ISSUE02/JUNE 2011/FREE
TOKIMONSTA/PHAROAHE MONCH/WILD BEASTS/FREDRIK ANDERSSON SCOTT QUINN/LOCO LOVESCOTLAND TOUR/GRAZYNA WRATNY
Contents 06
Firsts Leon Humphries
07
Interview Insight
08—09
Tales From The Trenches Rich Parker
10—11
Interview Baths
12—13
Behind the Lens Brandon Negrete
14
Article The Coathangers
15
Article Parts and Labor
16—17
Interview Tokimonsta
18—21
Interview Paul Bates
22—24
Interview Grazyna Wratny
26—29
Interview Fredrik Andersson
30—34
Article Loco LoveScotland Tour
36—39
Profile Scott Quinn
40—41
Interview Young Legionaire
42—43
Interview Wild Beasts
44—45
Article Fallon Heffernan
46—47
Interview Pharoahe Monch
48—49
Where are they now? Chris Peel
50—51
Interview Chrissy Murderbot
52—54
Profile James Keyte
56—57
Interview Dananananaykroyd
58—60
Album reviews
61
Artist’s Corner Emer Tumilty
62
Fun Page
JUNE2011
Issue02 June 2011 © Wheel Scene Ltd. Cover Art Alice Devine
ISSUE02
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.
Editor David McNamara
Online www.wheelscene.co.uk www.facebook.com/wheelsceneblading
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Address: Wheel Scene 1/2 12 Highburgh Road Glasgow G12 9YD
Web Design Ewan McDonald Stewart Chown Words Nina Glencross, Ben Sach, Jesse Keene, Richie Eisler, Louis Flood, Fiona Slimmon, David McNamara, Emer Tumilty, Rich Parker, Fallon Heffernan, Aarron McMurray, Ian Macbeth, Catriona Reilly, Alexander Rigby, Andrew Halls, Michael McCue. Jeanie Rogers.
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.
Photos Sam Cooper, Adam Kola, Rob Gunn, David Andrew, Dustin Werbeski, Christofer Luca, Jeff Stockwell, JC Rowe, Chris Peel, Paul Phung, Hanna Dryland, Jane Kilkullen, Todd Sealie, Brock Fetch, Stuart Leech.
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03
Introduction
Worship and Tribute:
You may be wondering why the front cover features some bespoke artwork of LA beat scene producer Tokimonsta. Well, that’s because each issue of Wheel Scene is going to have a rotating front cover that flirts between music and rollerblading. After all, we cater to both interests so we might as well show it.
Thanks to Alice Devine for our beautiful front cover, Adam Kola for the heap of photographs that he contributed to this issue, Sam Cooper for being committed to the point of obsession and all of our writers, photographers and artists for their tireless efforts.
After the success of Issue One, we were eager to make sure that we maintained momentum with Issue Two. Thankfully, some of Europe’s best rollerbladers worked their little buttocks off to provide incredible profiles. This issue features interviews with Scotland’s two most promising up-and-comers, Scott Quinn and James Keyte. We also caught up with Swedish street skating sensation Fredrik Andersson while he stayed at the Powerhouse in Barcelona and the first lady of Polish rollerblading, Grazyna Wratny, came through with a great selection of shots despite studying for a degree.
To our advertisers: Loco Skates Rampworx Hedonskate Slamm Jamm
In addition to our excellent blading content, we also have exclusive interviews with Mercury Prize nominees Wild Beasts, hip-hop icon Pharoahe Monch, experimental producer Baths, UK indie super group Young Legionnaire and more.
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Wait, that’s not all? You’re damn right that’s not all! We also have columns written by London street skating icon Leon Humphries, female competition veteran Fallon Heffernan, and influential filmmaker Brandon Negrete talks about his new film, Regardless, and the upcoming Xsjado team video. If you want to find what else is in Issue Two, stop being so bloody lazy and turn the page.
USD Dirt Box Thanks for the support.
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JUNE2011
Firsts - Leon Humphries
Topside Mistrial / Unist 23 Skatepark
London street skating legend Leon Humphries has lived the pro skater lifestyle that many dream of, travelling to California to appear in various videos and receiving a pro skate from Razors. Now in his late twenties, we caught up with the Shima Skate Manufacturing, Loco Skates and Create Originals rider to find out about the landmarks in his blading career.
his skating was inventive and exciting. I always loved his style and also loved the PELD crew sections. His Daily Bread cover was one of the best in the magazine’s history.
First Blades: O.U.T. Poppies. They had hardly any soul space, the backslide ‘area’ was basically the side of the boot with no sort of groove - but they had metal soul plates underneath and were somehow really good for backslides! The wheels were really cool too; massive, and a sick design. I wanted Poppies because they were rocked by the coolest dudes in skating at the time - Toto Ghali and Ryan Jacklone.
First blading event I attended: The first I can remember attending was the England Clothing tour stop. At that point nothing bigger had happened in the UK, and some of the most influential individuals to put blades on were in their prime and in the city I lived in. The fondest memory was certainly the buzz around the park. So many people had come to see them skate. It wasn’t only the spectacle of seeing them that did it for me. It was being part of this massive group of people and feeling so minuscule. It was the feeling of being introduced into a world that skated, not only me and a handful of others.
First skater I looked up to: Erik Burke. I was captivated by his skating at a time where the videos just seemed magical and full of new tricks and techniques. It was a profile in VG5, and together with the rest of the video just summed up why I fell in love with skating. Erik himself seemed like a good dude, and
First European event I attended: It was IMYTA Amsterdam in 2006. Amazing event, absolute madness went down at the spots. My first real experience of suicide skating. Apart from the skating, the weekend was, of course, memorable. I am sure the imagination paints a picture.
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First sponsor: It was Razors. At the time I was skating well and it seemed it hadn’t gone unnoticed. I had been riding razors skates anyway and it seemed to happen very quickly from the point where I thought something might happen. I was honoured to have realised a dream of becoming sponsored. Getting skates for free is definitely cool. First serious injury: I broke my right leg and dislocated my ankle in 1997. I had suffered ligament damage with such trauma that I required four surgeries in total. I had one more surgery than needed because some ligament damage wasn’t spotted the first time round. The other surgeries were to remove a metal bolt and plate respectively. I am lucky to have sustained the injury so young, as my recovery was perfect. The year and a half out of action was anything but perfect. First bit of trouble through blading: It is actually infamous. Some of the aftermath can be seen in Everything’s Fucked, a video by James Aldred. Before a convoy to Milton Keynes set off we were parked outside of Oli Short’s house. For some reason my BB gun was
in the car and we were messing around with it, cocking it, firing it, spinning it round our fingers like we were in the O.K. Coral. Obviously a neighbour had seen what we were doing and thought we were either about to pay a visit to the nearest HSBC, or that we were just twats that deserved some drama. Either way, unknowingly the hapless group of skaters departed from outside the house. Less than two minutes later in the Texaco forecourt in New Malden, enough armed police to take out a small country appeared ready to end our dreams. Everyone absolutely freaked out as there were hands on guns, combined with being screamed at. I quickly realised that this furore was because of my BB gun and surrendered it very, very slowly.
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It’s a Roll of the Dice with the Risk Takers they have produced a host of LPs spanning over a decade and received critical acclaim throughout the hip-hop sphere for many years now. We managed to catch up with one half of the duo, Insight, during a hectic tour period to have a brief chat about the new album and the struggle of independent artists.
Respected Boston-based rapper Insight discusses his latest album with Count Bass D and advises how a near-death experience motivates him to keep progressing in everything he does. When it comes to US-based hip-hop, people mainly think of two sides of the coin to define the genre and sound; one side being east coast the other being west. Well, here at Wheel Scene, we believe in digging a little deeper and bringing you, the reader, something a bit more off the beaten track. When two underground artists combine their musical abilities it usually brings out the best in each individual. This is exactly the case with the collaborative album Risk Takers from Boston-based rappers/ producers Insight & Count Bass D. Both successful and hard-working in their own rights,
You have been involved within the Boston hip-hop culture for many years now. Can you enlighten us on what the scene is like and what the highlights of your careers have been so far? Insight: Boston is a college town, so the scene is always changing anytime a new school year begins. The scene’s core artists derive from a small part of the bigger state of Massachusetts. There are a couple of hip-hop venues and radio stations, so the scene isn’t big. I would like to believe that the highlight of my career will be 8am the next morning, but actually it was after the moment when I almost died in September. I was able to write about it the next morning, realising that I have a music career to appreciate. How did this collaboration come about? I was in touch with Count through other people and we eventually caught up. We were both travelling and always changing living locations, so the process was gradual.
Can you tell us a bit about who was involved in this project, what do you feel they brought to the table as individuals? On the album we involved Kool Keith, Pace One, Dagha and my man Sondu. I consider them risk takers too. As individuals, they bring their personality, style and experience to the album. It’s a nice contrast between performances if one becomes tired of my technique.
Finally, will you guys be touring the UK soon? I love the UK and I have not performed there in quite some time. You guys rock hard and have some cool artists. We’ll be there eventually, but shoot us feedback at support@insight.fm if you’d like us to come to your area. So there you have it, short, sweet and very insightful - no pun intended! There is a wealth of underground hip-hop out there, you just need to get digging in those crates. Risk Takers is up for grabs now, get involved. Words: Jesse Keene
What is next for Insight & Count Bass D? More of everything. We invested our lives into music so something is always in the works. Count has projects in preparation and I have some also. The best way to stay updated is through our websites: www.countbassd.com, www. insightthetruncator.com or www.insight. fm.
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The album is called Risk Takers. Why did you choose this particular title? We named the album Risk Takers because we might not do what is popular in favour of doing music that is personally fulfilling long term. Furthermore, not being a risk taker is less motivating. In some ways, every musician who does this for a living is a risk taker because independent artists in general risk getting thrown out of their apartment.
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07
Tales from the Trenches
Rich Parker
JUNE2011 On April 25, I set off from my house on the start of what seems to have become an annual journey to Shanghai for the Asian X Games. I first went in 2009 and have been drawn back each year by the ever-improving contest. The event opened for practice on Thursday, so having had a couple of days to get used to the new time zone and fill my bags with fake designer products from the market, I was looking forward to getting on my skates. Arriving at the event was like walking into rollerblading history, with legends of our sport and industry including Azikiwee Anderson, Mike Opalek, Richie Velasquez and vert veteran Toto Ghali all having made the trip.
both forward and fakie. I was able to step up and take the silver medal, adding straight spin 900s to my already full runs, but unfortunately went down in my final run trying my new trick, a 1260. The gold medal was taken by the unstoppable Takeshi Yasutoko. After a fall last August which left him needing knee surgery and five months off the ramp, it was great to see him back on his skates and killing it. Flying well over 12ft high, he nailed massive viking flips, double
flatspins and both 900 and 1080 mctwists. Even though he was skating with a knee brace, he didn’t shy away from his coping wizardry, with 360 royales, disaster 270 souls and a barrage of switch-ups to make even the most hardened rail skater jealous. After blowing away the competition with his first three runs, he was able to use his fourth run to try his brand new trick called the “Seven seven”, which is basically an alley oop double flatspin 720. He was unable to land it this time, but it was still
ISSUE02 an incredible sight. It was an amazing contest and I was proud to be a part of it. I would like to thank my sponsors Valo, NRGfuel sports nutrition and Energie fitness clubs for supporting me.
The vert ramp was huge. They had shipped in the biggest mobile halfpipe in the world, the monstrous 14ft 2in G-ramp, especially for the contest. As practice started the ramp filled with riders from all over the globe, including guys from Russia, France, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Japan, Brazil and Switzerland. Takeshi Yasutoko’s dominance was asserted almost immediately, with huge airs over 12ft high all executed with effortless style. As everyone got accustomed to the ramp, it was clear this was going to be a very tough and exciting contest. On the day of the competition, the format had been changed from the traditional two 50 second runs, to one which offered more flow and action, as the whole event was broadcast live on ESPN throughout China. The skaters were split into two heats of five skaters. Each rider got four 30 second runs and their two highest scores would be added together to form their final score. The top two guys from each heat would advance to the final five, with the fifth spot being filled by the highest scoring third place from either heat. Everyone skated hard and tried to push their way into the final five. I put down three solid runs, trying to do as many tricks as possible including flatspin 900s, mctwists, backflip late 360s, and some of my more unique tricks, including garfunkles and stalled out rocket egg-plant mctwists. I did enough to qualify second in my heat and secure a place in the finals. The final five was made up of Takeshi Yasutoko, Cesar Andrade, Yusuke Aihara, Anthony Avella and myself. Although fatigue was starting to take over, the huge crowd pushed everyone with almighty cheers as skaters laced one huge trick after another. Anthony put together solid lines and hit a big disaster 540 backside royal, but it was not enough to take him out of the fifth spot. The seasoned Brazilian, Cesar Andrade, linked big 540s to corkscrew 900s and also delighted the crowd with his signature double backflip. This was enough to finish just shy of the podium in fourth place. Taking third was 17 year old Yusuke from Japan. He rides daily with Takeshi and it certainly shows, hitting airs over 10ft and throwing 540s and flatspins whilst up there. Yusuke rounded off his runs with clean 900s
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Mainstream Aspirations
Baths
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“There were a number of labels I sent demos to, but Anticon definitely had its place as being the most relentlessly open-minded label. Their group aesthetic was not easily pinned down, which was a big selling point for me.”
it now, where that intensity and angst are still natural. I might be faking some things if I tried to do the same thing and I was a much happier person... maybe not, I dunno. It just feels like the right time.”
While Anticon may be a happy home for Baths for now, you wouldn’t bet against major labels coming to call sooner rather than later. What really sets Wiesenfeld apart from most of his contemporaries is his keen ear for melody and a distinct pop sensibility which brings an anthemic quality to songs like the wonderful ‘You’re My Excuse to Travel’.
However dark the next stage in Wiesenfeld’s musical journey, it can’t dim the brightness of his future. Words: Ian Macbeth Photo: Hanna Dryland Shapiro
“Commercial success is important to me in that there are changes I’d like to see in what constitutes popular music. I want to have my hand in that, and try my best to see how I might affect some of those trends. More than anything, I’d just love to be able to continue making a living from making music, regardless of the level of commercial success.” It’s perhaps indicative of Wiesenfeld’s ambition that he cites Bjork, an iconic (and iconoclastic) artist who has defiantly bent the mainstream to her own unique, brilliantly-skewed musical world view, as his biggest influence. “There are plenty of profound albums in my life - Alligator by The National, Tripper by Efterklang, Details by Frou Frou, Eingya by Helios - but there’s no one artist I can point to that had the same singular effect on me [as Bjork had].” Apart from musical inspirations, Wiesenfeld also cites his fascination with Japanese culture as a major influence. Californian beat maker Baths discusses the relationship between organic and electronic elements in his music, and his plans to break into the pop charts. One of the most arresting and enjoyable debuts of 2010 was Cerulean by Baths, aka 21-year-old Californian Will Wiesenfeld: It’s an album that manages to fashion a unique voice out of a patchwork of jittery, glitchy beats, sunbleached synths, processed guitars and Wiesenfeld’s own strong, ethereal falsetto, while still referencing everything from the woozy harmonics of Smile-era Beach Boys to the psychedelic bump ‘n’ grind of vintage Prince. It’s a sound sprung from the interstices between traditional and electronic musicianship, born out of the tension between organic and synthetic sound – indeed, the earthy, tactile electronics and child-like sense of wonder of Boards of Canada are key reference points on tracks like the birdsong-sampling ‘Seaside Town’ and the joyously exuberant ‘Animals’. Unsurprisingly however, this is a tension which Wiesenfeld himself is largely oblivious to. “It is crucial to my process to use sounds and instruments I play myself,
otherwise the music wouldn’t feel like my own. I don’t think there’s a tension between organic and synthetic sound - I think they are just different means of making music. I don’t really see the two as being separate things. I personally like to incorporate both.” As an artist who puts such a premium on playing the parts yourself, don’t you worry that computers are increasingly rendering your kind of musicianship obsolete? “If anything, computers are expanding music: They have made the impossible possible, especially in the case of solo artists trying to achieve a sound larger than themselves.” It’s obvious Wiesenfeld isn’t your stereotypical bedroom boffin. And if Cerulean seems a remarkably assured and confident first album by a young man scarcely out of his teens, then it should come as little surprise that he has been releasing albums under the pseudonyms Post-foetus and Geotic through his website for a number of years. However, it was the giant leap in both the quality of his song writing and his confidence as a performer represented by Cerulean that finally secured him a deal with Avantgarde hip-hop imprint Anticon.
