skating icon asking you to be on his team, but when you are a closet grommet like Drumm it is the ultimate compliment. Was Julio one of your childhood idols? “Of course, mate. It’s fuckin’ Julio! I have a photo of us and (Josh) Petty outside an old blade shop from years ago when he came through on a tour. I probably have an old, signed Daily Bread somewhere, too.” Drumm first got into rollerblading in 1994 when someone on his street introduced him to a rather questionable action thriller featuring troubled teen actor Corey Haim and hooked him up with his first pair of rollerbladers. Take note: This is how you get a kid hooked on blading. “My next door neighbour showed me Prayer of the Rollerboys - a b grade ‘90s film set in the future about a drug dealing blade gang that gets busted up by shredder and all-round rad dude, Griffin. It also had that babe, Patricia Arquette, in it. He then put a pair of TRS Lightnings on my feet and we hit the streets.” The 24-year-old graduated from university with a degree in fine art two years ago and has plans to complete a masters in the near future. However, he has put those plans on hold for a while in order to make the most of his youth and see how far he can push his rollerblading ability. After all, he realises that his body will only be able to endure the type of punishment that rollerblading hands out for so long and further education will always be there when his body has had enough. Any thoughts of a career after he is done with rollerblading have been pushed to the back of his mind for the time being. “I’m not really trying to focus on what the plan is once the dream is over blade or die.” Words: Louis Flood Photos: Hayden Golder
Pornstar to darkside truespin topside pornstar, 180 out
Backside backslide
Acid drop saftey grab
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Perpetually Disconnected Chicago MC Serengeti recently relocated to Los Angeles in bid to feel more involved but he is beginning to think that he doesn’t fit in anywhere.
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 39 Despite being little-known on this side of the Atlantic, Chicagoan MC Serengeti has spent the last decade establishing a reputation as one of underground hip hop’s most gifted storytellers. Unusually in a genre too often preoccupied with (admittedly often somewhat spurious) notions of authenticity and ‘realness’, Serengeti uses his raps to inhabit the personae and explore the lives of numerous fictional characters inspired by the blue-collar neighbourhoods of his hometown Chicago. Indeed, Chicago itself is almost as much a character in Serengeti’s world as, for example, Baltimore is in The Wire: references to the city’s radio stations, sports teams, hangouts and politics are woven through all of Serengeti’s narratives. Which is why, when I phoned to speak to him about his new album, Family and Friends, it came as something of a surprise to find a rather distracted seeming Serengeti driving around LA with a friend, having moved out there permanently a month previously. I began by asking him about collaborating with Yoni Wolf from Why? and Owen Ashworth, the artist formally known as Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. “With Yoni we spent a week together in the studio and just being around each other we came up with all the songs
from scratch. And with Owen he had the beat and then I’d go to his house and we’d record a track. It was very nice to work with both those fellows, it was really natural. There wasn’t pressure, there wasn’t anyone trying to make you sit down and do it and now we have a new album and I’m hoping people will like it.” Wheel Scene: Your music is characterised by the wide variety of styles and genres you’ve worked in – is that a conscious decision before you start recording an album or is it something that develops naturally out of the recording process? Serengeti: For this record I wanted to do some lo-fi and poppy stuff, and then the stuff I did with Polyphonic is like difficult music, and that was the plan. And I did some more rap stuff with the Dennehy album and that was planned to be a basic, boom-bappy type album and then with Tha Grimm Teachaz I wanted to do like a mad ‘90s album and so on and so forth. Rapping in character is quite unusual. Where do you get the inspiration for your characters? Working on the beer trucks for Budweiser and driving around the streets of Chicago for so many years and being kind of lonely a lot. I started writing,
writing, writing, writing and all of a sudden all these characters came from that. And to step out of your own life and take on someone else can be quite fun sometimes. That’s mostly what Family and Friends is, like little stories, little tales, little short strange tales. In the past you’ve been quite disparaging about hip hop. Can you tell me what it is you dislike about most hip hop? It’s just really boring to me, man, just the same things all over again, though most of those feelings probably come from being sour in general about my own situation, so I tend to take it out on things that I really care about. But it’s like this thing: redundant ideas over and over again. But there is a lot of fresh stuff coming out, and when I said that it was probably in the mid-2000s when to me it just seemed ultra, ultra, ultra lame, but now I hear stuff coming out and I’m like ‘Oh, this is really good, they’re fresh, they’re young’, so I want to take that back sorta. But people tell me that they feel the same way. I’m trying not to feel like that anymore, like ‘Oh, it’s all lame’, because that’s quite a weak thing to say, y’know? ‘Everything is so whack!’ I dunno.
Chicago seems really important to you – you say it inspires a lot of your characters and you reference a lot of local landmarks and culture in your lyrics. I don’t have a lot of civic pride like, y’know, getting all your guys together and going to play softball or barbecuing and there’s girlfriends around and stuff like that – I never really had that and that’s something that I wanted always but [recurring character] Kenny is kind of like a way for me to have that, Kenny and his wife and his buds, playing softball, and it’s all cool, it’s not like dark and lonely thoughts and stuff. I like Chicago a lot but it’s very, very segregated and stuff and I was getting kind of bored, but that could have just been me, but now that I’m out here in Los Angeles I long for Chicago so I’m kind of realising that I might not fit in anywhere. I’ve been here for one month. I don’t have a car and you can’t really get around out here without a vehicle. And it’s different because everybody out here does stuff: everyone’s a publicist or a record producer, but in Chicago you go out and it’ll be a bunch of Fed Ex employees, dudes who work for WalMart, really normal, blue collar people and I sort of miss that. Words: Ian Macbeth Photos: Jamye Joyce
“Now that I’m out here in Los Angeles I long for Chicago, so I’m kind of realising that I might not fit in anywhere.”
Whatever it Takes Nicolas Schopfer has been at the forefront of Swiss rollerblading for over a decade and he has a few ideas about what is required to get back in the public eye.
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 41 Switzerland is famous for many things, including cheese, watches and chocolate, as well as being the birthplace of the Red Cross. In terms of rollerblading, it has produced some outstanding skaters since the sport’s infancy in the ‘90s when Marc Dubied proved himself to be a powerhouse on the competition circuit and formed part of the mighty Roces team. Leading the current charge of Swiss skaters rising to prominence at an international level is Geneva’s Nicolas Schopfer. The 24-year-old has been a relentless force on the European rollerblading scene for years and possesses an enviable sponsorship list that consists of Xsjado, Undercover, Kaltik, Cloud Unique Tees and Searching For Jeans. That’s right, he’s got more endorsement deals than some of the top professionals in the sport and they seem to be multiplying all the time. Like many people that find their way into ‘aggressive skating’, Schopfer was first introduced to rollerblading through street hockey. “I was pretty much following my brother’s footsteps,” he advises. “I got these really crappy blades and played a bit of street hockey. Then I broke my wrist and my mom bought me rollerskates to roll around a bit faster. I got aggressive in those and within the next few months I got my first pair of Majestics. That was in 1996.” Schopfer has been making a name for himself all over the world by appearing in online edits with many of his friends, who just so happen to be internationally respected blading icons, as well as appearing at seminal events including Winterclash and X Games Asia. He has also embarked upon numerous tours in different parts of the world thanks to the extensive list of contacts he has won over with his infectious personality. Considering how much Schopfer has travelled over the years and all the stages of development he has seen the sport go through, it seems only fitting to ask how he believes the sport has changed since he first strapped on a pair of rollerblades over 15 years ago. “It has definitely grown up a lot, whether it’s about tricks, style, the industry and technologies put into blades. I think it’s all positive. There are also a lot of negative points in all of this; some people’s mentality and the “talk-shit” phenomenon. Luckily, it’s only a minority of bladers, so it doesn’t affect me so much anymore. I just decide to ignore it.”
