@katieeary

 

Cosmo Pyke is a skater from South London who’s become known around the world for his unique singing, songwriting and guitar music. His unique sound made such a big noise it was heard by millions of people and many of them quickly became his fans. But in conversation you discover his passion for his music is as strong as his love for skateboarding and making art.

Skating and playing the guitar gripped him from a young age and he picked up both naturally. But it wasn’t just his talent to string together well written songs and lines on his board that helped him to be the artist he is today. It’s also the excitement he gets from expressing his thoughts and ideas through them that stokes him out. Inspired to push for perfection with his pursuits and through taking his skills in a creative direction, he was further motivated to make art and his music career moved forward.

Cosmo has been a No Comply Network member since the start and to see his meteoric rise as a musician has been immense.

Four years since he released his impactful first EP and a week before the release of his latest offering, we had a chat about how he learned to skate and play guitar, shredding South Norwood, Peckham Rye and Bromley Skateparks, Ben Glasser and Max Critchlow, seeing US pros at demos, BRIT School, WITH Section, Slam City Skates, Southbank, street skating, making graff, recording his breakout EP ‘Just Cosmo’ with Fraser T Smith in the same studio as Stormzy, behind-the-scenes stories of all of his music videos, playing the last ever show at The Montague Arms with King Krule, filming ideal skate clips in Birmingham and Barcelona, playing live gigs, why his latest single Piper for Janet is one of his most meaningful to date, making tunes in Lockdown, the release timeline of his new tracks and his favourite skaters, spots, skate videos, art and photos and much more. 

Read it below to discover it all for yourself. 

 

 

@cfaruolo

 

 

Glad to get a hold of you man, it’s been a while!

Yeah, it’s good because I’m releasing my first tune in a while in six days. It’s really good timing, we’re getting to chat now.

 

 

So when did you first see skating and think, I want to do that?

I used to skate when I was younger, maybe when I was about 7 years old.

 

 

That’s young, where did you get your first skateboard?

I got my first board from Brixton Cycles, which was next to Stockwell Skatepark at the time. I used to skate Peckham Skatepark. But not too much. I was always going to Stockwell and Kennington Bowl with my mate when I was really small. But then I stopped skating and started rollerblading…

 

 

Why on earth did you stop skateboarding to rollerblade?

It was my mate that I mentioned earlier. His older brother used to skate in my area and he was like a bit of a king in the graffiti scene. We always used his skates, everybody learned on his skates. We used to rollerblade at Whites Grounds, the skatepark in London Bridge, when Reuben De Haan’s cousin used to run it.

 

 

What year was this, 2005-2006?

Yeah.

 

 

So you started skating at age 7, stopped for a few years and started again. What motivated you to get back on board?

Yeah when I was 12, in year 7, Louie Dobbs, my boy he got me on it. We used to skate with Max Critchlow as well.

Yeah the day I started skating again I was at Bay 66 Skatepark, on the mini, on blades, with a party of people and at Bay you had to wear a helmet if you’re on blades but not if you’re on a board, it’s still like that. So at the time I was like fuck this!

I tried to drop in on the mini on a board and I was like look, I put my Vans on and went for the drop in on a skateboard and just did it! Dropped in first try on the mini and I was like fuck this! I’m skating from now on. I could always ride into the bank in Peckham but I’d actually never dropped in on a skateboard up to this point.

 

 

 

 

What was the park called at the time?

It was called Xbox 360 skatepark at the time. So it was in-between when it was owned by PlayStation and Nike.

 

 

That park has evolved and been sold so many times. Do you remember who was shredding the place at the time?

I was just looking at bladers at the time because that was a transitionary moment for me as a skateboarder. When I started skating, Bay was still about, same set up, with the vert ramp but then I went to a jam there, I saw Boo Johnson and Ali Boulala there.

 

 

Anybody from London?

Daryl Dominguez was there. I just remember Daryl doing Kickflips everywhere.

 

 

Daryl’s got a great kickflip. Does Max still skate?

Yeah. Max lives and skates in Paris.So yeah back to my skating, I was around Peckham, I learnt how to Ollie up a curb and I carried on, I couldn’t stop, and I was in love with it.

 

 

Painting by @xamaxcritchlow

 

 

Sick, what kinds of stuff were you skating?