“It would take me forever to list everything, but I think the biggest point is in their simplicity: The less-is-more philosophy. I think that philosophy has always permeated Japanese culture, and from them it has spread through the rest of the modern world. I attempt a lot of different musical ideas, and sometimes they have nothing to do with less-is-more, but lyrically that has always been my governing rule. To try and say the most you can with as few words as possible. There are definitely lyrics I am not particularly proud of, and that stray completely, but hopefully I’m getting there.” Despite the critical acclaim heaped on Cerulean and the success of his current tour, Wiesenfeld has talked in recent interviews about the dark musical turn he intends to take with the second Baths album. “I am enjoying touring very much though at this point in time I may have overdone touring a little bit - so I am definitely anxious to get back home and start recording more. My head has been into those darker ideas for a while. I actually see my life getting much better in the future, so if I’m going to make this sort of darker album I need to make
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“As far as the future goes, who knows? Most likely - debt and asthma attacks.�
Behind the Lens: Brandon Negrete
JUNE2011 The life of a filmmaker is often a thankless one, especially in rollerblading. Unless you have the often-shameless personality of Adam Johnson and regularly feature yourself in your own films, no one has a clue who you are, or what you look like, and the only time anyone ever mentions your name is when you make something the masses don’t like and they decide to crucify you for it. Don’t believe me? Just ask Brazilionaire. He took one hell of a beating for the delayed release of the Razors team video, Game Theory, and the response when it finally came out wasn’t much better. To maintain any kind of longevity in the rollerblading industry and keep putting out high quality films each year you have got to be dedicated, because the financial perks are almost non-existent and even those that are fortunate enough to gain corporate gigs still have to work their arse off at a full-time job in order to pay the bills. Enter Brandon Negrete, a man who has been making incredible rollerblading videos that have heavily influenced the industry for over a decade and he shows no signs of stopping any time soon. The pioneering filmmaker speaks to us about working with Xsjado on their upcoming team video and his own independent release, Regardless, which is due out later this year. For those who don’t know, can you tell us a little about your filmmaking career to date? My filmmaking career started when I picked up a camera at 16. I quickly realized my skating career had zero future but I ended up being around a lot of really sick skaters from the Moreno Valley area and started having a blast filming them. I upgraded my camera to a Canon GL1 and suddenly people wanted to skate with me, so I just started learning on the go. The first clip I ever had in a video was Chance Dunstan’s royale backflip out at Glen Cove in VG17. I also filmed for Life +, Videogroove, 2nd Regime, Salomon, Mindgame and various other videos. I put out my first solo video, Us, through Skatepile Distribution in 2000. It starred lots of upcoming skaters like Chris Haffey, Jeff Stockwell, Chris Farmer. I was pretty spoiled with the talent that surrounded me so I continued to film with whoever I could. My second video, Noir, was a pretty big success in large part to it being distributed by Big Dan Importing and it starring some big names at the time including Roadhouse, Brandon Campbell, Chris Haffey, and Alex Broskow. After Noir, I was really excited to explore other kinds of skating. I had been around the best for so long that I was seeking out a different style. Basically, I was into everything Micah Yeager, Chase Rushing and Jeremy Beightol were doing. My next video, Forever Now, was a departure from my first two. It explored a more reckless, rock ‘n’ roll style of blading that I was more into at the time. It was also the first time I got to travel to Europe and film, and
that was definitely an eye-opening experience. I’m not sure if it was the horrible distribution deal I cut with Empire Distribution or the fact that people weren’t ready for a video that featured that kind of skating exclusively, but Forever Now tanked. On the bright side, the people who did like it were very supportive and by the time my next release, Road To Nowhere, came out we had developed a nice little following. To this day RTN is still probably my personal favourite. I was living in the infamous Westminster house and taking trips all over the country to film. Everyone in that video has such a rad personality and it was a real pleasure to make. After that I put out The Meantime. It was a continuation of what had been started with Forever Now and RTN, and my first exploration into using Super 8 film. In 2008, I moved to Los Angeles and started up the Fade Nation video series with my good buddy Lonnie Gallegos. I was a little worried about always working alone and being pegged as only liking a certain type of skating, so it was nice to diversify my surroundings and the skaters I worked with. We put out Fade Nation and Too Faded together, and I have a new solo video coming out this year called Regardless. You worked with Lonnie on a couple of Fade Nation releases and they were amazing. Why did you decide to part ways? Thanks for the kind words. We still see each other a few times a week, so we didn’t really part ways. Lonnie is a talented dude and was getting a lot of work doing real editing gigs, and I was going to school, so we decided to do solo videos. He came out with Green, which I thought was really cool and showcased his new skills as a legit editor. I have my new video coming out, Regardless, and we both are doing some work for The Conference, so all is well. We had a nice run and made some great business contacts but the reality of it is we weren’t making that much money off those videos, then we were splitting that in half so you do the math. It’s also hard to make a video magazine when everyone is filming for scene videos, team videos and online edits, and nobody wants to contribute their best stuff. I had a great time working with Lonnie on those videos and have to mention Lee Martin because it wouldn’t have been possible without his generosity in letting us move into his loft and set up shop. He also showed me a lot of bad ass spots around the city and did a lot of tricks that will never be topped - he’s rad. Thanks Lee. Over the past year you have been doing a lot of Xsjado edits. How did that come about and is it currently paying rent? It came about when JC (Rowe) asked me to help him film a welcome to the team kinda deal for Xsjado as a favour. We worked on it for about a month and put it out, and it was a success. Xsjado was going through a transition and JC was also taking over as team manager, so the skaters were getting a huge say in what they wanted to do and how they
wanted to promote themselves and the brand. Nobody felt that Xsjado really had a solid, consistent presence on the internet so it was exciting to work with them on a new image. I had already been filming with Jeff (Stockwell) for a section in my next video, so I used a couple clips I had been saving plus some cool San Pedro bowl shredding stuff and that one turned out pretty cool too. I think when the Farmer edit got 15,000 views in the first day is when I started getting paid in dollars and we just kept going from there. Now it’s a year later and we are living in Barcelona for a month, filming for the Xsjado team video. I’m really just excited to have this opportunity and get a chance to work and travel with my friends. As far as rent goes, it’s definitely helping but living in the city isn’t cheap. What do you like to do when you are not making skate videos? I spend most of my time hanging with my girlfriend and our cats. Lately my whole world has been filming for Xsjado, USD or Regardless, so I usually have a few people on my couch. Luckily, all those dudes are my best friends, so I’m usually hanging with my buddies and trying to get a clip or two. Besides that, it’s the normal stuff - visiting my family, movies, photography, funny Youtube videos, FIFA on Xbox, throwing knives in Jeff’s backyard, finding good food spots, looking for skate spots and rock and roll shows. What do you think about recent blading releases such as CHARG!NG, Vine St and Game Theory? As far as recent blading goes, I think CHARG!NG, Valo 4 Life and Honey Baked really impressed me the most. CHARG!NG was great because those guys really lived it for the 100 days, or whatever it was, and showed how tech street skating can get. I admire AJ’s tenacity when it comes to getting a project done. He’s a crazy motherfucker but I’ve always liked him and now I like one of his videos too. Valo 4 Life actually did the whole music rights iTunes thing and that should be applauded. I bought that shit with a gift card I got like two years ago. They have a sick team and I think they really raised the bar on professionalism. Plus, it has Champion clips - very cool. Honey Baked was rad because those kids are just shredding and having a blast, and you can see it. Dylan, Bina, and Nick Labarre bumped themselves up to am status real quick in my opinion. Add on top of that the guidance and wisdom of Dan Leifeld and you got a recipe for a good time right there. Speaking of Dan, I think the recent blade blogs he has been putting out is the best thing in blading right now. It’s like the most hilarious inside joke that nobody gets but me, I think. It’s pure gold. I’ve only seen Vine St once but I remember Tien being awesome and Richie Eisler killing stuff at high speed. I also enjoy the Shredwieser edits and WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK
ISSUE02 Mike Dempsey’s classic, Lunch. I gotta mention Vinny Minton, too. All of his stuff is on point. Are you doing any other work at the moment or is making movies a full-time job? I just recently finished film school and scored a few freelance gigs through one of my friends I met there. I shot an interview with Jane Lynch at Paramount Studios and an award show where I was three feet away from Carl Reiner and Cheryl David from Curb Your Enthusiasm. I’m a fan of comedy and those are some hilarious people, so that was a little thrill. Generally, I’ve been trying to finish filming my video and working on Xsjado/ USD stuff full-time since I graduated. Definitely need to find a job once I get back from tour, though. What can you tell us about your new video, Regardless? Chris Haffey, Erik Stokely, Chris Dafick, Jon Jon Bolino, Jeff Stockwell, Ross Kuhn, Kruise Sapstien, Keaton Newsom, Andrew Jacuzzi, Erik Bailey and a few of our friends. Two years in the making. Them Goods Distribution. Should be out in a month or so. Regardless. That’s pretty much all there is to know. Which skaters do you enjoy watching at the moment? Besides the guys in my video, I really have been digging my homie Victor Galicia. Actually, all the Xsjado dudes have been doing cool stuff lately. Marc Moreno, of course, BCam, Isaac twins, Chase Rushing. AB, SK, KC, Sean Santamaria, the Farm. Honey Baked High School. Mike Lilly’s Revolution part was cool as shit. The life and times of Steven Valero Gas Station. Derek Henderson, Brandon Smith. Jon Julio. Montre, Michael Collins, B Free, and Q lamb are really killing it for the brothers these days. Don Bambrick. Sean Kelso. Big Teetans. I also enjoy watching Jordan Dale from afar and Amir Amadi annihilate ledges. What does the future hold for Brandon Negrete? Well, I got a month left in Barcelona, a beautiful situation goin’ on right now at home, two movies coming out this year, so that’s promising. As far as the future goes, who knows? Most likely - debt and asthma attacks. What do you think rollerblading is missing? I think it’s missing all of the people who made money off of it. Where did they all go? A website that had some sort of filter on what it put out and actually put the money made off that site back into blading would be nice, too – and a sense of humour. I think blading is a rad thing to be a part of and I’m thankful for all the friends and experiences it’s led me to. I think if everyone gets that chip off their shoulder and continues to push forward then rollerblading should be fine. Words: David McNamara Photos: JC Rowe & Jeff Stockwell
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All-girl alt rock outfit The Coathangers formed on a whim and only learned how to play their instruments afterwards, but somehow it has worked. When a group of restless young women decide to start a rock band even though only one member has any experience playing an instrument, and that instrument is classical guitar, it sounds like a project destined to fail. Surprisingly, this is exactly how Atlanta-based rock troupe The Coathangers got together. Despite an unconvincing beginning, the quartet have released two albums and a bunch of seven inches in less than four years, toured on both sides of the Atlantic, and are set to release their third album, Larceny and Old Lace, this year. The group have gradually developed a dedicated following by blending punk, garage rock and riot grrrl sensibilities to startling effect. The four close friends decided to form a band on a ten hour drive back from an anti-Bush rally in Washington DC in 2006, but any notion of them being a political outfit are quickly put to rest with song titles like ‘Nestle in my Boobies’ and ‘Parcheezzi’. The fact that they settled upon the band name The Coathangers after toying with Abortion Rules and Levitating, that’s so David Blaine suggests that this is simply an excitable group of women with a mischievous sense of humour.
The only problem was, the band only had a skeletal selection of songs written by that point and had never actually played in front of an audience before. Needless to say, it was an extremely nerve-wracking experience.
Winging It
Despite the fact that such a daunting first live performance could have easily been their last, The Coathangers escaped unscathed and returned to Atlanta with plans to do more live shows. In order to tempt people into showing up for their early shows, the group baked cookies for the crowd and showered each performance with balloons and confetti. “At first it was a ploy to get people to come to our shows,” admits Kugel with a shrug of the shoulders. “We would throw parties with balloons and cookies, and we would make goody bags with little liquor bottles to give people a reason to come to our shows. We still do it on special occasions - like record releases. For the first album we got a monkey and brought it along to the show. “
“There was a plethora of ideas!” exclaims lead singer and guitarist Julia Kugel with a fit of laughter. “We live in the bible belt, so The Coathangers has got us a lot of attention. I can’t even imagine what Abortion Rules would have done. We would have been picketed and boycotted! It would have been hilarious.”
The group only formed in 2006, but less than a year later they released their chaotic self-titled debut on Rob’s House Records and their 2009 follow up, Scramble, through Seattle-based indie imprint Suicide Squeeze. This year, The Coathangers will release their third full-length album, Larceny and Old Lace, and there has been a dramatic improvement in the production quality, possibly because the group took the time and effort to record this release in a professional studio with a producer.
Kugel was the only member of the band that had a vague idea of what she was doing when they started out. Keyboard player Candice Jones had messed around with her instrument a few times and Meredith Franco was coaxed into playing bass despite the fact she had never picked one up before. The group’s heavily tattooed drummer, Stephanie Luke, stole her instrument of choice after someone refused to return a bike they had borrowed from her.
“We took more care with the songwriting - there’s more singing - and we actually recorded it in a studio rather than our practice space. We had a lot more time to get the songs right. Before we would just play a song and record it, and it would be a snapshot of that time.”
When asked to explain what exactly happened regarding the stolen drum kit, Kugel responds: “They had stolen her bike. Well, not stolen – but they borrowed it and never gave it back. Stephanie decided to borrow their drum kit and never give it back. You know, eye for an eye.” The term borrowing must have a different meaning in the state of Georgia.
Until now, it seems that The Coathangers have been learning everything as they go along – but it has worked out to their advantage. Their first two albums sounded like a scruffy version of seminal riot grrrl outfit Sleater Kinney mixed with elements reminiscent of early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and their latest effort is their most coherent collection of songs to date. Let’s just hope they don’t lose their ability to blag it.
After the band had settled on a name and practised together a few times, they decided to take a road trip to SXSW in Austin, Texas to see if they could benefit from performing at the world’s biggest platform for up-and-coming musicians.
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“It was pretty memorable because we almost shit our pants,” deadpans Kugel. “We went with the Black Lips and they had the New York Times following them. They asked us to play a house show with them and we were terrified. There were these hardcore punk rock kids yelling at us and the New York Times’ camera right in our faces. That was so scary - I am surprised we survived.”
Words: Jeanie Rogers Photo: Jason Travis
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Five Albums that Changed My Life: Parts and Labor Brooklyn-based experimental rock outfit Parts and Labor are currently touring Europe in support of their latest album, Constant Future. We decided it was the perfect opportunity to catch up with bassist and lead singer BJ Warshaw to find out what albums have had the most profound effect on his life to date.
Charlie Parker - Bird: The Original Recordings of Charlie Parker My first main instrument was the alto saxophone. As a youngster, I thought jazz meant Kenny G and that the saxophone was best suited for solos in crap like ‘Careless Whisper’. Then, when I was 11 or 12, my uncle bought me a Charlie Parker compilation CD and my mind was finally opened. I’m not entirely positive it was Bird: The Original Recordings of Charlie Parker, but the track listing looks right. I remember struggling to comprehend how any human could play music that fast, let alone improvise like Bird did. That one CD introduced me to decades and decades of jazz, in all its varied forms, and completely shifted my attention away from the music I heard on mainstream radio
Fugazi - 13 Songs I entered high school in 1990. That time was a tough transition for me - a nerdy band kid who listened to more jazz than rock. I can’t remember when I first heard Fugazi, but I’m pretty sure it was sometime during my freshman year. I do remember listening to this record on repeat for the next several years, in my bedroom and later driving around, bored, through the suburbs. There’s no shortage of bands that define this period for me (Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, Sugar etc) and I could easily put Repeater on this list instead of 13 Songs. But, really, no song encapsulated my teenage angst and rebellion better than ‘Waiting Room’.