The past couple of years have seen some exciting changes take place in rollerblading. Carbon fibre technology has been introduced to skates, making them lighter and stronger. The WRS has been set up to create the first governing body since the absolute joke that was the ASA back in the ‘90s and we are now at a stage where more and more former professionals are becoming company owners and taking charge of the industry. When asked about his thoughts on the current state of the sport, it is apparent that Schopfer believes there is still a long way to go and we should never forget the long, and often difficult, learning process that the sport and industry has gone through. “I think rollerblading will constantly be in an evolving state but, as I’ve been talking about it with a lot of friends, we’ve hit that crucial moment in time were the age gap between the oldschoolers that have been building all of this for us and the successors has become too big. Kids that have been blading for only a short time and had everything ready for them aren’t even conscious that the rolling industry is struggling to survive.” As the arguments rage on about what we need in order to grow as a sport and put money back into the industry, some people argue that the only way to do this is to create a skater-run industry. Others insist that we need mainstream acceptance and corporate involvement in order to ensure that our professional athletes are rewarded for the physical sacrifices they make in the name of helping the sport progress. Schopfer doesn’t claim to have the answer, but he does suggest that the utopian dream of having our entire industry consist of companies owned by skaters for skaters is a little naive. “I don’t know,” he begins. “I just want people to stop saying we need to stay underground and stay unique and all that stuff. We’ll never be recognised if we keep to ourselves. What Kevin Dowling did with that blading video was an amazing leap, but it needs to be that times a hundred!” When Schopfer is not travelling the globe and skating obstacles with the unique vision of a deranged architect, he can be found spending time with his girlfriend and cats or playing chess in the park with his friends. However, his other main passion is photography and he is currently doing everything he can to learn as much about his craft as pos-
sible. “I study photography,” he says. “I just got a diploma a few months ago and I am starting a full-time school in September for a higher degree.” Schopfer has been a busy boy this year. He has appeared in promotional edits for Kaltik and Undercover, as well as a brief online video that documented a short trip to Marseille and the refreshing travel video, The Malta Experience. It seems that every month he can be found conquering new obstacles in different cities across Europe and there is more to come as he recently finished filming for his section in the upcoming Kaltik team DVD, which is due to be released later this year. This is probably for the best, as he recently broke his fingers, which has put him out of commission for the rest of the summer - much to his disappointment. “It was just a stupid fall,” he responds when asked how it happened. “Those are always the ones that hurt the most. I basically fell face down with my hand under me and twisted some fingers and tore ligaments. Despite the fact that he is not able to skate at the level he would like for now, Schopfer is still regularly attending events and was recently spotted at this year’s High in the Park in Bulle, Switzerland. He is also planning to visit The Powerhouse later this year, so we could see another epic edit from The Conference once his fingers heal. “I think I’ll go film in Barcelona when I’m fully recovered, then we’ll see!” Words: Louis Flood Photos: Adam Kola and Alex Pittet
Backside royale to mute wallride, 180 out
Fishbrain
Backslide
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“I just want people to stop saying we need to stay underground and stay unique and all that stuff. We’ll never be recognised if we keep to ourselves.”
Behind the Lens: Dom West
If you look at the careers of some of the best rollerbladers in the world, many of them have been launched by great videographers. The Kelso brothers’ impressive blading talents first came to everyone’s attention thanks to the Chris Majette films, Apprehensions and Poetry in Motion. Joe Navran created the ‘sponsor me’ tape that scored Billy Prislin a deal with Senate and got him featured in the Videogroove series, and Adam Johnson’s early videos played a pretty big part in kickstarting the career of Alex Broskow. The skaters are indisputably the ones with the talent, but if that talent is not exposed to a wider audience they just become another local legend that ends up leaving the sport to pursue a stable career. Dom West is the latest videographer helping to build the careers of the next generation of blading icons. He is the British filmmaking talent behind the 2009 CJ Wellsmore online edit that generated over 27,000 views and made the Australian skater a worldwide blading sensation overnight. While it is true that Wellsmore was already an established professional on the international competition circuit, it was West’s well-crafted online video that brought his progressive street skating to the world’s attention and made him every blading fan’s new favourite athlete. The Londoner is also responsible for Vine St, the impressive scene film that documents the rapidly-developing rollerblading talent in Sydney, Australia. The 24-yearold has recently returned from his lengthy sabbatical in the Southern Hemisphere to attend university, so Wheel Scene caught up with him to discuss what he has got planned for the future.
I see that you are back in the UK now. Are you here permanently or are you going back to Australia? For the time being it is permanent, yes. I am going back to Uni to study some more and it’s not financially-feasible for me to do so in Australia. Once my studies are done, I plan to return again for sure. You recently released Vine St. Tell us a little about the creative process that went into the video? Vine St simply came about through living with a bunch of friends that liked to skate and party together. A couple of weeks after I arrived in Australia, I moved into a house with a bunch of bladers on Vine St, near the centre of Sydney. Once we had released a few online edits, we decided that we were going to try to make something cool. I was also helping Rian and Richie film a Xsjado and USD video respectively, both of which fell through. Once we had everyone on board, it was simply a matter of going out and having fun skating whilst documenting it. Some might argue that your online edit of CJ Wellsmore made him an international sensation. Did you expect such a huge reaction to the video? I think CJ was already on his way to becoming something big in rollerblading, especially with his performances at the major competitions. I do think the edit helped to establish him as a well-rounded skater, as it was the first street skating some people had seen of him. Is making videos a full-time job for you or do you work anywhere else to support yourself? No, my video work is simply a hobby that I have developed through skating over the years. When I was in Australia I worked in the skate shop with CJ and the crew, working as a skate coach and on the shop floor. I’m going to keep my video work up on the side, so maybe at some point in the future I’ll try to make some money from it. Have you got any upcoming projects you are working on? Now that I’m back in the UK I will be helping a few people out with filming for various projects. Other than that, I have some footage from my last couple of months in Sydney and I am filming some stuff from my travels this summer, so I will probably make some online material with that. Come September I’m going to be studying full-time, so blading and filming are going to take a bit of a back seat, but I will always be playing with the camera when I go skating. Which blading videos have you enjoyed recently? I really like the way Traitement was put together. It has a very organic feel to it and it was good to finally see another full Mathieu Heinemann section. Valo 4 Life was put together very cleanly and I appreciate the effort that went into gaining music rights. CHARG!NG was also very re-watchable and showcased some really interesting skating. What do you think about the current state of the sport? I think the current state of the sport is great. The standard is higher than ever and there are a lot of very talented people involved. But really I think people need to stop worrying about the sport’s state and just go out and skate and enjoy it for what it is. What would you like to see change? Not too much really, although it would be nice to see more people on blades every day.
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 45 Texan producer and musician Spencer Stephenson takes time out of his busy social networking schedule to explore ambient electronica.
20 Minutes with:
Twitter has a lot to answer for. Since the birth of the microblogging service in 2006, every moron with a laptop and an internet connection has found their voice – and this is no good thing. People “tweet” about everything from the colour of underwear they have chosen to adorn themselves in that day to what they ate for breakfast before going about their pointless lives. Unless you are following Stephen Fry, who regularly likes to impart wisdom upon his loyal subjects, it is likely that most of the posts found on the disgustingly popular site make for pointless reading. However, it does offer the opportunity to ridicule individuals when their Twitter habits are brought up during conversation. This is exactly what happened when Texas-based producer Spencer Stephenson, who makes music under the moniker Botany, came under fire about the seemingly-endless list of tweets that express his love for the Eminem hip hop drama 8 Mile and apparent disgust for the team “beatsmith”. “I think I realised recently that Twitter and me were not made for each other,” he concedes after brief laughter that hints at embarrassment. “My Twitter negativity aside, I was just being facetious about these micro-journalist terms that become cliché very quickly. As soon as I started to read the word ‘beatsmith’ all over these music articles about new artists I started thinking, ‘Oh oh, buzz word!’ I was just trying to be comical.” Therein lies the problem with Twitter; it is sometimes difficult to convey sarcasm in 140 characters. Twitter indiscretions aside, the producer and multi-instrumentalist from Weatherford, the peach capital of Texas, has been steadily making a name for himself since the digital release of his debut EP, Feeling Today, at the end of last year. In October, he will release the same EP in physical form on Western Vinyl, much to his own surprise. “It came out digitally a long time ago,” says Stephenson. “We put a modest collection of tracks together to let people know I was around and I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would.” Botany’s debut EP stinks of potential. The five-track sampler plays like the soundtrack to a utopian fantasy, complete with shimmering percussion and delicate vocal harmonies. Each track stems from a grandiose collection of carefully-selected samples to which Stephenson applies his multi-instrumental talents to create downtempo pop songs that flirt between trip hop, psychedelia and ambient electronica - striking a perfect balance between organic and electronic sounds. A similar approach to that adopted by Daniel Snaith of Caribou fame, whom Stephenson refers to as one of his “earliest heroes”.
