Morph has filmed a series of some of the gnarliest and most stylish tricks that have been done in England over the last few decades. His keen eye and talent on a skateboard and handle of his camera, keen wit and humour helped him to position himself at the exact right spots to film and make edits for some of the sickest tricks for some of the biggest UK skate brands and beyond
So after years of watching his banging skate clips, we hit him up to join The No Comply Network and we were hyped to find out that he was down to join.
Quickly into our chat, he revealed to us that he no longer works for Palace Skateboards and that he is not only filming two videos, one in London and the other in Barcelona, but that he wanted to release the promo for the London edit in collaboration with us.
So we had a long conversation about the reason he has parted ways with Palace Skateboards, the skaters and tricks that will feature in both of his upcoming London and Barcelona videos, in London with Chris Oliver, Jak Pietryga and in Barcelona with Flo Marfaing and Tom Penny, his first major video Routes, Yam Dat, the stories behind how he started to work for Blueprint Skateboards, his favourite Blueprint video to film, partnering with Henry Edwards-Wood to produce the monthly Hold Tight London edit series, his long history of filming with Chewy Cannon, going to Sicily with Danny Brady, how he got his job at Palace Skateboards, filming for Palace, starting his e-cig brand Piff Sticks, uniting with grime icon Big Narstie to promote Piff Sticks, his stories of living in his fully skateable East London warehouse with a mini ramp – The Clapton Castle and his favourite skate videos, skaters, filmers and spots in London and around the world of all-time and a lot more.
Read it below to find it all out for yourseld
Morph, Filming.
So you grew up in Walthamstow. So when did you first see skateboarding?
I think it was like I had a couple of friends back in the day who were like into skating and things like that, and then obviously the Tony Hawk games, you know, like they came out around the same time so, naturally it was like, oh, it didn’t seem, it didn’t seem mad impossible to you know, go from the computer game to skating, because there were people I knew who had skateboards and that, and they knew how to do a couple tricks and that.
So it was like, ah, there was a little ‘in’ there innit, like if I didn’t know anyone who skated, I probably wouldn’t have fucking jumped on a board. Do you know what I mean? But yeah, I mean the skate park just opened round the corner from my house and there was quite a big scene and then, yeah, it just all started from there when the Walthamstow Skatepark opened and that!
What year was that man?
I’m 36 now, that would have been at least 22 and a half years, 22, 23 years ago so 2001
It’s like if you talk to people from the 90s and even our era, it was just like oh, this mag, like that mag, like this cover, videos didn’t come out that often
Yeah, that was the only outlet people had innit, so it was all we had to work with back then. It was like covers and mags.
Yeah
That was our go-to. Do you know what I mean? Like wait a month to see what it was. It was a lot of waiting around back in the day innit. You know, like you’d have to wait around for videos to come out. You’d have to wait around for fucking magazines to drop all sorts of things.
Who were the people you were skating with from the get-go?
So it would have been like Joe Buddle, Joe Sivell, Jak Pietryga, and a few other unheard-of homies and Paco who does the Yes Fam stuff. That was basically my crew when I was growing up, basically
That’s sick. Jak’s still smashing it. I’ve just seen some recent footage of him at Finsbury Skatepark and it’s like he’s even better than he was
Yeah Jak’s ageing like a fine wine man. He’s getting better, and we’re filming loads of shit. We’ve actually got a load of shit we’ve got together. We’re filming for one of those two videos I mentioned.
That’s rad man, that’s cool.
Jak is very slept on and man, he’s one of my best mates. He has been a good skateboarder since the day I met him, like since the day I met him, like 23 years ago, he was already good. I’m saying like already had Tre Flips on lock! Just like all the things that you see him bang out nowadays like he had that stuff. Obviously not as well as he does now, but he had that stuff. He was doing tricks, Jak’s a good fucking skater man, like really good and has been for a long, long long while.
Morph and Jak filming
He definitely should have been coming up with Nick Jensen and Snowy‘s generation, you know what I mean? Because he’s their age and that.
