Issue04October2011

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/FREE

WILD FLAG/MAC MILLER/THUNDERCAT/MACHINE HEAD MARK BURLING/NICK LOMAX/MATEUSZ KOWALSKI/LEWIS BOWDEN

Emika

Thriving in Solitude

Contents

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 03

05

06

07 08

09 10—13 14—17 18 19 22—25 26—27 28—33 34—35 36—39 40—41 42—45 46—47 48 49

52—53 54—57 58—59 60—61

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Behind the Lens: Erik Bill Ugly Duckling Pinkunoizu Trails Catching up with: Dam Mantle Class Actress Adam Galwas Mateusz Kowalski Thundercat White Ring Edwin Wieringh Mac Miller Nick Lomax Emika Mark Burling Wild Flag Jamie Stenner Machine Head The Big Pink Where are they now?

Anthony Mackie Joey Yeomans Lewis Bowden Album Reviews Cartoon: Juvenile Delinquency Fun Page

Issue 04 October 2011 © Wheel Scene Ltd. Editor David McNamara Sub-Editor Chris Delaney Designers Graham Patrick Gareth Lindsay Web Design Ewan McDonald Stuart Chown

Words Nina Glencross, Jesse Keane, Jeanie Rogers, Louis Flood, David McNamara, Andrew McDonald, Paul Bates, Henry Wilkinson, Colin Chapman, Mark MacLeod.

Photos Sam Cooper, Adam Kola, Matty Pearce, Tom Midak, Noel Hadley, Hanne Hvattum, Mhairi McEwan, Meg Sharp, Theo Jemison, Dani Amour, Christoph Voy, Paul Killen, Scott Quinn, Myriam Santos, Niki Clark, John Clarke, Pete Deevaku, Florian, Kuba Urbanczyk.

Cover photo: Christoph Voy

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

Worship and Tribute

When we launched Wheel Scene, we knew it would be a struggle. However, we were slightly naive when we contemplated just how much of a struggle it would be. You see, the problem with creating a free publication is that you rely solely on advertising in order to meet printing and distribution costs, and one week before we were due to go to print two advertisers decided not to proceed. This threw our world into turmoil as we realised we would not have enough funding to put out issue four.

Thankfully, a few people stepped up and showed their support for Wheel Scene by parting ways with cold, hard cash in order to ensure that we went to print – phew!

Thanks to Jojo Jacobi, Ben Harmanus and Thorsten from Grindhouse for stepping in when two advertisers dropped out at the last minute. You guys saved our bacon – big time.

To our advertisers: Loco Skates Grindhouse

In a strange turn of events, issue four is our biggest yet. The publication will now be distributed in various parts of America thanks to Revolution Skate Shop, Eisenberg’s Skatepark and Skatelife.tv. We have crammed in a heap of blading interviews, including Edwin Wieringh, Adam Galwas, Mateusz Kowalski, Mark Burling and the mighty Nick Lomax.

USD Kizer Winterclash

Let’s not forget about the music. This issue we speak with genre-defying electronic producer and all-round femme fatale Emika, teenage hip-hop sensation Mac Miller, heavy metal survivors Machine Head and a bunch of other weird and wonderful acts. Once you have got your head around all of those features, there are the usual columns, album reviews and other nonsense to contend with – good luck!

We may have narrowly escaped death on this issue, but rest-assured issue five is already underway with a lot of backing and a ridiculous amount of blading interviews.

All we are going to say right now is that it will feature rollerblading talent from all four continents, as well as a Transatlantic battle between some of the best up-andcomers from the UK and USA. You have been warned.

The Chimera Conspiracy We love you like a fat kid loves cake.

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 05 Behind the Lens with Erik Bill

How did you get into making your own skate videos?

I think my story is a pretty common one. My middle school homies and I pooled together our money and bought a piece of shit camera. I was obsessed with filming and watching all the footage while everyone else hated being behind the lens.

You recently released Dayshapes. Can you tell us about the creative process that went into that video?

Dayshapes was a pretty organic deal. All of the skating came together somewhat naturally in the sense that everyone in the video is a really good friend of mine and we’d be blading together whether or not I was documenting it. I always want my projects to keep the interest of a rollerblader but I also want someone who has no idea what they’re watching to be able to pay attention. I love all the bands that I used but I also feel that a lot of those songs are just really cool - no matter who you are. My girlfriend just finished up at BSU with five years of graphic design, so she was a big part of the creative process as far as the cover/ menu art and fonts go. We wanted to keep an NDN (Indian) feel to the package but steer away from putting the headdress logo on everything. I think it turned out pretty cool! I splurged a bit with money that I didn’t have to make the DVD cases out of recycled cardstock and get blu-rays made. I’m glad I did, though. I’m big on having a cool physical product at the end of a project.

What is the scene like in Boise, Idaho at the moment?

There’s definitely room for more bladers but the scene is great. I get hit up at least a few times a day by pals that are wanting to go shreddin’, so that’s cool.

I think it’s easy to be interested in rollerblading in this town because we’ve got Erik Bailey around. He’s a nice guy, blades daily, cares about the scene. Not only do kids want to skate like him, they want to look like him! There are also a bunch of good buddies from surrounding cities and states that help represent the scene here. I think Boise has got a good ‘home away from home’ type of feel to visitors who come through our hood. I try to do my part with the scene by running Thursday Night Shred and as well as giving local discounts and first dibs on NDN products!

In addition to making videos, you’re also sponsored by Valo and Ground Control - is that right?

Ground Control decided to pick me up at about the same time as Razors. I had developed a good friendship with Geoff Acers and when I decided to part ways with Razors and get involved with Valo, Geoff was nice enough to keep me on the GC squad!

Have you got any upcoming projects you are working on?

Since Dayshapes I’ve mostly been skating for other people’s projects but I’ve been doing some quick online stuff behind the camera for the blog. I’ve been filming a few friends around here for online sections and Erik and I recently started filming an onliner for one of his sponsors. I actually just started filming for my next real release, though. I don’t have a whole lot of information about it yet, but it’s comin’!

Boise filmmaker Erik Bill talks about his latest release, Dayshapes, and offers his thoughts on the rollerblading industry.

Now that the internet is the dominant force in terms of how the world receives media on a daily basis, you would think that this would affect the number of DVD releases in the rollerblading industry. After all, it is much cheaper for aspiring blading videographers to upload their creations online and let the kids on Rollernews tear it to shreds rather than waste the time, effort and money involved in getting the product packaged and shipped to skate shops but you would be wrong.

There are a bunch of talented filmmakers in the rollerblading community that are going it alone and releasing some incredible independent videos without the financial backing of sponsors. As rollerbladers we are indebted to these pioneering individuals, because they are the ones exposing relatively-unknown scenes and talented newcomers to the rest of the world. One such videographer is Boise, Idaho’s Erik Bill. This year he released his latest video, Dayshapes, so we decided to catch up with him and find out a little more about the man that has been responsible for providing muchneeded exposure for the Gem State.

Is making videos a full-time job for you or do you work anywhere else to support yourself?

Shit, wouldn’t that be nice? I have an office job at a publishing company that gets me by.

What blading videos have you enjoyed recently?

Valo4Life is really fucking good. Regardless is cool. Charg!ng. I guess it depends on how you define ‘recently’, Haha!

What do you think about the current state of the sport?

I’ve got to be cliché and say that there needs to be more money, exposure, but beyond all that I think the current state of blading is pretty fucking great. There are incredible companies ran by legends of our trade that know exactly what needs to be done and exactly how to make it cool. There are good websites, good products, good personalities etc. I always read online that “there aren’t any rollerbladers that live off of their salary.” That’s bullshit. I agree that some of the top names in our industry deserve to be paid a hell of a lot more than they currently are but they have a home, a steady income and get to travel the world. We’re definitely digging ourselves out of a hole but I feel that some of us are doing it much better than others.

What would you like to see change?

I think it’d be better if I didn’t answer that question. I’ll just say that there are a few companies and individuals right now that are doing some negative shit to blading! www.thendn.blogspot.com Photo: Tom Midak

Ugly Duckling: The Action-Packed Adventure we add routines and call and respond and dash a little bit of our natural charm and humour in there to get the crowd motivated and make them feel that they are participating rather than just spectating. Our whole aim during a live show is to leave the stage with the crowd feeling that they have made friends with us via our music and interaction, if you know what I mean.

Tell us a little bit about the new LP and the story behind the music?

The name Ugly Duckling is synonymous with that good vibe hip-hop sound, smashing stages and sound systems alike. MCs Andy Cooper, Dizzy Dustin and DJ Einstein have been doing their own thing for well over a decade now and have dropped more classic material than you could shake a proverbial stick at. The dynamic trio return to these shores to promote their new album, Moving At Breakneck Speed, which they describe as a musical tale of espionage and mayhem. Here is what official international MC of mystery, Andy Cooper, had to say on the matter.

Wheel Scene: So you guys are getting ready to hit the UK shores again. How are you feeling about it and what can the crowds expect this time round?

Andy Cooper: Well, we’re feeling excited. We got a brand new album out and new material, so that’s always a challenge in terms of seeing how the crowds react. What we like to do with the shows is put together our best material and we have been making music for a long time now, so we take what we think are our best and most appropriate songs for the live format and build from there. Then

Andy Cooper: Well, it’s an international adventure story of intrigue and also a metaphor for our career! We are a small time rap group and we have been keeping our heads above water in the sense of being two steps ahead of the law, if you will! And, you know, just trying to make a living, trying to make our music and trying to entertain people. We have sort of tried to dramatise that within this album, by turning it into an Indiana Jones-like adventure story of us running from a bunch of bad guys, which sort of represents the whole music industry to us. We just laced that up with a little story then just added some classic Ugly Duckling style production with some uptempo hard-hitting big horns, put that all together and hopefully that has come out all good for the listener.

With that said you have been involved with the hip-hop scene for well over a decade now and have released some classic material in that time. I would like to ask how you feel the genre has changed and how it feels as an artist to still be able to put your music out there?

Andy Cooper: Actually, that is a big theme within this album. You see we have been around long enough now to see things come and go. There is even a line on the opening track that goes: “A new era has dawned, where we were there and gone, and we kept on, it’s not a sprint it’s a marathon.” This is an idea that trends will come and go but if you can just make good music and are in touch with your audience you can kind of endure change. And that’s how I look at the scene now days.

Words: Jesse Keene Photo: Noel Hadley

Introducing: Pinkunoizu stuff,” says guitarist, lyricist and vocalist Andreas Pallisgaard. “So for us it’s like an open forum, an arena where we can just be ourselves and do what we feel like. In the beginning it’s just a matter of staying open to all sorts of impulses”.

Copenhagen-based post-folk outfit Pinkunoizu trip the light fantastic.

Taking their name from the Japanese word for ‘pink noise’, Danish sonic voyagers Pinkunoizu are beginning to make a name for themselves amongst the blogosphere’s bedroom kingpins. They recently signed to London-based indie label Full Time Hobby and have their debut EP entitled Peep out in November.

From just a cursory glance at the striking cover art of a wide-eyed fox sitting atop a mushroom cluttered moon, it’s clear that this is a pretty spaced-out record.

In their own words, they play “an exotic mixture of lo-fi, high life, modern composition music, nu-folklore, Asian 60s pop and future post-apocalyptic underwater rock.” Although a pretty bewildering mix of genres, Peep manages to effortlessly meander between them, picking out elements from each and channelling them into hypnotic progressive pop melodies.

“All of us are open to all sorts of genres so we can’t really avoid mixing those different vibes together, those different cultures and different ways of doing

Can, Bill Callahan and Popol Vuh are all cited as influences, but you get the sense their styles are never consciously adopted, but instead come out spontaneously in the music, never compromising on Pinkunoizu’s vision and originality. The songs begin their life as skeletal guitar parts or interesting lyrical phrases, forming a rough draft before being allowed to grow until they achieve the sonic depth of the tracks on //Peep//.

As a result, there is a very collaborative and organic quality to the record, especially on ‘Everything is Broken or Stolen’, which sounds like an interstellar jam session with keyboards straight out of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. ’Dairy Queen’ is equally impressive and the most-spaced out track, lasting ten minutes and culminating in a beautifullyfolky finale.

‘Time is Like a Melody’ is perhaps the most immediately accessible; opening with ambient murmurings and gentle strumming that builds steadily around circular vocal rhythms, lulling you into a blissful stupor. It sets the tone for the EP perfectly, epitomizing the band’s brand of electronically-tinged freak-folk and easing you into the longer, darker tracks

that follow. It is also significant as it sets out their approach to music, especially in the vocals, as Andreas explains: “’Time is Like a Melody’ is a bit like a manifesto of how I would like to work with music and lyrics, so it’s a bit of a meta lyric, actually. For me, with the lyrics, it’s always quite interesting to just open up and see what comes out.”

This spontaneity never compromises the expansive nature of the record, as Pinkunoizu take you on a cosmic journey through folk, electro and West African musical styles. However, with a full-length album due out next March, the band promise even more to come.

“We’re developing more of a sonic identity. We’ve played together for two years now so we’ve started playing different instruments and creating new sounds.”

It is this depth and diversity that sets Pinkunoizu apart from many modern bands.

Words: Henry Wilkinson Photo: Hanne Hvattum

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 07 you can bet it definitely won’t be the last because, although Trails are still an up-and-coming band, they know exactly what is required when it comes to playing live. “A lot of what makes rock good is the performance and the live power of it,” explains Sam. “We put 100% into each performance and you feel it afterwards but it’s worth it.”

For the Cause Trails frontman Sam Hopper discusses political motivations and giving his all for the sake of the audience.

The morning after the successful EP launch of Guildford hardcore punk outfit Trails, with all the excitement of playing fresh material to a massive crowd, it’s understandable that guitarist and vocalist Sam Hopper felt a bit tender, yet he struggled on like a trooper. “We’ve got another gig tonight so just need to get back on it,” he says. This won’t be the first time he’s had this thought and

On the run up to the launch night, the band released their EP on SoundCloud for a limited time that they dubbed ’24 Hours of Power’. Promoting the sneak peek on their Facebook and Twitter, the band very quickly began receiving a great response from fans. “We just wanted to build up the buzz around the launch and give people the chance to hear our EP in full before we played the tracks live,” explains Sam. This definitely paid off when they realised that “people seemed to be singing some of the words back, which they hadn’t done before.”

As if setting up their own EP launch wasn’t DIY enough, the band also had handmade cupcakes provided by Sam’s girlfriend’s sister along with spray painted copies of the EP, and the list goes on. “We tend to do a lot of things ourselves including all of the artwork for our CDs and vinyl and all our videos,” explains Sam, “so the DIY ethic, at this stage at least, is definitely important for us. I think it’s good to be in control of all those aspects of the band.”