“All of my friends started playing metal music and I wanted to make something melodic and spacey - but that didn’t go over well with my 13-year-old friends. I started to experiment with sounds on my own and when I was 15 my brother gave me a pirated copy of Fruity Loops and I just went crazy with it.” For a while Stephenson released tracks under the alias Abacus, and quickly gained attention from music webzine Pitchfork, but despite this welcome exposure he sought an alternative upon realising that there were already several musicians playing under the same name. “I only released a couple of tracks as Abacus when I was 20-years-old,” he says. “It was the name I had before I switched to Botany and it turns out there were quite a few abacuses in the world. Plus, I like Botany. I think the music I make is inspired by nature in a lot of ways and the more I thought about that source of inspiration the more the name Botany came to mind.” Words: Jeanie Rogers Photo: Edwards
Botany “I wanted to make something melodic and spacey - but that didn’t go over well with my 13-year-old friends.”
“I usually make a bed of samples and play instruments over them. I started out on drums as a kid and over the years I learned my own ways of playing guitar and bass. Bass guitar is a huge part of the Botany recordings. I also have a Native American flute from a guy in my hometown that makes them by hand and I use that a lot, too.” The 23-year-old has been making his own music in various forms for as long as he can remember and stumbled upon the idea of electronic music after listening to the sounds emanating from his older brother’s bedroom. He had no idea at the time what he was listening to, but he knew the effect it had on him and was keen to develop his own.
“When I was a kid, before I had any idea what kind of music I liked, my brother was really into drum and bass and Aphex Twin and all that kind of stuff. I picked up on something about electronic music from my brother and he had a primitive drum machine that I would run through my guitar pedal. I have always had a vague concept of the kind of sound I wanted to go for.” Stephenson played in several high school garage bands growing up, but as he was discovering the many different avenues he could explore with a laptop production suite, he also found that his friends did not share his tastes. Fortunately, his obsession had gone too far by this point and nothing was going to stand in the way of achieving the sounds that he pictured in his mind.
Fighting
Talk
One of West Midlands’ most promising up-and-comers, James Pearce, gets confrontational.
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From an early age James Pearce has had a competitive spirit. Venturing back several years, he would be seen throwing his long skeletal limbs at Coventry’s now defunct Zero G Skatepark’s few competitions, battling anyone who came in his way. He has mostly left this part of his nature behind, as he now only shows this side of his personality upon the arrival of a new blader on his territory. “We’ve got some competition boys!” he exclaims as a ten-year-old girl speeds past on her pink recreational skates. After drinking some hard to swallow protein shakes, consuming an infinite amount of Tesco meal deals and stomping countless mini ramp stalls, James has beefed up his physique and skating skills, which is more than apparent in his most recent edit, which you can find on Vimeo. James cares a lot about what his skating looks like and will happily land a trick multiple times until it has been done to perfection. “I guess you know when the trick feels right,” says James. “You know when it’s the one. But sometimes when you think something is good, you look back at it and it looks like my ball sack.” When talking about influential skaters, James is quick to mention Danny Grantham, known for his outstanding skill and humble, modest nature. Danny still holds the torch for the Coventry skate scene and his personality is highly infectious, influencing many of Coventry’s skaters. James reminisces: “I remember when we were skating Epic once and out of nowhere Danny did a hurricane top soul on the rail that used to be there with a little bottle of vodka in his back pocket - changed my life.”
Rollerblading is an incredibly addictive pastime, but there are not many people who actually dream about it as much as James does. “I think about skating all the time,” he advises. “It’s strange to think of how normal people see the world. I just see it as a playground. Skating is shit at times but the fucking best
Alleyoop x-grind
James is notorious for spinning a serious conversation on its head. After some convincing, he explains his thought process when approaching a trick. “Nothing much has changed about the way I try and get juiced for a trick, except whatever music I’m into. Having something loud and full of energy blasting through my ear holes gets me in the right frame of mind - especially stuff that has a really good peak in the song. Stuff like Health and The Mars Volta are always good to me. I fast-forward it to that same point every time and build up ‘til I don’t give a shit about anything but doing the trick. It seems the angrier I get, the better I skate.” This definitely applies to James whilst watching films also, enjoying his music on the side. He can literally do two, maybe three things at once it seems - a rare talent to be seen in a man.
Backside savannah
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“It seems the angrier I get, the better I skate.”
James is currently working a full-time job, which he cycles 40 minutes to and from. He is relatively new to the fixed gear bike scene, but is in no way interested in being a part of the in-crowd. “I just got it cheap,” he offers. “And it’s so much faster than the mountain bike I was borrowing. I haven’t had any near death experiences yet, although I did flip and fall on my face the other day. Lucky I had my cap on - could be dead! Keeps me fit as well, it’s worth the danger!”
Backside backslide
A promising career in radio production was James’ main priority before concentrating on his skating. A year into university, he decided to pack it in and come back home. “I want to leave finishing all that for a while,” he says. “I was going to head back this year but I decided against it. I love skating too much to risk putting it second and not achieving my full potential whilst I’m young. I’m happy just skating and working at the moment, and my group of friends are always good to be around.”
at times. I don’t see how people can just live life without a strong passion like skating. I’m lucky to have found something so different and personal to me.”
James thinks things should change. “If you ever want to skate Coventry with us then message me on Facebook. My friends and I will happily show you a decent tour and you will love us to bits.”
His opinions and standards have always been high when it comes to rollerblading. James doesn’t like to suppress his feelings about such an important subject. “I don’t like how the UK has been represented over the past few years. It’s always the same people you see in the magazines or on the Internet. Not to say they don’t deserve it, but there are more areas to cover than Manchester, London and Brighton.”
Rollernews is a common topic of conversation amongst skaters recently, brewing a lot of controversy and criticism. “I don’t want to see anymore cheap dubstep edits. A lot of skaters take themselves way too seriously while skating. It annoys me how people purposely skate little things to be creative, just go fucking massive and creative.”
“The clique is so noticeable at competitions, or if you skate other cities. There’s always this air of arrogance. I remember when I was younger and our group would bump into some well-known skaters, and not a single word was said to us. A friend was trying to speak to one of these guys once and was just looked at like he was a weirdo. Same people doing the same things today.”
“I like bladers who care to pick their spots specifically for the aesthetics and for certain tricks, that sugar tits trick, and not just filming two or three sessions with five tricks per day on the same spots. You can overdo it - sometimes less is more. It doesn’t have the same feeling when watching. It’s a shame when you see the process is rushed in an edit because it’s often the case that a wasted opportunity goes by. You can tell the difference easily.”