Th’ Faith Healers - Lido
Ween - GodWeenSatan: The Oneness
Boredoms - Super Ae
This album was important because it’s the first time I got totally schooled by a snotty record store clerk. Funny enough, I can’t remember the store (although it was likely Trash American Style, in Danbury, CT). I do remember bringing my desired purchases to the register. I was probably buying a Breeders CD or something. The dude behind the counter scoffed and told me to buy Lido. I fucking loved this record. This was a huge lesson: dig deeper than MTV’s buzz bin and my friends older sibling’s record collections. I still feel strongly that Th’ Faith Healers never got their due. I’ve listened to both Lido and Imaginary Friend recently and they stand the test of time - in many respects more so than the bands that found much greater success during those heady, early ‘90s.
Entering college in 1994 was, of course, an explosion of new sounds for me. Ween, however, defines my early university years more so than any of the other bizarre music I was finally being exposed to, from Zappa to Sun Ra. All of Ween’s records up through Chocolate and Cheese were staples amongst my group of friends. But GodWeenSatan, in particular, sticks with me for it’s sheer insanity/inanity, reckless use of effects, and strictly no-fi recording values. Theirs was an entire universe of rock music and rock mockery done with little more than an abused four track and crappy guitar pedals. They taught me that anything goes, that comedy and tragedy could snuggle together, that weirdness was a virtue.
Following college, I moved to New York City. My second job was at The Knitting Factory, and my musical universe was continuing to expand. I’d listened to a lot of Boredoms (and John Zorn’s Naked City, or similar acts like Mr. Bungle) in college, and loved their schizoid mashup of punk, funk, jazz, and outright noise. But nothing prepared me for Super Ae, and really no album has touched me quite as much since. This was, and continues to be, the most ecstatic rock album to hit my ears, psychedelic rock thrust into the 21st century. It’s every bit as good as when I first heard it, and would probably be my one “desert island record”. This is the record I still go back to when I hit a writer’s block, mining for sonic and rhythmic ideas, challenging still my notions of what rock music can and should be. Totally, completely, undeniably essential.
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Making Mother Proud The first lady of the LA beat scene, Tokimonsta, discusses the absurdities of Korean parenting and her latest EP, Creature Dreams.
JUNE2011 In Korean culture it is quite common for parents to push their children towards a professional career from a very young age. Children as young as six are often enrolled in English language schools and maths academies after their regular school day ends in order to ensure that they receive the best education possible. After all, South Korea is one of the fastest rising economies in the world, and if the next generation are going to become business kingpins, professionals and political figures, they need to be on top of their game. Beat scene producer Jennifer Lee aka Tokimonsta may have been born and raised in California, but it didn’t stop her Korean parents from instilling the same values in her from an early age. “I love Korean parenting because they try to nurture you from a young age into a profession,” jokes Lee with a hint of seriousness in her voice. “They tell you, ‘Wouldn’t you love to become a doctor and make lots of money?’ Because you’re a kid, you’re like, ‘Sure’ - even though you don’t really know what a doctor is at that age.” Lee respected her parent’s wishes, graduated from university and got a job as a business developer for a computer games company, but the whole time she was spending late nights creating hiphop beats under her Tokimonsta moniker. Her alias is a fitting representation of the culture clash between her heritage and life in California, as Toki means rabbit in Korean and Monsta is pretty selfexplanatory. However, despite taking what many consider the safe option and getting a regular job, Lee found herself made redundant several times and decided that it was time to take a gamble. When the aspiring producer told her strict Korean parents that she was going to lay her university education to waste in order to pursue a career in music they were not particularly impressed. “They didn’t like it very much,” advises Lee with a weary sigh. “In the beginning, I was making music in college as a hobby and my mother didn’t really mind. When I graduated from university I had a full-time job and I was still doing music, and she supported that. Then, the economy in the US went on a downward spiral and I got laid off. I told her it was the right time for me to take music to the next level and she was really pissed off. I asked her to give me a year and she did - a year of bitching and nagging.” Since breaking the earth-shattering news to her parents that she was not going to become a high-flying professional like her lawyer sister, Lee has generated a lot of hype over her experimental hip-hop productions. Her 2008 debut EP, Cosmic Intoxication, and last year’s exceptional debut album, Midnight Menu, have both been met with praise from critics and beat fanatics alike. Now that she is an internationally-respected producer and only female member of the world’s most important beat scene label, Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint, surely her mother is happy with what she has managed to achieve so far?
“Now that there there’s tangible evidence that I am doing okay - like newspaper articles and videos - she is proud of me. It’s really strange for her because I come from a family of people that are professors or engineers. Because I am good at what I do, in her eyes, she’s okay with it.” Tokimonsta’s latest EP, Creature Dreams, is potentially the most commercial release to come out of the Brainfeeder collective, as Flying Lotus appears to be going off on one hell of a tangent after the release of Cosmogramma and labelmates The Gaslamp Killer and Lorn seem determined to produce bass heavy, neck-snapping club tracks. Lee asserts that the reason for her new, mellow approach stems from the fact that all of the tracks were made in the middle of the night when she felt most cut off from the world and able to explore her strangest thoughts. “I just want each release to be a step forward in terms of how I develop technically, emotionally and personally,” she says. “I think this release is a lot more personal. All these tracks embody my dreams and the obscure, abstract nights when I make them. Most of these tracks were made at about half two in the morning.” Creature Dreams is also a landmark, of sorts, for the promising LA producer, as it is the first release that she feels contains a cohesive collection of tracks that distinguish her from other members of the progressive electronic genre. Instead of trying to simply keep up with the rest of the major players in the rapidly expanding scene, Lee has chosen to go off in a different direction and create something that is not simply meant to work in a club atmosphere – adopting the less-is-more approach. Then again, her debut album, Midnight Menu, was a hastily pieced together collection of random tracks for Listen Up, a subsidiary of Japanese independent label Art Union. “I have realised in the past that I have never had a specific sound signature,” begins Lee. “I felt that Midnight Menu, even though I was proud of it, was just an anthology of songs. On Midnight Menu I think I was going for a heavy, beat-driven sound but on this one I tried not to be too low end or too bassy. I use a lot more live instrumentation on this release including piano, guitar and drum recordings. You will be able to hear slight, acoustic elements.” Unlike many of the current crop of bedroom producers that made a name for themselves by releasing tracks online after spending years messing around on their laptops, Tokimonsta actually has a back story that is worth hearing. The female producer got into hip-hop during high school and her Japanese teacher was the mother of KeyKool, a member of LA hip-hop collective Visionaries. He would regularly come into the class and beatbox along with group member Rhettmatic. Lee then made a name for herself on the club circuit by playing at Beat Cipher, a monthly night organised by Project Blowed where up-and-coming producers would compete against each other. But Lee had no
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intention of scoring a record deal – at least not in the beginning. She just wanted to be a part of the LA hip-hop culture that she admired growing up. “In hip-hop, that kind of back story is quite common,” she says. “Everything in LA is very scene driven. You have to break into the scene that you are enjoying. I was going to a lot of hip-hop shows and a lot of raves. I wasn’t trying to make a name for myself. I just wanted to be a part of the hip-hop culture that was going on in LA. Now that we have that crossover between hip-hop and electronic music there is a merging in cultures.” Since Flying Lotus signed to Warp Records in 2007 and released his criticallyacclaimed sophomore album, Los Angeles, the spotlight has been firmly fixed on the LA beat scene. Radio One DJ Mary Anne Hobbes refers to it as “the most exciting electronic scene in the world” and weekly club night Low End Theory acts as a Mecca for aspiring electronic producers all over the world. In fact, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has visited on several occasions to give the crowd a lesson in German techno and forwardthinking hip-hop. With so much attention on her city, does Lee find that there is a level of expectation placed upon the local artists to justify the hype? “I find it more motivation,” she offers. “I can’t speak for the newer generation but I find that we are all people that don’t like being categorised too much. The great thing about the scene is that everyone is trying to build a community. In other scenes artists try to bring each other down. When we perform we play other people’s music and try to push the movement of that kind of music.” Over the past few years, several female bedroom producers have managed to infiltrate the male-dominated world of electronic music, including UK Funky’s femme fatale Cooly G and dubstep’s leading lady, Ikonika. Tokimonsta is arguably leading this surge at the moment but she is keen to assert that, while she would like to see more women make music and she is happy to act as an inspiration, she does not enjoy being singled out for simply being a female producer. “The biggest compliment I have received is when someone told me they didn’t know that the music I make was made by a woman. It’s nice when women come up me in shows and tell me how great it is that a woman is making this kind of music but it gets tiring. I don’t want it to be about my ethnicity or my gender. It’s really about having respect as an artist”
“The biggest compliment I have received is when someone told me they didn’t know that the music I make was made by a woman.”
Words: Louis Flood
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Paul Bates: Cloak-and-Dagger Swagger
Hidden deep within the far reaches of Essex there is a man. He wears leggings and flannel shirts, eats a ridiculously healthy diet and has a magnificent mullet. His name is Paul Bates. Nowadays you’re more likely to see him behind the camera instead of in front of it but, in the meantime, enjoy a rare treat as he steps back out from behind the lens.
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Over the last decade Bates has become known for his bohemian inspired lifestyle, Bob Marley-fueled early morning sessions and some of the most inventive linguistics you will hear anywhere in the world. Growing up as a rollerblader in Southend doesn’t exactly bless you with many perfect - or even obvious - spots, but go skating with Bates and you’ll soon see his limitless enthusiasm for obstacles that others wouldn’t even consider. From his first video profile way back in 2003 all the way up until his latest section in Cult Leaders and beyond, Bates’ skating has constantly changed and evolved, going from spin-to-win 450 royales on anything and everything to being completely confident and intelligent in his tricks, and a total perfectionist in everything he laces. Having now been skating for the best part of 13 years, it’s inevitable that in time his skating style has evolved along with his development as a person.
choice, style, clothing, even down to the way you document rollerblading. In that sense, it’s an art, and of course I get inspiration from other artists’ work, but also influences from all over the place, people in history, films, artwork - it all makes up me as a person and I reflect the person I am through rollerblading, so you get to see me, and all my influences every time I put skates on.”
If you get a chance to talk to Bates, you will soon see what rollerblading means to him. He will talk your ear off about friendship and community. “A community is not built on money or greed but on love and creativity,” says Bates. “People being friends no matter what they look like or where they are from, all being equals and feeling part of a society because they rollerblade.”
Bates is a keen advocate of a clean and healthy lifestyle, often encouraging others to follow in his footsteps. Go skating with him and it will simply amaze you just what he will do and eat to stay healthy. A typical skate day may consist of a bowl of all-bran with orange juice instead of milk, several minutes of stretching before every spot, a lunch stop often consisting of a bag of lettuce dipped into a tub of houmous or a big bag of ‘natural berries’ - all followed by an evening session at the gym. This selfpreserving attitude can be seen in his skating too, as most rollerbladers over 25 will attest to the fact that your body doesn’t recover as quickly as it used to. Paul will often talk about and encourage people to ‘skate smart’, by progressing and honing tricks - not just hucking themselves at everything in their way.
Since the late ‘90s, Bates has played a significant part in the development and documentation of the rollerblading community, being a huge motivator and regularly badgering everyone in the early hours of the morning to get out and find new spots.
“I think when you’ve been rollerblading for a long time you want to branch out and do something different that portrays your own individuality,” says Bates. “This can be expressed through trick
Below: Frontside savannah / Previous page: Soul grind, gap to soul grind
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Even though Essex has a pretty strong scene right now, it remains, as always, very hidden away and completely spread out, with the kind of numbers normally found in a regular city skate scene being spread over the whole county but, despite this, the scene there is the strongest it has ever been, and Bates is still waking everyone’s ass up to go skate. Since those early days, Bates has become unbelievably-talented with a video
camera and now makes his living as a film-maker and director of photography. He originally bought a camera to film a few clips of friends, but nowadays he walks around with enough gear to shoot a Hollywood blockbuster. “I’m sure there is a correlation between having that freedom which leads onto opening your mind and a lot of rollerbladers not having standard nine-to-five jobs and mainly being creatives. A lot of normal people don’t get to open up their minds in that way. Their thoughts are usually filled with the worries of life, paying bills, looking like super models and getting drunk at the weekend’ It is also great to see how much media skills like Paul’s are benefiting us as rollerbladers. As rollerblading media production quality continues to take huge leaps forward, this kind of equipment and expertise brings with it a new level of professionalism that makes rollerblading more appealing to the public eye and shows them that we are serious about our sport. “We were skating at a school in Brightlingsea,” says Bates. “The caretaker came to throw us out and when he saw all the gear we were using he was so interested he let us carry on skating.”
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Bates sometimes jokes that he is in his mid-twenties and goes round breaking into every school in a 25 mile radius of where he lives to find spots to skate. It’s pretty strange to think if those schools looked back over their CCTV footage they would be left wondering why a group of fully-grown men wearing leggings and flannel shirts are walking around with rollerblades, checking out the flower planters. If you want to visit Paul Bates, just take a tub of houmous along with you and prepare to be bemused by his own personal dialect, amazed by everything he does on rollerblades and be made to feel more welcome than a cold beer on a warm summer’s day. Words: Ben Sach Photos: Sam Cooper
Mute wallride
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Finding a Perfect Balance
Grazyna Wratny
The first lady of Hedonskate, Grazyna Wratny, talks about the current state of the rollerblading scene in Poland and how she finds the time to study for a master’s degree while becoming one of the most impressive female rollerbladers Europe has to offer.
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Topside Acid
If the untoppable rise of Hedonskate and their internationally-respected team of blading maniacs has proven anything, it is that Poland is a country to be reckoned with when it comes to rollerblading. After all, their all-star cast is being led by street skating prodigy Nils Jansons and transition-destroying park monster Piotr Combrzynski. However, the presence of female bladers in Poland has not been that apparent. That is, until a couple of online edits featuring a young woman rocking a bandana and killing stair ledges (and handrails) like one of the guys appeared on the internet and had many people asking: “Who is that girl and where the hell has she been hiding?“ Well, her name is Grazyna Wratny and she is not hiding any more. In fact, she is kicking arse and taking names. Wratny has only been skating for eight years, but she attacks obstacles with the style and confidence of a fearless teenage boy while maintaining her feminine charm. The 22 year old is currently attending Warsaw University, where she is studying for a degree in sociology and international relations. The young skater is excited that she has almost completed the first hurdle of her further education.