Along with their DIY ethic, Trails could also be said to be somewhat politically motivated. For example, the gig that they played the night after their EP launch was in support of the ‘Rock Against Riots Campaign’, a charity organisation run by local bands for the cleanup and rebuild of all the music venues, rehearsal spaces and distributers that were affected by the recent London riots. “We didn’t seek out that cause in particular,” Sam clarifies, “we’re always keen to play for any cause that we feel strongly about and want to raise awareness for.” But whilst they still hold the same beliefs, Sam admits that their music isn’t as directly political as it used to be. “[Those beliefs] maybe don’t come across quite as strongly in our lyrics. But if there is a cause that we feel strongly about and we feel like promoting it then we’ll maybe have some songs that are more heavily political.”

Trails’ latest EP explores a wide array of topics, from experiences involving drugs to hypothetical visions of a postapocalyptic world, but when it comes to describing the music itself, Sam feels it best to let the music do the talking. “I’d leave it open to [the listener] really and hope they enjoy it,” he declares modestly. “There’s so many bands out there that just sound American even though they’re English. We try to just sound like who we are, try and be honest. That’s why I sing in an English accent.”

With the new EP receiving a lot of positive feedback from fans and critics alike, the band are set to just tour as much as possible until the end of the year before recording some new material to be released early next year. “Then we’ll just do the same thing again,” says Sam. Looking even further ahead, Sam is keen to keep his feet firmly on the ground.

“We’re just seeing where it goes really,” he says. “We’re trying so hard to properly make it as a band and you’ve got to enjoy doing it every day for what it is and not be too anxious to get big, but obviously we’d love to play to as many people as we possibly could all over the world.”

Words: Nina Glencross Photo: Mhairi McEwan

My Year So Far: Dam Mantle Glasgow-based electronic producer Dam Mantle discusses his productive year so far and the common misconception that he is Scottish.

“My only experience of America was in films, so it was quite a strange collision with reality when I saw the place with my own eyes.”

It has been an exciting year for upand-coming electronic producer Dam Mantle, real name Tom Marshallsay. The Glasgow-based multi-instrumentalist released his latest EP, We, during the summer, toured all over Europe and visited the US for a handful of live dates, all while completing a degree in fine art at Glasgow School of Art. While the rest of his fellow graduates are struggling to find a job, Marshallsay is playing to packed nightclubs alongside some of the most respected electronic producers in the world. It would be safe to assume that juggling such responsibilities would be a bit of a struggle, but apparently this was not the case.

“I don’t have to worry about it anymore because I finished a few months ago, but I found it fine. I mean, I wouldn’t have done it if it was too difficult – it just meant I had to sacrifice a lot of time that I would have spent making visual work.

They do somehow lend themselves to each other, as I attach similar themes to each one.”

Marshallsay has been astounding crowds on a regular basis this year and made appearances alongside Crystal Castles and Gold Panda, but it was his first experience touring the US that had the biggest impact on him. “The States was a real highlight,” he begins.

“Travelling down the west coast, the people were really interested and a little less arms-folded than in some cities in England. My only experience of America was in films, so it was quite a strange collision with reality when I saw the place with my own eyes.”

Under the moniker of Dam Mantle, Marshallsay has managed to create a tense, lo-fi sub genre of electronic music using various live percussion instruments and a myriad of influences including ghetto-tech, jungle and hip-hop music. His productions are the kind of IDM that will force some into the middle of the dancefloor with reckless abandon and others to stand and contemplate the meaning behind it. With such thought-provoking

electronic music comes an inevitable gaggle of enthusiasts with weird and wonderful explanations for what it all means. Marshallsay is the first to admit there have been a few – he just can’t remember what any of them said.

“That’s a good question,” he offers after a lengthy pause. “I probably have a really good answer but I am really bad at answering questions like this. I guess I am surprised at how much some people seem to get it in the same way that I do – although I would not be able to describe what that is.”

On his travels Marshallsay has acquired many prized possessions, but it was a trip to the techno capital of Europe that provided him with his most treasured purchase of 2011 so far. “I bought a tape echo when I was in Berlin from this amazing synth shop that mainly sold old German 60s to 80s gear – it’s like an echocord. That has probably been my favourite purchase this year.”

When he isn’t touring the world or working on new music, Marshallsay can be found at home in Glasgow, watering his plants, reading and wandering around record shops looking for inspiration. Don’t be confused: He does not perform these feats at the same time – that would just be weird. Of the music that he has consumed so far this year, there have been a few artists that stand out in his mind.

“Fantastic Mr Fox - although he has not really done that much this year. I have been listening to a lot of Martyn and Mike Slott collaborations, but I guess that was last year – maybe. I was listening to the Thundercat album and Koreless, a guy from Glasgow. I really like the new stuff from Machinedrum, too. There has been so much stuff and my memory gets lost when I try to recount it.”

Another one of Marshallsay’s biggest passions is film. He regularly creates visual art in an attempt to convey what he cannot express through words and

often cites controversial filmmaker Harmony Korine as a major influence on his artistic output. However, when asked to reference some of the films that he has enjoyed this year, the producer admits that a hectic schedule has left little time for such leisure activities.

“I haven’t been watching that many films this year,” he offers. “I used to watch tonnes. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was really impressive and I re-watched Stalker again, the Andrey Tarkovskiy film, which I am massively into.”

Marshallsay has been based in Glasgow for several years, which has led many music journalists to publish interviews claiming that he is Glaswegian. This proves one thing: Clearly none of these individuals have ever actually spoken to him because if they had they would not have failed to notice his unmistakable English accent that he developed while growing up in Kent - southeast England for the misinformed.

“I feel really connected to the place but it doesn’t take much research to find out that I wasn’t born in Glasgow. Plus, in a broader sense, place isn’t really that important nowadays. A sound doesn’t necessarily come from places as much as it did before because of the internet and this globalised conversation that we are having.”

When asked to describe why he has chosen to make Glasgow home for the foreseeable future, Marshallsay replies: “Glasgow means so many things to so many different people. To me, it’s the community of people that are around my area and a feeling that the place gives me. I feel pretty settled here. If you want it to be, it can be pretty quite.

There are also more than enough things going on that if you want to go out you can. I haven’t really found a city that equals that and makes me want to live there.”

Words: Louis Flood Photo: Meg Sharp

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 09 Chatterbox Class Actress explains why she finds it so hard to love and confesses to an obsession with Depeche Mode that has got her trawling the internet for answers.

“I have just finished playing drums so I’m just about to jump in the shower, but I’ll get back to you when I get out.” That is the sexy answer machine message that greets you if you are lucky enough to call Elizabeth Harper when she is not available. Under her Class Actress moniker, Harper delivers beautifully-tragic electronic pop songs about love and loss through sensual vocals that are reminiscent of early Madonna. Each story is framed by a patchwork of ‘80s keyboards and drum machines, expertly crafted by producers Mark Richardson and Scott Rosenthal, betraying more than a fleeting fancy with English electronic acts Depeche Mode and The Human League.

Her debut album, Rapprocher, is a pieceby-piece dissection of a relationship gone wrong, from the euphoric high of meeting someone that makes your heart race to the devastating low of realising that it is destined to fail. The subject matter is thoroughly engaging, but not as much as the Brooklynbased songwriter behind each woeful, yet surprisingly-upbeat, anthem.

to himself about how beautiful the families and lovers look because he knows he will never have that. I thought about this the other night because I have got to the point where I feel so isolated that when I see people in relationships it feels so foreign to me.

Are you comparing yourself to a man with half of his face blown off?

I’m joking! I have everything in the world and I am completely grateful. Maybe I only have half a soul, I don’t know. I’m just trying to figure out how people get close to each other. That’s why the record is called Rapprocher: It’s based on the psychological term rapprochement. It’s an idea that stems from when a child is separated from the mother from the first time and it turns around and comes back.

If the mother is there or not there, it can create different feelings of abandonment, of being smothered - all kinds of things. I named the record that because, in adult relationships, people are re-enacting this moment all the time.

If you were playing the Morrissey part you would be a miserable arsehole.

I know! What’s happening to him lately?

Next he will be singing about a dog biting him - it’s annoying. He’s like this rich, famous pop star. It might have been fun for one record in the ‘80s but, my God, the guy is 53! Why complain when you have everything? If you get paid to make music you have won the jackpot. I’m not complaining, I’m just making fun of myself.

Maybe Morrissey is just making fun of himself, too. He’s just not very funny.

He is totally making fun of himself. He is beyond hilarious. I think the media is so...

Who knows what’s going on these days.

Half of the media is just kids blurting shit out. Who even knows what the media is anymore? There’s just so much going on.

If you want to ask one question, I have just watched the Depeche Mode 101 documentary. Oh my God, it’s so amazing.

So it’s safe to say you have been unlucky in love?

Don’t say that! I think I have been lucky but I have chosen poorly. We all design our lives for a reason and when you get that kind of passion in your life and act that way what do you expect? I think I was lucky to love because a lot of people don’t ever get that. I guess the other person involved didn’t really understand my lifestyle and there was conflict there.

I don’t need a partner.

Everyone needs someone.

That’s the problem: All this time I have been thinking I am an island and I don’t need to open up to anyone. Now I’m realising that’s completely abnormal. Do you know the TV show, Boardwalk Empire?

Yes. Well, there’s this character called Richard Harrow. He is a war vet that has half of his face blown off. He wears this creepy mask and he can’t really talk – it’s the saddest thing you’ve ever seen. He cuts up all these photos of families and makes this Henry Darger-like collage and smiles

Some people might say the same thing about your debut album.

I hope so. I mean, that’s what I was thinking about when I was making it. Mark and I were really inspired by Violator. It was one of the first records that he owned. We are also conversational. I write the lyrics and he makes the music around that.

Would you say Class Actress is a solo project or a group?

Can we skip this question?

No. Okay, I will compromise. It’s a negotiation of time and effort and talent. It’s not like anyone sat down and decided to form a band and went into the garage and started jamming out songs.

How did it happen?

Well, Scott and Mark are two great producers. Mark is a secret gem. He is an old friend and great producer.

With Mark, I asked him to produce some pop songs for me. Mark would say it’s my project but, to me, it’s our sound. I don’t think one can exist without the other. I guess it is a band!

Wheel Scene: Tell us about your debut album?

Class Actress: It’s open for interpretation. It’s a dance-pop record, but it’s very dark and personal.

It seems like it’s about failed relationships.

The record is a story of a relationship.

The songs are put in order for a reason; to explain the way things go. It’s kind of a passionate disaster. Even when things are going good, there’s always an undertone that you’re not getting everything that you want.

the things he says. I started listening to it while I was on tour last year and driving across America. It’s such atmospheric music and it crawls into all the corners.

When you are driving through Montana you wanna be listening to something that speaks to you. It’s more than a record, it’s a movie.

Last question: What the hell is going on with your voicemail message?

Haha! I forgot to change that.

Sure you did.

I didn’t want to leave my name on there.

Looking Inwards Do you think your mother was there or not when you walked for the first time?

Obviously I don’t remember because I was only about 18-months-old and I don’t think it has to do with that particular moment, but I think that I was definitely raised without any parental supervision or much parental contact and it screwed me up a little bit. I’m only joking, it’s just my sense of humour.

Care to explain why?

You just have to see it. After watching the documentary, I was finding out more information about why Alan Wilder left and on his Wikipedia page and it says: “The sad thing about David Gahan is that with drugs he lost his greatest asset: his sense of humour.” In the 101 documentary there is this amazing scene where Dave Gahan is so funny it’s ridiculous.

If this is how you joke around when you are sober, I can only imagine what you must say when you are drunk.

It’s actually funnier! I tend to make up words. Drinking is fun but it gets me in trouble. I am really loving, obviously, but you just have to get me in the van after the show because I end up taking care of a fan and they cry and I look after them. I’m only kidding! I’m just playing the Morrissey part. These are just things I fantasise about, they’re not real.

Are you admitting you are a miserable Depeche Mode groupie?

Well, yeah. I’m not actually miserable; I just have mood swings like everyone else. I shouldn’t be talking about this because the next day I am doing to be thinking, “Who said all of that?” Haha!

Let’s move on from your ramblings.

What is your favourite Depeche Mode album? Violator is the most exquisite work of conversation I have ever heard.

‘Personal Jesus’ and ‘World In My Eyes’,

Because that’s too personal?

There was someone I didn’t want to call and a friend came up with it. I thought it was hilarious and I put it on my voicemail and forgot about it.

I just blurt out the truth. I don’t give a shit.

I am beginning to see that.

Is there anything else?

No. I think you have covered every topic known to man.

Please edit this so I don’t look like an idiot. Please convey my sense of humour.

Irony is hard to convey.

I don’t think there will be any doubt you have an exceptional sense of humour.

Oh, God. You are worse than me!

Words: Louis Flood.

Photo: Pete Deevaku

Adam Galwas Interview

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 11

Sweatstance on wooden barrier to disaster kindgrind

“I don’t think I’ve ever met someone that loves skating as much as this kid. I remember the first time I met him. He came all the way from Huntingdon (just north of Cambridge) to London on his own to come skate with myself and the Essex rollerbladers for just a few hours. That was five or six years ago and nothing has changed.

He participates in pilgrimages all over the place on a regular basis and all to strap his boots to his feet and shred. He plays a big part in four or five different scenes in the UK from Essex to Nottingham to Cambridge and all over the country. The kid’s got mad motivation. In fact, I swear he chose to study at Nottingham University because it has an abundance of handrails and ledges. I remember him telling me he drove all the way to New Inn in Wales on his own from Nottingham. A five-hour-drive and £8 in toll fees later and he arrives at New Inn only to get kicked off after his first trick but you won’t hear him complain about it. He’s a happy-go-lucky kind of guy that’s always got a smile on his face. I won’t even begin to talk about his skating because it speaks for itself....The kid’s got skills.”

- Paul Bates

Backside torque slide up and over

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am 22-years-old and originate from a small town just north of Cambridge.

However, I have been living and studying in Nottingham for the past three years. I have been rolling pretty muchnon-stop for the past 8-9 years and my love for it is still going strong.

What got you into rollerblading?

I used to hang around at the local skate park with my friends around the age of 10 or 11, probably because there was very little else to do in my town. I rode BMX for some time but never really took it very seriously, or maybe I was too much of a pussy to progress very far!

Anyway, I was on my bike at the park one evening and saw a guy from school there on blades. He told me to give the skates a try and I have been hooked on skating ever since.

It’s strange to think that if I hadn’t strapped on those boots that day then my life would probably have taken a totally different path. I recently found out that old friend had passed away and, even though we lost contact several years ago, I will never forget the fun sessions we had down at the local park together. I have so much to thank him for.

What is your fondest skating-related memory?

This is a very tricky question as there have been so many good memories.

One of the best was certainly my trip to Valencia with Paul, Seamus and Joey.