Immersing himself in the here and now, rollerblading is his focus. “I just want to travel around and drop edits as much as I can. I definitely need to have my future sorted out in terms of having a realistic career, but that’s grown up stuff. I want to push my skating before my body can’t take it anymore. I’d hate to regret not going for it because it’s been a big part of my life for so long.” Words: Paul Daly Photos: Sam Cooper
Denial Clothing was formed in 2000 by up-and-coming filmmaker Chris Majette. The promising videographer managed to score a distribution deal for his blading videos thanks to some help from mentor Dave Paine and used releases Apprehensions (2000), Poetry in Motion (2001) and Heart (2002) to promote the brand on an international scale. By 2002, Denial had one of the most impressive teams in the rollerblading industry including Chris Farmer, Sean Kelso, Colin Kelso, Chris Cheshire and Rob Thompson. The clothing brand released the hugely influential team video Underestimated the same year. Soon afterwards, Denial released the equally impressive follow-up, Opinions. However, after the formation of Genre Wheels and several years of relatively little output from the brand, it was unclear whether or not Denial was still trading. Majette joined forced with close friend and former Team Rollerblade rider Adam Killgore to create Denial Print Co in 2007 and since then things seem be back on track. Genre Wheels has been shut down in order to put more focus on the other brands and they have created an intimidating team roster that consists of Montre Livingston, Jacob Juul, Mark Wojda and respected veteran Cameron Card. Majette was kind enough to sit down with us and offer a few insights into what we can expect from Denial in the upcoming year. There have been quite a lot of changes on the Denial front recently. Can you give us an update? You will see a major update soon via the website. We have consolidated brands and are ready to get back to where we need to be! Why did you decide to put an end to Genre? It made more sense for us to focus on one brand since we have been super busy with other projects we had going on (Denial Print Co, Dub Caesar and Neglected Truth). We could put more focus on one team, one set of products and one website, which you will see come out in the very near future. A lot of good changes are on the way. What is going on with the Big Cartel site? There doesn’t seem to be much on there. We do not really like to market our products on our Big Cartel site. We mainly use that for products we are running out of, or if we find some things laying around the warehouse. We want the focus to be on the skate shop. The skate shop is where it all starts for kids. We want them to be able to walk into a shop and purchase our products directly from there. Without skate shops there would be significantly less skaters. The skate shop is where it all comes together. You can go in, hang out, meet local skaters and check out products first hand. We would rather sell stuff to skate shops than on our own online store any day.
Mute air
Inside the Industry:
What new products have you guys got planned for this year? Montre and Mark have new wheels about to drop. Later in the year we have a few surprises. Also, we have some urethane antis back in the making and a flat rocker wheel! Who is currently riding for the brand now? The pro team is Montre Livingston, Mark Wojda, Matthias Ogger, Jacob Juul and Cameron Card. You guys recently released a Cameron Card pro wheel, which is rare as most companies steer away from releasing products for skaters that are no longer in the limelight. What do you think of rollerblading’s tendency to push out older skaters? Rollerbladers, like most people, focus on the now. They have forgotten their roots. Hell, most of the kids nowadays don’t even know where tricks came from or who most of the older pros are. They are really missing out on an important aspect of the sport - its history! Cameron has by no means slowed down skating. He has had many setbacks in the recent years, such as injuries, and many significant life changes, like getting married. That is no reason to forget about him or throw him out of the industry. He is exactly what the industry needs; he has a dedication and a love for blading. He still skates all the time and you will be seeing much more from him in the future. Be sure to check out his I Just Love To Roll contest to win a year’s supply of his pro wheel! Are there any plans to release a new Denial video in the near future? Right now we have no plans on releasing a full length video. We did have some of the team in town to film a few weeks ago, so expect a bunch of online shorts soon with the new website launch. What do you think rollerblading is lacking at the moment? You can reference my above post about our Big Cartel. It lacks core shops - a place for bladers to get together and sit down and hang, check out new products first hand - not with a high resolution photo on some website. What is the scene like in Philly these days? The Philly scene has had its ups and downs but do not be fooled, it’s still solid. Most of us have grown up and have full-time day jobs, families and even kids, but we still blade. We just do not film as much as we should maybe, but that is all about to change. Me and Shuda just bought cameras, so it’s on!
Soul
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Over the years, Oriol ‘Oli’ Benet has been bestowed with many titles: Pro skater, DJ, company owner, tour guide, product developer and agony aunt - to name a few. One thing that can never be said about the man is that he is lazy. The Barcelona-based blader-turned-businessman has promoted rollerblading through various platforms including a hugely popular clothing brand, numerous television appearances and his tireless work with the various companies that fall under The Conference umbrella. It is safe to say that he is one of the hardest working men in the rollerblading industry, and that is no mean feat, so we decided to find out how he got involved in the business side of blading and what exactly that involves. How did you get into rollerblading and what year was that? I got my first skates when I was eight years old - some Bauer Turbo quads. My cousin had bought them in a boot sale but they were too big for him, so he sold them to me. Well, he sold them to my parents, as my finances weren’t at their best back then. My first inline skates were Roces LAX when I was about 14, so I guess around 1995. How did you start working for The Conference? I was on the Razors team but I really didn’t like the skates. I decided to buy some Deshi skates and quit the Razors team. I emailed Deshi to tell them about myself and my love of their skates, and Mark Korte decided to send me a pair of skates and “watch me”. A few months later, the head of Powerslide was using me to test all the new products. At the time I was in sales for a big import/ export company, making good money and getting a lot of experience in business. When the guys at The Conference realised that I knew what I was doing they decided to offer me a job. What is your position exactly? My position has evolved through a number of departments but I consider myself co-aggressive manager with Bauer and JC Rowe, although I also do much of the customer support, proof-reading, texts, organisation of the websites, video intros, Facebook accounts, marketing, fitness and longboard shoots. Call me Mr. Odd Job, I guess! How long have you been working for The Conference? It’s been over seven years now. I love it! What are your tasks on a daily and weekly basis? I provide daily updates on The Conference, USD, Kizer and Undercover Wheels sites, as well as the Facebook accounts. I answer almost all of the emails from customers to any of the sites, all booking of European and international riders, sponsorship deals, promotion to all media websites, promotion to the public, emails, development of new products and tours. Whatever needs to get done, really.
Since The Powerhouse has opened how have things changed for the brand? For me it’s been a real headache. We have lost the budget for riders, tours and advertising, and focused a lot of attention on the house. We have got a lot of stuff done for sure; interviews and epic sections, as well as being able to push lesser-known riders. But at the same time it’s like a full-time tour in your own city, which is quite tiresome. Still, it’s a success and it’s still a really exciting project that is churning out quality photos and videos like there is no tomorrow. What happened to Stygma? Stygma did really well and I loved it. The problem with clothing in a skate market (notice they have almost all gone) is that if you want to make money you have to get in line with fashion timing and stores, otherwise you’re not going to make a penny. When you have to make so many sizes and so many designs for one clothing line, you almost need a designer or two working full-time. The simple fact is that making hardware is what we are good at and what the designers are there for, and we realised that spending so many hours on T-shirt designs to not have a market for it was taking away valuable time on getting the best looking and performing hardware to customers. Getting into the fashion market needs real commitment, otherwise you are just a skate T-shirt brand and that’s not something a distribution and manufacturing company like The Conference needs to be focusing on when there’s already so much work to do on the hardware side of things. Do you have any projects that you are working on that you can tell us about? Get ready for aggressive 2.0. I can leak to you that Powerblading is about to be a lot more real than people expected. We’re putting a lot of faith and investment into the project and it’s about to happen. It’s extremely exciting. Also, we are working on the Xsjado 2.0 and other progressions. Are there any more new products we can expect this year? Any more pro models? Lots! Richie Eisler, Don Bambrick, Jeff Stockwell, JC Rowe and Dominic Sagona. We’re holding nothing back this year! What would you like to see change in the sport/ industry? Well, that’s a hard question. I guess more European representation at a high level, less hate in general, (it’s ridiculous the amount of haters in this sport) more money so skaters aren’t so bitter and because our pro and am skaters deserve to get paid better. Oh, and Powerblading - of course! Photo: Kiku Comino
Handplant
Who the Hell is Justin Brasco? If you are reading this and wondering why you have never heard of Justin Brasco, fear not. The New York blader rarely appears in online edits and if you blinked while watching either of The Truth videos by Austin Paz and the Kelso brothers, you probably missed him. Brasco is the muscular guy that appears in the montage sections and lands some bloody hard tricks. This is not particularly surprising, as there are talented new skaters popping up all the time that show a lot of promise. It’s the fact that he skates the same obstacles as the profiled skaters and manages to land much better tricks, which indicates that we may have witnessed another east coast legend in the making without realising it. Right now, it seems like Justin Brasco has it all. He owns a successful business, skates for several of the most respected companies in the industry and travels the country with some of the best rollerbladers in the world. However, it wasn’t that long ago that the pressures of everyday life and lack of career options almost pushed Brasco away from blading. Fortunately, he took inspiration from his close group of friends and found the drive to continue blading. Wheel Scene caught up with Brasco to find out how he got into the sport and discovered that we should be seeing a lot more of him in the future.