“It‘s the end of my third year,“ says Wratny. “In June I am going to finish my first degree by passing a licence exam.“ Despite the fact she is studying to complete her degree this year, Wratny is skating harder than ever. This is evident by the fact that there have been several edits featuring her street skating abilities appearing online in recent months and she won the women’s event at Never Winter Jam 2011 that took place in Wroclaw, Poland. She puts this down to finding a balance between work and play, thanks to her overactive personality. “When I am not skating I still like staying active,“ says Wratny. “I enjoy swimming, playing tennis, riding my bike and being close to my friends. I don‘t feel good sitting at a desk all day. When I am at home I enjoy learning French, reading detective books and cooking.“ Wratny was already rollerblading on a regular basis when she discovered that there were more possibilities that can be explored on a pair of skates. When asked how she get into street skating, Wratny responds: “By accident. When I was about 13 years old I had fitness
skates that I was skating in a recreational way. One day I passed a skatepark and realised there was a possibility of skating in another way and I immediately fell in love.“ When talking about the skate scene in her home country, Wratny is full of enthusiasm for the current state of the blading community and she feels that it is only getting better. She also notices that an encouraging trend is taking place at local events, as more women are getting involved in the sport. “The rollerblading scene in Poland is constantly developing,“ advises Wratny. “Thanks to PRL (Polish Rollerblading League) there are some big contests where I see more girls skating - which is good.“ Despite the fact that Wratny lives in Poland’s capital and has the luxury of a massive city to explore in search of hidden street spots, she is the first to admit that living in a city with a population of almost two million people is not without its shortcomings. “Warsaw, where I live, is the biggest city in Poland, which causes some problems with organising skate sesWWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK
sions. In fact, we are divided into a few groups of close friends who always skate together but recently we‘ve been trying to overcome it by launching a Facebook group called ‘Roll Warsaw‘ where, if you want to skate in Warsaw, you can always see if anyone wants to skate that day.“ Watching Wratny’s smooth style and considered trick selection, it is obvious that she is someone who understands what it takes to make blading look good and she has very specific ideas about what makes an impressive skater, even if she is unwilling to name anyone in particular that she admires. “I don‘t have any specific favourite skaters,“ she says. “What I appreciate the most is a smooth style and fast skating, as well as versatile skills. It‘s always a pleasure to watch that kind of rollerblading.“ Over the past six years there has been a huge influx of Polish immigrants entering the UK to work and study as a result of the country joining the European Union in 2004. As an ambitious young woman with a huge passion for travelling, Wratny fully understands why many people in her country travel to 23
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the UK in an attempt to boost their financial circumstances and return with better prospects for the future. “The United Kingdom is one of the most popular destinations of Polish emigration since Poland joined the EU,“ says Wratny. “Young people are ready to leave home for a few years, work very hard and earn more money to have a better start in Poland when they move back. Very few decide to stay abroad longer than necessary. The economic situation in Poland is improving and the divide between European standards is getting smaller each year.“
on my studies as well as enjoying everyday life. In two years I would like to finish my master studies of Sociology and International Relations. Besides that, I am going to keep skating, travelling and hanging out with my friends.“ Words: David McNamara Photos: Christofer Luca
It does not seem unfathomable that Wratny could easily become one of world’s best female rollerbladers and achieve all the successes she aims for in her professional career. After all, she has managed to become one of the most fearless female bladers in Europe while working her way through university. However, she is happy to take things as they come and not overthink the future too much. “My plans for the future don‘t extend any further than the next two years,“ admits Wratny. “I am going to be focused
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Fredrik Andersson Swedish street skating prodigy Fredrik Andersson has been a huge part of his national skate scene for over a decade. In addition to being one seriously talented rollerblader, he also teaches children how to skate at Zero One Six Skatepark and runs a shop there in conjunction with Hedonskate. Andersson was in Barcelona to film for a Powerhouse edit, so Wheel Scene decided to catch up with him at the end of his trip to find out how it went.
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Tell us a little about yourself. I am 25-years-old. I live in a city called Eskilstuna. It’s about one hour south from Stockholm. Eskilstuna is a good-sized city, with around 100,000 people, and we have 1,200 members in the skatepark - so we are not low on rollers in this city! I skate for Zero One Six Skatepark, USD, Hedonskate and Cloud Unique. How did you get into blading? I got in to rollerblading in 1999. My dad showed me the local skatepark and I was hooked. I had already tried all the normal sports but didn’t really find one that I enjoyed for more than three or four months. Rollerblading is what I love. I can’t think of one other sport where you can travel around the world and just send an email saying: “Hey, I’m Fred. Is it cool if I crash in your house a few days?” That’s what I love about rollerblading. Tell us about your recent trip to Barcelona. My Barcelona trip was the best one so far. I have been many times now but the last trip was the best. I stayed for three weeks and had Dustin (Werbeski) and Richie (Eisler) helping me film and shoot photos. I had everything served on a silver plate. Richie and Dustin were hurt so it was just me left. They showed me all these perfect spots and told me to do whatever I wanted and they will film or shoot it.
What do you like to do when you are not rollerblading? When I am not rollerblading I am working with blading. I have a small shop in the skatepark. It’s a shop I have with Hedonskate, so it is possible for kids to try skates before they buy. I think that the shop has made the scene bigger here in Eskilstuna. Also, I have a beautiful girlfriend who travels with me to most of the places I go. What is the scene like in Sweden at the moment? In Sweden, we have a good mix of skaters here - not that many but a good mix. Here in Eskilstuna we have so many kids skating it is unbelievable and the Swedish scene is just growing every year. What are your plans for the future? Do you have a career in mind? I haven’t really thought that much about a career. I am just going to live life as it comes and see what happens in the future. My only plan is moving to a warmer country. Sweden is beautiful, but not having the possibility to choose if you want two meters of snow and minus 20 temperatures is not my way. I want to live in a country with sun all year round. Words: Louis Flood Photos: Dustin Werbeski
That sounds pretty awesome. What was your favourite memory from Barcelona? The best memory was staying out all night, cruising around a graveyard. Also, we tried sleeping overnight at one mountain. We brought food and bed sheets and made our hammocks - it was a great evening. We were supposed to stay overnight but in the middle of the night we started hearing small cracks and noises. A few seconds later the tree we were tied up to fell on Dustin, so we had called it a night and took the first morning bus back home to Powerhouse. There seems to be a lot of random adventures going on over there. Are you working at the moment? I work in my local skatepark, teach kids how to skate and make smaller events for the locals. My dad has been running the skateparks in my city for 11 years. Since the first skatepark closed, my dad has been the one organising skateparks and making it happen. He is awesome! WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK
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Richie Eisler on Fredrik Andersson: Fredrik Andersson is definitely one of my favourite people to come through the Powerhouse so far. If you’ve met him, you will know that he’s a chill dude with a great attitude and personality - and the man can blade! Cruising around with his signature chilled-out style, Freddy is fun to watch when he’s on blades. The first time I met the man, it was 4pm and Oli (Benet) says to me on Skype: “Is Fred there yet?” Apparently he arrived at the house at eight or nine in the morning and spent most of the day knocking on the door and ringing the buzzer until it stopped working. Dom (Sagona) and I had a wild night and slept through his attempts all day. I walked to the door and there he was, patiently waiting with two Swedish babes. I knew right away we’d be friends!
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Loco Skates Tour Story The Loco Skates LoveScotland tour was an ambitious, and gruelling, seven-day excursion across the country to skate some of the best skateparks and street spots Scotland has to offer. It was also a great opportunity to meet up with the large customer base that exists north of the border. With an all-star cast that consisted of Nick Lomax, Leon Humphries, Sam Tuffnell and Jenna Downing, it was always going to be a tour to remember. When it was announced that borderline alcoholics Joe Atkinson, Elliot Stevens and Billy Doyle would also be in attendance, it was guaranteed that any stop would be a spectacle for one reason or another. Just when it seemed the tour could not get any better, Loco Skates owner Jake Eley decided to fly Valo professional, and all-round master of anything with a transition, Erik Bailey, over for the tour. After all, the only people that get no pleasure from watching Bailey session skateparks are the blind.
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Atkinson/alley-oop fishbrain
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April 9 – Noiya Jam, Sheffield The annual Noiya Jam at The House Skatepark in Sheffield was the first stop of the tour. The last time we checked, South Yorkshire is not technically Scotland by at least 150 miles, but we chose to forgive the Loco crew as it was the first major event of the 2011 UK rollerblading calendar and merely a warm-up for tour. Despite the fact that The House Skatepark is about the size of an innercity Tesco Metro, the inviting array of obstacles encouraged a lot of the UK’s best bladers to turn up for the event, including Chaz Sands, Alex Burston, James Keyte and Steve Swain. As soon as the expert event kicked off, it was obvious that there was going to be a plethora of first-class rollerblading. Nick Lomax made it clear that he was determined to walk away with the first place prize money, lacing lines that culminated in lofty 900s and technical switch-ups with solid style and consistency. Elliot Stevens amazed spectators with hurricane fishbrains, transfers from the quarter pipe to the high window ledge and a top acid up the rail box to 720 off. Alex Burston took third place with some amazing lines that included various truespin variations, 720s and switch-ups with spins out. As far as tour stops go, this was a pretty impressive start for the Loco Skates
team, as Lomax and Stevens won first and second place respectively The only downer of the day was when Alex Burston collided with The Conference’s James Keyte while they were both travelling backwards at high speed. Thankfully, they both have buns of steel and were not seriously injured. April 11 – EKPark, East Kilbride The group arrived at EKPark late after a night of partying following the Noiya Jam and a five-hour drive in poor weather. When the team finally arrived, they wasted no time in showing the East Kilbride locals why their team is considered one of the best in the industry. Joe Atkinson won some rapturous applause with an insane soul on a vert wall that is higher than the average two-floor house and Sam Tuffnell landed a massive safety 720 on the quarter. April 12 – Transition Extreme Skatepark, Aberdeen After another night of partying, the Loco Skates team descended upon Aberdeen for a second consecutive evening park session, this time at Transition Extreme on the Granite City’s beachfront. Nick Lomax and Erik Bailey owned the bowl section with an orgy of technical lines and jaw-dropping airs, and Leon Humphries gave the locals a lesson in
stylish skating with trademark alley-oop topsouls and an obstacle-by-obstacle destruction of the entire street course. That night, the Loco team took to the streets of Aberdeen in search of fun, frolics and enough alcohol to submerge a small country. Elliot Stevens kept up his reputation as being one of the biggest liabilities in the UK rolling scene by getting kicked out of a club not once, not twice, but three times. You’ve got to wonder, how does that even happen?
truespin alley-oop topside grinds on some of the city’s biggest stair rails. In the space of one day, the team managed to amass over 30 clips at Northfield Academy, the infamous ‘Red Rail’ and the bank to rail in Garthdee. You may have seen the live tour updates and watched some of the spare footage Loco have uploaded online, but rest assured that the finished tour video will make those tricks look like warm-ups. April 14 – Saughton Skatepark, Edinburgh
April 13 –Aberdeen Street Session The weather looked ominous while the vans trawled Aberdeen in search of the city’s most challenging street spots. Despite grey skies full of menacing clouds, the heavens held off long enough for the guys to hit up Northfield Academy, one of Aberdeen’s premier rail spots. There must be something in the water in Manchester because two of its finest representatives, went on a two-man assault on the stair rails. Amongst many (emphasis on many) amazing tricks that went down at the secondary school on the outskirts of Aberdeen, Lomax managed to land an inspin soul and 270 backside unity to soul with textbook precision. Stevens refused to be upstaged and answered back with an alley-oop unity to 270 topsoul. Aberdeen local Graeme Forbes (Gamby) represented the north east with a staggering display of alley-oop and WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK
The Edinburgh leg of the Loco tour started around 10:30pm, as everyone arrived at Chris Doughty’s flat. Spirits in the camp where high, regardless of an all-day skate session and three-hour drive from Aberdeen. At first only Aarron McMurray, Billy Doyle, Joe Atkinson, Dan Ives, and Elliot Stevens were up for heading out for a few drinks, but it took little persuasion to convince everyone else to head out for a few at a small bar called Whistle Binkies. They had a live band on which gave the place a nice, chilled atmosphere and allowed everyone to relax a bit, reflect on the day’s skating and heavy night out before heading down. Everyone was getting “merry” and a group of Danish girls were getting a bit of attention from the lads, so when it came to three in the morning and everyone headed their separate ways, McMurray, Stevens and 31
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Atkinson headed back to McMurray’s flat - minus Doyle and Ives.
park so packed before. Bailey rinsed the bowl section with 360 fishbrains, 360 sweatstances and truespin alleyoops topside acids in the biggest bowl and a monster line that started with a sweatstance on the highest ledge in the park followed by a big 720 out of the bowl. Lomax also displayed his park skills, with fastslides and full cab backside savannahs around the biggest bowl in the park, and nice 720s as part of a bowl line. With the standard of skating that was going on, you would never have believed that everyone had been out the night before!
Bailey/Top Mistrial
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In the morning there was slight confusion as to how Ives and Doyle had managed to get home. It turns out they got lost for three hours with the Danish girls and managed to find their way back to the flat with the help of the police by looking out for the Loco vans. It turns out the boys in blue are good for something after all. Upon arriving at McMurray’s flat, Doyle climbed up a drainpipe onto his window ledge and knocked on the window until Atkinson eventually woke up and let them in. It is fair to say that everyone was a little rough in the morning. All the lads that stayed at Doughty’s received a nice slap-up breakfast courtesy of his lovely girlfriend, Lisa. Unfortunately for McMurray and everyone that stayed at his flat, the cupboards were bare and only a cup of tea was on offer to ease the hangover. The team arrived at Saughton Skatepark shortly after two. Joe was still soaking wet, in his shorts, with a towel round his shoulders due to being rushed out the shower by Jake Eley’s tight schedule. The turnout was amazing, with the park pretty much over run with bladers. Bailey was actually taken aback, saying he had never seen an outdoor 34
April 16 – Unit 23 Open, Dumbarton The last leg of the tour was a struggle for the team. The combination of relentless skating during the day and partying until the early hours most nights had drained the energy from the majority of the group. However, the Loco team showed their true professionalism by ignoring the fatigue and injuries acquired during the tour and strapped on their blades for one last exhibition of their skills. Bailey only skated for a couple of hours, but it didn’t stop him from landing some monster truespin transfers from the street section into the bowl in the newly refurbished hall two. Stevens and WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK
Lomax both skated in the sponsored event, with Lomax earning a welldeserved second place due to some ridiculously technical switch-ups on the bank rails and massive 720s out of the quarter as part of a line. Unit 23 local Conor Harkin fought off some fierce competition to earn third, with amazing lines on the rhythm section and a bunch of stylish grinds on the lower part of the kink rail. Despite injuring his shoulder two nights before the event, Chaz Sands made a surprise entry in the sponsored event and walked away with first place thanks to an awe-inspiring run that included a corkscrew 900, 360 wallride, flatspin 540 and massive 540 transfer from the street course into the bowl section. If that is the kind of performance he puts on when not at full strength, the upcoming competition season is looking very promising for the Razors rider. This is the first time Loco Skates have toured Scotland and anyone that attended any of the stops will attest to the fact that it was a raving success. Despite burning the candle at both ends, the team managed to monopolise the top three positions at both contests they attended and gathered enough jaw-dropping clips to make a series of videos that have already started to
appear online. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to successfully execute such a mammoth project, and it is a testament to Loco Skates’ dedication to UK rollerblading. Hopefully it won’t be too long until they decide to grace Scotland with their presence once again. Words: David McNamara and Aarron McMurray Photos: Adam Kola
Living the Dream Last year’s Slamm Jamm winner, Scott Quinn, talks about the beginning of his promising rollerblading career and the online edit that made him an overnight sensation.
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Royale 360 Mute
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Scott Quinn has been one of the most talented members of the Scottish rollerblading scene for several years now, but until recently he has been overlooked despite an impressive section in the 2010 UK rollerblading DVD Fragmented Networks and a few promising online videos. It looks as if he is finally about to get the recognition he deserves after an online edit for skate sponsor Razors was released earlier this year and received a massive amount of praise. The video, filmed by close friend and fellow team rider Chaz Sands, only appeared online in March but it has already amassed over 20,000 views. Needless to say, Quinn was pleasantly surprised by the amount of attention it has received. “I had no idea it was going to get that popular so quickly,” he says with a genuine sound of disbelief in his voice. “We did spend a long time filming that edit and we were very selective about what tricks were going in and how it was going to be filmed. There has been a lot of good feedback.” You only have to watch the edit once to understand why it received such a positive response from rollerbladers all over the world. The entire section was filmed in the newly refurbished hall two at Unit 23 Skatepark, but Quinn’s extensive trick vocabulary, including back-to-back tricks natural and switch, high airs, stylish spins and well-thought out lines make it a video that fans of incredible park skating will return to for repeat viewing. His almost blasé approach to each obstacle and seemingly-unfaltering composure while executing each trick makes it look as if he has spent his entire life inside the confines of that skatepark. The scary thing is, he is actually far more comfortable skating street and apparently it won’t be long until the world gets to see what the promising young blader can do in an urban environment.
Despite the fact that he could attend Slamm Jamm this year to defend his title, Quinn has advised that he will be going to the event but will not be taking part as he would like to see someone else benefit from the incredible opportunity to visit the US. “I don’t think so,” says Quinn when asked if he will be competing at this year’s Slamm Jamm. “I have had my opportunity, you know? I get to go to AIL and it is all paid for, so I would like to see someone else have that chance now. “ Over the past twelve months, Quinn has been acquiring sponsors at a steady rate, including Unit 23 Skatepark, Cloud Unique Tees and Roll Kings, but it was Chaz Sands that helped the talented young blader acquire his first sponsor. The iconic Scottish professional invited Quinn to film for a Razors podcast with Austrian stuntman Stefan Horngacher back in 2007 and since then Sands has helped him develop into one of the most well-rounded, exciting rollerbladers to come out of Scotland in several years. “My first sponsor was Razors and that was through Chaz,” says Quinn. “When I started going to Unit 23 Skatepark I didn’t really know Chaz at the time, but he put my name forward. Out of nowhere he phoned and said that Stu Game was coming to Scotland to film and he wanted me to come along, and that was it really.” Seeing how refined Quinn’s skating ability is, it is difficult to believe that less than ten years ago he was completely oblivious to the world of street skating and spent most of his time playing the favourite winter past time of burly, toothless Canadians until a friend took him to a local skatepark.