So many bowls of coon was consumed and the ochentas did not stop for the entire week. However, the memories which stick with me the most consist of the very naughty situations that rollerblading has landed me in. For example; the time when I was trying to skate a drop rail coming down from the roof of a pub in Peterborough. One of the locals was not very happy with this at all and proceeded to lay into Sam, who was simply watching from the grass. What made this even funnier was the fact that this 20 stone geezer had Sam backed up against a wall, punching him in the face and telling him to clear off at the same time. Sam was trying his damn best to explain that he would clear off as soon as this huge bastard got out of his way, a concept which this chap did not seem to understand. This incident occurred the day after an Asian guy said to our group that if we “wanted to play then he would be our huckleberry.” Several days before, a short buff guy and tall fat guy were sent round to sort us out by a fiveyear-old girl! I think it’s safe to say that I have rollerblading to thank for a lot of funny/ random experiences.

Street or park and why?

Street. What sets rollerblading apart from other sports for me is that you get the opportunity to be creative. There are no rules, regulations or boundaries other than those which you place upon yourself. With street skating you really have to open your eyes and think hard about what spots to skate and what tricks to do on them. The feeling that you get from finding that spot which no one else has looked at, or thought of before, and lacing that perfect trick on it cannot be emulated in a skate park.

Who or what has been your biggest influence within your skating past?

So many things have influenced my skating over the years. I’ve never really been one to follow the trends set by the pros or copy anyone in particular. I guess I get inspired most by my friends and the tricks they do and clothes they wear. I honestly get more juiced seeing a friend lace a trick they have been trying over and over or a hammer they have been eyeing up for ages than I do from the latest video section. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy watching skate videos, I just don’t try to imitate the skaters in them. I much prefer to session with my friends, get juiced off them and do my own thing.

How would you describe the change and development in your rollerblading and how you have approached your skating over the years?

My skating has changed so much over the years, especially so during this past year. Go back five years and all I wanted to skate was handrails. We would simply line up in a massive group and take turns to try ridiculous spins onto grinds that we were never going to land (with the exception of Paul Bates). I feel that my skating has matured to the extent that I now just skate spots which I enjoy skating. This is a positive step because the fact that I am enjoying myself seems to be reflected in my skating. There is also a negative side to this because it means that I am now very picky about what I will skate and what tricks I will do at a spot. If I get to a spot and I can’t picture a trick that I want to do there then I simply will not put my skates on. I was the total opposite back in the day and would skate anything and everything in sight with little thought about whether the tricks I was doing actually looked good. I just figured that more spins and switch-ups equal a better trick but now I see that this is not always the case.

There is a lot to be said for simple tricks done well.

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 13

Soul grind on top right rail, transfer across to savannah on bottom left rail

What inspires you to keep strapping up those boots?

One word: fun. The minute I stop enjoying skating I will stop. I have to admit that there have been times when I’m not skating very well and I get frustrated with it. However, I am learning to just chill and not worry about it. If I don’t feel like rolling or I am not having a good day then I will just take my skates off and do something else without beating myself up about it.

Studying law is an interesting turn of events for someone whom has spent their youth illegally entering and skating in schools all over the land. How did that come about?

I guess you could say that in order to break the rules you need to know what the rules are. The reason I decided to study for a law degree was simply due to the fact that I enjoyed the subject at A-level. I find learning about the cases and how the law has been applied pretty fascinating, and certainly not as boring as people may think.

With what we do as rollerbaders, have you gained any fresh insight from doing a law degree and the work placement you are soon to finish?

Rollerblading has not given me a fresh insight into law but I suppose that you could say that I may see life a bit differ

ently from the average Joe, which allows me to think outside the box to an extent. I also feel that the character attributes/ skills picked up through rollerblading have helped me in my studies and work. For example; the dedication and persistence required to land tricks has definitely transferred to other areas of my life. If you can land what you thought to be an impossible trick on your skates, you learn to approach and conquer the impossible in everyday life and work too.

As a videographer, what does the media side to skating mean to you and how has that changed over the years?

Media is extremely important because it allows the artistic side of rollerblading to be showcased. It seems pretty rare these days for a skate session to go down without the presence of a camera. This is good in some respects as it allows us to see what other rollerbladers are doing around the world and keep up to date with the latest tricks and trends. However, I feel that there is a lack of quality control within the media side of the industry. There are so many poorly-filmed edits out there that it almost makes you wonder why they were made in the first place.

What makes a good skate edit, in my opinion, is a combination of interesting spot selection and well filmed tricks, edited simply to a good track. The element of surprise is also key. Rollerblading can be somewhat predictable at times and it makes a refreshing change to see a skater lace a trick which is totally unexpected. This type of skating seems to be dominating the media at the moment, with creativity and style being made a priority. In my opinion, this type of rollerblading looks far better than simple handrail skating, which has dominated the videos of the past.

What does the future hold for Adam Galwas?

As for the future - who knows? After finishing my degree I hope to travel for a period of time, which in turn may open up my eyes to other possibilities out there career-wise. Whatever I am doing in the future I will make sure to have fun and enjoy life. I hope skating will play a part in that for some time to come as well.

Not Selling Out Royale

Poland’s Mateusz Kowalski doesn’t care if there is an economic crisis and fiercely-competitive job market, he is not willing to sacrifice his dreams for a stable income just yet.

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 15

soul grind to gap onto wood

Fishbrain stall

There is a lot to be said for entrepreneurial spirit: This generation’s ability to create business opportunities for themselves in the face of an international economic downturn and rising unemployment has been proven by the many forward-thinking individuals that have been able to create their own businesses and work for themselves instead of waiting for someone else to employ them. Poland’s Mateusz Kowalski is a shining example of this pioneering mentality. Five years ago, Kowalski released his first rollerblading DVD, The Hive, and he now runs a rapidly-expanding clothing line and video franchise. He may not have found wealth just yet, but he is on the right track and shows no signs of giving up any time soon.

The talented young blader is currently living in Krakow, where he is about to complete a business administration course. When he is not representing sponsors USD and Hedonskate, he is restlessly working on the next line of clothing for The Hive. When asked about his motivations behind the brand, he simply responds: “I don’t have a real job. I still don’t want to spend my life working for some shitter. I just want to work on The Hive and make it bigger.”

That sounds fair enough – and it rhymes – almost.

This year, The Hive has established itself as a legitimate clothing label with an impressive line that includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, trousers and sunglasses - all of which can be found at their exclusive online store.

Considering Kowalski is still finishing further education and working on videos to promote the rollerblading scene in Poland, this is no mean feat. However, he has much bigger plans for the brand and is constantly striving to develop more products.

“We’re making new stuff all the time.

This month we put out new sweatshirts , tees and beanies, and we have more planned. We don’t have distribution

Mute 180

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 17 in the rollerblading industry yet – but we are currently looking into that.

Only Hedonskate sells our stuff at the moment.”

Kowalski may not have secured a deal that allows him to sell his brand in rollerblading outlets over the world yet, but he has succeeded in creating a team that consists of some of the most intimidating rollerblading talents in the world. After all, a roster that includes Remz prodigy Nils Jansons, new Shima Skate Manufacturing pro Gabriel Hyden and rapidly-rising Polish blader Lukasz Malewski is pretty impressive by anyone’s standards.

The 26-year-old may not have figured out what he wants to do with his life just yet, but with blind ambition like his, it is a pretty safe bet that he is not going to end up wearing a suit to a monotonous office job any time soon. “I have got some plans for my life but I hope to stay in blading,” he says. “I want to skate as long as I can, doing well with The Hive, enjoying life and having fun!”

The aspiring business mogul discovered blading during the “aggressive rollerblading” boom in the nineties and never looked back. “It was about ’96,” he begins. “Everybody used to rollerblade. My mum bought me some fitness skates and the story begins.”

Fifteen years later, with two DVDs to his name and a clothing label that is in an exciting stage where every decision acts as a learning experience, Kowalski reflects on the individuals that inspired him when he was starting out.

“Dustin Latimer and Aaron Feinberg,” he begins. “Everybody knows why.

Now I like Chris Farmer and Alex Broskow. They are the strongest guys in the industry with the biggest history and five profiles a year, online edits and tonnes of photos. They’re always fresh and never disappoint. I also really like Billy O’Neill’s blading.” Is it a coincidence that all of the aforementioned individuals were USD riders at one point?

If there is a personality trait that Kowalski is lacking in, it certainly is not bluntness. When asked about his views on the current state of the industry, he was quick to point the finger at those he believes are hindering the progression of rollerblading. “Our industry sucks,” he declares. “The big companies have money but they don’t want to spend it on riders, and that’s why we’ve been stuck at the same point for years. Of course, there are some cool people.

I also don’t like that people care too much about unimportant things. Twenty percent of the community skate for fun, the rest is more talking than walking and trying to act like somebody else.”

Just as it seems that Kowalski’s rant has come to an end, he adds: “I also hate watching shitty edits everyday on Rollernews - I’m more into real videos.”

These may seem like the words of an angry young man, but at least he is justified in his comments. After all, it is exactly these grievances that he has with the sport that he is attempting to rectify through his videography and clothing company. Maybe more people should stop complaining, get off their arses and take action.

Words: David McNamara Photos: Kuba Urbanczyk

“The big companies have money but they don’t want to spend it on riders, and that’s why we’ve been stuck at the same point for years.”

Do you know when the new Suicidal Tendencies album is going to be released?

I am not sure if there is a release date planned but it is coming out soon. It has been mentioned to me that it will be coming out in 2012. It is definitely coming!

Your debut album is called The Golden Age of Apocalypse. Where does the name come from?

My mum named the album. She listened to the music and said: “it sounds like it’s the end.” She told me it was kind of scary at the ending and I thought, “Hmm...” Haha!

Tell us about the album.

It is the total of a lot of years of collecting and drawing from different people and different places. It’s a Frankenstein, so to speak. I had no plans to do the album until Flying Lotus suggested it.

Where did the inspiration come from?

It came from the different things that have influenced me through life, the different things I have been exposed to.

The inspiration also came from my family, especially my daughter. It’s just very heartfelt and everything is exactly as it seems. It just came from the heart.

Going it Alone Californian bass-playing sensation Thundercat discusses his debut solo album and joining thrash metal veterans Suicidal Tendencies at 16-years-old.

part of boy band No Curfew and at the tender age of 16 he joined thrash metal veterans Suicidal Tendencies. He has also performed with jazz musician Stanley Clarke, hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg and Grammy Award winning soul singer Eric Benét, but now he is ready to step out on his own.

Brainfeeder are breaking free of their experimental hip-hop label tag with some unexpected releases recently. The label, run by Californian producer Flying Lotus, have taken steps to expand their horizons by re-releasing an album

by French techno producer Mr. Oizo as well as distributing the latest album from Dutch producer Martyn, and they recently unleashed the debut album by bassist and producer Stephen Burner aka Thundercat.

This year, Thundercat released his debut solo album, The Golden Age of Apocalypse, a futuristic jazz journey of epic proportions that features guest appearances from neo-soul icon Erykah Badu and Austin Peralta. Wheel Scene decided to gain an insight into his prolific career so far.

Thundercat first came to our attention after appearing on ‘HmmHmm’, one of the standout tracks from Lotus’ latest album, Cosmogramma, and it turns out that, like FlyLo, he has a rich musical heritage of his own. The young musician is the younger brother of Grammy Award winning drummer Ronald Bruner Jr. and son of Ronald Bruner, a prolific drummer that performed and recorded with Diana Ross, The Temptations and Gladys Knight. Thundercat has stepped out from the shadows of his family’s accomplishments by touring Europe as

Wheel Scene: How did you meet Flying Lotus?

Thundercat: The first time I met him was at SXSW and that was a few years back, before Cosmogramma. I was with a group called J*DaVeY and we were walking the streets and one of my band mates pointed out Flying Lotus and I was introduced to him. We planned to hang out and when it finally started happening we realised we lived right down the street from each other. It was magical. We would just create together and hang out.

That’s pretty cool. You both have a rich musical history. I understand your dad played with The Temptations. Were you encouraged to pursue music as a child?

I was encouraged by my parents to do music. We are a household full of musicians and everybody is kind of an artist in my house - it’s just the way we grew up.

Is it true you joined Suicidal Tendencies when you were just 16-years-old?

Yeah, that’s correct. It was pretty fun, experiencing such a whole entire world of music. At that age, it was like someone opened the door to some kind of vortex to where I was like, “Wow, there are people beating each other up and going crazy and thrashing out.” It was the kind of energy I had always felt and I always enjoyed that kind of thing.

How did you join the group?

They were looking for a drummer and my brother had joined before me. One of their members had quit and joined Metallica and they were looking for a bass player. They told him to bring his little brother by a rehearsal and ever since then it was just cool, you know?

Growing up, who were your musical icons?

Jaco Pastorius, George Duke, The Stanley Clarke Band, Cream and Soft Machine, General Giant, Lamb of God, Slipknot and Korn at one point. I don’t really shut myself off to things. Growing up, there were a lot of different things going on. When I was younger someone introduced me to Prince and I didn’t get it at first. I was like, “Why is this guy on the cover wearing underwear and a trench coat?” When I got older I was like, “Ohhh!” It was like Parliament and Frank Zappa; there are times when you hear something right on time - Gino Vannelli or something. It’s about your mind state when you hear it.

How difficult is it to recreate all the intricate elements of your songs in a live setting?

There are many different ways. It can be as small as me improvising and as grand as playing with my brother or Flying Lotus.

What does the future hold for Thundercat?

The key word is survive! What it means to be an artist and survive as an artist.

I don’t know what that entails for me but I am on a current and wherever the current is taking me I am going to try my hardest. I am working on something with Flying Lotus, as well as Erykah Badu, and I am also in a band with my brother, so we will see.

Okay....

Words: Jeanie Rogers Photo: Theo Jemison

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 19 White Ring’s Bryan Kurkimillis explains why he moved from New Orleans to New York to form a band with a girl he met on the internet.

Bryan Kurkimillis is either very brave or very stupid. The 26-year old producer moved over 1,300 miles from New Orleans to New York to form a band with Kendra Malia, a singer from Seattle that his only relationship with up until that point had been over the internet. It sounds like the beginning of a gruesome thriller where a young man agrees to go on a date with a pretty girl he met online only to wake up in a bath full of ice with his organs sold on the black market for a healthy sum of money, but Kurkimillis assures us that there was nothing seedy going on.

“We met on Myspace on our music profiles,” he says. “She had a solo music thing and so did I. I somehow stumbled upon hers and asked if I could do a remix of this song she had and then she suggested that we work on songs together – that was in 2006.”

Back then, Kurkimillis was living in New Orleans and already creating music as White Ring, the moniker he used for his dark, menacing rap beats that contained industrial and gothic references, but it wasn’t going down too well with his friends or the patrons of the local rap club where he used to DJ. “I remember when I would play stuff for my friends in New Orleans and they would not like it at all,” he says. “I would DJ and play some of our stuff and it would clear people out of the room.”