I just wanted to skate street when I was young. Up until I turned about 15/16 years old and I started at BRIT school and I met Marley Rutherford. Even then he was skating street but also going to South Norwood Skatepark. I used to see Sam Roberts, skating street when I was growing up too.

Me and my friend Mossy would go into Central with all my mates from Peckham, every weekend. So from 12-15, I was skating street.

 

 

What was the first skate video that you saw?

It was a video called Hesh Muffins.

 

 

Hesh Muffins?

Yeah I just remember it was the first video I saw when I was in Year 7 at age 12.

 

 

 

 

Okay, have to check it. Did you play skate video games?

Yeah, I was playing Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 when I was about 10.

 

 

Thug 2! That one was strange. Where did you skate in Central?

Yeah man. I did the sickest little video when I was a kid as well. My rugby club went to Wales, to raise money for a fundraiser we were doing and my mom gave me a clipboard and had the idea to go to nine skate spots in a day with my boys. We went to Peckham Skatepark, then Deptford ledges, then DLR to Mudchute Skatepark, then onwards to Mile End and then we went from Mile End to Central and went to Blubba.

 

 

 

 

Where’s that one?

It’s right by Embankment. It’s just a little four stair with a Hubba in there. Then we went to Southbank. It was jokes.

From then, that video got loads of views, it got like 30,0000 views and so after that, the whole local skate community kind of knew who I was after that video. That’s how I met my Marley Rutherford, from BRIT, he skated South Norwood. It was called ‘9 skate spots in a day’.

 

 

Is that online?

It’s not online anymore! It had a Johnny Cash song on it, so it got taken down; I’ve got the video still though.

 

 

Sick. Sounds like you were on it that day

It was difficult. We would have never normally done that so it was quite a long day.

 

 

Who was filming it all?

My mate Ben Glasser used to film it all. He’s the guitar player on my new record as well.

 

 

That’s sick, you’ve been mates for such a long time

I’ve known him since we were in year 7. And we were 12, when I started skating

 

 

 So who did you look up to in London then?

I used to just look to America really in videos really. The people in London, I would say were Lewis Bell, Jack Soden and Max Critchlow.

 

 

Lewis Bell is doing some next level stuff nowadays

Yeah innit.

 

 

So were you trying to get sponsored at the time?

No, it wasn’t about that for me; I wasn’t good enough to be sponsored. Never good enough to be sponsored but a couple of my boys were though. I rooted for them. It’s like football; I never thought I’d be a pro, so I never got my hopes up. It’s like skating like that, maybe even more difficult.

 

 

Skating is more intense, never compared the two to be honest but you have a point, Were you playing music at the time?

Yeah, I learned to play guitar when I was around the age of 6.

 

 

Fuck, that’s young

I was playing guitar the whole time whilst I was skating. My dad was like don’t go and skate, stay in and play music on the weekends but I’d just go into central and go skate. Skating was something that was almost like frowned upon at my parent’s yard because they wanted me to stay home and do my homework.

Every day it was like an issue, they’d be like do your homework but I’d be like nah and go Peckham Rye Skatepark and hang out with my mates. Skating became something I’d do mainly on the weekends, go to Central London and go skate at St Paul’s or something.

 

 

OK

Yeah we’d go to Slam and be the first ones at signings. I remember meeting Stevie Williams and Lizard King and meeting them when the Supra basement started up in Slam City Skates.

 

 

Did you ever go to any demos?

Yeah. I remember seeing Ali Boulala at Bay 66 and Boo Johnson at the one that I mentioned and all of the Nike guys there at one point. I think the Supra guys were there in the same jam that day. It was dope.

 

 

London gets a lot of visitation from pro’s unlike smaller cities like Birmingham which is a shame because that sounds rad

I’ve skated Birmingham since I started making music. I went to Ideal Birmingham skate shop. I had a gig but I got there early and I had the whole day free to skate and hang out. I went to a plaza spot called Eastside by the Bullring and bumped into all these skaters at the spot and I met this guy down there who filmed. We shot a line together. I remember I was wearing Nike Air Max 98’s at the time.

 

 

What was his name?

Andrew Finlay

 

 

Finbomb? Yeah, he filmed our Jam at Fastlands. He’s rad.

Yeah, I bumped into Finbomb and he filmed me and he took me to Ideal Birmingham and shit. Yeah it was a cool day.