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 53 Tell us a little bit about yourself? I’m 27, which is the new 21, and I feel better than I did at 16. I’ve been skating for about 13-14 years - almost half of my life. I skate for USD, Undercover and Casualty. I’m living in Massapequa with some friends. It’s an hour outside of Manhattan, in the suburbs, with a tight skate scene and it’s close to the beach. I can’t complain. How did you get into rollerblading? Back when I first started, around ‘97, I was living in Brooklyn and, unlike Long Island, it was real big and very diverse. There were tonnes of kids doing all different things. My neighbours were a lot older and skateboarded all day, smoked pot and listened to Rage against the Machine. They had girls that would just sit back and stare while they attempted kickflips for hours. At the time, I was a 4ft loner and idolised them. Skateboarding wasn’t my thing, so my parents bought me some cheesy recreational blades from the store. I rolled around a bunch, jumping chairs and garbage cans in my backyard, until I felt comfortable to hit the street with my boys. I had friends from all over Brooklyn that skated. They were killing it and made me want to start so bad. I tossed my skates and went out and got some Rollerblade Chocolates, and from there I couldn’t stop. I have seen a few clips of you in The Truth videos but other than that there hasn’t been much footage of you floating around. Where have you been hiding? For a while, I fell off. I was stressing about my future, girlfriends, school and life in general. I put skating aside, and when I skated it didn’t feel the same. It wasn’t fun anymore. Luckily, life started to fall into place a little better and I realised I can’t take life too seriously. I got back out there and started skating a lot more. I began skating a lot to film for The Truth DVDs. While doing this, I saw Fish (Billy O’Neill), (Austin) Paz, the Kelsos and everyone just going all out and killing it. They were so determined and loved skating. It made me realise I needed to focus more and give skating my all because I love it so much. Since then, we have taken an annual trip every January for the past four years or so to skate and put out some edits. We filmed for the The Truth, kept travelling and I have a lot of footage out there. There should be a bunch of edits dropping very soon. I’m pretty excited. What is the scene like in New York at the moment? The scene in New York has always been big. Rollerblading, especially in New York, is so random. You have the new kids who skate and know nothing about the history of it, don’t read any magazines or check sites, don’t know the tricks or even care about anything other than their blades and their crew. You always have the legends skating through, which is amazing. The guys who helped develop skating are still out there, well into their 30s, with grown man lives, coming out and going harder than ever. It is so inspiring. You can head into the city on any day and link up with a session. Different groups have been making sites, magazines and throwing parties. Everyone comes together to promote rollerblading all over the city. I skate with Austin Paz, Adam Caroselli, Neil Diskin and Bobby Reichel all around NY, and then Mike Torres and Tim Adams and their gang have a big squad and we go on trips.
What do you do when you are not blading? When I’m not blading my life consists of a mix of working, chilling with friends and travelling. Currently, I’m enjoying the summer out in NY. I want to try and find time to draw more. I put art on the back burner after college. It’s a shame to not use my talent, but there’s sometimes not enough time in the day. I have a house with four of my friends, so every day is always a good time. There are always people travelling through that need a place to crash and are looking to have fun. I’m truly blessed right now to have a lot of good things going on in my life. I understand that you run your own business. Can you tell us a little about that? It’s a company operated and owned by my cousin and I. It’s a real estate company and a mortgage bank. I never had a job with a boss looking over my shoulder and set hours, so this was the right path for me. There was no way I was going to able to handle a nine-to-five, pencil-pushing position. After school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I went to art college, and it was super hard finding a job. This whole real estate game I kind of fell into at the right, yet very wrong, time. I started when the economy was totally going to hell, the real estate market was flopping and sales were terrible. Luckily, with some ambition, good contacts and luck, I was able to create a very profitable business. Since then, working in real estate has been a lot of fun, especially because I can make my own hours. As long as I have my Blackberry, I can travel, skate and party while running a company. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always on my phone, but it’s better than being stuck behind a cubicle in an office. What does the future look like for Justin Brasco? The future looks bright. I’m focused and I’m only getting older, so now is a better time than ever to accomplish everything I want. Getting sponsored by USD and Undercover has given me a lot of motivation to skate. It’s nice to know there are people out there that appreciate your skating enough to support you and keep you skating. I don’t want to be one of those guys who gets sponsored and then stops skating and just rolls around with fresh skates and product. I want to try and pump out edits and photos as often as possible. Right now, I’m working on some stuff with X-Rated (Jon Jenkins) and Mike Torres. My main goal for the future, as far as skating goes, is to travel more. I want to get over to Europe (Barcelona especially) and I have also been working on setting up a trip to Australia for this upcoming November to skate and rage out with my buddy (Matthias) Ogger. Business is good, so I’m able to focus on the things I love the most. Words: Louis Flood Photos: Nick Demarchi
Expect the Unexpected Genre-defying Dutch electronic producer Martyn is setting out to catch fans off guard with his sophomore release.
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 55 “I always find it a bit strange the way people assume you will do what they already know of you. I wanted to make an album of music that fits with my sound right now, regardless of any expectations.” Gearing up for the release of his second album, Ghost People, Dutch-producer Martyn appears ready to disappoint those who might be hungry for a Great Lengths mark II. Tapping into his musical past and present as a DJ and producer, his fulllength debut fused elements of house, techno, drum and bass and dubstep to create a bass-heavy sound which defied any genre-specific tag, helping it earn widespread critical acclaim and top ten spots in numerous end of year charts. While Martyn concedes that this success might have tempted him to stick to the same formula for his follow-up, he’s keen to move on from the moody, melancholic feel of Great Lengths, as he explains: “That was my vibe then, things are different now. You evolve as you go through life. At each given moment you will have a different state of mind so all the music you make alongside life’s events will evolve too. It will always be a reflection of your state of mind; things have changed for me since my first album. I feel I’m a different person and I hope Ghost People will show this.” Certainly, his more recent productions on Aus Music, Ostgut Ton and All City all seem to point to more of a consolidated focus on the 4/4 rhythms of house and techno, a fact further confirmed by the freshly released single ‘Masks’. “That track is definitely house and techno-orientated, but it also has lots of dissonant synths and lasers that kind of overpower the rest of the music,” says Martyn. “As a whole, this album is darker than my first; it’s got more of an energetic, anxious vibe that’s quite unsettling. I moved in this direction because of all the boring music I had heard while touring as a DJ; I wanted to make something which tickled the brain a bit more.” Aside from this change in atmosphere, Martyn has also decided to forego the collaborations of Great Lengths that saw Instra:mental’s dBridge and Kid Drama, as well long-time Kode9 collaborator, SpaceApe, add vocals to some of its tracks. “Nowadays, it’s almost mandatory to have a few features on your album; it’s kind of expected of you. When I first started writing the album I kept thinking about who I would like to work with, then I decided to just stick to my own guns and write it completely on my own. This only changed right at the end of the process when I asked Spaceape to provide a spoken-word intro.”
Though he might have been expected to release Ghost People on his own 3024 label, in what perhaps seems like a surprising change of direction, he has chosen put it out on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint. However, after Martyn explains the reasons behind this move, his motives become clearer: “As I run 3024, I spent a good four or five months promoting Great Lengths, doing a lot of the production behind it, sorting out the artwork and this kept me away from working on new material. At the end of the process, I got a chance to reflect on how much time I’d wasted rather than focussing on my music. I decided that it would make more sense to put the responsibility for releasing my second album in the hands of someone more capable.” Fortunately, his friendship with Flying Lotus meant he could take up his offer of help. The pair initially got to know one another through a mutual appreciation of each other’s music; they then swapped remixes before meeting face-to-face for the first time when Martyn was booked to play a Brainfeeder event in LA. Since then, he’s performed alongside Brainfeeder artists at Sonar in Barcelona and New York. “It’s nice the way Brainfeeder is set-up,” Martyn comments. “There are just a few people who constantly work on the label even when FlyLo is touring. They’re really enthusiastic and on it 24 hours a day, so I definitely feel that I’m in good hands.” “I also like Flylo’s philosophy,” he continues. “Brainfeeder’s too often put in this instrumental hip hop category but he’s actually keen to put out a widerange of music; he released a jazz album recently and is working with an artist called Thundercat, who’s a bass player. He’s also re-issued a Mr Oizo album, so there’s a little bit of everything on the label now which is really exciting and helps give him the freedom he wants.” Although two tracks from Ghost People, ‘Masks’ and ‘Viper’, have already been released on Brainfeeder as a single, Martyn confesses he has no specific long-term plan to remain with the label beyond this album. “Hopefully, Flylo and I will do some video work together, organise a nice launch party in LA and arrange some remixes, but I’ve not really thought beyond this - to be honest.” Indeed, he reveals that his main focus in the immediate future is to work on perfecting his live performances.