Fortunately for the aspiring producer, he had found a kindred spirit in Malia, who, in addition to having a deep appreciation for rap, was heavily influenced by trance and industrial electronic music.

The duo began sending each other mixtapes featuring their favourite musicians and came to a mutual understanding of the type of electronic music they wanted to create. The next step involved sending rough tracks back and forth online until they came up with a finished product that they were both satisfied with.

“There isn’t a set way but usually it works out with me coming up with something on my computer and emailing the idea over to Kendra for her to put an idea over it and we bounce it back and forth until it feels done.”

After three years of working together like this, Kurkimillis decided it was time to take the next logical step. Life in New Orleans was taking a turn for the worst as a result of heavy partying and substance abuse, and the fact that no one seemed to understand his musical vision didn’t help matters. At the beginning of 2009, he decided to move to New York and set up home in Brooklyn in order to pursue White Ring full time with Malia. While discussing his reasons for leaving New Orleans, it becomes glaringly obvious that the band was not his only motivation. Kurkimillis resolved himself to the fact that he had to get

A Leap of Faith out of the destructive social circles he was moving in if he was ever going to pursue music seriously.

“New Orleans is just a party town. It’s the only place you can drink on the street and 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Bars don’t close so all the people that live there are part of a small scene.

A lot of people party really hard out there and it’s cheap, so if you work at a bar you can make your rent money in a night and there are a lot of drugs. It has become a pretty small place after Hurricane Katrina and you would end up knowing everyone, and a lot of the people that I knew sold drugs. It just got messy.”

White Ring’s output is heavily influenced by late nineties rap, especially Cash Money releases, Juvenile, Mystikal and Drama. The duo have been labelled with the tag ‘witch house’ or ‘drag’ and put into the same category as Michigan out-

fit Salem and San Francisco’s OOoOo, probably because of the creepy imagery and slowed-down, syrup-covered rap beats and gothic aesthetic. Despite being pigeon-holed as ‘witch house’, a genre that was apparently started as joke by Travis Egedy in 2009, Kurkimillis is actually quite pleased that people care enough to label them at all.

“I don’t hate it,” he offers. “I think it’s flattering that there’s a name for something like this in the first place. We know oOoOO and Salem, and they were independently doing stuff and then someone caught on to all of us until a momentum built up and they needed a name for it. I am glad there is something there for people who like what we like to get into.”

The duo recently signed to Rocket Girl Records and are set to re-release their debut EP, Black Earth That Made Me, as there are only 250 copies of the origi-

nal and they are currently selling for a ridiculous price on Ebay. It will act as a prelude to their upcoming debut album, which is set to be released early next year and, according to Kurkimillis, is almost finished.

“We have more than enough songs written and Kendra has got over half of the tracks laid down and I am going to do some vocals as well. We have a month or two left of recording, then a month of production and then we will just be waiting around for the promotion to be done. It’s going to be all over the place and not very cohesive. There will be pop-trance songs and really slow, pretty ethereal songs.”

Words: David McNamara Photo: Dani Amour

Lost in Translation Misty flip

Edwin Wieringh fights through the language barrier to deliver his first interview in a British publication and comes out on top, sort of.

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 23 The whole point of starting Wheel Scene was to give much-needed to exposure to rollerbladers like Edwin Wieringh. He is one of the finest all-round rollerblading talents in Europe and has been killing it on the international competition circuit for many years yet, despite releasing impressive online edits on a regular basis and performing well at most events he attends, Wieringh has never received coverage in any major rollerblading publication and his video appearances are few and far between.

The release of the most recent Razors DVD, Game Theory, changed all of that.

Wieringh appeared in a stunning shared section with fellow underdogs Iain Mcleod and Erik Perkett. The end result was a three-minute plus tour de force with the Dutch blader holding his own against two of America’s most impressive street skaters by executing technical grinds, stylish lines and a monster rocket bio down a sizable stair set. After witnessing Game Theory, we knew we had to interview Wieringh because, like many of the European skaters that featured in the shared sections of the latest Razors team video, he deserved a complete profile. Unfortunately, doing a profile on the 28-year-old was easier said than done.

We arranged to do the interview via telephone but, due to conflicting schedules, weeks went past and we kept missing each other’s calls. Realising that this simply wasn’t going to work, and with the deadline for issue four rapidly approaching, we agreed that I would email over a set of questions for him to answer. This seemed like a reasonable solution until it turned out that the week before Wheel Scene was due to go to print, Wieringh had to move house and decorate.

During the final week in the run up to publishing issue four, it was a complete nightmare trying to get hold of the illusive Razors rider. I emailed him every day to see if he could send over the photos and the answers for his interview and Wieringh kept promising that he would get round to it, seemingly oblivious to the fact that we needed time to write the feature and arrange layouts.

Two days before Wheel Scene issue four was due to go to print, we resolved ourselves to the fact that he wasn’t going to come through for us and tried to figure out what the hell we were going to do with the four pages that we had set aside for his interview. I even toyed with the idea of writing a fake interview with Wieringh and coming up with responses to my own questions - this involved the skater making some extremely culturally-insensitive comments about his homeland and fellow countrymen. He must have read my thoughts, because the morning before we were due to send the publication off to the printers, Wieringh sent over everything we needed.

The only problem was, he seemed to misunderstand some of the questions put forward to him. Oh well, we tried. At least the photos worked out well.

Truespin fishbrain

Alleyoop fishbrain

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 25 Wheel Scene: How did you get into rollerblading?

Wieringh: I got into rollerblading through one of my friends - it started at junior high. He bought a pair of Rollerblade Tarmacs so me and some other friends weren’t left behind and had to buy a pair of rollerblades, too. We went to the nearest city close to my house to go ride down stairs and jump over them.

We had never heard about grinding. We also met other rollerbladers who could grind and knew way more about it than we did, so I learned to do a royale in one day and so it all started. That was in 1995.

What is Amsterdam like for street skating? It seems like the police don’t give you guys too much hassle.

What would you like to do once you are finished rollerblading at a competitive level?

That’s a good one. I haven’t thought about that yet. I’m still so focused on my own rollerblading and I know I can still do it on a good level for years.

If you could change one thing about rollerblading, what would it be?

I don’t think I would change a thing in the sport. It has got a lot of variety in it and the people that do it, and I think that’s something that keeps the sport strong.

Words: Louis Flood Photos: Florian

Amsterdam is a really good city for street skating, it has got a lot of spots to offer. There are the famous ledges that were skated in the IMYTA, there are some good handicap rails that you can practice on and some really good drop rails if you want to get your hammers right. There are also a lot of great people to skate with, which is really important, like Dick Heerkens, Tyron Ballantine and Hans Hardonk. The police in Holland are nothing to worry about when you go out skating.

Who do you skate for?

My sponsors are Razors and Street Artist.

You recently visited the Razors house in California. How was that experience?

Yeah, that was awesome. I spent time with the team, going out filming for videos and also did a lot of relaxing Do you know why Julian Bah got kicked off the Razors team?

I really don’t know.

What do you like to do when you are not rollerblading?

The thing I like when I’m rollerblading is pretty much everything. It makes me feel free in what I can do, and it’s always so cool. You can go over your limits and expand it.

Are you working or studying at the moment?

At the moment I’m working full-time in a hotel. Sometimes it’s pretty stressful because it’s hard to get my focus away from rollerblading.

Are you filming for any videos at the moment?

At the moment I’m filming for the Razors amateur video. I’m totally focused on making it the best profile I ever made

Frontside torque slide

Hungry for More Mac Miller advises why being more popular that Jay-Z and Kanye West simply isn’t good enough.

“ It’s wild that people I went to school with have gone to college and met fans of mine.”

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 27 Teenage rap sensation Mac Miller, real name Malcolm McCormack, is living the good life. When we speak to the Pittsburgh MC that signed to Rostrum Records last year and counts label mate Wiz Khalifa among his close friends, he is in the UK for the first time and preparing to go on stage to a packed venue in Manchester. While many of his high school contemporaries are attending college or trying to find a job, Miller is touring the world and performing to rooms full of adoring fans. Many rappers would take this opportunity to boast of their success and popularity but Miller is adamant that he is no better than anyone he went to school with, it’s just that his life went in a different direction.

“It’s wild that everyone that I went to school with is in college and working to get a degree in something,” he says.

“It’s just different life paths for everyone and this is mine. I’m not going to say mine is any better or cooler than anyone else or what they are doing. It’s wild that people I went to school with have gone to college and met fans of mine.”

So how does it feel to be in the UK for the first time? “It has been a great experience,” responds Miller. “There are a lot of people out here that know my lyrics and come ready to party and sing along – which is something I didn’t expect. It’s pretty tight.”

Is there any difference between playing shows in the UK compared to the US? “To be honest, I thought there would be a huge difference but there isn’t.

They come ready to hang out and have a good time. The only difference is the accent!”

The 19-year-old released his first free mixtape, But My Mackin’ Ain’t Easy at the tender age of 15 and less than three years later, after dropping two more mixtapes and a ridiculous amount of online promotion, Miller signed to Pittsburgh-based independent rap label Rostrum Records and released K.I.D.S. (Kickin’ Incredibly Dope Shit).

Apparently he had been pestering label boss Benjy Grinberg for years with his recordings but it wasn’t until the rapper had developed his sound, and his fan base, that he took any interest.

“We were always pretty close,” says Miller when asked about his relationship with Rostrum. “When I was working on K.I.D.S. I was getting offers from different labels and management companies. I took stuff to Rostrum and they would think it was kind of stupid and not a good deal for me, so I suggested that we do a deal together. It was all on the strength of a handshake.”

It was at this point that Miller found an international audience. Along with the release of K.I.D.S, Miller posted several low-budget music videos online through his crew’s Youtube channel, TreeJTV, and the response was massive. Three of his videos (‘Nikes On My Feet’, ‘Senior Skip Day’ and ‘Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza’) all exceeded 15 million views and propelled Miller to internet stardom. When his follow-up mixtape, Best Day Ever, came out less than a year later, the music video for debut single ‘Donald Trump’ became so popular that the song’s inspiration posted on his Twitter account that Miller was “the next Eminem” and to date the video has had over 29 million views.

Between the time of this interview and going to print, the view count had risen by over four million. When asked about the phenomenal success of his online marketing campaign and homemade music videos, Miller betrays his seemingly-laidback persona by displaying an ambitious streak.

“It’s always shocking to see how big things have got,” he begins. “The ‘Donald Trump’ video is at almost 25 million views. All my videos have had crazy numbers. It’s wild, but when it happens it just makes me want to strive for the next level. I am working to make it bigger but, when I step back from it, I remember when I used to get excited about 10,000 views.”

Let’s break this down: Mac Miller graduated from high school just over a year ago and signed to a small independent label with limited funding, but one of his music videos has received more Youtube views than Jay-Z and Kanye West’s video for ‘Otis’, a video created by award-winning director Spike Jonze and featuring two of the biggest names in hip-hop. When provided with these statistics Miller seems humbled, but it is clear that he is determined achieve much more in the future.

“It’s cool to be in company with some of the biggest hip-hop acts ever and some of my favourite rappers. When the new video (‘Frick Park Market’) dropped, Youtube showed the top three videos of the day and it was me, Lady Gaga and Jay-Z and Kanye. It’s cool that we are doing that on an independent level.”

Since signing to Rostrum, Miller has worked with some of hip-hop’s most fashionable producers, including Just Blaze, Chuck Inglish from The Cool Kids and 9th Wonder, who has produced hits for Lil’ Wayne, Drake and Erykah Badu and had some very complimentary things to say about the promising young artist on his Twitter page. It turns out the two have a mutual respect for one

another’s work and their relationship extends beyond simply making music together.

smoke weed,” he says. “She has never been very anti-weed. It’s always just been my thing.”

“We have done all kinds of work together,” says Miller. “I have done work with his artists and he has done work with a few of mine. It’s more just a family thing. We work and make music together but we also call each other up and just talk. I am blessed to be working with some of my favourite producers and they are all really cool people.

They’re not just trying to get on the album and make some money.”

It should hardly be surprising that his mother condones the use of the class B drug. After all, Miller claimed that he lost his virginity at the age of 14 in his family home with her knowledge that is some liberal parenting. So how do they feel about their teenage son pursuing a career is music? “My mum worries about my health but they love it – they’re fans of the music. They love that I am doing what I love to do.

I am actually flying my mum and my grandma to Paris to see me play.”

This year marks the release of Miller’s debut album, Blue Slide Park, named after Frick Park, a place he visited regularly throughout his childhood.

Despite the fact that Miller has built up a network of gifted producers, he decided to make the record with a team of frequent collaborators and local producers, including Rostrum owner Benjy Grinberg, and contributed his piano, guitar and drum skills to several of the tracks.

“It’s just me on the rapping side. On the production side, it’s all E. Dan, Big Germ and myself all working together. We did all the jams from scratch and brought in a bunch of people from out of town to work with us. It’s a team effort.”

One of the “people” he is referring to is hipster-friendly bedroom producer Clams Casino, who has produced tracks for Lil B and Soulja Boy and released his critically-acclaimed debut EP, Rainforest, via über trendy New York label Tri-Angle earlier in the year. With such promising talent behind the album, it seems only right to find out what it is about.

“The album is about no matter where you go in life or what happens or if you are successful or not, you always have the places that made you who you are and the places that you grew up at and the memories. It’s also about how this one place has been so constant throughout my life even though so many other things have changed.”

This pretty much sums up Miller’s appeal: He is an everyman that raps about things that anyone can relate to; partying, girls and trying to better himself. His last mixtape, Best Day Ever, was about having a positive outlook on life and its predecessor, K.I.D.S, simply documented what he believes is everyday life for young people of his generation. Another constant theme throughout all of Miller’s lyrics is his marijuana smoking habits, which must be slightly worrying for his mother as he has been referencing weed since his early teens. “She’s always known that I

One of Miller’s most appealing characteristics is his positive outlook on life and the optimism in his lyrics. Many of his songs offer words of hope and in interviews he appears humble and good humoured, although this may be due to the fact that he is usually high when they take place. Regardless, it seems there is little that can bring the young rapper down. When asked if it is possible to piss him off, Miller responds: “If I am trying to get a point across and it’s not working or I am being misunderstood I get frustrated, but it doesn’t last long. I just look at the people around me and the blessings I have had and I feel snotty to get that upset about anything. I have an incredible life and I am blessed with the ability to be on a tour bus right now, touring across Europe and making music for a living, so there is nothing that I can get that upset about.”

The future of rap is young, gifted and good-natured. With a positive attitude, a relentless work ethic and undeniable ambition, Mac Miller is determined to take over the world, one Youtube hit at a time.

Words: Jeanie Rogers Photo: Dani Amour

The Show Must Go On

Gap to backside savannah, 360 out

Nick Lomax explains why he loves nothing more than performing in front of a large crowd at contests.