“We have been filming a few clips here and there when the weather has been nice,” advises Quinn. “I had also been filming for Cloud Unique as well.” All the nay-sayers that claim he can only skate transitions are about to eat their words – big time.
“I played roller hockey and ice hockey for years as a kid and through the people that were playing in my team I got into it. We went to the local skatepark with some of the guys at the weekend and it just went from there.”
The 23-year-old from Charlton in the west of Scotland has also been making a name for himself on the competition circuit by winning first place at last year’s Slamm Jamm and earning an all expenses paid trip to the AIL at Woodward West, California later this year. Who knows, he could even repeat the success of former winner Joe Atkinson by blowing away the competition on the other side of the Atlantic.
Like many of the best skaters to come out of Scotland, Quinn spent many years perfecting his skills on Glasgow’s most recognisable street spots including St. George’s Cross, Caledonia University and the Art School. However, his immersion in the Glasgow skate culture was a complete accident and he still seems slightly surprised by how he became a part of one of the UK’s biggest skate scenes.
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Royale to drop
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“A skatepark was built in Blantyre,” says Quinn. “Nico and, on the odd occasion, Keir (Lindsay) would come through. I kept hearing about people skating in town. I didn’t really know what street skating was and I wasn’t really interested, but I ended up getting the train into town one weekend and I was just blown away by the scene. Every weekend we would meet up at the Business Centre and St. Enoch and it was just the best thing. I got to know everyone.” It is hardly surprising that his exceptional talents have been slept on for so long. After all, Quinn grew up skating and travelling across Europe as part of the Glasgow skate scene, which is home to some larger-than-life personalities. In order to make yourself heard, you had to upstage the ridiculous antics of Keir Lindsay, Russell McIntyre and Cameron Mitchell – and that is no easy task! Quinn is currently living in Dumbarton with his girlfriend, but until recently he had been living at Unit 23 Skatepark for almost a year. How does someone end up living at a skatepark for a year? Well apparently it was a gradual progression that started off with a few overnight stays at the park and eventually resulted in employment and accommodation. “I got sponsored by Unit 23 about a year ago and we used to go and skate there every weekend. We would stay overnight, have lock-ins and skate whenever we wanted. Eventually Chic offered to let me work there on Friday nights and then they had the idea of coaching, so I now coach the kids at the park.”
Makio 360 Mute
Over the next twelve months, Quinn will be representing his sponsors at some of the UK’s most high profile rollerblading events, including the Chaz Sands Invitational, NASS and Slamm Jamm. However, he will also be trying to make a name for himself further afield, with plans to attend the Baltic Games in Poland and the AIL Championships during the summer. Beyond that, he doesn’t really have anything planned. Then again, why should he? He is only 23 years old, has a promising rollerblading career ahead of him and a job working at one of the best skateparks in the country - allowing him the opportunity to develop his rollerblading skills at an alarming rate. “Right now, I’m not sure,” says Quinn when asked about what the future holds. “I just want skate as much as I can and be involved in the sport in any way I can. Who knows? I am not too worried about the future. I am just going to see what happens.” Words: David McNamara Photos: David Andrew and Rob Gunn
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This is no Side Project
The Young Legionnaire Interview
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Former Yourcodenameis:milo frontman Paul Mullen explains why his latest project, Young Legionnaire, is not simply a sabbatical for some of the country’s most progressive indie musicians.
special and, for me, playing up north east is nice as well because I can invite my friends and family and say: ‘This is what I do for my job! I jump about on stage and make a fool of myself.’
A mini super group of sorts, Young Legionnaire consists of Yourcodenameis:milo/ The Automatic’s Paul Mullen on guitar and lead vocals, and Bloc Party’s Gordon Moakes on bass. After meeting during YCNI:M’s collaboration project ‘Print Is Dead’ in 2006, the two stayed in contact and eventually decided to get together to make some music, joined by I Was A Cub Scout/ La Roux drummer Will Bowerman (later replaced by Dean Pearson), whilst their respective bands were on hiatus. In their short time together, the trio have already released two singles and a free download, as well as supporting a host of bands including Pulled Apart By Horses and Foals. With the announcement of their debut album Crisis Works, Wheel Scene caught up with Mullen to discuss the band’s debut record and their busy year ahead.
“Pulled Apart By Horses are great lads as well and we’re doing another show with them at the end of the month in Brighton. It’s sponsored by Sailor Jerry, so that will be messy.” Alongside this show, they also supported Death From Above 1979 at their massive comeback show on May 4th in London’s HMV Forum before a headline gig/album launch party at the Barfly. As huge fans of Death From Above 1979, their initial reaction to this news was, needless to say, pretty excited. “You always have a dream gig that you want to do so we just thought if we got this show it would be unbelievable.”
For Mullen and Moakes, releasing a debut is certainly nothing new but there’s definitely still the sense of excitement that only comes with the release of a band’s first album. “Obviously we’ve all released a few records between us but we’re a brand new band, we’ve got brand new songs, we’re playing to brand new people at different venues. It’s always nerve-wracking because you hope that you’ve made a good record, but we think we have.” Listening to Young Legionnaire, their love of a heavy riff is evident and it seems current singles ‘Colossus/ Iron Dream’ and ‘Numbers’ are merely a taste of what Crisis Works has to offer. “It was really just a case of getting into the studio and writing stuff that we wanted to play. We always knew it was going to be quite heavy.” Having previously played in bands consisting of four or five members, the band’s three-piece set up is a welcome change, adding to this raw heaviness. “With a three piece, I suppose you’ve got to be a lot more considered as a band - like Nirvana. They were quite dynamic. In Utero came out when I was 12, I think, and from then on I was always interested in that sort of three-piece dynamic.” As mentioned, the band’s first tour saw them support Pulled Apart By Horses, a band that Mullen personally cites as his favourite to have toured with thus far. “I suppose the first tour is always quite
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Sonisphere again would be great.” And after that? Yet more touring, of course! “I think the Barfly show in London is our first headline show, so we need to do a headline tour at some point. We’re just going to try and play as many shows as possible and try and get as many people to hear the record as we can.” Despite their restless attitude, it’s still early days for Young Legionnaire and they’re yet to establish themselves as a band in their own right without constantly being referred to as the ‘Bloc Party bassist’s new band’. Although they’re still just playing things by ear, it does seem like Young Legionnaire is becoming far more than just a side project. Words: Nina Glencross Photo: Stuart Leech
Quite a lot for a brand new band, you might think, and that’s not even considering that they were confirmed for South By South West and two more US shows in LA and New York. However, like many bands, Young Legionnaire fell victim to the new strict policies of the US immigration office, leaving Mullen feeling a tad bitter about the whole thing. “We had all those shows booked over there and it was just totally out of our hands. We did everything by the book and it was taken away from us, but it’s just the way the government have changed the application process,” he says. “I think it’s probably put a lot of bands off the whole thing because you need to justify yourself and show that you’re legitimate but you can’t when you’re a new band. It’s a new band’s festival. We wanted to go over, paying our own way in the hope that it would be a catalyst to go back and do more shows.” He continues, “With, for example, The Great Escape in Brighton, international bands can come over and they don’t get interviewed. They just say ‘we’re playing this festival’ and that’s fine. I don’t know if maybe something like that should be put in place at SXSW. We’ll be back out there in September, hopefully. That’s the plan anyway.” In the meantime, the trio definitely haven’t been sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Besides their shows with Pulled Apart By Horses and Death From Above 1979, the band have also completed a European tour as well as slots at Camden Crawl, Live at Leeds and Liverpool Sound City. “As for the major festivals, we haven’t been confirmed for any of them yet but hopefully we’ll try and do as many as possible, like Reading and Leeds and T in the Park.
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The Honest Truth Wild Beasts have just released their most accomplished album to date, but lead singer Hayden Thorpe does not seem certain about anything.
JUNE2011 Wild Beasts’ frontman Hayden Thorpe has an obsession with the word honesty today. In the space of five minutes he has thrown it around with such reckless abandon that it is almost possible to predict when it is going to appear in conversation next. This would be fine, but it doesn’t appear that Thorpe is being entirely truthful. When asked if he believes that his group’s latest album, Smother, will finally put to rest any claims that Wild Beasts are an indie outfit, staking their claim as an experimental pop ensemble, Thorpe denies any knowledge of aspiring to write great pop songs. “I would never claim that we are a pop outfit but I would discard any claims that we are an indie outfit,” begins Thorpe. “Now we are making music that is too abstract and guitar-less to be indie rock, which I am pleased about.” The music journalist from The Skinny that interviewed Thorpe less than a month ago must have misquoted him. A few minutes later, he discusses his admiration of mainstream music and the ability of a song to convey a concept in a short period of time, admitting that it is exactly this effective use of time that he hopes to achieve with his band’s music. “It’s about functionality - a pop song that makes its point in three minutes. There is no wasted space, no wasted time, no wasted noise. I think that is something we are really striving for; condensing things into that bite-sized piece of magic.” It is tempting to inform the singer that he has just contracted his previous declaration, but it is noon and Thorpe has already endured five telephone interviews, so it is possible that he is just tired from repeatedly answering the same questions. Despite the fact that their lead singer may have trouble maintaining any sort of continuity regarding the opinions he expresses on a day-to-day basis, Wild Beasts have been on a steady rise since forming in Kendal (apparently it’s in the Lake District) in 2002. The band signed to Domino in 2007 and released their critically-acclaimed debut, Limbo, Panto, a year later. Their 2009 follow-up, Two Dancers, was nominated for the Mercury Prize and it seemed like Wild Beasts had a genuine chance of winning the prestigious award. Unfortunately, they were helpless against the unstoppable force that was The xx. “I didn’t expect to win it,” offers Thorpe when asked if he felt any disappointment about losing out to the Putney-based three-piece. “ Also, it allowed us to make a better album because it wasn’t the beall-and-end-all for us. We believe there are better things to come. It was nice to wake up the next day and find that my world was still intact.” The distinctively sensual vocalist may be right. The accolade seemed a little too soon for Wild Beasts to walk away with considering the hype that comes along with it had jeopardised the careers of many promising artists in the past. Just look at Speech Debelle and M People if you require any proof. The quartet can
take solace in the knowledge that missing out on the award, and the healthy cheque that comes along with it, has allowed them to go away and make their most intimate, erotically-charged record to date. Thorpe believes that it was a simple matter of choosing between continuing down the same path stylistically or venturing into unknown territory in order create something more meaningful. “We had a choice to become a parody of ourselves and just do something bigger and faster than before, but we looked inward and became a bit more honest. We thought it would open more doors for us than if we just became this caricature. We have been on tour for a long time and we didn’t want to make a record about that. The way to avoid that was to make songs about everyday things like relationships and feelings.” Fans expecting the slick indie of ‘Hooting and Howling’ or the almost insufferable high-pitched squealing that ruins ‘All the King’s Men’ will be surprised to find that the group have stripped down their sound, replacing guitar chords with mild electronic samples, and focused solely on creating engaging narratives of love, lust and disappointment. “We just wanted to create a beautiful thing,” says Thorpe. “We realised that it didn’t need to be perfect and could involve vulnerability.” The vulnerability that Thorpe speaks of is omnipresent throughout Smother. When discussing sexual dominance on stand out track ‘Plaything’, he boasts “you’re my play thing” but then doubts himself by admitting “but I’m wondering what you’re thinking”. In the current pop climate, the heterosexual voice is generally confined to misogynistic boasts of sexual conquests, so it is refreshing to hear a man fraught with insecurities. However, Thorpe admits that he hasn’t always been so openly honest about his anxieties. “There is a lot of false front disguising an insecure inner. I can see why it’s there. I spent years trying to sing like Liam Gallagher or Kurt Cobain and failed miserably. In the end, I think honesty won out and that sense of cathartic release came though. Then again, that kind of pop music has its purpose as it’s something to drink lager to - I suppose.”
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believes that she is vital to the process of recreating the record live in front of an audience. “Live shows are a different creative process,” he begins. “They are more of a collective celebration and a mutual revelling. I think it is important in live shows to replicate people’s favourite moments for them. There is nothing worse than a band not being able to do it live. I don’t want to be constrained to a laptop or a backing track. We trust Katie and we admire her work.” Thorpe has openly praised the work of Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar in the past, but in his current state it is slightly worrying that if asked to comment on the influence Almodovar has over his own artistic output he will simply deny any knowledge of it. Thankfully, this is the first occasion during the interview that he maintains any previous comments he has made over the years. “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a really amazing film which I have drawn quite a lot from,” he advises. “Mostly because it’s anarchist and quite dark and quite unstable but it has this great strength and energy and positivity. It has a sense of being able to laugh at itself, which I think is really important in art in general.” So does he believe that Wild Beasts have the ability to convey a serious message yet be playful at the same time? “I hope so. Some people think they are being complimentary when they say we take our music too seriously and it is morose, and I find that a bit ridiculous because I don’t think they understand that there is so much joy and humour to it.” Thorpe may not be firing on all cylinders today, most likely due to a gruelling interview schedule, but Wild Beasts are a band that seem to have finally found their voice. Who knows, another stab at the Mercury Prize could be well within reach. Words: David McNamara Photo: Paul Phung
When asked if he believes Wild Beasts are the voice of the sensitive male in leftfield pop, Thorpe is instantly on his guard and quick to dispel any allusions of being morally-superior to his mainstream contemporaries. We’re not that different,” he says. “There’s no such thing as two different types of guy. We are all unresolved things with different ways of dealing with it. I think we play with the dynamic of what is useful in that front and what is wasteful.” That may be the case, but something suggests that there is little possibility of Thorpe getting up to the pay-per-hour antics of Wayne Rooney any time soon. Wild Beasts recently recruited close friend and Sky Larkin lead singer Katie Harkin to accompany the band on tour. Thorpe WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK
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The Fallon Heffernan Column It was a strange feeling going to my home skatepark for the first time in years today. It jogged memories of many first times that I had blading during my session. I remembered the very first time I saw someone on inline skates at the skatepark that my father frequently took my older brother to called Kona. Some kid amazed me while doing head high 360s out of the cement bowl and my attention immediately deviated from my brother and other skateboarders to the bladers. At my request, my father bought me a pair of skates and I remember putting them on for the first time almost 17 years ago. As I strapped on a pair of size one black and purple Veriflex skates, I felt like my feet found their new home. Shortly after rolling around on the concrete hills, I knew that I had found something that would stick with me for a lifetime. Up until that moment I had never experienced something that could give me, an eightyear-old child, so much freedom and self-expression. More importantly, I had never had so much fun in my life.
do revolved around putting my skates on and having fun with my friends on the ramps. The thoughts of competing or making a living doing my favourite thing in the world never even crossed my mind. I didn’t know about competitions, the X-Games or who was who in the industry. I didn’t know Fabiola Da Silva from John Smith. I had no idols besides the local rippers who I bladed with every day. We skated for 12 hours straight sometimes and still begged our parents for five more minutes when they showed up to drive us home. When those five minutes were up, we pleaded for five more. We would teach each other tricks, play S-K-A-T-E and chase each other around the skatepark playing games of tag with up to 30 kids. I had become a member of a community of friends who all shared the same passion. Not one of us had a goal in blading outside of what trick we wanted to learn next.