“It’s kind of a new direction for me. I decided that it would be good to get creative with my own music and put together some sort of live set. In the last two years I’ve DJ’d at a lot of festivals and I began to realise that once I finished my set, people would walk away not really knowing the type of music I make because I will usually just play other artists’ records. Aside from the creative aspect, I knew that if I played live my music would gain a lot more exposure and obviously festivals and larger events offer the best opportunities because a lot of the audience probably won’t have heard of you.” Apart from forthcoming performances at the Flow, Outlook and Decibel Festivals, he’s also planning some special European events to celebrate the release of Ghost People, as he discloses: “I’m working with my friend, Erosie, who does all the artwork for 3024. We’re planning something special that will help to manifest Ghost People visually. There’s events organised for Berlin and London and we’re in the process of arranging more dates.” Words: Colin Chapman Photo: Maris Eisl
Where are they now?
Andy Kruse A long time ago, back when there were only a handful of “aggressive” skates available on the market and they all came with brakes fitted to the back of the frames, a pioneering generation of rollerbladers existed that played a huge part in shaping our sport and their influence extends to this day. One of those bladers was Andy Kruse. The dorky kid from Atlanta, Georgia created the sweatstance, a trick that remains popular despite the rapid progression of the sport over the last 20 years. Kruse featured in some of the rollerblading’s most influential videos, including Hoax 2: Anarchy Across America. We decided to catch up with the former K2 rider to find out what he has been doing with himself since he stopped blading professionally. For the kids that don’t remember the early ‘90s, can you tell us a little about your pro skating career? I had two phases to my pro career: One was back in the early days of rollerblading, the mid ‘90’s. Those were the glory days of the sport, when it was new, huge, and there was lots of money in it. This was when I skated for K2 and we were all riding Fattys. We got paid proper and travelled all over the world skating, but I dropped out after about three years and went to finish college.
Then I came back to the scene in 2000 by starting Skatepile with Tom (Hyser) and Frankie (Loscavio). That was when I went pro for USD. During those days, the sport had mellowed out a little as far as the hype and the money, but it was actually a much stronger entity with a real history and a solid base of true lifers. Guys were owning companies and designing products while still skating hard at the same time. Both phases were good for their own reasons. What was it about rollerblading that first attracted you to the sport? I was always a sports guy, until high school when I was getting into too much trouble to make the teams. Rollerblades were a fun way to be active and test your balls and agility at the same time. I was attracted to the rush it gave me along with the sense of freedom and rebellion against society that it expressed. You invented the sweatstance. What is the story behind that? Yeah, I came up with that one. For a long time I was fascinated with figuring out all the ways you could grind on a skate. No one was really messing with the side part of the frame as an actual grinding surface, so I just tweaked myself until I could grind on that part of the skate and the sweatstance is how I ended up.
Why did you eventually decide to stop living the pro skater lifestyle? Pro skating was a lot of fun, but the lifestyle is hard on the body all-round. I never took it quite as far as the others because I was always cautious about getting permanently hurt and worrying about coverage or competitions was never really my style of skating. I also never planned on being a lifer in the industry. I had too many other dreams and goals I wanted to accomplish. So it was sort of a blessing in disguise when times got tough at Skatepile and we needed people to bow out. This is when I officially retired you could say. Do you still skate regularly or has it taken a back seat? Yes and yes. When I’m in my regular pattern, I skate about once a week. It’s the right amount to keep me comfortable and strong on my skates, but not wear too much on my body so that I can last for years to come. It has taken a back seat since it is only a hobby I do for fun, but it is still important in that it keeps me young and keeps my body in touch with itself. What do you think about the current state of the sport? I don’t really follow it much. Just here and there and trying to make an event
every once in a while. I know that I rarely see random rollerbladers around, but when I go to an event, it’s huge. So it seems to be a permanently strong underground culture. Even though it doesn’t make for big money, I like that because it’s unique and not trendy, and those involved are in it for the right reasons. What are you doing with yourself these days? A lot has gone down in the past two years. I married a Finnish girl that I met there back in the day travelling with K2. I’ve since moved to Finland and we’ve had a boy called Miles. My wife used to be K2 Finland’s female skater so he probably has some skating genes. I’m also currently writing a Masters thesis in Anthropology and working as a substitute teacher at an international school. Life is moving!
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Soap Box
causing the problems? People use drugs to escape reality because reality is painful and I would think that you would be angrier at the creators of the pain than you would at the people who are selling the sedative to it, or the people who are addicted to it.
Since his first appearance on Outkast’s Grammy-winning Stankonia back in 2001, Killer Mike has built a reputation as one of the most articulate and uncompromising, if underrated, rappers in contemporary hip hop. This summer saw him complete his epic I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind trilogy with Pl3dge, an album that, like its predecessors, manages to combine bass-heavy club tracks with some of the most righteously-outraged political commentary heard on a major rap album for far too long. Wheel Scene: One of the most refreshing things about Pl3dge is how almost confrontationally political it is. Do you have any thoughts about why that kind of political rap isn’t as fashionable now as it once was? Killer Mike: I don’t give a damn about either political party, I don’t give a damn about any political party – I give a damn that the politicians treat the people fairly. People wonder how I can rap about partying and then have such politicised songs like ‘Burn’ but really it’s not political, it’s social. I believe that
the freedoms I have are worth dying for and when I see that my freedoms are being infringed upon I want to push back, and I think all people are like that and I always want to have a voice for that on my records because that’s just as much a part of your life as partying and drinking, as falling in love and getting married. As a member of society, you’re affected by these decisions that you don’t make, that are made by the people at the top. I don’t know why it fell out of rap but it’ll never fall out of my rap because I’m a full human so I have to speak to the full human experience. I refuse to accept anything other than what’s promised to me and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were promised to me. I’m not going to trade that in for safety, I’m not going to allow banks to rape me, to borrow my money and then re-rape me – I’m going to say something. I feel compelled to and I don’t see how any human being can’t. People will spit on a drug dealer, but a drug dealer is selling a fantasy for people to escape real problems – why don’t we despise the people who are
You’re very outspoken about members of the black elite who you feel have betrayed their roots; for instance you have a long-running beef with Oprah. KM: There’s plenty of the black elite that I could speak on but I only speak on those who speak on people on the bottom. Dr. Cosby targeted black parents, in particular, but the problem with targeting black parents is that they are educated in the same system that is educating their children. So a $25 million endowment to a historically black college helps – and I went to one of those colleges; I went to Morehouse, probably one of the most prestigious black universities in the world – but giving money to the kids who made it out is not as helpful as giving money to kindergarteners or preschools and giving those kids a chance. If you really want to affect change in your community, you should be starting with the least of them, and those are the children of the parents you’re criticising. And as for Oprah Winfrey, she has direct criticism on hip hop, and I am not saying that anyone is wrong for criticising hip hop, but you are wrong to criticise when you know your audience is middle white America, so you give middleclass white people the excuse to hate all black culture based on a few rappers. There are rappers that have done work that is comparable to Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison. There are epic writers that she could have showcased but she chose not to. I call her to task: if you’re going to say that American kids only want iPods and they don’t care about real learning and things of that nature, if you want to say that American kids are caught up on materialism, why are you giving shit away on your show? That only feeds the materialism. Even our president, reminding us that we got a problem, that we all can’t be Lil’ Waynes, we all can’t be rappers, but I have to say on the side of the young men on the bottom that black men in America have double unemployment. Our unemployment rate is double the national average so I have to call you to task and say: ‘Well, what kind of job programmes are you creating specifically for black men in these urban areas?’ So it’s not me attacking or not liking rich or elite blacks, it’s just saying that if you have the influence, the power or the resources to bring any kind of substantive change, we’re here and we’re willing to welcome that change but we’re not going to keep silently sitting by while we’re criticised by our rich uncles and aunts.