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 29 Nick Lomax rose to international notoriety after overcoming Brian Shima, Erik Bailey and Chris Haffey to take joint first place at IMYTA Amsterdam 2006 alongside Benny Harmanus, and he hasn’t stopped showing off since. The Manchester-based blader consistently releases online edits to promote his sponsors and attends a wide variety of events across the world each year, leaving spectators speechless. In fact, this year alone he has won two contests (Noiya Jam 2011 and WithME Contest) and taken a respectable second place at Capital Clash, Unit 23 Open and IRON S3T Contest. While some skaters often get nervous in front of a large crowd and find it difficult to perform to the best of their ability, Lomax claims it is one of the main contributing factors to his consistent competition appearances.

“I guess I am a show off and the more people around watching, the more it pushes me. For example, at IMYTA Amsterdam I would have never rolled up to that last spot with my friends and done anything like that on it. It was only because it was such a big thing and bare people. Not really sure how other people find it but a lot of skaters are just genuinely good with or without crowds.”

The tricks he is referring to at IMYTA Amsterdam included full cab backside backslide, 270 backside unity and 360 topsoul on a steep rail with a sizable drop on the other side. If you have seen Lomax skate at any real street event since that landmark occasion, it is clearly evident that he has not slowed down after attaining pro status and receiving signature models from USD and Undercover Wheels. Every year, without fail, Lomax makes sure he is a regular fixture in the final round of most major competitions in the UK and abroad, and it is not very often that he goes to an event and walks away emptyhanded.

Some professionals get tired of competing and it is understandable: After all, they are regularly forced to prove themselves against their contemporaries and the neverending legions of rapidly-developing newcomers who are trying to gain exposure by taking down an established figure in the sport. However, Lomax still has the same drive that he did back when he was crowned IMYTA champion five years ago and relishes the opportunity to perform for a crowd.

“I guess I am a show off and the more people around watching, the more it pushes me.”

“Travelling and contests never get boring,” he begins. “I used to love going to contests and throwing some tricks to try and get noticed, I guess everyone does. I think one day I’ll get tired of it, but if it means getting out of the UK for a while then it’s all good.”

In addition to a staggering competition record, the 25-year-old regularly films online edits for sponsors USD, Kizer, Loco Skates and Undercover Wheels, and featured heavily in The Conference’s Show of Force Tour video series in 2010, but there have been very few profiles of Mr. Lomax in DVD format. In fact, the only section that has ever appeared on a commercially-released rollerblading video is his impressive performance in the 2009 Ben Shelbourne film, Let It Never End. As it turns out, Lomax is currently working on a profile for Shelbourne’s follow-up release.

“I’m filming for my good friend Ben Shelbourne, who made Let It Never End, who is making a new DVD. I will have another section, but this time he’s filming my part last so all the footage is new. In Let It Never End the footage was over quite a long time.”

Despite regularly placing in the top three at major competitions in the UK and abroad, and putting out impressive online edits on a regular basis, it has not all been good fortune for the talented blader. Over the last couple of years he has been admitted into hospital with broken bones on two occasions – one caused by rollerblading and another as the result of a completely different activity. That is, if you call being beaten up an activity.

“My jaw got broke from being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he says. “I basically got banged out off some nutter in Brighton - of all places. I spent a week in hospital and now I got metal pins inside for support. My ankle and fibula, also wrong place wrong time. I collided into my friend Clayton at the Chaz Invite. I spent eight days in hospital waiting for an operation but in the end I didn’t need one - pretty lucky!”

Now that Lomax has fully-recovered from both injuries, he is back on the competition circuit and his passion for blading is stronger than ever. He still has some goals to achieve but, despite his obvious ability on blades, feels that there are certain goals that are simply not within his reach.

“I have been thinking about my future and skating a lot. Basically, I won’t be good at it forever, so while I have a chance I’m going to try and win everything! I seem to do better in street comps, so if you’re thinking of organising one get me involved!

Obviously there are some comps that I’ll never win, like Winterclash or any FISE, but I‘ll give them a good try!”

When Lomax isn’t travelling across the world with The Conference, he is turning up at the majority of the events held in the UK and visiting friends across the country in search of new street spots.

Over the past couple of years he has been impressed with many of the upand-coming bladers but there are a few that stick out in his mind for pushing the progression of the sport.

Outside of rollerblading, Lomax earns money by working for his father’s painting and decorating company back home in Bolton, where he grew up. They have an ideal set-up where he can go back and work a few shifts whenever he has time off from his hectic touring schedule. Now that Lomax is in his mid-twenties and the impending reality of finding a career once he can no longer rollerblade at the highest level approaches, he is currently weighing up his options.

“I have enjoyed watching quite a lot of bladers in the UK recently, the first one being Alex Burston. He’s doing so well right now. He’s handling skating like a pro, getting his name out there and doing it like a man. Sammy Brookfield is another that gets better and better every time we skate. James Keyte is always smashing it, Scott Hallows - in fact, too many heads are smashing it!”

“After skating I’d like to teach kids how to skate - get a certificate and all that. That way, I can always have something to do with skating. Either that or I can carry on with my painting and decorating. I could get a driving licence, a transit van and start my own company - who knows?”

Until the inevitable happens and he is forced to take a step back from professional rollerblading, Lomax is cherishing every moment he has on blades and readily admits that his favourite aspect of being a sponsored athlete is the opportunity to travel all over the world and experience new places, meet new people and, of course, skate new obstacles. Despite the fact that Barcelona and California are widelyconsidered to be the elite street skating destinations, Lomax has been much more impressed with his excursions to the largest country in the world.

“I have been surprised most by Russia,” he begins. “I always heard so much about it in the news and films, so when I visited I was always on my tip toes expecting something to happen something bad or crazy. I always had one eye on everything, but it turns out it’s really amazing. The locals, Boris and the guys, showed me a really sick time!

We sat on rooftops watching fireworks over the city, skated really sick spots and had a genuinely amazing trip!”

Despite the fact that rollerblading is massive in the UK and many of the world’s top professionals make a point of travelling here each year to visit rollerblading events, Nick Lomax is one of only five British skaters to receive a pro skate, along with Clydebank’s Chaz Sands, Birmingham’s Ty Brissett and Londoners Oli Short and Leon Humphries. There are no plans for a follow-up skate from USD in the near future, but he advises that there will be a new signature wheel from Undercover dropping soon. When asked what he would like to see change in the rollerblading industry from a pro skater’s perspective, Lomax responds: “I guess, like most things, the-biggerthe-better. It would be sweet to see the pro skaters getting what they deserve.

There’s not really much of a career in blading. A lot of people think that it going mainstream is a gay thing, but I’d love to see that one day. Although, if there were no companies around anymore, I’d make my own skates and do it just because I love it!

Words: David McNamara Photos: Adam Kola

Switch soul grind, 180 out

Nick Lomax on Manchester Manchester is home to me. I’ve never felt so safe in any other place, even in my home town of Bolton. I guess you can all relate with your own cities, it’s probably the same feeling, but Manchester means best friends from years, best days street skating, best group of Boystans. So many memories and sick weekends out skating that I’ll never forget! Manchester is the one! If you haven’t been, you should visit!

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 31

Gap to topside soul, transfer across to switch soul on other rail, revert out

Nick Lomax 540

Solitude

Thriving in

Berlin-based producer Emika reminisces on lonely excursions to Bristol dubstep nights and finding solace in minimal techno.

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 35 Emika has always been an outsider. She grew up in “culturally starved” Milton Keynes, studying classical piano until she felt restricted by the constraints of conventional composition. The industrious teenager then began skipping school in order to save up money for a laptop and portable studio software so that she could create the sounds that she could hear in her mind but was unable to convey on paper.

As soon as she was old enough to leave, the aspiring producer moved to Bath to study creative music technology and stumbled upon Bristol’s bass scene and the birth of dubstep. Enamoured with the boldly experimental successor of drum and bass but struggling to form a stable social circle, Emika began attending club nights on her own and sought comfort in the rumbling basslines and sparse compositions of early dubstep, solidifying her resolve to become a producer and create her own sound art. However, it was only when Emika moved to Berlin that she found her voice. She became immersed in the flourishing techno scene and provided vocals for several producers including My My, Paul Frick and Tommy Four Seven and began working at Native Instruments as a sound engineer.

The 25-year-old producer is about to release her self-titled debut album, a collection of deeply introspective stories of personal relationships told through cold, whispered vocals. Each tale is framed by a soundscape that is an amalgamate of Bristol dubstep nights and Berlin’s minimal techno aesthetics combined with bastardised piano compositions. In short, it’s dark, brooding and thoroughly satisfying.

Emika’s journey to artistic fulfilment is a fascinating one, but it’s much better when she tells it.

Wheel Scene: I know that you are a classically-trained musician and you work at Native Instruments in Berlin, but how did you get into electronic music?

Emika: It was kind of by accident. I was doing a lot of composing when I was in school and I really didn’t enjoy playing instruments at all but I really enjoyed putting music together. I didn’t like how you always had to put it down on paper because I was never good at writing down music. You would give your music to a cello player and it wouldn’t sound the way it did in my head because I couldn’t write it down exactly like it was in my head, so I started working with a four track and cassettes and recording and sampling.

When I was at school I wouldn’t go very much because I was secretly working lots of jobs on the side to save up money for laptops and I ended up working with digital sequencing. That was really satisfying because you could craft any sound you wanted and throw it together in any way that you liked. I decided to pursue that more at university and I thought about using a laptop in the way that you would

use a notepad and a pen to make classical music but on a computer. I had no concept of electronic music or techno and everything kind of evolved once I started making my own synthesised sounds.

So where do the techno influences come from?

I moved to Berlin and discovered dance culture and that was amazing. The techno scene is amazing because abstract sound is at the core of that scene and so many people my age were freaking out and dancing to that music, so I found my home there and decided to stay.

How big an influence was Bristol on your music?

It was a massive influence. Being in Berlin and having memories of going to the first dubstep nights in Bristol and watching the birth of bass culture and the transition from drum and bass. When I was in Berlin I was immersed in techno and constantly comparing it to Bristol and the music. It was nice to have a past and present point of reflection. I felt like I put myself in my own kind of music school by travelling around a bit and witnessing different music cultures.

Why did you decide to move from Bristol to Berlin?

I was guessing it was about a cold, emotionless relationship.

What do you think about the position of women in electronic music?

I was very young when I signed a record deal and suddenly being on Ninja Tune opened a lot of doors. I wasn’t used to any of that. I had to fight for what I wanted to do, then everything became really simple. I was offered guestlists to every club in Berlin and suddenly everyone wanted to talk to me and remix me for free. It was really strange because I was in Bristol on my own and I felt healthy in Berlin and I could make friends and start again. I got a record deal and became this really popular person in the scene and it got me thinking about professionalism and how everyone says they love you. At the time, when I wrote that hook, I wasn’t sure what it meant to be professional and how you can professionally love people you work with. There is a professional love-in in the music industry and it was all quite scary.

I am meeting a lot of people that come to my shows and photograph me and a lot of them are women that run nights and work in music. The thing that I am starting to realise is that they do make music and have studios. There are so many women making music but there isn’t a shared vision on how to put their music into the world. I get the feeling that women are quite private and a little bit apprehensive about how to release their music. There aren’t really any labels or clubs or promoters that want to create a space for women and their work. You also get the other extreme; with really active women that are really manly and they want to challenge men and they are also quite terrifying and I know there are a lot of women that don’t want to be like that. I don’t think there is a stable foundation for women in electronic music yet and I think it is going to take a long time before there is. I think there are a lot of women making electronic music but not many have the guts to release it and stand by what they do.

Was it not difficult going from being a loner to being popular?

I did actually end up with the wrong people for a year of my life, which is why it took me so long to get this album out because it was suddenly very tempting to stay at parties for days with different people and I got into all kinds of trouble.

It was a very strange part of my life.

You seem like quite In Bristol I had quite a private person. a hard time beAre you worried cause I didn’t make “I felt like I put myself in my own kind that this album many friends and I of music school by travelling around might thrust you put a lot of pressure a bit and witnessing different music into the limelight? on myself to be a cultures.” producer. After my I turn down a lot of degree I became ill photo shoots beand I was in hospicause I am in the tal for a very long studio making music, so you can always time and I lost my way a little. I came out say “no” to stuff. I’m not looking for that of hospital and carried on living there but kind of stardom and it might knock on my it wasn’t the same. All the people knew door, but I don’t have to let it in. I’m on me as the girl that was ill and in hospiNinja Tune, so I am not sure if this evil tal and everyone was a little bit afraid if kind of stardom is going to come looking I was drinking around them and people for me. would worry about me. I got quite shut away and I was listening to a lot of music and going to clubs but I wouldn’t socialise with anyone. I’d just be alone with the music and my own observations. I really think that’s where the birth of my artistry happened because I didn’t feel connected to the people or the culture but I did feel connected to the sound. Dubstep, in the beginning, wasn’t ambitious; it was all about meditation. I was in the dark, listening to music and I think that’s where the dark elements in my music come from. I think Bristol was the single most influential thing on this record.

Tell us about your debut single, “Professional Loving”.

It’s not about stripping but I do like the idea that some people think I have made stripper dub. I am excited about the fact that porn and strip clubs will be playing my records.

Words: Louis Flood Photo: Christoph Voy

Happy in the Shadows Scotland’s Mark Burling doesn’t need the approval of sponsors or message board addicts, as long as he has a pair of skates on his feet.

180 gap

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 37 In the current economy, with university fees steadily rising to the point where the average middle-class family finds they are not be able to send their children to further education and more graduates qualify with a degree only to find that it is simply not enough to get them a mere entry level job, it seems that our current generation of young people have got the odds stacked against them when it comes to getting on the career ladder. Thankfully for Bishopton’s Mark Burling, he was intelligent enough to choose a career that is recession proof. He will never have to worry about running out of work because there will always be demand for the kind of services he provides.

“I’m a full-time electrician, which takes up most of my time, to be honest. I’m pretty much non-stop with work. If it’s not overtime from work, it’s family members wanting homers done, and I struggle to say no!”

Topside acid

“Being sponsored would be cool, I suppose, but I’m really not that fussed by it and never have been.”

Despite the fact that Burling works all the hours that God sends, and a few more for good measure, he still finds time to get out blading regularly. The 23-year-old discovered the sport when he stumbled upon a couple of people on rollerblades in his local area. “Back in 2003, I rode BMX at the time, got one for Christmas and was down at a spot near my house where there were two guys rollerblading. I got talking to them and it looked a blast! I went and looked out my old Bauer FX1s that I used to play street hockey in, took out the second wheel and went skating with those guys.”

Burling has been skating for less than eight years, but he is easily one of the best all-round rollerbladers in Scotland and can hold his own against the poster boy of Scottish rollerblading, Chaz Sands, at his local stomping ground, Unit 23 Skatepark in Dumbarton.