Blading escalated to become a major part of my life fast. The only things I really did were eat, sleep, go to school, blade with my friends and talk about blading. Everything I did and wanted to
A few years went by of blading my heart out with my friends before recognising that there were other opportunities for skilled aggressive in-line skaters out there. By the time I reached 12 years old, I had learned to 540 jump boxes and do technical grinds on coping. I was merely trying to hang with the boys around
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town. A local pro by the name of Tyler Shields noticed that my skill level was as good as the best women in the world at the time. He approached my father to tell him about the NISS events and the ASA Amateur Tour, while encouraging him to enter me into their competitions. So my dad did his research and threw me into an ASA Amateur qualifier in 1998 in Clearwater, Florida. Unfortunately, I was late for the competition because my dad worked late hours the night before and had to drive for four hours immediately after, causing us to barely miss the contest. A guy named Jason Hines was running the event and told us that I could skate for a few minutes on the street course and vert ramp in front of the judges to determine whether or not I was good enough to move onto the Amateur Finals in Las Vegas. After I did a few topsouls, spins and wall-rides, they invited me to the Championships. I was ecstatic. Competitions were going to change the direction and purpose of my skating life for a long time to come. After winning the Amateur Championships in 1998 and 1999, Azikiwee Anderson approached me after the awards ceremony, extending an invitation to join Fabiola Da Silva, Kelly Mathews,
Dawn Everett and other top females from all over the world to compete on the ASA Pro Tour. I eagerly accepted at the ripe age of 13. Right around the same time Jenna Downing, Martina Svobodova and Deborah West also were invited onto the ASA Pro Tour. We were all under 16-years-old. We had no idea what we were getting into. However, we were all very excited about it.
After my first ASA Pro Contest in Kentucky, the K2 team asked me to join their pro team. I was joining Frankie Morales, Kelly Mathews, Pat Lennon, Louie Zamora and some other skaters known for their massive stunts and heavy partying. I was flown out all over the world to compete and party with 16 to 25-year-olds. I was barely a teenager and suddenly exposed to drinking, sex and drugs while trying to compete at a professional level and make it through high school all at the same time. I was making great money and seeing the world doing what I loved. As young ASA Pros, we did not live the typical lifestyle of most children. Skating became my job. I primarily practiced hard to win medals, earn big cheques and represent my sponsors well on TV. Blading was a high paying job that came with a good amount of fame for several years but this didn’t last forever - neither did the money.
Most of us realise that the blading industry has suffered a great decline. The mainstream sponsors aren’t there anymore, the X-Games no longer invites in-line skaters and we no longer have the ASA Pro Tour. The majority of our top bladers have had to face the humbling transition of getting a regular job outside of skating. Some are fortunate enough to have jobs working within the industry, but I have found that most of us are working in bars, restaurants and offices. We are all doing what we can to support ourselves, our families and our passion for rollerblading. I find myself frustratingly serving drinks to cocky fraternity boys and wealthy businessmen thinking about the “good old days” when I survived from blading alone. At the same time, I’m grateful to have a job that allows me to keep a roof over my head and eat three meals a day. However, it isn’t always easy to
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be snapped at for another shot of Patron or yelled at about cold food, knowing that there was a time not long ago when I made three times the money at one competition as I do in a month working the job I hold now.
the world, while shaping the 25 years young human being that I am today. But there is something really refreshing about blading while the industry is in the less-than-lucrative state that it is in now. Every time I put on my skates now, I have a great time. Rollerblading has once again become something I do for one reason alone, the reason I started blading to begin with… fun.
But then the clock strikes midnight and I head down to the basement at work to punch out. I leave the bar with just enough cash to save a little for the next Winterclash or Chaz Sands Invitational. The next morning, I wake up just to buckle on my USD Carbon skates for a session in San Francisco. I’ve found that everyone I skate with now is just blading for the love of it. None of us are doing it to be cool or make money anymore. I wouldn’t change a thing about the history of rollerblading. I also embrace every experience, opportunity, and friend that has come my way solely because of being a rollerblader. They have all taught me so much about life and
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Pharoahe Monch —Voice of the Renegades
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“For me, as a fan and a consumer, I felt detached from what I have been hearing lately.” When it comes to earning their stripes in the over-saturated world of hip-hop, few have done it with as much style and acclaim as Pharoahe Monch. The rapper from Queens, New York started his career in the early 90s as one half of Organized Konfusion alongside Prince Po. The group gained a massive following within the underground hiphop community due to their forwardthinking wordplay and revolutionary subject matter. Organized Konfusion worked closely with the great Paul C. McKasty, a legendary New York hip-hop producer and engineer, who helped record the demo that would eventually get them signed to Hollywood Records. Paul C. was sadly murdered in July, 1989 and the duo’s debut self-titled album was a tribute to him, setting them on track to becoming one of the most respected groups amongst fans and contemporaries alike. This accolade was mainly down to their lyrical stylings and ability to capture the listener’s imagination. After two critically-acclaimed albums Monch and Po parted company, with both artists determined to pursue solo careers. Po signed to Lex Records and collaborated with the likes of Madlib, Danger Mouse and MF Doom on his debut solo album, The Slickness. Monch, on the other hand, solidified his reputation as one of the most exciting wordsmiths in the game with a host of 12 inches on Rawkus, then dropped his debut solo album, Internal Affairs, in 1999. This catapulted Monch into the mainstream pop charts thanks to the runaway success of debut single ‘Simon Says’. The album sold over 200,000 copies and could have sold more if international distribution wasn’t halted due to Rawkus’ failure to clear a sample of Japanese composer Akira Ifukube that was used in the hit single. There was an eight-year gap between Monch’s promising debut and the 2007 follow-up, Desire, due to the controversy that surrounded the illegal sample on his hit record and an intense bidding war between various labels. Despite the delay of his sophomore solo release, it was was met with even more critical acclaim and, even though it failed to sell as well as its predecessor, spawned the popular singles ‘Push’ and ‘Let’s Go’.
With the release of Monch’s third full-length album, W.A.R. (We Are Renegades), it would seem that there is no sign of this legendary MC resting on his reputation. Wheel Scene decided to find out what the man has to say for himself.
I would like to take you back to the days of Organized Konfusion, if I may. The group itself I feel was a landmark within the hip hop genre. How did it feel to be part of that movement and do you think there will ever be a reunion? It was amazing, we were very experimental in the beginning because we had to be. We started out with Paul C. producing a lot of our tracks and he was tragically taken away from us. Paul was always trying to get us to push the envelope and really implement things that weren’t happening in the game in a lyrical way at the time. We did not know at the time that we were making such an impact, because it was not ‘til later on when people started coming up to us and saying what an affect we had on the culture. That’s a beautiful thing when you look back at the cultural aspect of it all, to have created such a landmark with the story behind it. It was a stepping stone for me as a solo artist. I feel I would have never got into the game without Organized Konfusion. It helped to set out my thought process and gave me the confidence to stand on my own. As far as a reunion is concerned, I don’t feel it will happen in the way of an album. We have done tracks together and shows but have no plans to take that any further at the moment.
You have had a celebrated solo career and the chance to work on some great projects. What has been the highlight for you so far? My solo career has been somewhat of a psychological experience for me, so when I released my first album, Internal Affairs, it was about me getting a lot of expression out. I also wanted to work with a lot of different artists, as we never really did any outside features within Organized Konfusion. To be honest, there is just so many, man. I’m three albums deep now and they have all been well-celebrated, especially the first one, in a time where records were still selling and with the success of ‘Simon Says’ it’s hard to even pick out, from shows to touring to Gill Scott to Busta Rhymes. It doesn’t even make sense for me to list artists and moments because there has been so many highlights in my career up to this point.
world and are we evolving as humans and where are we going collectively? I want the listener to question what’s going on around them. I also feel a lot of heads have picked up on that fact. I’m proud of how it has been received. Career-wise, this project is fully independent. It’s my label and my company. We did a fifty-fifty deal with Duck Down records and it’s doing well, especially in a time where records have a longer shelf life in terms of business. The videos we have done for the album on Youtube have just been accepted by MTV because the content was very provocative. The video itself dealt with police brutality. It was almost like a short film, so we have edited it down and are now looking at air time. I’m off to see them later on today after I have finished speaking to you, so it’s been a highly-productive project - which to me has been a labour of love. It’s not about the first week’s sales, you know? It’s about pushing the music out there and to continue to strive on forward.
Finally, how has the reception been in Europe and how do you feel that if differs from the US? Well, the week the album came out we were in Germany, ‘cause we set it up about six months in advance as we weren’t sure as to when the album would officially drop. I am about to tour the west coast in a couple of weeks, so I will be able to answer the question better after that. In the past, outside the states hip hop, art and culture in general is a little more open minded, I think. People abroad seem to gravitate more towards an artistic view point or standpoint. So, from my perspective, all the shows that we have done during the European leg of the tour have been amazing. When I played the Scala in London the record had only been out for a week and the crowd knew all the lyrics. I was just blown away, to be quite honest with you. We tore the roof off the place that night! Words: Jesse Keene
Looking to the future now, you have just dropped the new album, can you tell us a little bit about this particular project? I think this is my most honest work to date in the sense that it’s all me and it’s all my perspective, but this time it’s a little bit more introspective in terms of subject matter. I’m dealing with my asthma, healthcare, politics and social issues that affect me. In some ways, I think that it’s not about me but incorporates the listener. For me, as a fan and a consumer, I felt detached from what I have been hearing lately. A lot of other artists are doing music that makes me feel un-included within the subject matter and I wanted to do the opposite of that. Like with the title, We Are Renegades. It asks you to examine a lot of questions about the state of our
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Where are they now? —Chris Peel Art direction is one of the most important elements contributing to the success of any rollerblading brand. The way a company establishes itself and create an identity around its product has a lot do with the imagery and symbolism that is associated with it. When you think of Mindgame, Senate, Remz and any of the other companies that have made a huge impact on our industry, they have all become internationallyrecognisable due to the strength of their iconography. British ex-pat Chris Peel has been living in the US, on and off, for over a decade and played a pivotal role in how companies, including 4x4 and Ground Control, developed their reputation by creating a strong image that skaters can relate to. In addition to his work with the afore-mentioned Rat Tail brands, Peel also had a major role in the appearance of seminal UK rollerblading publication DNA and internationally-renowned blading bible Daily Bread. He has moved on from the rollerblading industry to create a career for himself in the fiercely-competitive world of advertising, so we decided to catch up with him to find out about his experiences working with some of the most influential names in the blading industry.
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For those who don’t know, can you tell us a little about your involvement with the blading industry? The first thing I did was literally decades ago now. There was a clothing company called Puberty coming out of Wakefield. I had just started college and I made some shirts for them. Fast forward a few years to 2000 and I moved to San Diego to art direct for Daily Bread. While there I became friends with Jon Elliott, Cory Casey, Jan Welch and the rest of the San Diego crew. I ended up working with Jon from the early days of Ground Control. We were both really interested in building a brand, so that is what we did. I left So Cal in late 2001 and returned in 2004 to resume the role of art director at Daily Bread. By that point GC was well on its way to being a really strong brand and we loved working on it. That was when we were establishing 4x4. I helped with the initial branding, drew up some initial shirts, including the ‘Guns a Blazing’ shirt, which was Shima’s concept. The rest of the 4x4 art came from other artists, mainly Jeremy Brighton. The next big thing was Vicious. Jon had a strong vision, as usual. At the time, even though there were loads of kids doing the full-on rocker thing, there really weren’t any companies that embodied that vibe. We were pretty shocked at the strength of the reaction we got. Nobody had done anything provocative like that in a while, since Senate and some of Shane Coburn’s projects. It was about time. The last thing I was involved in was Nimh. I just designed some branding, illustration and posters, and helped create the initial skin design. How did you get the chance to work for Daily Bread magazine? I had taken a year off University to go work at a British magazine called DNA. Unfortunately, the shady business dude behind the publisher wanted to keep the editorial staff around just in case he needed us for something. In the meantime, the mag was getting canned. I was there a few months before we were told not to show up for work, they had gone under. I worked for a while in a factory and things were pretty bleak until my younger brother, Martin, convinced me to write an email to Daily Bread. We had been readers for years and for us it was a window into this magical world of palm trees and knee-high handrails. I asked if they needed an art director and met Angie at Rampworx a month or so later at a competition to show her my work. Not long after that she offered me the job. What happened with Daily Bread? Why did it all end? In retrospect, I don’t think Daily Bread stood a chance in hell. The print industry from 9/11 was in a full-on nose dive and didn’t even know it. The economy as a whole was in decline, with rollerblading along with it. There just wasn’t the same number of kids. Also, they didn’t have the money to spend any more. That hurt the advertisers who, at that point, were all rollerblading companies. Couple that with a spending mentality of it still being 1995, an abysmal ad sales record and poor fiscal management. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. What are you doing for work these days? I have been in the advertising industry for four years now. I was at Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles for three years. In August, my wife and I moved to Richmond, Virginia where I took a senior designer role for the Martin Agency. I work on a range of projects for clients, we have a number of giant American brands and some smaller companies we like to help out. I also do work for a men’s clothing company, Bespoken Clothiers, that originates from England. Do you still do any graphics for 4x4 or any other blading companies? I got so busy with work and life that any spare time I had I was working on blading projects, which was loads of the same stuff. As a result, I couldn’t do any of my personal projects, art or things I like to do. I made a decision to not do any freelance that doesn’t benefit my portfolio, or let me do something new. I would still try help out my boys if they needed me. Right now though, I’m using my spare time to hang out with my lady, ride bikes and take photos. Do you still keep up with blading? Yes I do. There are some strong things coming out of Europe. I need to see Vine St and I have Valo 4 Life on my “to do” list. When was the last time you skated? When I lived in Long Beach. I have a pair of Majestics in my closet. My wrists are all messed up with metal plates and stuff, and I need my hands to earn a living. As a result, I have transitioned into road biking. I love bikes and it’s easy on my body. What is your current impression of the sport? It’s small. There’s an older generation out there now in their late 20s and 30s, and older. They might not be skating every day but they know about the sport. There are some strong crews around being proactive and doing great stuff. I have enjoyed seeing Valo grow. I like the work ethic of putting out content and staying current. They have been hard-working and ahead of the curve. How would you like to see things change? The biggest problem with the sport has and, always will be, how closed it is - the idea that you have to do everything for blading, in blading, and for bladers. The sport would be more interesting and accessible if it was more open and inclusive to people and influences. I think it is just the nature of the beast, though. www.thisispeel.com WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK
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Foot in Mouth
Chrissy Murderbot
Chicago footwork ambassador Chrissy Murderbot discusses his latest album, Women’s Studies, and admits to a slightly-alarming obsession with notorious soul singer R Kelly. Chris Shively aka Chrissy Murderbot is a hilarious character. The Chi Town producer is a tall, skinny white guy with glasses but he talks like a camp chopped and screwed rapper, and will make you laugh your tits off with his self-deprecating tales of times when his mouth has got him into trouble. Another source of hilarity that Murderbot frequently references is his unwavering love of R. Kelly and the ongoing joke that is his life. In addition to being one of the most delightfully-amusing electronic producers on the face of this earth, he also happens to be one of the most hardworking. Since starting his DJ career in 1995, Murderbot has released two solo albums, Ruff in the Bunny Fizness and Chrissy Murderbot. Each release was a high-octane sweat fest that blended a myriad of influences including rave, jungle and ghetto techno at the speed of a food processor. He also runs two record labels, Sleazetown Records and Dead Homies Recordings, and in 2010 he released a mixtape every week for a year. This year will see Murderbot release his third album, Women’s Studies, and start his third record label, the juke/ footwork imprint Loose Squares. Wheel Scene decided to catch up with the producer to find out how he manages to squeeze it all in. Tell us about your new album, Women’s Studies? The theme is fun, party music about girlies and booties and all that stuff. All the songs on there are about the ladies. The title is a tongue-in-cheek reference. There are a lot of different genres and styles but it is all juvenile booty music. The album shows that with juke meets UK garage meets new jack swing meets classic rave hybrid. There are a lot of collaborations on there. I really enjoy pop music and I think that, a lot of times, having a guest vocalist on the track makes it more an anthem – a fun tune that people can listen to on the radio as opposed to only working in the context of a night club or a rave. I want to make music that works on the dance floor but also works in another context. There are 12 tracks on the album, nine of them are collaborations. I wanted to make something that was fun and all over the place. I wanted to get different perspectives. Which one was your favourite? You know I can’t do that! There was such a range of experiences. MC Zulu is so professional. You talk to him and say, let’s do this track, and he is really good at recording his own vocals and engineering them to the point where I don’t have to do much work on them at all. Then you get people like Popeye that
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came over to my house and recorded there. I had to do a lot of work on those because we recorded it in a house, but it was really fun to hang out with a dude in my house and make a record for four hours.
writing and producing material for her. Nate Dogg was not one of the twentieth century’s great songwriters, by any stretch of the imagination, but he was an incredibly talented singer. I’ll give the man credit, but Stevie Wonder he ain’t!
much Chris Brown has managed to reboot his career. I mean, he beat the shit out of a really famous woman and the only thing he has ever apologised for is getting caught - and he still has a career.