 

 

Birmingham is full of great people

Yeah, you never get a better friend than a Brummy!

 

 

For sure. Back to your music, it sounds like your parents were supportive, did they give you lessons?

I learnt at my primary school mom and my dad play a bit. My mom plays violin and guitar. At first I was playing at primary school at first. Then my mom taught me my first chords when I was about 8 years old.

 

 

That’s sick that they helped you to work on your musical skills

We had lessons at school. Yeah every week we were singing and everyday too at assembly. So the way I was brought up, the first ten years of my life was complete bliss really. Comfort.

 

 

 

 

When was the first time you made your own music?

Well it was from about the age of about 9-10, maybe 11-10. I went to this thing called School of Rock at the Prendergast School in South London. It was called Felix’s School of Rock – run by this guy called Felix. You get put into a band, it was sick. In the holidays you’d do it for 4 days for a £100.

 

 

Like a kind of music boot camp for kids?

Yeah. Max Critchlow used to do it so it was really cool. It was sick. We weren’t allowed to bring skateboards and skate in the hall because they were scared we’d break our necks it was funny man.

 

 

How did it work?

You’d’ get put in a band with a Jack Black kind of figure and then on the fourth day there would be a battle of the bands type event and you’d do a gig on the stage. There would be like 90 bands, all just like loads of small kids playing and the winner at the end wins chocolate, whoever screams the loudest wins basically!

 

 

Sounds hilarious man

From there, I was put on the stage, those were my first shows and gigs as a kid, just playing guitar, not even singing really, I did that School of Rock like nine times over the course of the next 5 years over the holidays and shit. Then I moved from Prendergast to Thomas Tallis School and then I started working there when I got to the age of like 18.

 

 

At the School of Rock?

Yeah, my first gig was there! Playing gigs, I was really scared before I got on stage as well. Because I cared a lot about what I was doing from such a young age. Cared about how I did.

 

 

@j_magz

 

 

Why were you scared to get on stage?

It’s scary. It’s like skating. When I skated my first comp, I remember being at Mile End and it was like I was about to play my first gig!

Everybody’s watching you, Froby was fucking commentating! I was real young…

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah man, when the MC is going off it can be stressful but singing in front of people must be as difficult or even harder!

That’s why I didn’t sing at my first gig, I was just playing guitar. I was always just a guitarist first. But when I recorded this first record four years ago, in the years leading up to that, I was playing the tunes, I wasn’t focusing on singing.

I like to sing though. I did use to when I played with Ben my guitar player who I used to skate with, he used to film all of my stuff.

We had this little skate crew when were growing up with our mate Mossy called Graze. We used to do illustrations and pretend we were a skate team But then some food company that delivered nuts to your door called themselves Graze, so that became something that we hastily stopped doing!

 

 

Yeah, don’t want to be confused with the nut delivery service

We were Graze Skateboards before them!

 

 

Why did you call it Graze?

Because when you skate you like graze your knee and shit.

 

 

 

 

Oh right, that’s a funny idea, I didn’t think about it like that

That was like a time when I started drawing and that kind of like became graffiti after that.

 

 

When did you get into making Graff?

Yeah, I got into making Graff when I was in about year 10 when I was about 15-16.

 

 

What drew you into doing graffiti?

My drummer who played on the first record, Eddie, he got me into it and from then on I was hooked.

 

 

Graff and skating often happen in the same places

Yeah I was in BRIT school at the time, so every Friday for 4 years, I would finish at 12.30 in the afternoon. BRIT was crazy, it was like a half-day week sometimes. We’d go to Tennyson skatepark, this skate park in South Norwood. I’d skate that with all the WITH section boys, it was right down the road from South Norwood Skatepark. So yeah, it was ideal. It was really cool

 

 

 

 

Once you’d finished school and were looking to go to College, were you making music a lot or skating a lot?

I kind of wasn’t even doing anything religiously. Skate one day. Music the next day. Day after that do some graffiti. Never do one thing; I’ve always been juggling three things at a time. Going to school and school was just…school, you know?

 

 

For sure. What was it like studying at the Brit School?

It was really cool, I loved it, I was so happy really. I wasn’t at my rubbish school I was at previously. It had a uniform. This had no uniform and liberal teachers.

 

 

That’s dope

Yeah BRIT was crazy. It was like Uni as a 15 year old, no school bell, just like be on time.