However, very few people outside of the country know of Burling’s unique talent because he rarely attends any events south of the border. When asked about his rare appearances at UK events, he admits that it is down to a lack of planning on his part.

“We are all so bad at organising getting places! Sometimes we try but it never really pans out. I tried this year and everyone I skate with was busy and had other shit going on, so I hired a car and drove to the Chaz Invite for the day by myself! I reckon I’ll be doing the same for Slamm Jamm!”

When the Renfrewshire native does compete, it is obvious that he has a natural ability on rollerblades. He has an almost-sickening control over grinds and his technical switch-ups are executed with the kind of precision and style that you would expect from some of the world’s top professionals, yet for some reason he cannot seem to control his nerves and perform to the standard that everyone who has seen him skate knows he is capable of. At this year’s Unit 23 Open, Burling was skating with incredible consistency all day and qualified for the finals in the open category. Valo professional Erik Bailey was judging and made several comments about how impressed he was with Burling’s blading ability, but when the heat began it all fell apart and he failed to perform many of his trademark moves.

“That’s pretty much what happens to me when I’m competing these days,” he says. “The Unit 23 Open was a perfect example. I mean, during the day I was skating fine and doing most of my tricks, no problems, then the microphone comes on, my name’s called and my nerves go. I really should have skated better as I’m at that place most times I am skating!”

He may not have managed to get his act together when it comes to competitions yet, but Burling handles himself like seasoned professional in every other aspect of his blading. When asked if he would like to shoot a profile for this

Truespin topside pornstar

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 39 issue, he found a photographer and got many of the images within the space of two weeks while juggling various work commitments. If you ask any blader in Scotland what they think of him, there are few that will deny the fact that he is one of the most gifted rollerbladers in the country.

a few people trying real hard and doing their bit for the industry. If everyone done that the sport would be massive!”

The reason Burling remains so underrated is probably down to the fact that, unlike many other talented bladers, he does not churn out regular online edits in the hope of gaining some exposure and picking up a couple of sponsors. Even though he is clearly passionate about the sport and has spent many years perfecting his skills, the idea of being on a team roster has never been a priority.

“Yeah, very true, but even those started as small companies and had to work hard and have the support. We should buy their skates and DVDs, but still keep in mind to support the smaller names out there that are doing their bit.”

“Being sponsored would be cool, I suppose, but I’m really not that fussed by it and never have been. I was never one of the kids who went out and made ‘sponsor me’ videos. I just always wanted to have fun and whatever happened, happened. Having a company willing to back you and let you represent them would be quite flattering, though!”

Words: Louis Flood Photos: Paul Killen and Scott Quinn

But surely we need the larger companies with bigger budgets in order to expose our sport to a wider audience and infiltrate mainstream culture?

When Burling is not out blading and working like the Energiser bunny on Pro Plus, he can be found spending time with his girlfriend and riding his bike. He has managed to find a perfect balance between work and social life, while still making time to stay on top of his blading game. Don’t expect to see Burling’s edits all over Rollernews any time soon but if you visit Unit 23 Skatepark and he is there, you are guaranteed a lesson in world class rollerblading.

When discussing the topic of companies in rollerblading, Mark advises that he has a great respect for the young entrepreneurs that are trying to create a brand and represent rollerblading in a positive light. “I like the smaller companies,” he begins. “The skaterowned ones where you know there are

Truespin mizou

Backside backslide

Under no Delusions Wild Flag vocalist Mary Timony refuses to accept the fact that she is part of an all-girl indie supergroup.

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 41 The expression ‘supergroup’ is often over-used nowadays. Any sort of project or collaboration between previously famous musicians is immediately labelled as such by journalists and music fans alike. But there are some bands, like Wild Flag, for instance, who don’t necessarily agree with being branded with such a title. “It’s not like we’re Asia or something,” exclaims Mary Timony, guitarist and vocalist of the all-female, Portland/ Washingtonbased rock quartet.

Featuring members from bands such as Sleater-Kinney, Quasi, The Minders, Helium and Autoclave, Wild Flag have the depth and breadth of experience that the young rock star wannabes of today could only envy. However, like the ‘supergroup’ status, calling them ‘veterans’ also touches a nerve. “I am still finding it odd that I personally might be considered a veteran at music,” explains Mary, “Rock music is kind of like professional sports - when you pass 35 you are a senior citizen already!”

Making the distinction between music veteran and long-time music lover, Mary goes on to explain “I don’t feel like a veteran, I feel like someone who loves music and makes music because it’s an interest, and a passion, and if I don’t play music I feel really empty and weird.”

After recording four solo records over eight years, Mary felt she had burnt out.

“After the last one, I decided I was tired of working in a vacuum and I was really hungry to collaborate,” she explains, “I kept thinking about how I really wanted to write music with other people and then suddenly Carrie (Brownstein, vocals and guitar) called me up. I couldn’t believe it was happening. Three of my favourite musicians in the world wanted to know if I would play with them, it was a dream come true.”

Wild Flag came together when Carrie was recording the soundtrack for a film called Women, Art and Revolution and enlisted previous Sleater-Kinney bandmate Janet Weiss and The Minders’ Rebecca Cole to record with her. They decided to write more songs to turn the project into a band, seeking out another guitarist and vocalist. “I was lucky,” exclaims Mary, excitedly, “because they asked me!”

The band’s eponymous debut album was was recorded in Sacramento, California with Chris Woodhouse, who has previously produced albums for Black Dahlias, Los Huevos and FM Knives. “He is great at getting really good live sounds,” says Mary of the punk guru who recorded everything to tape, applying almost no over-dubs, maintaining a genuine live sound. But it wasn’t all hard work and no play.

Mary recalls, “We all stayed in a rental house and watched Golden Girls reruns every night after working all day.” As for what inspired the record, Mary explains that she hadn’t realised until recording vocal takes in the studio that there was recurring themes about loving music, desperately needing music, having lost it and come back to it,“and generally just about claiming your place in life as a musician or artist, even though it’s a hard road and a sort of non-traditional thing to do with your life.”

With the record released, the next step, of course, is to play as many lives shows as possible. “Playing live is really fun in this band,” says Mary. “We love to play and have a blast at our shows.”

For example, during crowd favourite ‘Racehorse’, “Janet, Carrie and Rebecca all really kind of go off in awesome ways on that song while I hold down the fort a little bit in what I’m playing,” she describes, “It’s fun to play, because we never really know what is going to happen, or how crazy it’s going to get.”

The band are also visiting the UK in December for All Tomorrow’s Parties’ A Nightmare Before Christmas Festival, having been chosen by co-curators Les Savy Fav. As the newly-formed group have never played in the UK before, Mary is rather excited. “We were so honoured that they asked us, they are a great band,” she says. Following this show and a tour of the states, the band will be back in Europe in February and Mary, it seems, is enjoying every second of it. “I have never played in a band that has had this amount of interest surrounding it,” she explains, “so it’s very exciting for me and I feel very lucky to be involved.”

Words: Nina Glencross Photo: John Clarke

Let’s Get Physical

Razors UK rider Jamie Stenner talks about the importance of having proper skate shops in order to help build local scenes.

Zero spin alleyoop fishbrain

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 43 A skate shop is the basic foundation that can help develop a local skate scene and create a community in a much broader contest. Some famous examples of the power that a physical shop can possess have been displayed by Revolution Skate Shop, which has helped create the flourishing scene that exists in Arizona, and Hedonskate in Poland, which has been responsible for numerous welldocumented tours and increased the exposure of a country that was largelyoverlooked until Mirek Ragan and his loyal crew of staff helped put it on the rollerblading map. Jamie Stenner knows this all too well, as his father opened ESP in Chichester in 1994 and it has become a little hub for extreme sports in West Sussex, England.

The 27-year-old has worked in ESP since he was in school and over the years he has witnessed the highs and lows that all extreme sports go through, but is pleased to observe that rollerblading seems to be increasing in popularity once again. At least, that’s what the sales figures are saying.

Backslide

“Over the last 15 years we’ve had ups and downs at ESP. We’re proud to support what we believe are the true street sports - BMX, skateboarding and rollerblading. Right now, the blade game is up for me. I see more and more people getting back on their skates at the minute.”

When asked about his views regarding physical skate shops as opposed to online stores that sell rollerblading products, Stenner responds: “The online thing seems like a no brainer. It takes out the soul of what we do. Grass roots stores like ESP build scenes. We’re a meeting spot, a place to find out about what’s going on in the industry and a place to chill. Online stores can’t offer any of those things.”

In addition to working at one of the few rollerblading shops the UK has to offer, Stenner has also been an integral part of the national scene since “aggressive rollerblading” appeared in the UK in the nineties. He was a regular visitor to Rehab Skatepark in Wakefield, and spent many weekends rollerblading with some of the sport’s first generation

of icons, including the Jagger brothers, Jenny Logue, Anthony Mackie and an extremely young Jenna Downing.

It is slightly disheartening to observe that so few of those individuals are still involved in the rollerblading industry or even still take part in the sport at all, but Stenner believes that, like everything in life, sometimes people just move on.

“I think it goes both ways: If they’re like me then money wasn’t the reason they started. Risking their bodies daily should earn them a pay slip, for sure, but footballers go into coaching when they run out of dough and those guys earn mad money, so it’s not realistic to think it’s gonna last forever.”

Stenner has been involved in the UK rollerblading scene for so long that it has offered him an insight into how the sport and industry has developed over the years. The relentless traveller makes a point of hitting up the Wednesday night session at Baysixty6 Skate park in London on a regular basis to hang out with close friends Blake Bird and Joey Egan, as well as frequent sabbaticals to Brighton to spend time with indus-

try icons Jake Eley and Adam Kola, so if there is anyone that knows how our sport has developed in the UK, it is this man.

“Everything about blading now is on point - the styles, the personalities, the products. The early blade days were very experimental but, in my opinion, are where some of our truest icons came from!”

“I think it will grow again,” he continues. “If you go to skateparks nowadays the bladers are the older cool guys that are there, unlike we were back in ‘95.

I don’t know if we’ll end up in the X Games again - don’t care. That whole thing is so cheesy. It doesn’t represent what we do to the fullest at all.”

What do you believe, if anything, has been lost over the years? “The reason we all started was just to have fun - I don’t think that is always the case anymore. Extreme sports are just way more accepted now and that breeds the football attitude of doing it for money.”

“I don’t know if we’ll end up in the X Games again - don’t care. That whole thing is so cheesy.”

Bank to wallride

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 45 Stenner was recently chosen to represent Razors and Ground Control in the UK. Many might argue that it has been long overdue, as he has attended the majority of UK rollerblading events for over fifteen years and it is well-known that he is one of the most solid park skaters the country has to offer. Since being added to the flow team for both companies, Stenner has released regular edits to represent his sponsors, but there was a time when he thought the sponsorship deal might not become a reality.

“Henderz (Ian Hendrie) spoke to me about the possibility of it happening after NASS ‘10 and then nothing happened for like six months. He then sent me a pair of Aragon 4s to review and put me on flow.”

In addition to providing him with a passion in life, a skill and a job, rollerblading also helped Stenner find love.

He met the woman of his dreams, Rikki-sam, while rollerblading at his local skatepark and they are now happily married – just don’t mention what she was doing when they met. “She used to kick it at the old skatepark in Chichester - that’s where we met. She used to have a skateboard.” We are pleased to report that under Stenner’s guidance, his wife can now be found cruising around England’s skateparks on a pair of rollerblades – another one converted!

Words: Louis Flood Photos: Adam Kola

So what does a flow rider for Razors receive? “I like the SL skates, so Henderz sends me the new models of those when they are released - can’t wait for the new Dre model! He’s helped me out where possible with some travel costs, too - so I’m super happy!”

Frontside farv.

Still Going Strong

Heavy metal survivors Machine Head discuss why they will never be the type of band to slip into cruise mode.

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 47

“I think the stuff that Robb sings about strikes a chord in a lot of people.”

“It’s not ‘The Blackening Part II’,” states Dave with an insistent air of confidence.

“It continues our progression over the last three records. That’s something we haven’t really had a chance to do, since pretty much all of our other albums have had a line-up change of some sort.

It’s great to have the same four people for so long. It’s like a sports team; you have the nucleus of the good players, you go on to win, and then you bring the same people back next season.”

The Head have never been an act to be shy and reserved about their opinions and this offering is no different, with its insights into the obsession, madness, betrayal and desperation present in today’s world. Perhaps the best example of this is their 2007 track ‘Aesthetics of Hate’, written in response to an article in which conservative writer William Grim insulted murdered Pantera guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott. Flynn’s rebuttal of “you son of a bitch / I hope you rot in Hell” was obviously a popular one, as the song was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 50th Grammy Awards that same year. This lyrical honesty is what Dave believes inspires such devotion in fans.

“I think the stuff that Robb sings about strikes a chord in a lot of people,” he muses. “They’re very emotionallycharged lyrics, and I think people hear that honesty in his voice. They hear music on the radio and have no emotional attachment to it, but we’ve built ourselves on our interaction with fans.

During our concerts, whether you’re by the soundboard or on the balcony, Robb, as a frontman, can make you feel like part of the show.”

The Oxford Dictionary describes locust as: noun A large grasshopper with strong powers of flight. From time to time it migrates and causes extensive damage.

new talent, it would be unsurprising if certain acts were to be lost in the crowd.

Machine Head fans, however, simply grow hungrier, seemingly never satiated by the band’s semi-regular visits during the lengthy gaps between albums.

In a way, this insect shares a work ethic with American metal outfit Machine Head. Their last release, 2007’s The Blackening, sent them on an extensive tour which included several treks across the world, during which they rubbed shoulders and shared bills with Metallica, Slipknot and Heaven & Hell. Such tireless globetrotting cemented them as one of the best, most defended and most sought-after bands in heavy metal.

Vocalist Robb Flynn recently revealed his fear for the fans’ safety amidst the intense frenzies that the band invokes in their live audiences. Now, after a wellearned rest and with the release of new record, Unto The Locust, the destructive Californians are ready to swarm the world once again.

“Our process is that when we’re on tour, we’re on tour, and, when we’re finished with that tour cycle, we write,” drummer Dave McClain tells Wheel Scene.

“After The Blackening tour, we went our separate ways for a while. Robb and Phil have families, so they had to spent some time at home. A few months later, we got together and started piecing together ideas that we’d came up with over the three years on tour.”

Taking a four-year gap between releases, for a contemporary band, can be a risky affair. Fame is a fickle mistress and, in a seemingly constant stream of

The end result is a tour de force of crushing grooves, wailing guitars and sneering riffs but, while it’s unmistakably the same band, the cogs of the machine have been oiled and are now turning in new directions. It opens with layers of haunting Gregorian chants and ends with a choir of children, while sandwiched between are classical melodies, folksy flirtings, and edgings into darker territory.