Is it true that you managed to release a mixtape every week for a year? I’m really into a lot of different types of music - a lot of which I don’t get to play very often. I have a deep love for Italo disco and early 90s happy hardcore and really slow, slutty house music but no one is going to fly me to England to play Italo disco for an hour so I started the blog to challenge myself to make a mixtape every week for a year. I thought that would be an interesting story that people would want to follow – and see me fail! I wanted an outlet for all these different types of music that I want to play. I started making these mixtapes and I told myself I had to release one every Monday. Sometimes it would be late at night on a Sunday and I would be hustling to get this damn mixtape done and other times I wouldn’t have much production or DJing on my plate that week and I would knock four mixtapes out and I would be set for a month.
Okay, let’s talk about something other than R. Kelly and your poor taste in music. What do you think of the Chicago scene at the moment? There are so many Chicago scenes, so I can’t really say. I worked really hard to promote the footwork scene. I worked with a lot of those guys and tried really hard to promote them. I think I helped make footwork the international phenomenon that it is but I don’t make many footwork tracks and I don’t play at many footwork battles. I am tied to that scene but it’s not my world. I am into the club and house part of the scene, whether that’s juke, deep house of whatever. I get around. I’ve got my hand in a few different pots.
Who do you like at the moment? Machinedrum’s forthcoming album is so amazing. It is out of hand. I love R. Kelly more than is probably reasonable! Even the dodgy hip-hop operas? Dude, especially the hip-hop operas! People don’t understand where R. Kelly is coming from. The dude is crazy. When he made Trapped in the Closet, he knew that was crazy. R. Kelly realises that’s stupid and hilarious and not something you would take seriously. I think a lot of people, because he makes such serious music sometimes, think that he is incapable of realising how farcical he is as a character. I am sure he is completely self-aware about how ridiculous his shit is. Why does party music being ridiculous suddenly make it less art than if my music was constantly hyper serious? R. Kelly has the ability to switch tone that fast. I think it is condescending to R. Kelly when we assume that his un-evenness of tone means that he lacks self-awareness. He is in on the joke that is R. Kelly. But, I’m not R. Kelly, so what the hell do I know? You’ve got to be honest here. He’s not exactly the world’s best songwriter. R. Kelly is, regardless of his abilities as a songwriter, one of the greatest vocalists alive. He is in a league with Otis Reading and Sam Cooke. After Luther Vandross died, I don’t think there is a male singer alive that can touch R. Kelly. R. Kelly is a fucking genius - I will cry when he dies. I cried when Luther died - I can admit it! I also love Nate Dogg. Really? I am not going to speak ill about the dead, but that man is a one-trick pony! As a singer, Nate Dogg was phenomenal in the same way that Christina Aguilera is phenomenal. Obviously she wouldn’t be famous if she didn’t have people
Maybe that’s because Chris Brown looks like such a pussy that no one could find him intimidating? I mean, I find it hard to believe he could beat her up because Rihanna looks pretty strong. I know! So, we’ve established that none of those are good publicity techniques. I guess you are just going to have to go back to unwittingly making fun of people with cancer. I know. I need to find someone to make fun of with cancer - but it has to have been long enough that they won’t be upset - like Marie Curie. Words: Fiona Slimmon
You have previously said you like “slow, slutty house music” and now you are telling me you “get around”? These quotes are amazing! This is gonna be awesome! Oh, I’ve got another one. Do you guys in the UK know Roger Ebert? No. Who is he? Roger Ebert is perhaps America’s most famous film critic. He is well-respected and has written many books. Over the past year he got cancer in his jaw and they removed the bottom half of his face and he can never speak again, and it’s sad. Some people in Chicago call Chicago Chi Town. Roger Ebert is from Chicago and has publicly said that he hates it when people call it Chi Town. I was doing an interview in Texas and it opened up with the interviewer saying, “What do you think when people call it Chi Town?” I’m like, everyone calls it Chi Town. The only person who hates it when people say that is Roger Ebert, but what is he gonna say about it? I meant because we’re in Texas, but it sounded like I was making fun of him because he has cancer, which was not the intention at all, but it was on camera. Oh my gosh, it was an unfortunate mis-step. What are you talking about? If he got wind of that you would have been famous? That’s true! The best Twitter beef ever! Which brings us back to the free promotion R. Kelly got. Any press is good press, maybe I should pee on girls now. It’s not good press if you end up in jail! Well, tell that to Lil’ Wayne. Do you know Mystikal? Yeah, he had a couple of famous hiphop tracks then just disappeared. He disappeared to federal prison for raping a woman on tape. He had his bodyguard film him raping her and then was like “I didn’t do that”. That puts the lie that any press is good press to rest. You can murder someone and people don’t care, but rape is very distasteful in people’s minds. I am surprised by how WWW.WHEELSCENE.CO.UK
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Introducing: James Keyte Scotland’s latest addition to the USD team, James Keyte, discusses his plans to rid Edinburgh’s tourists of their hard-earned money and bumming Razors UK rider Alex Burston at Noiya Jam.
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Watching a young skater progress through the ranks of the Scottish skate scene is an extremely encouraging experience. It wasn’t that long ago that James Keyte was practically climbing onto handrails because he was simply too short to jump onto them. Now that puberty has finally kicked in, bringing with it a much-needed growth spurt and healthy amount of facial hair, Keyte is now a formidable force within the UK rollerblading scene. After all, everyone knows you need a fully-grown set of testicles to attempt the stunts he has been pulling off over the past few years. If you have watched any of the Scottish Rolling edits, you will have witnessed the twenty-year-old’s lightening speed skating and ridiculously technical handrail vocabulary. He isn’t any less exciting to watch on transitions, possessing a massive spin arsenal that would make even the most seasoned competition skaters nervous and a rocket bio that could clear a heavy goods lorry. Keyte has been skating at a phenomenal level for quite some time now, leaving a lasting impression at many of the UK’s biggest blading events. It seems that the industry is starting to take notice, as he was picked up by USD last year – much to his surprise. “(Adam) Kola sent me an email asking me if I wanted to ride flow for USD, which was amazing. I don’t know why he contacted me, it just kind of happened. I was a bit sceptical about the skates because I had never skated them before, but as soon as I got them I loved them.” The young skater from Rosyth could not have picked a better time to join USD, as this now entitles him to venture to the infamous Powerhouse in Barcelona and skate with the likes of Richie Eisler, Dustin Werbeski and the seemingly-endless flow of professional rollerbladers that visit The Conference’s newly formed media hub. The half-way house for rollerblading’s elite athletes has been responsible for some epic edits featuring Mark Wojda, Allan Beaulieu and most recently, Dominic Sagona. Keyte is well aware of what an opportunity it could be to spend time with some of the best videographers and photographers in the industry, and he is looking forward to creating a follow-up to his section in last year’s Fragmented Networks. “Oli Bennet has emailed me a few times and has asked me to go to Barcelona, which I am excited about. I am thinking about taking a trip there at the end of the summer and getting an edit on the go.” The Roll Kings team member has only been skating for a decade, but in that short space of time he has progressed at an alarming rate. Keyte is a member of the new generation of rollerbladers that is able to skate park and street with the same level of skill and consistency. It must have been a simple case of ‘the right place at the right time’ when he happened to be walking past a school in his home town in 2001 and witnessed some locals messing around on rollerblades.
“I saw Ross Martin and a few others skating at Rosyth School, so I got a pair of recreational skates. My mum bought me a pair and I took the middle wheels out and went from there. After that I got some aggressive skates and I have been hooked ever since.” Since Keyte first strapped on a pair of rollerblades he has always been a perfectionist dedicated to his craft. When everyone else has given up on the session and wants to call it a day, he is usually the one asking for just a few more attempts at the one trick that eluded him - refusing to let the obstacle win. Watching him skate at regional and national events, it also becomes apparent that he is a fierce competitor, pushing the absolute limit of his abilities and chastising himself when he fails to meet his own high standards. If you look at any iconic skater, it is that quality that separates them from simply being another great skater: the inability to accept defeat even when your body is crying out in agony for you to just give up and stop punishing yourself. At this year’s Noiya Jam in Sheffield, it looked certain that Keyte was going to be a contender for a spot in the top three. He had a couple of falls, but kept pulling himself back up and landed some exceptional tricks that included disaster hurricane topsoul, fakie 720 and his trademark rocket bio 540. Then things all went horribly wrong, as he collided with Razors rider Alex Burston while both skaters were travelling backwards at high speed. Keyte and Burston were barely able to get back on their feet, let alone resume competing, and the final was brought to an abrupt end. When he recounts the experience, it is pretty obvious that it still brings a grimace to his face. “I got through to the final and I started skating really well then I was going up the ramp fakie and Alex Burston came down the ramp fakie, so we both went arse-toarse and I completely annihilated myself. It was three weeks before I could skate again. I have only just recovered now. It was gutting because it was the start of the LoveScotland tour and I missed the Unit 23 Open as well.” This event could be used as evidence to suggest that people in Manchester must be tougher than those in Fife, because Keyte has only just got back to full-strength after that collision, but Burston was on his skates within a week and competed at the Unit 23 Open in Dumbarton the weekend after the Noiya Jam incident. When asked if this is the case, Keyte responds: “I don’t know man! I am thinking he must have an arse of steel. Wait, don’t put that in!” Whatever you say (oops). When he is not skating at a standard that makes most rollerbladers sick with envy and narrowly avoiding crippling himself, Keyte is enduring the monotony of parttime evening work at a local supermarket. He may be suffering the indignity of a
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minimum wage job that does not make the most of his potential at the moment, but Scottish street skating icon Chris Doughty has invited him to take part in a cunning plot to make money off the millions of tourists that visit Scotland’s capital city every year.
“As far the industry goes, I don’t really know what goes on,” confesses Keyte. “But products are getting much better. The Carbon 2s are unbelievable. They are completely different to any other skate and they are the best I have ever skated. The technology seems to be getting a bit tighter.”
“Chris Doughty asked me to help him on a project where I take photos of tourists that come off the coaches at Edinburgh Castle. Coach companies approach him looking for photos of the tourists, we take the photos then send them to the hotels where the people are staying so they can buy them. We also have plans to do 360 degree virtual tours. Chris always has a project on the go. I am only doing that now and again but I am hoping to do it full time next year.”
Keyte has been travelling all over Europe for several years, making appearances at numerous Winterclash events and visiting the street skating Mecca that is Barcelona to film with the close group of friends that he refers to as the Scottish Rolling Collective. However, despite venturing far and wide in search of new spots and friends, he readily admits that there is nowhere quite like home.
If you have visited the Scottish Rolling website or read the last issue of Wheel Scene, you may have witnessed Keyte’s exceptional photography. He has not been pursuing this passion for very long, but he has built up a relatively large portfolio that consists of action, fashion and landscape work. Keyte hopes that his current venture with former Razors rider Chris Doughty will give him the opportunity to expand his horizons even further.
“I don’t know what it is,” he begins. “It just seems to have a better vibe. I love going to other countries and seeing how everyone does things, but I love my tight group of friends. Apart from the weather and the shitty run-ups, I prefer skating in Scotland. I get to skate with people I have looked up to for years.” You can’t say fairer than that. Words: David McNamara Photos: Ross Martin
“I am striving to do photography full-time,” he says. “I went to college and studied photography but I ended up dropping out after a year because I just wasn’t enjoying the course. It was a bit arty-farty for me.” Over the last five years, there hasn’t been a major UK rollerblading event that Keyte has not attended. He is a regular at Slamm Jamm every year and not a month passes without an edit of him sessioning a skatepark somewhere in the country appears online. When asked about his views on the current state of the sport, he has noticed an encouraging change in trends recently. “Things are popping off right now,” says Keyte. “At every competition new things are getting landed and new people are showing up. The younger generation are coming up - at least where I live. I can go to my local park in Dunfermline and there will be up to fifteen rollerbladers there. When I started I was lucky if I had three people to skate with. I think things are looking up.” He may be impressed with the way rollerblading has seemed to increase in popularity over the last few years, but there are still aspects about the sport that trouble him. When asked about his biggest pet hate regarding rollerblading, Keyte instantly responds: “Rollernews bitching! People need to stop being so narrow-minded. I think a lot of people have forgotten what the sport is about. Back in the day there was a much better vibe. At the end of the day, skating is skating for me. It will never change for me; as long as my friends are still skating I will be happy.” Despite the fact that he is now supported by Roll Kings and USD, and making every effort to attend as many events as possible in order to represent his sponsors, Keyte is the first to admit that he doesn’t really pay attention to any of the sport’s politics and takes little interest in the actual industry behind it. 54
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“People need to stop being so narrowminded. I think a lot of people have forgotten what the sport is about.”
Back in Business
TheDananananaykroydInterview
JUNE2011 Glasgow-based fight pop outfit Dananananaykroyd return with their sophomore album, There Is A Way. Calum Gunn explains why it is their most focused effort to date. For many bands, a break in between touring and recording the next album is often welcomed with exhausted arms. Then there are those, like Glaswegian, self-proclaimed posi-core (aka fight pop) six-piece, Dananananaykroyd, who are eager to get back into the studio something which can be especially difficult for a band between labels at the time. “It took such a long time for this one to happen for us,” recalls vocalist Calum Gunn. “We left our old label from our first record so we were just sort of floating around on our own for a bit, trying to get things sorted. We’re all really happy that it’s just about to come out finally. After years of not doing too much, we’re ready to get back into it.” This positive attitude is one that surrounds the band’s second album, There Is A Way, right down to the title itself. “That sort of arises out of doing nothing for a year. We found that it kind of ties into there being a way to get through the past year and the weird feelings within the band,” says Calum. But although they were eager to get recording again, their approach to the record itself was a lot more focussed than their debut, Hey Everybody!. “I think we had more of an idea of what
we were going for and aimed for that whereas, with the first album, we’d written the songs, recorded them then put them out in one go. This one is a bit more poppy in a way, but still quite heavy, so a bit of everything but a lot more focussed,” Calum explains. The album was recorded in LA and produced by the legendary Ross Robinson, who has previously worked with Korn, Glassjaw and At The Drive-In. Given his wealth of experience, the band were more than a little overwhelmed at first, as Calum explains: “It was definitely really weird to begin with because we grew up on a lot of the records he was involved in so we were star struck for a while,t but he’s just a really down to earth sort of guy, so it worked out really well.” “His way of recording was different to any way we had recorded before. He was really involved in everything that we were doing and had a really hands on approach. For example, he was on the floor when we were recording guitars, messing about with pedals and stuff, and just generally keeping us on our toes and making sure we were all giving everything that we could. It was an amazing experience and we got a lot out of it.” It wasn’t all work and no play, however, as the band took some well-deserved breaks to enjoy the LA sun. “Back in the
UK it was snowing whilst we were on the beach - it was pretty incredible,” recalls Calum. And, of course, with any trip to LA, there are always going to be one or two celebrities spotted. “One time me and John (Baillie Junior) were just walking down Venice Beach Boardwalk and we saw Bono! He was just stopping to talk to people and we hung about for a bit just to see what was happening. It was really exciting and it just hit home how strange that was - six wee guys from Glasgow in LA seeing Bono!” They may be far from the same league as the likes of U2, but it seems these ‘six wee guys from Glasgow’ still don’t realise how appreciated they really are back here in the UK. Having secretly toured under the moniker Sissy Hits last year and played a small UK tour earlier this year to debut new material, the band were not expecting to be met with such a positive response. “I was so surprised at the turn out and everybody really responded positively. We’d been away for so long, so it was lovely to get back and we were thankful that people hadn’t forgotten about us already,” says Calum. Dananananaykroyd is not a name you’re likely to forget in the long run really, but what about this Sissy Hits business? What was it about playing secret shows under a fake name that they found so appealing? “It was just so we could try
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ISSUE02 out the new material,” explains Calum. “It ended up being kind of fun but at some of the shows, I don’t think anyone knew we were playing at all so it was a bit empty. We played a medium-sized one in London which turned out quite well. It was good fun just to play some new stuff without too much pressure.” All that is about to change, however, as the band have a pretty packed year ahead of them with the release of their second album and a hectic tour schedule. As well as playing smaller festivals such as Lounge On The Farm, they’ll also be playing the Radio 1/NME stage at this year’s Reading and Leeds festival. “We’re also going to Australia in July and doing a little tour there which should be good fun. We’re playing the same festival that we played when we were over there last time again and maybe even the same places that we had to cancel last time after John injured himself. Then we’ll be back in the UK around October for a bigger tour. So it should hopefully be quite a busy summer!” Not bad for a band who, this time last year, weren’t doing much at all. Words: Nina Glencross Artwork: Jack London
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Album reviews Artist: Insight & Count Bass D Album: Risk Takers Label: Modular/Ascetic
The musical risks aren’t immediately apparent on this album of unfashionably retro hip-hop that could conceivably have been released in any one of the last 15 years. But what Risk Takers lacks in groundbreaking sonic invention and genre-defying experimentalism it more than makes up for in unflaggingly funky beats, memorable hooks and considered, conscious lyrics. Count Bass D certainly isn’t the world’s most adroit rapper but his smooth, rolling tenor nicely complements Insight’s punchier, defter, more rhythmic delivery, while the squelchy synth-driven ‘Not My Style’, the insistent cinematic horn stabs of ‘Dinner is Served’ and the Kasbah groove of ‘Snakes’ elevate the vintage production values beyond mere nostalgia.