For sure. I just remember first seeing him skate in a day in the city thing that he did and I was like this geezer can do anything,
I remember going out with him on the days they were filming that actually back in the day, that was when I wasn’t really being taken seriously as a filmer because I was so young. So it was one of them ones, but obviously I was filming and that, but not like not for Day’s in the City’s and shit. Do you know what I mean? Jak done that Guido one with like Shaun Witherup and Chris Ault I think it was
Yeah. All I remember Jak was killing it and Shaun did all those crazy manuals on the cheese at Southbank that still to this day I haven’t seen anybody kill it that hard.
That’s his block, like forever that will be his block. I think people have even forgot what he’s done on it and they go there and do like a Manual, Kickflip Fakie Manual and they think they’ve done something real good. And you’re like, nah, Shaun used to go up there and do like a Nose Manual and then he’d stand there in Nose Manual for about 40 seconds and then he’d start to come down and then he’d Nollie Flip out or something and you’re like mate, yeah, this guy’s chilling on that block.
He has done countless variations Switch Nose Manny, Flip Nose Manny. You know like all the variations he actually killed that block. I can’t even lie. I don’t know what he’s doing with himself now, but definitely that’s Shaun Witherup’s block still.
Another interesting thing you said is that people weren’t taking you seriously as a filmer around that time but you did have a camera and you were filming. So, when did you first get a camera and start filming in the first place?
Well, it was weird because basically I used to be like, I used to be a football kid innit. So, when I started this skate ting, my dad had invested into this football thing for years and years. You know what I mean. I’d been doing football since I was like 10, 11, innit. So when I started picking up my skateboard and wanting to fly around on a skateboard and I weren’t very good, he was like what the fuck are you doing? You can’t just give up football, like you’re actually good at it.
And I was like I couldn’t. You know what? I couldn’t take the like, the having to train and having to go on a Sunday and with skating it was different, isn’t it? You can just go skate when you wanted innit and it just so happened I felt like I needed to go skating every fucking day. So I completely stopped doing that and was skating instead.
But I was still playing football at the time and I remember I broke my arm. I bust my arm coming down some hill innit and so that was it for football, because I was a goalkeeper, more like that was my way out innit. I was like I can’t go back to football with this, so like, anyway, at the time I had a camera and I was trying to still go out with Jak and the boys. Obviously I couldn’t skate, I had a cast on and that.
And when I was young I was only like 16 I weren’t like one of these rebel youths who’d be cutting my cast off and that like nah, nah, I kept the cast on. You know what I’m saying? So, yeah, I picked up a camera, started going out filming with Jak and them man and we were filming.
We made like little videos that people have never seen, probably will never ever see and then we done a couple sponsor me tapes. And then when my dad saw that I was kind of on it, he bought me this Canon camera, you know, like the Canon one with the handle back in the day?
Yeah
I got that ting for Christmas, on my birthday, and I remember that was the step up innit. You know, like people kind of looked at man a little bit seriously like oh OK, this kid’s got a camera that he can use.
Because 16, 17 years ago, having a camera and being able to capture footage and stuff weren’t easy. It wasn’t like how it is now. I had all this stuff. I had a laptop that had a firewire cable. I mean you have to have all of these things like it weren’t just like oh yeah, yeah, you can just upload that. It was a bit mad. I’ve still got hundreds of tapes in my house. Just there, like one day I’ll go through them innit, but yeah.
That’s sick that you archived it all
So yeah, that’s how I got into filming and obviously because there was no-one else who was filming with our crew, it just become a natural thing innit. It’s like I just would be filming, obviously I was still skating and that but yeah, it just got to the point where Jak started getting really good and then obviously people started offering him sponsorships and this, that and the other. That led on to like Jak going on trips and being like, yeah, can I bring my mate Morph? And then I’d go on trips like the Harmony trip and all of them things and yeah, so obviously my name was getting in videos and people online knew about me from that. And then, it led on to me working with Blueprint. It weren’t a straight away thing, but yeah, I ended up working for Blueprint.