The singer also donned his producing hat once more, focusing his “very strong vision” to shape the album into one that, in time, may prove to be their definitive work. “Robb wasn’t credited on the albums with other producers, but he was always basically co-producing,” reveals Dave. “He’s very headstrong and will take that producer out of their element. I think having an actual member at the helm has the best results for a band.”

“We never really talked about a direction. We knew that we’d be feeding from the evolution we’ve gone through since [2003’s] Through the Ashes of Empires, but we had naturally improved as songwriters and had new elements coming through which set the tone for the whole process.”

Early winter will see the band play South America before touring through mainland Europe and ending the year on these very shores, shaking the foundations of arenas from London to Glasgow with Bring Me The Horizon, DevilDriver and Darkest Hour in tow. The drummer seems happy about this.

“Dude, I absolutely love the United Kingdom,” he drawls, pausing for emphasis. “I’m super happy that it’s at the end of the tour. No matter where we play there, every show is insane.” He pauses again, this time to reflect. “It’s weird sometimes; for as long as we’ve been doing this, you’d think that we’d be on autopilot sometimes, but we try to challenge ourselves. We try to make it exciting for ourselves.”

And, if Machine Head are even half looking forward to the future as much as their fans are, that mission is already well and truly accomplished.

Words: Andrew McDonald Photos: Myriam Santos

Five Albums that Changed my Life: The

Big Pink

London-based electronic outfit The Big Pink are set to release their sophomore album, Future This, next year as a follow up to their 2009 debut, A Brief History of Love. The duo, comprising of Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell, took time out of their hectic studio schedule to talk about several albums that have had a huge impact on their lives and it turns out that hip-hop has had a big influence on their creative output.

Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician Robbie: Their guitar sound is what we aspire to. The way Paul Leary attacks his guitar as an instrument and uses feedback, noise and effects is just incredible.

He’s always doing something amazing in every song, there’s never a boring moment. They also don’t fall back on that ‘go to’, lazy classic rock sound (which we both hate) that big bands like Kings of Leon and U2 seem to always do. The Butthole Surfers are real and Locust Abortion Technician is as diverse as it gets. The song structures are weird and each one is different. It’s been a huge inspiration on The Big Pink. They do something we always look to do with our own music.

Sam Cooke - Night Beat Milo: What can you say about Night Beat? It’s simply a great record because it’s a great record. The track, ‘Lost and Lookin’’, is the best love song ever written, too. We’re both fans of Sam Cooke and of the opinion that he was the greatest voice in music ever. The album is so raw and it’s singing at its very best. When we write lyrics, we have him and other great soul musicians in mind because they always just say it how it is.

It’s not always the most original thing, we admit, but it’s just how they sing it, and how they say it - so powerful.

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head Robbie: Before this came out, I was an indie kid and the Beastie Boys had pretty much passed me by. It was my brother who got me into them. He had the cassette of Check Your Head in this card cover which, when I saw it on MTV, I remember thinking how cool it was.

They were the first American band I really got into. You were always 100% sure they were dedicated musicians and were putting everything in. They were also into skateboarding and trainers, which really appealed to me, too. Although it had that feel, Check Your Head isn’t a particularly hip-hop record as such. It showed me that you could do anything you want. They mixed punk, funk, jazz and hip-hop together, it’s all there on this record. ‘Gratitude’ is a hell of a track, too, and the video is just as good.

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Milo: 36 Chambers is such an important record to both of us. I was at school when it came out and it didn’t matter who you were - indie kid, rocker, raver, into Oasis, Nirvana or The Prodigy - we all had and loved this record. You knew it as well because the line “Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothin’ ta fuck with” could be heard everywhere at the time. It’s unpolished, has a real depth to it, unlike any other hip-hop record I’d heard, and the beats were just unreal. I’d never heard anything like this before, it was hip-hop yet so punk and in your face. It really reminds me of that period in my life, a really happy time, and what is was like to be young and seriously getting into music.

Milo: This album came out when we were in the midst of writing our new album and it’s the first record we’ve both really got into for a very long time.

A lot of the songs have at least four or five parts to them. I mean, tracks like ‘Power’ just have so much going on and you can’t not be struck by the songwriting, it’s just really clever. We’ve avidly listened to this ever since so it’s unsurprisingly had quite an influence on us. Kanye never fails, does he? We haven’t tried to sound like him with the new album but it certainly changed our approach. He’s taught us how you can structure tracks differently and, in the last year, we’ve been using beats as our start off point to writing tracks.

Where are they now?

Anthony Mackie

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 49 Mackie was the epitome of style back in the mid-nineties and featured in various British rollerblading publications on a regular basis. In addition to being a truly gifted street skater, he was also a fearless competitor and knew how to work a skatepark to his advantage. Over the course of his blading career, Mackie collected many accolades that included first place at the Warped Cup three years in a row, as well as top honours at the British Championships, Playstation Championships and Kahuna Championships. He also took a respectable second place at the Lausanne International Roller Contest and YOZ Contest in 1999. That is not to mention the various ASA, IISS and X-Games placings that saw the ambitious young blader rarely stray outside of the top ten. Let’s just say, he was the kind of guy that you did not want to go up against unless you were willing to give it your all.

In addition to an impressive competition record, Mackie also featured in several influential videos. However, he struggles to remember many of them. The only appearance he could guarantee with any certainty was Dave Paine’s Videogroove series. Fortunately, the Wheel Scene office has a wealth of old school blading media, so we were able to discover that he featured in the Puberty Team video The Method and the first Kizer team video, The Outsiders.

At the end of the nineties, it seemed like Mackie was living the life that every aspiring professional dreamed of. He had an impressive list of sponsors that included Salomon, Kizer, Puberty and Anglo, travelled the world with the sport’s most respected professionals and did well at some of the most prestigious events. He even got his own videogame character in Rolling. It turns out that all was not as it seemed and the young prodigy was rapidly discovering that a career in rollerblading was not going to provide him with the financial security that he required to stand on his own two feet. What started off as a brief sabbatical from the sport in order to pursue a career soon became permanent.

The first generation of British rollerbladers to rise to international prominence consisted solely of Puberty Clothing riders that trained at Rehab Skatepark in Wakefield. The line-up included brothers Ben and Dean Jagger, the UK’s first female street skater, Jenny Logue, and a skinny teenager from London called Anthony Mackie.

It all began for Mackie, like many of the bladers from his generation, with ice skating. Weekly trips to the local rink turned into a curiosity for other aspects of the sport and eventually he discovered the possibility of using inline skates to do stunts and his imagination ran wild.

“I was into ice skating from a very young age. My godfather used to take me to Streatham Ice Rink. From there I moved onto roller discos and street hockey. Then, one day, I saw an advert on MTV that had people on rollerblades stair riding and jumping steps and stuff and I thought, ‘Wow!’ I can’t really explain why I was so amazed but I just wanted to learn how to do what I saw! From there I started making trips to Southbank and central London and started meeting other skaters also into what was called “aggressive inline” back then who put me onto videos such as The Hoax and Mad Beef. After seeing these video my eyes where opened to the world that everyone with skates on to this day sees and I was hooked!”

“I was a very young boy and had literally put everything into skating,” he begins. “It came to a point where my sponsors were not pushing me to the heights I wanted to go. I never had any real work experience or jobs during my time skating and just wasn’t bringing enough money back. I mean, I left home at 15 to go skate! If I had not I would never have got to go everywhere and meet the people I did. I never actually stopped skating, I just took a couple steps back to get my life on track but never actually came back to it fully.”

When asked if he still keeps in touch with any of his friends from back in the day, Mackie responds: “I pop my head in various places and I am always checking for new edits. I am in contact with most people from back in the day. It’s funny because a few heads are also in the music scene and we bump into each other a lot. I’m still very good friends with Paul O’Tool and have just about every skater from back in the day on Facebook.”

Even though he does not rollerblade any more, Mackie is still fascinated by the sport and knows about all the latest happenings in the industry. He is pleased with how things have developed since his participation during the sport’s rapid development in the nineties.

“I try to keep as up to date as I can and I am happy to say I love it. The standard of skating these days really is crazy! I think the thing I’m most happy about when I check in is that it has kept the community values. When I was a kid we would travel all over and meet and skate with people we had never met or knew. It was so good to share skating spots and learn new tricks. No-one had mobile phones but we still all managed to meet at places without really organising to. Also, I love the way the distance between continents has been bridged.

There are a lot more international skaters coming over here and vice versa.”

Towards the end of Mackie’s rollerblading career, he expressed an interest in hip-hop music and performed at several rollerblading competitions, including IMYTA Liverpool, as Mackie Skillz. Music has taken over from rollerblading as his main passion in life and he has now relocated to Bristol, one of the UK’s most diverse melting pots for new music and home of pioneering urban scenes including trip-hop and dubstep.

“Nowadays I’m a plumber by trade and music is my new skating! I am living in Bristol, playing various different nights in the dubstep scene with my Central Spillz collective. We currently have an album out called Space Travel, which is available on iTunes, and I am currently finishing up a solo project which will be with you soon. I don’t have any children yet – having a girlfriend is hard enough!”

“The standard of skating these days really is crazy!”

Joey Yeomans Happy Go Lucky

Topside acid

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 51 Relatively unknown to most, Joey Yeomans is most definitely one of the UK’s underrated specimens. Over the past year he has had a huge impact on the Essex scene, making an impressive name for himself amongst his peers and everyone else involved in the local scene. It’s no surprise he’s not so wellknown in the mainstream UK rollerblading community: His values are that of a raw street warrior, with his focus being the more creative street aspects and not so much the park and competition side of the sport.

Growing up in Essex, Joey spent his childhood skating Dunmow Skate park the same small north Essex village skate park that cultured the talents of Dan Ives and Lee Mainland. However, it was only two summers ago when an unexpected move to Chelmsford threw Joey into a new scene and under the wing of some the most notorious street skaters in the south east. It was this turning point that changed Joey’s perspective on rollerblading and helped mould him into the fusion of style and big tricks he is now.

“Since I started skating with this tightknit group my skating has exploded heavily. It was only two years ago I did my first topside on a handrail, which happened to also be the first drop rail I’d ever done.” Joey’s innocent and fresh outlook on rollerblading goes hand-inhand with his happy-go-lucky attitude.

He is always smiling while he’s on his boots. You can really tell Joey loves life when a pair of blades are strapped to his feet and even more impressively is how good he is and how developed his style is for someone who has only been street skating a few years.

Over the past year, various projects Joey has been involved in have taken him all over the globe on his boots - something he never thought he would do. “Rollerblading and travelling never really went hand- in-hand to me before this year. I still cannot believe I ever went so long without skate trips. The first trip blew me away, a trip to Valencia, Spain. I didn’t visit a single tourist attraction but honestly believe I know a side of Valencia that most people will never be lucky enough to know. We were locals for eight days, met local skaters, went to local bars, had incredible times and these events were not in a tourist guide.”

Despite all the hard work, time and commitment Joey gives to his skating, he still finds time to study a degree in business studies in Canterbury and hold down a part-time job flogging cheap booze at the airport. On the surface you can easily spot Joey’s Essex boy charm but it’s only when you search a little deeper you can see how rollerblading has changed his perspective on life and has given him unique characteristics that make him stand out from the rest.

Alleyoop topside soul

Backside unity

Topside soul

“Everything I do in my life I try to apply the same rules of skating - full commitment - be the best I can be, make it as steezed as I can and every now and then get a little lucky.”

Joey’s perfectionist rollerblader mentality seems to have done him the world of good and caught him a few breaks in other aspects of his life. ‘’I joined a group for entrepreneurs called the Canterbury Enterprise Group last year and was spotted after winning a business competition in Kent. I worked hard towards this and I am now Vice Director of it. I also work for a promotions company and have won prizes for the most sales and all the rest of it. Life looks like it will be very rewarding after applying what I’ve learned from rollerblading to every aspect of it.”

Another hobby of Joey’s is Rugby. He is an avid follower of the sport and one of the most valuable players on his university team. Judging by his physical build you can instantly see why he is so naturally-apt at the sport. The joke of it is that his diet consists of chocolate

bars, fatty pizzas and Jack Daniels, and he has never actually stepped foot in a gym. Anyone else following his regime would bulk beyond belief but, for some reason, he still looks like he is spawned from Zeus or some other Greek God. Joey certainly has a bright future ahead of him both on and off a pair of boots.

With the exception of the people he shreds with on a weekly basis, no one knows what he is capable of as his skating has not really been readily available to the rest of the blading community.

When the projects he’s currently working on come to fruition he’s going to be a name people won’t forget for a long while to come. Recognition is certainly something that he is working towards.

“Through doing this interview and other projects I’ve been working on, I only hope I can get some exposure for the up-and-coming rollerbladers of tomorrow. If I achieved even a small amount of that goal I’d leave the rollerblading world a happy man.”

Words: Paul Bates Photos: Sam Cooper

Guilty as Charged Cross grab wallride

Lewis Bowden stands trial for crimes committed against members of the Aberdeen skate scene.

Topside acid

Lewis Bowden could test the patience of a saint. At least, that is what the photographers said after various missions to get images for this profile. Apparently, the Aberdeen-based blader was slightly overbearing throughout the entire process and made certain demands with regards to angles, lighting and equipment used. One photographer came back from a day of blading and claimed Lewis was “hard work to be around and I’m afraid it’s his way or nothing.” Then added: “His camera, his memory card, his computer. I pressed a shutter button twice - that was my input.”

This is not the first time Bowden has been accused of rubbing people up the wrong way. When I first met him back in 2001, he was out of favour with the rest of the rollerblading community in Aberdeen because he was spraying graffiti on some of the city’s most popular street spots and contributing to many skaters getting kicked out of places that they had previously visited without any problems.

This led to the editor of a certain rollerblading publication threatening him with physical violence if he persisted in his stupidity.

Bowden has grown up a lot since then and is a nice guy to be around. He moans a lot and can often be found getting into

arguments with just about everyone, and on one occasion he started a fight with a bunch of BMXers outside of a bar in Aberdeen after one of the Scottish Rolling monthly sessions and some other bladers had to come to his rescue. He is like the annoying little brother that you would like to see get a beating because you hope it might teach him a lesson but, more often than not, you find yourself defending him because it just seems like the right thing to do. Well, now it’s his turn to defend himself.

Wheel Scene: Niki Clark told me you were a bit of a control freak during the photo shoots?

Bowden: He only came out twice! Most of the photos were taken by other guys I skate with. I just set everything up and got them to take the photo.

make them and put the things on them that make watermarks on paper. I have been speaking to some independent production companies looking for production work and I am getting some work experience with the BBC as an editor and camera man. I am also about to go on a shoot with another company.

That sounds promising. What is your career goal?

