Same, I like it when people aren’t made to talk about the thing they’re known for. If somebody skateboards in a way that is pleasing to me, I don’t need to hear them talking about it because I can see it in pictures and on video. Photographers and filmers talking about the physical act of skateboarding is usually pretty interesting, but unless there’s a real story to it I don’t want to hear a skateboarder talking about themselves skateboarding. If they don’t have any other interests, or thoughts, ideas and opinions, then they don’t need to be interviewed. Just because somebody’s good at skateboarding (or anything else) doesn’t mean they’re going to be interesting to read about or listen to.
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Yeah I am definitely interested in some skateboarding stuff, but I think if you ask every pro skater if they ever go skating on their own to chill a lot of them will say they do something else because of the intense nature of being a pro. That could lead into some interesting avenues that aren’t just ‘smoke weed and play Nintendo’ like everyone used to say in the 90s.
I don’t really read enough interviews to know if this is commonplace already, so interested to hear what others think.
Yeah. So many interviews that went:
What do you do when you’re not skating?
Watch skate videos.
What kind of music do you like?
The music in skate videos.
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Exactly, that or…‘Yeah. Which videos do you like watching?’. Cue tramline response.
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When I was younger I went through a phase of not wanting to ask skateboarder’s about skateboarding and, honestly, it feels so silly looking back.
They’re skateboarders, they’re there to talk about skateboarding. Putting out an interview without it would be like reading a profile of an actor or musician which doesn’t talk about their respective discipline.
The act of skateboarding itself should be worth exploring with an interviewee. Bad answers happen when its ill considered how the person is going to respond or if they’ve even got the character of a good interviewee in the first place.
Sure, not every skater is super heady when it comes to thoughts around skateboarding itself but half of the Favorite Spot series I’ve done just is people being hyper-specific about how certain tricks work which has given way to interesting anecdotes.
To the original point, I find Living Proof is pretty damn lacklustre. There’s no personality to the host in the interactions. You could say at least he lets the guests talk but the demeanour comes across as either uninterested or trying to be too cool for it. I was surprised at the numbers it does in regards to the quality of interviews but I guess that’s more a consequence of frequently putting out video content.
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When Simon Isaksson interviewed himself he asked himself about skateboarding.
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Have you read the Living Proof interviews I was referring to? I agree with all the points made above regarding a good interview
My point was the YouTube channel is focused on these longform discussions, often with some quite interesting questions and I was expecting something similar in the mag but it was for the most part one sentence answers and the most basic questions imaginable
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Sam Fragoso of Talk Easy is a gold standard interviewer and this interview with him about conducting them is insightful. (He also has such a listenable voice.)
He mentions something to the effect of how if, for example, an interviewee is known for saying 35 things then the interviewer should go into the conversation knowing what those things are, allowing for some of them to come up because there’s a degree of familiarity which is what the audience wants and expects, but what you’re looking to do is deliver that 36th thing that hasn’t come up yet.
That’s basically skate interviews in a nutshell.
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Haha wasn’t expecting that. I’ve only read the one issue so my experiences purely based on that and the ones where it isn’t a guest interviewer (ie. not the Stuart Hammond & 10foot piece)
The Gus Van Sant/Strobeck interview looks interesting, let us know your take on the (£25) mag
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Oyola talks about Eastern Exposure 3
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Interview with Adam Curtis with very interesting thoughts on how we consume media today and the longterm impacts it has on culture anf identity during the last 10-20 minutes.
What’s said I think helps explain the rut we’re in regarding skate footage.
Premise of the interview is Curtis’s new documentary series Shifty about the decline of democracy in the UK. Looks promising too.
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I guess this is kind of an interview? I mean it’s not…but it’s not a part either.
Some of the shit he did is so gnarly, especialy the spot at around 18 minutes in. I rate him way higher after watching this.
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A woman I used to work with was babysat by him when she was a kid.
That’s a pretty random connection.
Ha yeah, it was an amusing encounter at the pub.
She was visiting from the US office and we were chatting at Friday drinks, I mentioned I skated and she told me she was babysat by a guy who grew up and became a famous skater.
It was like a round of The Bunts random skater of the week as I tried to piece together who it was, whilst also trying to be cool and continue my beer driven flirting
Always enjoyed his 88 footwear section. I thought he only had a small window in the early 2000s, but watching that he did way more than I’d thought
I remember seeing him ripping radlands one year. Had a solid front bluntslide.
At the bones bolton black label demo a good 20 years ago the team invited me onto the bus after the demo to hang out which was really cool. Jason adams gave me his cap and melcher gave me his board that the whole team signed. I remember Svitak signing it and apologising that he didn’t give me his board cause he liked to hold onto them but he gave me a bunch of stickers instead. Still got the board and the hat (which i’ll be wearing at volterol to fully grom out with Jason Adams).
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