Yeah, man, back in 2003, 2004, Blueprint were the biggest brand in the UK
Yeah, because I remember going to like the Lost and Found premiere and I was like bummed but at the same time stoked, because there was two songs in the video that I was going to use for my video. I was like bummed but at the same time I was kind of like oh no, that might be a good thing. Like if I already thought of those, that was a good idea, do you know what I mean?
So I remember watching the Lost and Found video and being like oh, the next Blueprint video, yeah, I want to have my name at the end of that video. You know, like that was my in my head, I was like that’s what I want to do innit, like that’s it. Then by the time it happened, I’d filmed the last video they did. So it was kind of a dream come true, innit.
Was that Making Friends With The Colour Blue, that one?
Yeah, it was Making Friends with The Colour Blue. Basically, after Lost and Found, Chewy Cannon and Neil Smith moved to London. Chewy was at South Bank a lot and so was I.
Then we got friendly and we used to go filming all the time. Chewy kind of liked it because it weren’t so business when he would come out with me, it was like we could just go skating and then if something happened, it happened innit. It weren’t like when he was filming for Blueprint he would have to ring Ches and be like oh, I’ve got a spot and I’m going to do this and you know he had to be a bit more prepared, whereas when he was coming out skating with me we could just skate innit. I weren’t bothered whether we got clips or not innit, but naturally like when you’ve kind of got no pressure on you, you get something good innit. So that’s kind of how me and Chewy worked.
Then I think Dan Magee started getting me to film Jensen. And then when Jensen was like, yeah, yeah, I can film with this dude, like they offered me a job because I think Jensen was quite funny with who he was going filming and stuff with.
But yeah, it turned out that they all liked me. So, yeah, I got the job, which I was quite surprised about, because there were people like Hold Tight Henry doing some stuff with them when I was at the same times. So I presumed those lot would be like way ahead in line of me, but apparently not. So I was like super gassed when I got the job, so yeah, it’s kind of sick.
I mean like you’re an easy person to get along with and like ultimately, that’s what you want from somebody to film with. Like you said, like how you explain, you went out with Chewy with no pressure. Like that’s important to people, you know?
Yeah, I think that’s what it was like. I’ve always hung around with like older people innit as a kid growing up. So it was like because I hung around with Paco and them, they kind of instilled in me, like what you do and don’t do around certain people. I mean like regardless of how much you’ve drunk or how much you’ve smoked, or blah blah. So you know, like I had these things instilled in me, so when I’ll be on trips with these man on Blueprint, like I weren’t acting like a kid.
Obviously I was still a bit gassed innit. It’s like man, I was 16, 17, 18 or whatever. I’m obviously going to be the loudest one in the van, I’m obviously going to be talking a bag of shit, but not enough to piss people off. Do you know what I’m saying? Yeah, enough for it to be like fun. Yeah, Morph’s a character or whatever, but yeah, it was good. It was good days, man. Them Blueprint days were good and I never, even from the oldest, like Paul Shier and Mark Baines, none of them made me feel like, oh, we don’t want to film with this kid or whatever because I was young, I was like 17 going on 18 at these times.
You know that’s young innit, especially as Blueprint was quite a tight-knit thing…Now they’ve just got some kid filming and it’s a bit like I could imagine Vaughan Baker, and them man must have been like who is this kid?
Now I’m cool with all them dudes now, like Colin, Vaughan, like Vaughan even when he was working for Supra, taking me on trips, and that’s where I met Tom Penny, do you know what I mean?
Vaughan’s a legend but it sounds like you knew how to be both a fan and filmer and make those two things work for you
It was good meeting them lot from a young age because I’ll be honest, they were my favourite skaters. Like as a kid I didn’t give a shit about American stuff, like well, I’d watch, Yeah Right and that, but I weren’t buying like Thrasher and American mags and that – it was all about English stuff innit.
So like I after I’d met them I’d met my idols innit, so any skaters I’d meet after that. It was kind of like you can’t give me attitude or you can’t turn up on a trip and act like you’re someone, because I’ve been around whoever I felt was like you know my idols, so you’re just a chump to me, like that, do you know what I mean?