Artist: Austerlitz Album: Austerlitz Label: Self-released
Austerlitz are a difficult band to define and their self titled debut album is accordingly tricky to delineate. Despite being described as an art-rock band, this album draws elements from a wide range of genres. The opening track ‘Walking into The Fire’ is surprisingly proggy, with unusual time signatures, high-pitched vocals and keyboards aplenty. However, at the other end of the spectrum ‘Rotten Ears’ is a scuzzy, angst-ridden rock track. As the album continues the soundscape changes again with ‘Away’, a slow-paced track tinged with sadness, juxtaposed by the electro-pop bounce of ‘Stay in Line’. Regardless of the fact that the album is a touch on the eclectic side, it’s still a refreshing sound in a scene rapidly growing stale.
Rating: 3/5
(Catriona Reilly)
Artist: Groovuscule Album: Theatre Label: Mesmobeat
(Ian Macbeth) Rating: 4/5
Artist: Isaac’s Aircraft Album: Two is a Crowd Label: Crash Records
(Andrew Halls) Rating: 3/5
Cambridge outfit Isaac’s Aircraft are clearly talented multi-instrumentalists that know how to knock out a relatively-good indie pop song, but they struggle to create anything that sounds remotely original. ‘Too Many Kiss’ and ‘Mathematics’ have an obvious, bittersweet folk-cabaret appeal that would make Jools Holland foam at the mouth, but acoustic ballads ‘Good Man’ and ‘Wake Up’ sound like Robbie Williams b-sides. There is nothing particularly painful about this release but there is also nothing here that makes Isaac’s Aircraft anything more than a fleeting fancy. This is a band that looks destined to offend no one and remain neutral in all debates, like the quiet one in a friendship group. Fans of pianodriven, college radio indie would be better off checking out Ben Folds Five or Cold War Kids.
Rating: 2/5
Artist: Kamp David Album: Red Hotel Label: Zube Records
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If you’re dad was a biker in the 80s and never quite got over his obsession with hair metal, he would probably form a band similar to Kamp David at the height of his mid-life crisis. The group reference David Bowie and Electric 6 as their main influences, but the songwriting ability of Bowie and the childish humour of Electric 6 is nowhere to be found. The most ridiculous thing about this London-based five piece, and there are many, is Murray Golding’s laughable lyrics. The war cries are so cliché that you actually find yourself predicting the elementary rhyming on the first listen. I would like to retract the first sentence of this review, because there is no way my dad would embarrass himself like this. (Fiona Slimmon)
Rating: 1/5 (Fiona Slimmon)
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It’s been three years since Groovuscule passed his first demo album Theatre to label owner Eat Stactic (Merv Pepler). Time seems to be a common theme, as Groovuscule’s musical career jump started at the age of four with classical piano and solfége classes, followed by his first composition being an exercise score for piano aged nine. Groovuscule’s composition, editing, and production skills are high throughout the whole album. The vibe is directed towards festival dance floors, yet remains punchy and detailed enough to tolerate repeated listening. Theatre encapsulates elements of electronic, house and techno that Groovuscule bends to make his own. ‘Time Capsule’ is a highlight.
JUNE2011
Artist: Chrissy Murderbot Album: Women’s Studies Label: Planet Mu
Chicago producer Chrissy Murderbot is back with his third full-length release and if you thought the jungle-rave insanity of his debut, Ruff in the Bunny Fizness, was simply too fast (and unashamedly weird) to handle, you haven’t seen anything yet. Murderbot mixes ghetto house, juke, footwork and 90s garage, among several hundred other genres, and enlists more vocalists than a Ministry of Sound compilation. ‘Heavy Butt’ is a punishing, addictive footwork anthem and Warrior Queen’s sleazy vocals make ‘Nice Lookin Bwoy’ such an enjoyable guilty pleasure. The album’s only flaw is that is relentlessly fast-paced, which sometimes makes it a struggle to get through. Do not listen to Women’s Studies if you are drunk: It will give you the most violent, nauseating room-spins.
Artist: Das Contras Album: Das Contras Label:
ISSUE02
Describing themselves as a folk, funk, jazz, rock and reggae outfit, Das Contras’ selftitled debut is definitely an engaging listen, but not necessarily for the right reasons. While they are musically-eclectic and their compositions dynamic and upbeat, it’s difficult to avoid being distracted by their sometimes bizarre lyrics, the best example being the album’s second track ‘Oil Man’ in which frontman Sheriff (presumably a pseudonym) states ‘he’s a slick banana and he likes to keep well- oiled’. Nuff said. Aside from that, this often latin-inspired collection of songs is perfectly palatable for those who enjoy their latin-funk-jazz. I, on the other hand, will leave the slick banana to oil himself. (Alexander Rigby)
Rating: 2/5
Rating: 3/5 (Jeanie Rogers)
Artist: This Devastated Fan Album: Plot and Debauchery Label: Tired Eyes Productions
This Devastated Fan’s new album, Plot and Debauchery, truly captures the spirit of indie rock and aptly demonstrates the band’s diversity as well as their musical dexterity. The album opens with the emotive ‘Shoulder The War’. This track showcases the tender vocals and poetic lyrics, as well as the atmospheric guitar and the humming, subdued bass that has earned the band their reputation as ones to watch for the future. The album progresses with harder, edgier ‘Bambi Woods’, which is driven by a killer hook and finishes on a blistering solo. The styles of these two tracks come together to form the beautiful single ‘Carnivore’, which starts with echoing acoustic guitars and gentle vocals but rises into a percussion and guitar-heavy crescendo, overlaid with passionate vocals.
Rating: 3/5
Artist: Wild Beasts Album: Smother Label: Domino Rating: 4/5
Artist: Tokimonsta EP: Creature Dreams Label: Brainfeeder
LA beat scene producer Jennifer Lee aka Tokimonsta only released her debut album last year but she has somehow found time to create another EP, despite relentless touring. ‘Fallen Arches’ opens proceedings with a mellow mix of organic percussion and some beautifully-sparse piano breakdowns. LA singer/ producer Gavin Turek offers her exquisite vocals on ‘Little Pleasures’ and ‘Darkest (Dim)’, two sublimely hazy trip-hop anthems. Beat junkies get their fix on ‘Day Job’, a pounder that sounds like Bjork’s ‘Army of Me’ remixed with slightly-menacing guitar samples. This is probably the most accessible release to come out of the Brainfeeder collective, yet Lee does not sound as if she is playing it safe. In fact, this sounds like a producer that has finally found her voice.
Rating: 4/5 (Catriona Reilly)
(David McNamara)
Wild Beasts follow up their 2010 Mercurynominated album Two Dancers with a more intimate collection of alternative pop songs that are likely to prompt comparisons with Antony and the Johnsons. Moving away from the guitardriven indie of their previous releases, singer Hayden Thorpe has adopted a less-is-more attitude, opting to rely on his strong storytelling ability, and it has paid off in heaps. ‘Lions Share’ is a moody tale of emotional greed, with throbbing samples and delicate piano melodies, that manages to sound domineering without being misogynistic. The dark sensuality of ‘Plaything’ is a sexually-charged ballad propelled by Thorpe’s almost-whispered vocals and a subtle use of electronics. Lead single ‘Albatross’ artfully combines seething resentment and remorse like a stalker with self-loathing issues. Another Mercury nomination could be looming.
Third time out of the blocks for post-punk French trio Underground Railroad and it is a confident and concise effort. From the opening Neil Young-esque angular guitars of ‘8 Millimetres’ through to the hypnotic, seductive melody of ‘Lucky Duck’, the entire album sounds like a statement of intent, proud in it’s conviction. ‘Traces of Nowhere’ is reminiscent of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Dream Brother’ and there are clear signs of influence from bands such as Sonic Youth and Television, but this is very much an original record. Recognisable atmospheric production from Paul Walton (Massive Attack) compliments the intensity expertly delivered throughout the album. White Night Stand is a refreshingly-honest album.
Artist: Underground Railroad Album: White Night Stand Label: One Little Indian
(Michael McCue) Rating: 4/5
(Louis Flood)
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Artist: Elizabeth Album: Hazards, Horrors and Liabilities Label: Red Coat
Vancouver quartet Elizabeth follow up their 2007 debut, First Excommunications, with another selection of dancefloor-friendly indie rock. Not quite sure what to make of the pointless intro but ‘Columns and Arrows’ is a driving guitar anthem with a strong chorus. Unfortunately, ‘Death of Plato’ follows with as much lyrical imagination as toilet wall graffiti and ‘P.O.U.M.’ is a 90’s indie cliché of epic proportions. If We Are Scientists were still trying to mimic Hot Hot Heat they would probably have written ‘Cassius Clay’ and it is at this point that something becomes glaringly obvious: Elizabeth are very good at pasting together elements from all your favourite indie bands from the last ten years without bringing anything new to the table.
Rating: 2/5
(Fiona Slimmon)
The sophomore release from the Glasgow fight pop six-piece has a continuous theme of hyperactivity, featuring some great production work from Ross Robinson. Opening track ‘Reboot’ re-introduces the band with intricate riffs and hooks, building up until the vocals burst in as lively as ever. This continues throughout the album which features many highs and lows, from the funky rhythm and experimental production of ‘Think and Feel’ to the pop-punk riffs of ‘Time Capsule’ and the soppy early Weezer elements of ‘Apostrophe’. If the album is anything to go by, their upcoming UK tour should be pretty much one huge mosh pit making its way up and down the country. Artist: Dananananaykroyd Album: There Is A Way Label: Pizza College
(Nina Glencross)
Rating: 4/5
Artist: Plant Plants EP: Plant Plants Label: Less Music
Experimental duo Plant Plants have stumbled upon the not-so-new idea of blending math rock with electronic sensibilities to create music that does not cater to club DJ sets or mosh pits. ‘Hands that Sleep’ sounds like 65 Days of Static if they went soft, which is a good thing until an irritating monologue interrupts proceedings. Experimental hip-hop a la Oakland’s Anticon is the inspiration for ‘I’m So Black’, with distorted vocal samples and chopped synths that sounds like Alias with a sci-fi twist – in a good way. Plant Plants’ love for indie electronic outfit The Notwist becomes startlingly apparent on ‘She’s No One’, sounding like remix off 2002’s Neon Golden complete with retro electronic drums. This duo have a future, but only if they make their influences less obvious.
Artist: The Coathangers Album: Larceny and Old Lace Label: Suicide Squeeze
Rating: 2.5/5
(Jeanie Rogers)
Rating: 3/5
Artist: Machinedrum Album: Room(s) Label: Planet Mu
Machinedrum has been one of the main inspirations for the spastic productions of Warp/ LuckyMe wunderkind Hudson Mohawke, so it comes as little surprise to find a plethora of R&B samples, neon glare and high bpms on his latest effort. In fact, ‘Sacred Frequency’ sounds like a restrained Hudmo, complete with pounding bass drums, glittering organ touches and muffled vocals building to an incredible climax. The piano intro on ‘Come1’ hints at a rave anthem then dissolves into a blissed-out summertime hip-hop gem and ‘Youuinverse’ combines tribal percussion with looping vocals to sparse effect until an intense breakdown one minute from the end. Footwork gets re-imagined on ‘GBYE’ thanks to some inspired vocal samples. Fans of IDM, glitch and experimental hiphop cannot afford to miss this.
Rating: 4/5 (David McNamara)
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Atlanta’s all-girl experimental punk quartet are back with their third full-length release and it reeks of progression. All the angst and riot grrrl melodies of sophomore album Scramble are present but the quality is higher due to the fact that the band recorded in a studio with a producer for the first time. Opening track and lead single, ‘Hurricane’, has menacing guitars with clever breakdowns and drummer Stephanie Luke’s sneering vocals fit perfectly. ‘Go Away’ sees Julia Kugel take over vocal duties to highlight the band’s ability to switch between sinister and sweet with relative ease. What else would you expect from an album inspired by serial killer Myra Hindley and an episode of The Golden Girls? (David McNamara)
Artist’s Corner: Emer Tumilty Emer Tumilty is a second year visual communication student at Glasgow School of Art. She came to Glasgow from Ireland to study architecture, but transferred after three years upon realising that she’d rather design posters than passive heating strategies. This is a screen print from her recent illustration project entitled ‘boy in the ditch’, exploring a narrative through various printing techniques. Tumilty plays in a band and sometimes they let her make their artwork. She will jump at the chance to screen print you a t-shirt, as long as you don’t mind sporting a many-legged horse on your chest. She has been reliably informed that blading is definitely not in the same category as skateboarding or BMX. You can see more of her work at emertumilty. blogspot.com.
S B Q Z U B Q G H U Z Z G T Z S Q C R Q X T N F P S U T O L G N I Y L F R D O W L J S K A L T I K R A V U E A E I C A Y B Z Y A Z H J Z L K B A E H A F M H D A S Q L B E F C G K G S H H T A Z N D H A T R K E H B H E X D W U E W T K U C O L K O T S A F D N A T S O B F S X R F U W E C Z I K W O L A W R R I P N W S G S G E E E I U L Q E I I N S N A O N B P E Y U S Z M M B H Q G W H R H K M P O H O X L E H A A F V I T B G O D D I O L A V I Across: 4. Second Flying Lotus album 5. Number of members in hip hop collective Odd Future 6. Eric Bailey’s home state 7. Australian rock band fronted by Daniel Johns 10. Nickname of Robert Lievanos 12. Jeff Stockwell’s first skate sponsor 14. Canadian skate shop 15. Wild Beasts’ latest album 16. Nirvana’s record label 17. Chris & Courtney Brown’s clothing company 18. Denial owner (one of) 19. Dizzee Rascal’s record label
Down: 1. The words on Eric Shrijn’s first Senate pro wheel 2. Upcoming Brandon Negrete film 3. Candi Staton classic 8. FR Wheels pro rider 9. Bjork’s debut album 11. Esco Zoo video 13. Billy O’Neills nickname
R L B E M G N P R L O C O S K A T E S N O Q O I D A D A U Z M Z W Q O Y L E D A T L E K L O I N I T J X P Q T M G W K F T L U S H N N G I K P A W R C S C E T N Y J C B F F P S Q M N O M M R E M U E E L P W M Z Q S V K J J H B O N R T L G F Y O R D W E B J I A O Q Z S L G Y Y H D G E I A D A W Q L R T A M G G S K X P B O A N P W C X M C S R E E Y E H L J P E
CREATEORIGINALS FENFANIX FISHBRAIN FLYINGLOTUS HEATWHEELS HEDONSKATE HOAX KALTIC KIZER LOCOSKATES MINDGAME RAZORS ROADHOUSE ROCES STANDFAST SUBPOP TOKIMONSTA VALO WARP WILDBEASTS