 

 

So it made you be more independent

I didn’t go to Uni. I went to Sixth Form and then just finished school, recorded my tape when I was in year 13, towards the end of my school, so it all patterned up well. When I finished school. I was touring all around London, South, West, East and North. In all the pubs.

 

 

@cosmopyke

 

 

Cool, this was when you became a No Comply Network Member

Yeah.

 

 

So you were around 17, just before you were 18. What was on that tape and where was it recorded?

It was recorded in a studio with a sick producer called Fraser T Smith. He produced Stormzy’s Gang Signs & Prayer album and Dave’s album at the same time that he was producing mine.

So it was kind of funny like. I used to see Stormzy’s song on the whiteboard when we were recording. Stormzy is from right around BRIT, he came into BRIT once around the same time he was recording his tape.

It was a mad time. Croydon was doing well. Section Boyz and Stormzy. I was at BRIT and knew about them all and I was working with the same producer and shit, and I got to see all these people. It was a fun time man.

 

 

How did you end up meeting Stormzy?

I never met Stormzy; he came into BRIT School and did a talk. Yeah I went to the talk but I didn’t really chat to him but you know. We didn’t see each other in the studio either.

 

 

How did that happen if you had the same studio?

Well, we worked in the same studio but just at different times

 

 

@cosmopyke

 

 

Oh right

Stormzy was paying for his studio time and I was getting it all for free. I made five tunes with Fraser got my music bigged up by management and PR and haven’t released anything since. This year it’s been 4 years.

 

 

So you’ve been working hard on these upcoming releases?

Exactly yeah. I made a lot of music since but I never thought it was that good. But now I’m happy. So I’ve just recorded this tape because I’ve finally written something that I’m happy with, that’s what this is, that’s coming out.

Sick

There’s one tune that’s coming out in six days called Piper for Janet. Then the EP will follow that, everybody thinks I’m dropping an album but it’s just five tunes.

 

 

@pykrete_records

 

 

OK, we’ll get to those. But I want to talk to you about your music videos. Which video was your favourite to make so far?

Probably the Social Sites video. I like it because I was working with loads of people I knew and respected. I liked the videographers, they’re doing really well now, these two twins. It was cool because I always looked up to them and they thought my music was cool, I was pretty surprised that they were down to help for free pretty much.

 

 

The Social Sites video is dope. It matches the thoughtfulness of the song. What were you thinking when you wrote that song?

I didn’t know what anxiety was back then! There was no such thing, in my mind. I had just had the first 20 years of my life in complete comfort you know? So it was just questioning why other people have anxiety ha-ha!

I didn’t realise in a few years it would happen to me and I would start to feel guilty about posting on Instagram. It’s funny because when I wrote that song, I was already trapped by Instagram but I’m still way less social on social media then I was and a lot of people are a lot less social on it than me.

 

 

Instagram can be gnarly. Best thing to do is ignore it sometimes

It’s annoying though because you get your own personal satisfaction and then other people seem to like it more than you and it’s like yo, what the fuck! It’s really weird.

 

 

 How long did Social Sites take to shoot?

Social Sites? I don’t know, it was only 2-3 days.

 

 

How did you cast all of the models who featured in the video?

It’s not even models; it’s just all of my boys.

 

 

 

 

Sick, its people you know

Yeah, they are all my mates.

That part of the video was filmed in a studio in Deptford, right next to Deptford skatepark in Folkestone Gardens. I was having breaks going to the skatepark. It was right around when Folkestone was built, it was the first time that I’d seen the skatepark when we were recording those videos. So I was like skating for a little bit in-between shooting the video ha-ha.

 

 

Sick, that park is handy for skaters in South London

Yeah, so there ya go, in those studios right next to the park, under the bridge, the video was shot there. My mate had a photography studio there and we just got everybody in and it was just loads of my mates in the video really.

 

 

Where were all the house interior shots filmed?

The rest of the video was shot in my granny’s house in Dulwich on Dulwich Rd. My mom lived there from age 13. It’s kind of mad. I’ve got family history in that part of Dulwich. Right by Kingsland, the secondary school I went to before BRIT. I left there in year 9.

