Saturday 21 March 2009

Getting Faded with Lonnie Gallegos





Below is an interview I did with Lonnie Gallegos a couple of months ago before the release of his new video Fade Nation. It was supposed to be on Be-mag but for some reason it never made it up on the site. Enjoy...










Getting Faded with Lonnie Gallegos

This month, Lonnie Gallegos and Brandon Negrete released their second film Too Faded. Their first venture, Fade Nation was a shining example of what can be achieved when two talented individuals work together to create something special. You could easily recognise the characteristics that both directors have brought from their previous releases but there was something more. It was obvious that their styles complimented each other perfectly.

Now that their second film has been officially released, I thought it was time I caught up with Lonnie to find out how his life has changed since we last spoke and what it is like making the adjustment to working with another person on a film. As always, Lonnie was more than happy to give us an insight into his life and offer a few hints of what we can expect in the future.

It’s been a couple of years since I spoke with Lonnie. The last time we were in touch was to discuss his clothing company, Black Fabric, and the release of the team video, A Staggering Artwork of Heartbreaking Genius. I was curious to know how life has changed since those days and if Black Fabric was something that he was still pursuing. In Lonnie’s opinion, things are pretty much the same.

“Not much has changed. I’ve moved to downtown Los Angeles with Kevin Gillan and Lee Martin. Other than that I’ve just been working the graphic design day job, making shirts and filming. I moved from Orange County to L.A. and that’s about it. I still have the same job and the same friends.”

Lonnie is still making clothes under the Black Fabric label but he readily admits that it is not something he is taking very seriously at the moment. This is hardly surprising considering he is already balancing the responsibilities of working a full time job and producing some of the most visually stunning videos in rollerblading. When asked if there are any plans to release another range of items, he simply said:

“Yeah, I already have some but it’s kind of like, you come to my house and see something you like and I’ll sell it to you. I’ve been planning a website forever. I swear BlackFabric.com will be up soon. You’ll see”

Once we got that out of the way, I thought it was time to find out why Lonnie decided to team but with Brandon Negrete and how their working relationship was going so far. Lonnie asserted that it was simply a natural progression from working in such close proximity to one another for so long.


“We lived close together and were always filming the same people. Plus, we usually tend to agree on a lot of different fronts. It was something that kind of naturally worked out. Instead of being all like, “Hey, look, we’re the new VG!!” about it, we decided to work our way up to that point.”

When two people work together on something they feel so passionately about there are endless opportunities for conflict. I was interested to know how Lonnie was finding working with Brandon and if they were having any trouble agreeing on certain aspects of making a film together.

“At the beginning, there was really no telling how far the Fade Nation idea would actually go. I think neither of us knew if we could put up with the other for very long, but so far so good. Plans for a 3 and a 4 have already been arranged.”

When asked how Too Faded would be different from the first Gallegos/ Negrete collaboration, Lonnie was keen to emphasise that their main goal is to progress and build upon their previous work with every new project. This is something that the pair find challenging as the success of their last effort has caused people to request that they keep producing something similar.

“We always look to improve and do something different every time around. I notice a lot of people requesting the same sections with the same style and vibe over and over. But we’re trying to push things and make them different. This video has one of the most mixed groups of skaters I’ve ever seen. From JC, to Montre Livingston, to Enanoh, to Ben Schwab, to the Russians who always send us fresh clips. It’s a beautiful mess.”

Thanks to Lonnie’s insightful responses it is now clear that the world can expect more Fade Nation releases in the future and we will even see a rebirth of Black Fabric. However, there was still one very important question that had to be answered.

“Lonnie, what’s your favourite skate video?”
.
”Mine is The Adventures of Mr.Mooseknuckle for every reason. It had cool
thugged out rap music, people doing big stunts. It introduced the balanced backslides, fishbrains, topacids, unitys, the lurch switchup (royale to ao topsoul), and the TJ Webber section is still my favorite of all time. When I asked Negrete he said Road to Nowhere.”

Saturday 7 March 2009

Mayer Hawthorne



I will be interviewing Mayer Hawthorne on Monday just before he goes onstage at The Deaf Institute in Manchester as part of the Stones Throw european tour. He is the latest signing to Stones Throw records and is already being praised by the likes of Mark Ronson and Radio 1 legend Gilles Peterson. Expect big things when the album drops in the summer.

For now, here is an endearing little video of his first single which comes in RED HEART-SHAPED vinyl called Just Ain't Gonna Work Out. Enjoy...