Is it ever hard to strike the right balance between the politics and the party on an album? KM: Let me ask you something, just as a human being: have you ever been really pissed off at a law that was passed, or denied, in the UK? Have you ever been really pissed off with the government? I’m sure you didn’t go bomb anything, didn’t set anything ablaze, you may have fought in the streets but that didn’t last long. But at some point that weekend did you end up in a pub getting shitfaced drunk, singing songs with your friends? Alright, so that’s what the party tracks are for, and that’s the part of the criticism in the reviews when I’m reading them that I never get: how can you be this one kind of guy on one track and this other kind of guy on this other track? Because that guy; I’m you. You’re the guy that’ll be fucking angry at a politician and you’re looking at the news in the pub and you look at the bartender and say ‘Give me another shot’, you’ll get drunk as fuck and you’ll sing songs you love and you’ll go home and you’ll wake up tomorrow and you’ll keep trying to push through whatever bullshit they’re dumping on you and that is the answer. You know, everyone is not going to go get a gun and defend their territory; most people are going to go and get drunk, go get high, listen to this music, and just laugh or cry it off. So I think that I am probably the most honest artist in the world right now, ‘cos I am willing to show you all of that; I don’t have to strike a balance, that’s the human condition. Words: Ian Macbeth Photo: Fiona Slimmon
“There are rappers that have done work that is comparable to Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison.”
Album reviews
Artist: Alias Album Fever Dream Label: Anticon Rating: 4/5
Since the release of his debut solo album in 2002, abstract hip hop producer Alias has released an incredible amount of music, both as a solo artist and with various members of Anticon. This album sees the Portland-based experimentalist reflect on his passion for ‘90s R&B to create a mix of club-friendly anthems and introspective IDM. ‘Wanna Let It Go’ is a bouncy floor filler with a combination of funky hip hop beats and house music vocals that could have come from the LuckyMe collective. ‘Revl is Divad’ and ‘Dahorses’ are independent hip hop masterpieces that match anything from The Other Side of the Looking Glass. ‘Talk in Technicolor’ is futuristic bedroom R&B with an industrial edge and ‘Feverdreamin’ is a psychedelic downtempo electronic vacation to another world. Alias could be the most interesting artist on the Anticon roster at the moment. (Fiona Slimmon)
Artist: The Stepkids Album: The Stepkids Label: Stones Throw
Stones Throw is on a winning streak with retro-soul acts, after the commercial success of Mayer Hawthorne and Aloe Blacc, but The Stepkids could be the label’s most interesting signing yet. The psychedelic soul outfit consist of three singer-songwriters that all take turns at lead vocal duties, creating an eclectic fusion of funk, soul and jazz. The group’s first single, ‘Brain Ninja’, combined bizarre lyrics and ‘70s swagger to great effect and follow-up single ‘Suburban Dream’ mixes plodding rhythms, vintage electric piano and folk harmonies from an era gone by. This album has been sitting on the label’s shelf for over six months while the band toured to build up their profile, but the tracks still sound fresh. If Shaft was still roaming the streets of Harlem, killing mobsters and romancing the ladies, this would be his soundtrack.
Rating: 4/5
Artist: ††† EP: † Label: N/A Rating: 2/5
Artist: Botany EP: Feeling Today Label: Western Vinyl
Bedroom producers have a habit of being pretty crafty with a sampler and a production suite, but significantly lacking in any talent when it comes to actual musical instruments. Some of the most prolific clubbing attractions look as if they are simply checking their emails when performing live and it is feasible that their creations were simply stumbled upon by chance. Make way for Spencer Stephenson aka Botany, who not only produces some incredible down-tempo psychedelic trip hop, but also plays many of the instruments himself. The Texan incorporates drums, guitars, bass and even Native American flute into his creations. Don’t worry, there are some pretty lush samples in there, too. Imagine what the bastard love child of Four Tet and Caribou would sound like and you’re on the right track.
Rating: 3/5 (Louis Flood)
(David McNamara)
Deftones frontman Chino Moreno collaborates with Far guitarist Shawn Lopez to create obscure electronic outfit ††† (Crosses). Moreno has dabbled in down-tempo electronica in the past with varying degrees of success. ‘Teenager’, the ambient ballad from Deftones’ magnum opus White Pony highlighted his diversity as a songwriter and side-project, Team Sleep, produced one great pop song in the form of ‘Ever (Foreign Flag)’. However, those abilities are not present here. Opener, ‘†his Is a †rick’, with its creeping drum loops and Matrix soundtrack chorus, sounds like a b-side from Deftones or Saturday Night Wrist, as does follow-up, ‘Op†ion’. ‘Bermuda Locke†’ sees Moreno craft a love song that sounds like an erotic psychological thriller and ‘†’ is a stripped down, reverb-heavy instrumental gem, but ‘†hholyghs†’ just sounds like another Deftones/ Team Sleep cast off. Moreno has the talent to write an incredibly interesting pop song, so why does he fight it?
Over the last couple of years, London’s Japanese Voyeurs have grown from an edgy MySpace profile to a promising nugget of gold. On this, their debut album, frontwoman Romily Alice has a newfound confidence in her pipes but still retains the familiar, compelling tones of insecurity and introspect shown on early singles, ‘Cry Baby’ perhaps the best example of her darkly soulful abilities. Of course, the idea of focusing solely on the one female in an otherwise male band reeks of condescension. Women in metal is a study as patronising as it is tired, but when the vocals are as irritatingly-unique as those of Alice, they deserve praise on their own. That’s not to disregard the efforts of the lads, whose accompanying visceral walls of grunge rock are likely to propel the band’s somewhat unique, somewhat frightening sound into the centre of the UK scene.
(Fiona Slimmon)
Artist: Japanese Voyeurs Album: Yolk Label: Fictiont Rating: 3/5
(Andrew McDonald)
Artist: Little Dragon Album: Ritual Union Label: Peacefrog Rating: 2.5/5
Could this be Little Dragon’s year? The Gothenburg-based electronic outfit have been bubbling on the brink of cult fame for a while now and sassy Swedish-Japanese singer Yukimi Nagano is full of star potential. The group gained a little attention after their appearance on the latest Gorillas album and Nagano’s input on the erotically-charged SBTRKT single ‘Wildfire’ is a guaranteed sleeper hit. Album track and single ‘Ritual Union’ is an electrosoul classic and ‘Brush the Heat’ frames Nagano’s sensual, whispered vocals with subtle synths and sharp snares. Beyond this, the album seems full of unfinished ideas. ‘Shuffle the Dream’ wanders into clichéd synth-pop territory and the plodding beat of ‘Please Turn’ is not a suitable backdrop for Nagano’s exquisite vocals. ‘Precious’ has a classic house flavour to it, it’s just a shame it’s about a decade too late. It could be time for Little Dragon’s lead singer to step out on her own.
Artist: The Horrors Album: Skying Label: XL
There’s a track on Skying called ‘Moving Further Away’ that, at one point, fades from a scuzzy guitar line into ambient trance. In doing this, it virtually reflects Southend-on-Sea noiseniks The Horrors’ career since their inception. Starting as something of a goth-punk garage act with debut Strange House, they stripped back some of the Killing Joke aggression for sophomore effort Primary Colours, but have now taken a few steps further in this different direction. Scarcely recognisable as the same band anymore, The Horrors have chilled out to resonate some of The Cure’s more challenging moments, leading to an album that happily beeps and spirals up and down, but ultimately does not reach the heights of previous efforts. ‘I Can See Through You’ and ‘Endless Blue’ veer back into more familiar territory, but the band’s sound is now more bleak than apocalyptic.
