Ed Syder is a skater and illustrator living in Sheffield and looking at his artwork you can see he loves skateboarding and music and the connection between the two of them in the format of skate videos. So we were hyped when he sent us this 10 track mix playlist based around classic skate videos with soundtracks that he can’t stop listening to.
Read what Ed had to say about putting together his playlist and also read our take on his selections and the sections that they soundtracked below.
My song choices are taken from my favourite skate videos, namely ‘Goldfish’, ‘Boys Of Summer’, ‘Bag of Suck’ and ‘Video Days’.
These songs will always make me think of the video parts, like I can’t hear that Santana song without seeing Paulo Diaz skate switch.
This sort of thing is what I like to hear in my head when I’m skating, these songs will help you calm down and relax so you can focus on Slappying curbs at high speed.
1. Love – “Seven & Seven Is”: Featured in Rudy Johnson’s section in ‘Goldfish’
This track features in Rudy Johnson’s Goldfish section. Amongst all of the mid-90s ledge bangers he nails in this, he also somehow Nollie Flip Frontside 50-50s a makeshift hubba ledge. Not enough people do that trick and not enough people talk about Rudy Johnson.
2. Otis Redding – “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay”: Featured in Rick Howard’s section in ‘Goldfish’
Soundtracking Rick Howard’s Goldfish section, this relaxed song suits his laidback style. The whistling melody of this song is timeless and and so are Rick’s stylish Tre Flips in this part.
3. Santana – “Evil Ways”: Featured in Chocolate Skateboards’ Section in ‘Goldfish’
This tune scores Chocolate’s introduction to the skate world in Goldfish featuring Mike York with a banging line, Paulo Diaz’s pop, Gabriel Rodriguez’s relaxed style and flowing ledge lines from Chico Brenes, Richard Mulder, Shamil Randle and Ben Sanchez. This section showed a glimpse of how good mid-90s Chocolate Skateboards output would go on to be. Get it on rotation to see it for yourself.
4. Don Henley – “Boys of Summer” & 5. Joe Jackson – “Steppin’ Out”: Both Featured in ‘Boys of Summer’
Boys of Summer is the perfect example of a skate video that you wished you and your homies could make if you lived in LA, were all sponsored by a series of the sickest brands in the game and had endless free time. But they didn’t and you couldn’t but fuck it. We all love to dream and this is a great head start.
These songs feature in the intro and the first section of this classic lo-fi skate video filmed mostly on iPhone with parts and rad clips from Alex Olson, AVE, Jerry HSU, AVE Eric Koston, Guy Mariano, Mike Carroll, Andrew Allen and more.
6. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – “Coma Girl”: Featured in Jason Adams’ ‘Bag of Suck’ section
This is The Kid’s Bag of Suck section music. From the streets of San Jose to its skateparks and carparks, Jason Adams steadily crushes everything in his path with his unique style, trick selection and spots that make a nod to all eras of skating.
7. Them – “My Lonely Sad Eyes”: Featured in Jose Rojo’s part in ‘Bag of Suck’
Jose Rojo Backside Flip Nosegrinds down a handrail in this section and makes it look like he did it down a ledge, enough said. Get it on rotation to hear this tune and see the library of tech tricks he delivers in this section with his smooth style.
8. Lilys – “Ginger”: Featured in the Friends Section of ‘Bag of Suck’
This track scores the fully Tiltmode friend’s section to Bag of Suck and for the hijinx, cameos and sick clips of Bobby Puleo, Marc Johnson, Tony Cox, Cairo and this song alone, this part of the video more than deserves a few rewinds.
9. Rod Stewart – “Young Turks”: Featured in Louie Barletta’s section in ‘Bag of Suck’
Louie Barletta’s song in Bag of Suck, captures how eccentric and creative he is on and off his skateboard. Skating to Rod Stewart does not sound like a good idea on paper but just like his Nose Manual Grab and Boardslide to run off and back on that he does down that rail, both somehow fit and land perfectly.
10. War – “Low Rider”: Featured twice in ‘Video Days’
Directed by Spike Jonze, starring The Gonz, Jason Lee, Guy Mariano, Rudy Johnson and Jordan Richter, Video Days is beyond rad. It set the standard for what a modern skate video should be. For skaters at the time it was the best thing since sliced bread, like the internet is for skaters now. But now you can watch Video Days anytime you want, on the internet, like you’re about to now, to watch all of their banging parts and hear this song in the Intro and Outro to this classic.