I don’t have a goal; I am just working towards being in a job that I enjoy that I can link to skating. The ultimate goal is to be involved with skating and hopefully make a career out of it.

Good luck! Are you working on anything at the moment?

I am filming for an upcoming DVD called Riff Raff, which will be coming out at the end of next summer and will mostly feaSo you are admitting it! Okay, let’s move ture rollerbladers in the north-east of Scoton. Where are you working at the moland. There are a couple of people, like ment?

Joe Atkinson and some guys down in I am working as Bournemouth, who a trainee dandy are going to collect maker.

Dandies “I went to the special school in my are what they run special bus and they taught me different clips for it as well.

I am going to be paper off – the big ways to learn things.” filming the majority rolls of paper. I am of the footage and being trained to

editing it as well. It’s going to be filmed in full HD so I can hopefully make some blu-ray copies. Lee Aitken will be doing the graphic design for the DVD. Nice one. So, apart from looking at yourself in the mirror and stalking teenage girls on Facebook, what do you get up to when you are not skating?

I am usually just at home with my girlfriend. She is an apprentice tattoo artist so I usually just sit at home and watch her tattoo people, either that or chilling with my cats.

Wow, sounds fascinating! How did you get into rollerblading in the first place?

I was nine years old, which was 1997. I got into it from seeing it on TV. I lived in the country at that point so I didn’t have anyone to go out and skate with. My earliest memories of rollerblading is learning how to do tricks by jumping off hay barrels on closed roads next to my house.

I didn’t skate regularly until I met Ross Martin in Fife and moved into Aberdeen when I was 14.

Hay barrels? You country bumpkin! What was the name of your little crew back in the day?

Faythe! Yeah, that was when you used to bully me and tell me off all the time! We wanted to make T-shirts but there was already a woman’s clothing company called Faith, so we changed the spelling and everyone ripped me for it because they thought I couldn’t spell. I still get abuse for that to this day.

So you bloody should! You kept doing graffiti at our best skate spots and pissing everyone off. What are your plans for the rest of the year?

At the moment I am working full-time and supporting my girlfriend because she is an unpaid apprentice and she is attending college. I am also trying to work on this DVD. Unfortunately, at the moment, I am just taking things day by day and trying to get by.

You are sponsored by the online skate shop, Roll Kings. What does the owner do for you?

I skate for the flow team with Jay Ricketts. Stu does everything for us; he hits us up with wheels, Roll Kings products, pays for our competition fees and does whatever he can. The shop doesn’t have a lot of money but he does what he can and supports Scottish rollerblading a lot.

He does a lot more for Scottish rollerblading than most shops.

What do you think about the current state of the sport?

Lots of people believe the sport is cool and underground and a lot of people think it should be bigger - I agree with the latter. We need more corporate sponsorship so the sport can expand. If the industry does have another downfall, like it probably will, at least the skaterowned companies will be able to survive because hopefully they will have learned from their mistakes in the past.

I hate all the hate in the industry as well all the people that hate on rollerblading.

It just gets me really angry. There are all these people that sit at home and hardly skate but buy all the new shit and hate on it more than anyone else. Why can’t people learn to enjoy what they have?

Negative acid

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 57 Last question: Why can’t you spell?

I am severely dyslexic.

That just sounds like an excuse to me.

It’s not an excuse! When I started school I only went to standard schooling for the first four years until they found out I was severely dyslexic, then I spent half the day at school until I was shipped off to a special learning unit in another school.

That happened for three or four years. I went to the special school in my special bus and they taught me different ways to learn things. Everything I learned in mainstream schools confused me. No one really knows until they see my atrocious spelling!

So, what you are really saying is that you are a lazy attention seeker?

I wasn’t lazy! As least, I wasn’t lazy until I went to high school. I’ve got certificates and everything.

You have dyslexia certificates? Lies!

I do! I have certificates that say I am dyslexic. I have had so many tests over the years because I wasn’t up to scratch compared to the other kids.

That reminds me: I saw photos of your mum on Facebook – she is hot!

Haha! Well, that’s where I came from so if you fancy her then you fancy me.

Maybe I do. That explains why you are so pretty!

I will take that as a compliment. I am pretty because I look like my mum.

It doesn’t say much for your girlfriend’s taste in men, though. That means your girlfriend is into girls.

I’m fine with that!

Words: David McNamara Photos: Niki Clark and Matty Pearce

Abstract 540 safety grab

Album reviews

Artist: Joker Album: The Vision Label: 4AD

Think of the artistry of Burial combined with the raw aggression of Tempah T and you might come close to understanding the explosive new album from Bristol’s finest, Joker. The Vision displays a maturing in Joker’s talent and an expansion in his usage of sampls and styles.

The tracks ‘Level 6 (Interlude)’ and ‘Snake Eater’ take inspiration from the videogame Metal Gear Solid 3, which just goes to show that Joker was listening and learning during his time at Hyperdub. Other tracks on the album, such as ‘Here Come the Lights’, are more melodically-focussed and tune into an R&B vibe, demonstrating the range of music types that the non-genre specific album visits. ‘Back in the Days’ is an absolutely apocalyptic track which will have even the most ardent anti-dance activist skanking around their living room.

(Mark MacLeod)

Rating: 4/5

Artist: Machine Head Album: Unto The Locust Label: Roadrunner

For any band that makes a successful album, there’s an undeniable extra pressure to match such glories on the next effort. For Machine Head, arguably the forerunners of the modern heavy metal scene, there’s a further expectation to represent and lead the genre. Thankfully, the future looks bright as the Californian quartet are, here, living up to the name that they’ve previously carved for themselves, while being open to innovation. The pseudo-black metal highlight of ‘I Am Hell’, featuring passages darker than those of Dracula’s castle, lives up to thrash’s traditional, compelling aggressiveness, but it’s quite rare that a band should sound this dangerous. With one step backwards and two forwards, Robb Flynn and the gang look set to influence the next decade of American metal as much as they did the last.

(Andrew McDonald)

Rating: 4/5

Artist: Plaid Album: Scintilli Label: Warp Rating: 3/5

Artist: Owen Album: Ghost Town Label: Polyvinyl

Mike Kinsella’s sixth album under the Owen moniker, Ghost Town, picks up where New Leaves left off, with his trademark acoustic-pop and softly-delivered cynicism. It is an album of ghosts and demons, which he hasn’t so much exorcised as learnt how to deal with. Tracks like ‘I Believe’ and ‘Everyone’s asleep in the house but me’ demonstrate a rockier edge with hardhitting drum fills and some screeching electric guitar, while ‘Too Many Moons’ and ‘Mother’s Milk Breath’ include some nice orchestral backing. However, nothing is over done as Owen sticks to the old tried-and-tested formula of tight production and focused instrumentation that allows for no indulgences and no loose ends. As a result it lacks character and edge.

If this is Owen’s last record, he has gone out keeping a predictably low profile.

(Henry Wilkinson)

Rating: 2/5

Following musical scores for two Michael Arias’ films, Tekkonkinkreet and Heaven’s Door, and the Greedy Baby audio-visual collaboration with Bob Jaroc, Scintilli sees Ed Handley and Andy Turner’s productions continue to be imbued with a cinematic, soundtrack-like quality. Given the ‘intelligent techno’ tag for their early nineties work as members of Black Dog, the duo have since earned a career-long association with the IDM genre it later became and this album does highlight their considered, thoughtful approach to electronic, the duo apparently calculating that every beat took a day to construct. For the most part, the benefits show; emotive opener ‘Missing’ combines melancholic keys with a treated, longing female vocal, ‘Eye Robot’ sees synths rise and twist atop a metronomic kickdrum to ominous, unsettling effect while the techno of ‘Unbank’ enjoyably echoes the Dr Who theme and ‘Thank’ and ‘Tender Hooks’ are also noteworthy efforts, however, the remainder of this release is less engaging.

Artist: Rustie Album: Glass Swords Label: Warp

Glaswegian producer Rustie follows his Warp debut, last year’s Sunburst EP, with an album that crams in numerous musical elements and influences, hurling them at the listener in sensory-overloading fashion. Euphoric synth stabs and trance-style riffs shoot over lurching, stuttering drums, chipmunk vocals and guitar squalls ride buzzing and slapped-out basslines as techno, rave, R&B, 2-step garage, eighties funk and even prog rock collide into an undefinable mass of riotous digital sound; imagine a Buckfast-laden lorry crashing and spilling its sticky, alcoholic cargo into a sweetshop’s vibrant candy-stacked shelves to get a seemingly perfect visualisation of the heart-speeding, caffeinated rush that is Glass Swords. At first disorientating, repeated plays allow the ears to properly peel apart the overlapping layers of highlights such as ‘Surph’, ‘Hover Traps’, ‘Ultra Thizz’ and ‘All Nite’ and it becomes easier to appreciate the joys of this thrilling release.

Rating: 4/5 (Colin Chapman)

(Colin Chapman)

Artist: Wild Flag Album: Wild Flag Label: Wichita

From the burning embers of Sleater-Kinney, The Minders and Helium comes all-female Portland and Washington based rock four-piece Wild Flag.

Their eponymous debut release proves that, no matter how long you’ve been in the business, the desire for change is inevitable. Each member brings their own unique style and talent to the record, creating a sound which is neither quite as rough and ready as Sleater-Kinney, nor quite as sultry and dark as Helium. It’s pretty poppy and full of energy for the most part, balanced by tracks that are a bit more laidback (and I use the term loosely). For example, ‘Racehorse’ and ‘Romance’ are fun and edgy whilst on tracks such as ‘Glass Tambourine’ and ‘Electric Band’, Mary Timony’s signature deep vocals create a more relaxed atmosphere. Recorded entirely live, the album captures the true nature of the band and their burning passion for what they do.

Artist: The Moth and The Mirror Album: Honestly, This World Label: Olive Grove

A certain amount of expectation surrounds the debut record from alternative folk sextet The Moth and the Mirror, a band with present and past ventures including Frightened Rabbit, The Reindeer Section and Smoke Jaguar. This breadth of experience and talent is evident from the opening track, and the band have clearly used it to create a sound that’s full of contrast and wholly their own. Tracks ‘Fire’ and ‘Germany’ are enough to get you humming along on the underground, while ‘Boxes’ and ‘Oceans and Waves’ take you to a dark, heartbreaking place. Stacey Sievwright’s sweet, delicate vocals can be both innocent and sinister, and the band prove their worth further supporting the transitions. The songwriting and musicianship on this album are more than the sum of it’s parts and each track can stand up to anything the band members have previously done. It’s fair to say this is a formidable debut.

Rating: 4/5

(Alexander Rigby)

(Nina Glencross)

Rating: 4/5

Rapprocher is a collection of Brooklyn-based electronic pop songstress Elizabeth Harper’s beautifully-tragic tales documenting the ecstasy of love and the earth-shattering sadness when it all falls apart. Each track depicts a stage of the relationship, told through Harper’s sultry, elegiac vocals. ‘Love Me Like You Used To’ begs her wayward lover to find his way back into her affections and ‘Missed’ sees Harper resolved to the fact that he is gone, but she advises: “You’re gonna miss me so bad” With such sincere delivery, you can’t help but believe her.

The backdrop of retro keyboards and electronic drums are reminiscent of Depeche Mode and provide the perfect framework for her scorned lover anthems.

Artist: Class Actress Album: Rapprocher Label: Carpark

(Louis Flood)

Artist: Björk Album: Biophilia Label: One Little Indian

After the bitter disappointment that was Volta, Björk returns with Biophilia, her first studio album in over four years. Timbaland is gone and the Icelandic pop icon is back to her experimental best. Each song acts as an enchanting exploration of science, with Björk using DNA, lunar cycles and gravity as inspiration. Who would have known science could be so much fun? Debut single ‘Crystalline’ begins with a delicate gameleste melody that abruptly morphs into a violent drum and bass breakdown, perfectly exemplifying the inner struggle between Björk’s delicate nature and extremely extrovert personality. On ‘Moon’, the singer is at her most exposed, with a stripped-down backdrop of gentle harps acting as the main canvas for her endearing vocal imperfections that have become her trademark. A rewarding return to form from the genre-defying songwriter.

(Jeanie Rogers)

Rating: 3/5

Artist: White Ring EP: Black Earth That Made Me Label: Rocket Girl

Rating: 4/5

Brooklyn electronic duo White Ring first released Black Earth That Made Me back in 2010 on a limited run of just 250 copies, which sold out on pre-order and are currently floating around bidding sites for over £100. Thankfully, they recently signed to London-based indie imprint Rocket Girl and are re-releasing the exceptional EP ahead of their debut album next year. Fans of witch house, drag of whatever the hell you call it acts Salem and oOoOO will go spastic over the opening track ‘IxC999’, a sinister hybrid of sluggish rap beats, menacing synths and gunshot samples that frame Kendra Malia’s eerily angelic whispers. The bullets continue to fly on ‘King’, but this time they pierce through post-apocalyptic choir harmonies and growling basslines.

‘Hands 2 Hold You Down’ sees Malia’s haunting vocals take centre stage against a backdrop of hissing cymbals, distorted claps and trembling bass to staggering effect. It looks like the spooky kids are taking over the dancefloor.

Rating 3/5

There is nothing like a good bit of sleazy, grimy psychobilly rock and Odonis Odonis are the latest to revive this often forgotten genre. Straight from the opening track, the listener’s ears are penetrated by muffled vocals, crashing cymbals and trembling guitar, as if The Cramps and The Horrors were having a ‘who can sound the freakiest’ contest (when Lux was still with us, of course). Throughout the record, each track explores all the best elements of post rock, surf gaze and lo-fi punk, taking inspiration from the likes of The Jesus And Mary Chain, The Pixies and The Cure. There are moments of experimentation and progression on tracks such as ‘Blood Feast’ and ‘Seedgazer’ but for the most part, it’s all fuzzy bass lines, twanging surf style guitars and menacing Hammond organs.

Artist: Odonis Odonis Album: Hollandaze Label: FatCat Rating: 3/5

(Louis Flood)

(Nina Glencross)

ISSUE 04/OCTOBER 2011/WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK/PAGE 61

ACROSS 2. Skatepark in Plano, Texas 5. Singer on Massive Attack hit “Unfinished Sympathy” 8. Erik Bailey’s new wheel sponsor 9. 2010 WRS World Champion 10. Portishead album 11. Shane Coburn’s first wheel company 12. Barcelona music festival 14. Debut Clams Casino EP 15. ______ Mo Sanders pro wheel 16. Brian Shima’s skate crew 17. Led Zeppelin singer

DOWN 1. Mac Miller’s record label 3. Nick Lomax’s place of birth 4. K2 pro skate 6. New York Street Contest 7. Damien Wilson’s first boot sponsor 8. Jan Welch’s middle name 10. Senate ________ all girls 13. Ryan Jacklone’s nickname

Nass X Games Kizer Hedonskate Manchester

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