 

 

That’s kind of symbolic man, your video took off where you changed direction as a kid and where you got an education

Yeah If I had stayed there I don’t know what I would have mean. I would probably have a normal job, probably working in a bar, I would have carried on doing music, but it wouldn’t have taken me to the level I’m at now.

I met Fraser T Smith through doing an audition at BRIT School, did that audition and wrote my tape with him.

The only reason all of this happened to me is because I went to BRIT school, did this whole thing, auditioned to meet this guy, who managed Fraser and he ended up being my manager. Then I finished school went on the road with Reggie Snow, went to Birmingham and I met Finbomb!

 

 

Sick. Sounds like it all happened quickly

Yeah my mom would drive me to places, or I get a rail card and take the train on my own to places by myself. I used to play with just my drummer and myself, we didn’t have a bass player.

But then I brought in Ben Glasser, who used to film all of my skate videos in Peckham. He started playing Bass and now he plays guitar. He’s been in the band for the longest. I’ve always got other rotating people helping me out.

 

 

 

 

How did your Chronic Sunshine video go down?

My manager wrote the video. Louie Levinson’s in the video, it’s quite funny, he’s a skater from Bromley.

Yeah, we just got the video written and we just did it. I liked it, so we just did it.

 

 

What inspired you to write that song and what does it mean?

I was cycling from my girls’ house from Brixton to Peckham and I came up with the idea when I was cycling.

I was really young so I thought, this was really cool, you know when you’re young you come up with something but it’s only til you get older and you feel a bit disgusted that you think that an idea that you had was that cool you know?

 

 

 

 

Naïve optimism of youth can be foolish but it still looks good

So I was just like this is cool, yeah I just learned what the word ‘chronic’ meant, and played on that.

Also Jimmy Cliff. I got so much influence in that song, you take someone else and you take someone else and that’s how you write songs. So it was just an amalgamation of everything I was into at the time.

You know Chronic Sunshine, was just like wordplay. I was listening to a lot of Big L, Foals, Tribe Called Quest, I was just all about bars. I was into Arctic Monkeys from when I was young. It was just all about bars and I thought yeah I ‘m going to make a song called Chronic Sunshine.

From there I got some help from this one guy who was working in the studio that I was recording in. He took me to his house in Parsons Green. He sat me down and said you know, let’s write this song.

 

 

Okay, sick

But then he ended up taking splits on the song up until this day, he’s still got splits on the tune, even though I wrote the whole thing. He kind of facilitated it, he sat me down. And I was so young, we got into a dispute

But fuck it like, what’s money anyway when you’ve had such a comfortable life, what’s money man?

 

 

You’ve got a bright future so who cares?

Exactly. If I hadn’t done that I wouldn’t have written the song. I would have just tried

 

 

You’ve got to take risks. It was just a learning experience man. So is there a song you’ve released that means the most to you?

It was something before that, when I recorded those tapes, it was the first two songs. I put onto Sound Cloud; they’re still not on Spotify, Curses of Lament and All On Me. They mean a lot me. The lyrics in those are probably my best songs.

I recorded them with Fraser T Smith as well but before we recorded my tape, I recorded those two songs by myself as acoustic songs.

 

 

 

 

I really like them and the lyrics of them.

Yeah it was recorded really nicely, so it got a lot of attention from those songs.

They got a big number of plays. Maybe it was because they were recorded so well or maybe I don’t know…

 

 

 

 

Probably because they were good and people really liked them.

Loads of people know about those two songs from what I’ve seen and heard

 

 

So how about Great Dane, what was the process behind writing that song and how did you end up skating in the video?

That was the last video that I did so far, Great Dane. It was about a year after I released my tape. We shot it in Woolwich and yeah it features me just skating around. The idea around it came from the same manager who told me to do Chronic Sunshine.

She kind of wrote this one too. It’s the same as that really it’s me just rolling around the ends but this time I was in Woolwich!

 

 

 

 

The chords and the chorus were written by Fraser T Smith. I took them home and I wrote that song around those chords. That was cool he taught me the chorus cords, I wrote the song and we recorded the video and we went to a house by the sea in a place in Suffolk called Aldeburgh on the east coast to shoot it?? It’s by where Ed Sheeran grew up?

 

 

How did you end up shooting it on the East Coast of England?

We’ve got a family house in front of the sea. My Granny passed it down to us, alongside that house in Dulwich. But my family sold the house in Dulwich because my Granny passed away in 2017. But we’ve still got the house in Suffolk by the sea.