Since then I’ve never been starstruck about skaters because at 16 I was filming fucking the Blueprint boys who were like my idols. Like Nick Jensen, Colin Kennedy and Paul Shier and that. So I kind of lost that very quickly.
So any other skaters I’ve been around, like half the time, I don’t know who these skaters are, and I’ll be chatting to someone else after I’ve met them days later. They will be like, did you not realise that was so and so? I’m like, oh no, I didn’t. Actually that’s the worst thing about me. In Barcelona, I meet all these famous skaters. I don’t know who the fuck they are but we just get on and that, and the next day people will be like you did you not realise that was like Chris Joslin…I’m like, oh, I just thought it was Chris. Like whoever.
We’re all just people. Yeah, 100%, man, I think you just gotta be always aware that there’s people out there that really look up to you so, like you know, if a kid just come up to you, maybe it’s not the chance to be like yo, actually I can’t talk to you right now, like give them like a minute. But then there’s other things where it’s like a famous pro like Gino or Cardiel or someone like that are visiting your city. They don’t necessarily need somebody to start talking about a trick that they did 20 years ago. They just want to get to know people as they are.
It’s funny you should say that because I had stayed with Winkle the filmer in Barcelona. So I come home and then like a week later he’s like oh Torey Pudwill is gonna be in London, I told him to link up with you.
I’m like, alright, cool. I’ve never met Torey. I don’t know him or his filmer or anything. But at the same time it’s like I weren’t filming for him, filming him for anything. So it was like I didn’t really need to be there. But, I met up with them for the first day, took him around. Obviously I’ve never met him. I knew who he was. I thought he might be like you know, some typical just American Red Bull dude, like just you know, on some shit. But he was the fucking nicest guy, bro. I swear to God, he was like the nicest dude I’ve met in a long while and it was super cool to get to know him now. We would be skating around randomly and people would just stop and be like hey, are you Torey Pudwill?
I was like oh shit, I forgot. You’re a bit of a superstar, literally, like some dudes didn’t even look like skaters, you know. And they would stop and be like, hey, you’re in like the street league and stuff right, and I would just be like, what does this guy look like!? Looks like he’s hitting the gym every day. He doesn’t even look like a skater. Everyone knew him in London, anywhere we were chilling.
Yeah he runs a company with Daewon called Thank You
I’m quite bad with keeping up with skateboarding, like you know where I’ve come back and I’m just a bit like there’s so much to catch up on.
I’ll just let it…I’ll just catch up on it when it happens, isn’t it obvious like there’s certain things that I don’t know? And he’s talking about his brand, Thank You and that and I’m like, oh yeah, what’s that? He must think I’m some ignorant guy, because I’m just like, yeah, who’s he got on riding for it? He’s like, oh, Daewon Song .I’m like that sounds like a pretty heavy team you’ve got there, Torey, innit! But yeah, man, it was good to get to know him and talk about his brand because now I’m watching more of his things obviously and I’m like, I like what you’re doing and Daewon is one of my favourites. I’ve been a fan of that guy from time. Sick that you got him on The No Comply Network.
When did you actually get your first proper skateboard man?
I remember the first proper board I had was a Blueprint Vaughan Baker perpetual board and the smell of them boards was weird man, but like I don’t know, it was banging. I had two boards up on my wall, on the top of my wardrobe in my bedroom. I would just smell like these Blueprint boards which I have never even smelled again to this day. I don’t know what they’ve done to make them smell like that. It must have been the print on it or something but damn, it was good man, it was like a nice pine. I don’t know
So, yeah, things like that, they’re ingrained, man because, yeah, it’s just like things weren’t so throwaway back in the day and I probably just sound like every other old dude. But you know, you look at something like Waiting for The World or First Broadcast and like you watch it now and it’s still a sick video, but it’s not like the best video in the world, but it just represented something. Do you know what I mean?
It represented something and it was an era, a style and a whole. It was London, England, wasn’t it? That’s like it represented so much, whereas, like with like Instagram and things like this nowadays. I’m not trying to hate on it, because it just is what it is, but you know, like there’s so much of it, there’s nothing that’s going to get ingrained in your head anymore, because you’re just on to the next thing. Do you know what I mean? Whereas, like looping videos or any other videos you liked when you were a kid, you know for a fact that they don’t work no more because you watched them over and over and over and over.