Rating: 3/5 (Andrew McDonald)
(Jeanie Rogers)
Artist: Joakim Album: Nothing Gold Label: Tigersushi
With his third LP, Joakim tackles the universal trials of ageing. Album introducers ‘Forever Young‘ and ‘Fight Club’ are midtempo tracks that would be very comfortable next to David Bowie’s codpiece in Labyrinth. The album continues in this vein, an eclectic mix of electronic beats, synths and piano giving each song a sense of the fantastical and dream-like. The production on this album is it’s best feature and most tracks could happily soundtrack the breaking dawn after an all- nighter. At first listen these enchanting and varied instrumental elements sound fresh and invigorating. However, there aren’t the lyrical or melodic hooks to keep you coming back so, after repeated listens, this quickly fades, wrinkles and jiggles along like a geriatric bingo wing.
Artist: Emika Album: Emika Label: Ninja Tune
(Alexander Rigby) Rating: 2/5
Berlin-based producer and composer Emika has tapped into something beautiful and sinister here. Her self-titled debut features an exquisite collection of dark, intense electronic creations that seduce and unsettle in equal measure. Nineties trip hop emerges on ‘Professional Loving’, with hints of Mezzanine-era Massive Attack in the form of rumbling basslines and looped harmonies. ‘FM Attention’ bubbles with nervous tension due to flickering synths and Emika’s short, punchy vocal delivery. On ‘Drop The Other’ she turns two step on its head to create a glitchy pop song with sensual harmonies that stinks of commercial promise. If these songs are a true reflection of Emika’s personality, she must be one cold-hearted bitch – and it’s one hell of a turn-on. (David McNamara)
Rating: 4/5
Artist: Four Tet Album: FABRICLIVE 59 Label: Fabric
Four Tet adds something special to the series with a mix that has a distinct narrative to it and unearths music that hasn’t previously had a great deal of exposure. It’s an adventure into the past that contains not only classics, but rarer tracks he may have missed at the time. Although the mix is recorded on computer, every track is played off original vinyl to maintain that hissing and popping authenticity. Forgotten gems reside next to current tracks that are dear to him, as well as a number of his own tracks. He’s also explored the idea of the club itself, sending his audio engineer friend Sasha Lewis to make field recordings at Fabric, which feature as a highlight and pause, as if you’re moving within the club’s rooms to hear different DJs. The best Fabric release since Insta:Mental.
Artist: Jay-Z and Kanye West Album: Watch the Throne Label: Roc-A-Fella
Rating: 5/5
(Andrew Halls)
Rating 3/ 5
Following on the heels of two massive solo albums, Jay-Z and Kanye West join forces to create a hip hop juggernaut and no expense has been spared. There are expensive samples a -plenty and collaborations with RZA, Beyoncé and Odd Future’s Frank Ocean. Kanye proves that he can do whatever he wants, from looping the crap out of Otis Reading and James Brown to auto-tuning Nina Simone, with varying degrees of success. ‘New Day’ offers a rare moment when the duo swap boasts for making promises to their unborn children. West is at his sleazy, obnoxious best on ‘That’s My Bitch’ and Jay proves that he still has a lot of clever rhymes left on ‘Who Gon Stop Me’, where the pair experiment with dubstep-rap. These two obviously feed off each other and even though they vary the subject material to explore black on black violence, relationships and coming of age, there is still a sense that this could have been a lot better. (Louis Flood)
Mute gap
ISSUE 03/AUGUST 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 61
“The cop came back saying two of us had warrants and we’re going to be arrested.”
First blades: My first skates ever that I can remember were those Fisher-Price plastic skates where the wheels move from roller skates to inline skates. From there I had two other pairs of recreational skates. I don’t really remember the brand but I tore through them and finally moved on to my first pair of aggressive skates, which were Rollerblade Menaces. They were a size three US. First skate video: My brother was the one who got me into skating and the first video I remember him coming home with was VG5, I didn’t even know there were skate videos or anything like that at the time. My VCR ate my VG5 a few years ago - R.I.P. First skater you looked up to: I never thought about this before but after I think about it, I remember seeing the best skaters in my home town of Staten Island and remember saying to myself that I wanted to be that good one day. I think the first time I ever noticed how good they really were was when I was skating a handicap rail on my block and a few of them were walking by saying stuff like, “Oh, cool man skating yeah!” and they were jumping and transferring the rails on their sneakers. By that point I couldn’t even picture doing that on shoes, let alone my skates. I remember practicing misty flips on my parent’s bed that night after seeing them, ha! As an individual though, I might have to say Angel Soto was a major influence on a lot of Staten Island skaters in the late ‘90s, but I kind of also looked up to his younger brother Jon because he was really young like me but also killed it way harder than anyone his age at the time.
Firsts: Austin Paz
It seems as though Austin Paz has been putting out video sections forever. He has had timeless parts in The Truth video series, which he created with the help of the Kelso brothers, as well as various appearances in the Valo team videos. It’s crazy to think that his first Eulogy edit was only four years ago. The Staten Island native has since received numerous pro wheels from Eulogy, yet mysteriously still resides on the amateur team for Create Originals and Valo. Paz recently relocated to Arizona, so we decided to catch up with him and find out how his love for blading began.
First blading event you attended: The first blading event ever was a local skate comp at the only skate park in Staten Island in 1997. It was only a year after I started skating and everyone was telling me to enter it and that I could win for my age group. I was sceptical but I competed anyway and actually won at age nine. First European event: My first and only European event so far has been Winterclash 2008. The comp was ridiculous and it was cool to experience an event outside the US. I suck at comps so I obviously didn’t do good, but it was still so much fun. I’d also like to add that the Afterclash was probably just as good, if not better than the actual competition. One thing that made the event so fun was that somehow a bunch of my boys from New York were able to make it and we were all chillin’ out in Germany together.
First sponsor: Eulogy was my first sponsor, I forget what year it was exactly, maybe around 2005. Fish (Billy O’Neill) was riding pro for them at the time and Isaac let him put a couple people on flow and I was one of them and it grew from there. First serious injury: I think my first serious injury was when I broke the radius in my elbow. We were skating a makeshift launch ramp in my neighbourhood and I think I slipped trying to 720 it and landed right on the inside of my arm. I skated home and knocked on the door and my dad answered and the first thing he does before I even get to say anything was grab my broken arm and say: “It’s cold outside, you should be wearing a sweater.” I think this happened sometime at the beginning of high school. First bit of trouble through blading: I’ve gotten a number of summonses from skating for trespassing or destruction of property or whatever but it only hit hard once. Myself, as well as a few other friends, always got summonses for skating in Staten Island, but they never show up on your record so everyone disregards them. A couple of years ago, myself and two friends hopped this fence at a school to skate in my neighbourhood and cops saw us walking in there so they stopped us and checked our IDs. The cop came back saying two of us had warrants and we’re going to be arrested. They said I only had one warrant which I didn’t get since I’ve gotten more than one ticket before from skating. They couldn’t tell us what it was for ‘til after we went through bookings but I later found out that it was from skating a place that was under construction in Manhattan while Fish (Billy O’Neill) was getting a photo for a USD ad for his new skate. I probably just disregarded it like every other ticket, but the Manhattan ones will get you, I didn’t know that. After spending the night in jail, I had to do two days community service which I completed. A month later, cops show up at my house at 8am one day saying they had a warrant for my arrest for not doing the community service. I had no proof that I did it so they took me out of my house and brought me all the way to Manhattan, which was a little more than an hour away to go to court. Long story short, they let me go - eventually. Not a fun story.
Across 1. Jenna Downing’s watch sponsor 5. Chris Edward’s clothing company 6. Sponsor of NASS 2011 8. Tom Petty’s debut solo album 9. Jon Julio’s re-invented wheel company 12. Pro skater that appeared in Friends 13. Erik Bailey’s home town 15. Owner/ editor of Daily Bread 17. Bob Dyan’s state of birth 19. Beyonce’s sister
Down 2. Rapper nominated for MTV VMA best music video 3. 2011 will be Slamm Jamm number... 4. VG 8 7. Number of DVDs in The Truth series 10. 30 Seconds to Mars lead singer 11. Icelandic pop culture icon 14. German skate shop closing this year 16. Grind invented by Brooke Howard Smith 18. Competition series that existed in the ‘90s
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