 

 

My condolences

Yeah, that’s what the next record is about, A Piper for Janet, is coming out, the whole tape is called A Piper for Janet.

It was around the same time that happened after I released my first record in 2017, so since then I’ve been working on this album Piper for Janet, based on a piece of artwork that is hung up in the house in Aldeburgh it’s on the wall, hung up in the Great Dane video too.

I told them to film that because from that video and that moment I was planning on it.

 

 

Yeah, you knew it was significant

So three years later, Piper for Janet is finally coming out in January and the single is coming out in six days, Piper for Janet, the single.

It’s all been calculated since that time. It’s just taken 3 and half to 4 years to execute. I did record a lot of in that time but I was never happy. Now looking back I am happy with some of it, so I can re-record it and release that you know? Now I’m not going to be as like vacant, I’m going to be releasing every year instead of every 4 years.

 

 

@pykrete_records

 

 

I guess you made such a big impact; you were waiting to make something on that level or better

The way that I do Graff is the same way I do music. My friend even told me the other day. My songs are like the same way I do a piece or skate, just perfected and something I’ve been doing for a long time, so they are all really similar for me.

 

 

So what stopped you from releasing those other songs?

I went up to Leeds and recorded with this guy, stayed with him there and recorded in his house. It just felt like the act of making music felt forced. I felt mad going up to Leeds sleeping in an Air BnB and focusing solely on just making music. Now I could do it a lot more but at the time I didn’t have the concentration.

Now I know a lot more but then I wasn’t ready. I made some good stuff and I really like it now and at the time I kinda like it as well but I kind of didn’t want to release it because it wasn’t the same process as the first record that I made with a big old studio with live musicians. This was just me on my own with no drummer, my mate, my drummer wasn’t there, it didn’t feel natural.

I tried to do some other stuff, that will come out in the future that I will re-record but I did stuff that I wasn’t 100% happy but this record I’m putting out now. This latest record, I recorded the way I’d done the first one with all live instruments.

 

 

Sounds like you needed some inspiration on this one. What music inspires you as an artist?

At the time I was coming up with loads of bands that played in the Montague Arms in New Cross and The Windmill in Brixton. There were loads of bands playing there at the time.

 

 

Like who?

Horsey, my cousin’s band a cover band called The Bodies and King Krule.

 

 

You and King Krule played the last ever show at the Montague Arms in New Cross, what do you remember from that gig?

Yeah, there was a queue down the fucking road. The first person I saw in the queue was King Krule. I was like what the fuck!? why are people coming to see me. I never really had confidence in myself but you know! Yeah that was the first time I experienced people acting weird man, from those days at the Montague.

 

 

Yeah, when you get fame people treat you differently. But what was it like for you?

I learned my social skills from skating so I was always just completely…When you do my line of work, you meet a lot of fans. So it’s like when you meet someone and you’re a fan of their skating, it’s just about being nice to people and it was nice at the time and I miss playing.

The last gig I played was in Jakarta and I haven’t played since then. I’ve been dormant for 2 years. It’s such a long time but you know due to Lockdown it’s just extended that really.

 

 

@blantikamusik

 

 

People are just looking forward to your new music. What have you been doing over lockdown?

Yeah, we recorded the tape in Lockdown. We’ve been doing it since December last year but it wasn’t every day obviously. I started it back in December 2019 and then started it properly again in March 2020. When did Lockdown even start?

 

 

It’s been about 9 months so far

I started in December 2019 and then got more on it over Lockdown, we had to have three people in the studio at the same time, and it was all quite difficult. Quite long.

Been mixing and mastering it. Yeah just been doing that really. It was a good lockdown. We did a gig in the park in Peckham Rye Park and we did one in Telegraph Hill Park too. Everyone was just jamming there around the time of the George Floyd shooting and protests

 

Okay, around April/May?

Yeah. I met some cool people and have been doing that, making music and collaborate with people. I’ve never collaborated really before but I and I want to start now since I’m going to make more music.

Everyone says ‘keep making music don’t’ stop’ but I’m not going to stop ever! It’s nothing to do with anyone else but myself. I learnt to play when I was so young, it’s like meditation. Just like skating is like concentrating on something, I’ll always be concentrating on guitar and skating.

 

 

Sick. So you Ollied down the MACBA 3, how did that go down?

Yeah and then I do a backside flip on flat!

 

 

Dope. What were you doing in Barcelona?

I was going to the Rototom reggae festival in Benicassim, so we were in Barca for a few days before.

We had three or four days before, I’ve always wanted to go to MACBA because I’d seen it in skate videos and I went there and it was huge so I was like fuck! I ollied it but I wasn’t down to do anything else. I was really gassed, it was really cool.

I’ve been back. When Lockdown eased I went back to Barca but I didn’t go back to MACBA though.

 

 

What’s your favourite trick you’ve seen down the MACBA 4?

Brian Herman in Baker 3, the Hardflip down the old 4!

 

 

 Did you go to any other spots in Barca?

When I was there I was skating the ledge at MACBA. We also went to Paris as well, and I skated that plaza spot, by where the tunnel is where Princess Diana died, that everybody skates, Republique.

 

 

What’s your favourite thing to skate nowadays?

I like skating Bromley. I like getting gnarly there. On the roll in and on the halfpipe maybe. Obviously Peckham Rye Skatepark.

 

 

What’s the gnarliest trick you’ve seen going down at Bromley?

The gnarliest shit I’ve seen go down there… I’ve seen Darius Trabalaza do some gnarly shit down there and on the mini as well I mean.

With Section guys skating and just playing metal with Niall Levinson.

I love Sam Roberts and Jake Church skating there too. I don’t know what the best thing is I’ve seen there but they are all my favourites.

 

 

What’s your favourite place to skate in London?

I like Southbank. It’s taught me how to be better at skating, relatively good anyway. It was the best thing for me skating that place and it got me. Once you can skate Southbank, I felt like I could skate anything really.

 

 

When did you first go to Southbank and what was the coolest thing about that spot to you?

I remember being at Southbank for the Nandos jam and Go Skateboard Day. I just really like the smell coming out of that place, it’s such an organic spot you could smell how herbal it is…it was so banging, I was just like what the fuck!

I remember skating there when I was young and seeing Sen Dawg skating and rapping, it was classic!

 

 

Where’s your favourite place to skate in the world?

Christiana is cool. I like the bowl there, its in-between Sweden and Denmark really, and they are both sick for skating. I’ve never been to America but I really want to skate the LES Park in New York.

 

 

Same. What skate video is your favourite?

It’s probably Lakai’s Fully Flared, it was the first video I was like yeah!

I just like the beginning, the intro. I thought it was real because it was so young. I didn’t realise who Spike Jonze was and that one of the sickest directors was a skater!

 

 

What was your favourite part of that intro?

Marc Johnson’s Backside 5-0 through the ledge as it explodes whilst it’s grinding. That was sick.

 

 

 

 

Who’s your favourite musician to listen to?

Probably Bob Dylan. The tunes that the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix ended up covering, all roads lead back to Bob Dylan.

 

 

Who’s got your favourite style on a skateboard?

Mark Suciu

 

 

Do you have any advice for musicians trying to make it?

Yeah just like, if that’s what you want to do it, just do it!

 

 

Who’s your favourite photographer?

Harmony Korrine’s cool

 

 

Who’s your favourite skate photographer?

Spike Jonze

 

 

Do you have a favourite film?

Yeah. I really like films. There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day Lewis. It’s just sick, it’s a great historical film, and it’s a great watch.

I like After Hours too by Martin Scorsese too.

 

 

Do you have a favourite artist?

Matthew Klarwein. He did Miles Davis’ album cover artworks and then I really like Peter Green too; he’s a musician from Fleetwood Mac.

I also like John Piper, he’s the artist who’s art I’m basing this next record I’m about to release on. It’s called a Piper for Janet because my granny’s friend drew a John Piper style painting for her, he used a lot of watercolour and collage so the front cover of this record is based on him and he’s a British Painter. John Piper, he’s pretty cool

I like Edward Ruscha; he’s a photographer but he did a lot of stuff like taking photos of carparks and gas station in LA and Route 66 from specific perspectives back in the 60s and stuff like that.

 

 

Dope. Lastly when are all your new songs going to be released?

Next couple of months; they should all be out in January.

 

 

Sounds good, look forward to it. Any last words Cosmo?

For anybody who’s out there reading this thanks for supporting me.