You know like, yeah, I think it. I think it was also just because, like you had this physical stack of like tapes and DVDs. It meant a lot to people. What was the first skate video that you just had on rotation? Like you always just kept watching it
I remember watching First Broadcast and then going to Jak’s house and then going into Slam and wanting like a British video innit.
I bought two. I bought the first Heroin Skateboards video
Then I bought Driving South by Mark Baines.
Why did you buy Driving South?
Basically I don’t know if this is true, but I heard that Mark Baines and Ches – Neil Chester – had an argument about how easy it is to make a video or how hard it is to make a video, and Baines was like I could make a video well easy, and Ches was like go for it.
Then I don’t know if this is true, but like that’s what I heard innit and then the outcome of that was Driving South, made by Mark Baines, and yeah, that was my ting, I had that on all the time.
Were you watching any other videos in that era?
Jus Foolin, the 50-50 video. So like for me that was mad, because that whole video didn’t really vibe with all the other videos that I’d seen already. Like they were all Blueprint style videos, you know?
I mean like if there was American videos then I kind of not disregarded them…but, you know, watched them but didn’t think they had much effect on what we were doing over here. So like I felt like every video kind of looked like a Blueprint video almost. Like even if you look at like the Landscape video, for instance, like it’s made by Chris Massey – rest in peace and that but like it’s very Blueprint-esque.
Do you know what I mean? You can tell they all chilled together and they probably like would have taken the piss out of each other for like tunes if they were to use an off-tune or something.
So I feel like back in the day everyone was trying to tune into that same vibe. Do you know what I mean? Like that’s what I got, that’s what I got from back then. But then when I saw that 50-50 video, Jus Foolin it was like there was, you know, reggae music. You had hip-hop in it and all different types of music edited by Alan Glass, and I remember seeing that video and being like, oh, okay, these man, okay, you don’t have to use like indie pop, or weird music.
Then when I started making my own video. I was like because obviously I’ve been making videos, I’m thinking like I’ll go make them like Blueprint videos or like you know, like that sort of style, you know like that sort of music, and yeah, then I watched that and was like, yeah, nice, I want to throw some hip-hop in there, like do this my way.
Thinking about your own skate videos, like you made a video and that was Routes. Tell me your favourite memories of putting that together.
Well, I mean that was just great because I’d already made a little video before, but I’d never like properly released it, it was one of them ones. Just it was for us a lot like all of our mates, we all just watched it. It didn’t go any further than that.
Basically, I think I might have gave one copy to Lucien Clarke when we were like 15, but other than that we didn’t do anything with it.
Then with this Routes video we’ve done a premiere for it and it was like Kev Parrot was there, Mark Brewster was there, there was like quite a few heads and I was like, oh shit, like you guys are going to see the video.
Yeah, I was gassed, but, that was good because we had like our main London boys like Walthamstow boys, even like Jak, a couple other people, and then, Dave Davies who lives in Ipswich, Chris Ault, Joe Buddle, David Davies, Alex Greaves, Noodles, Matt Simpson, Joe Sivell and they used to come down and stay at my house and we’d go skating every weekend.
We ended up filming this video and it was kind of weird because we were like Walthamstow but we didn’t really feel like we were London boys. You know even though we was only like 17 minutes on the train to Walthamstow, we had our own thing going on in Walthamstow, it was like we had graffiti writers, inliners, BMXers, and we all had this little park and we were all like one big crew.
So, like when we’d go to London, it’d be like oh, we’re going into London, do you know what I mean? So like we wouldn’t just go to South Bank, we’d be going and like hitting all the spots and filming.
So when I brought Routes out, I think a lot of London people were like fuck these guys like. But they then saw that these guys they’ve really been going out and doing stuff. But you know, I mean no one really thought that like because they’re coming to South Bank maybe once a month, because we’d only go there when it was wet innit, like what other reason would we go to South Bank?
To us it made no sense innit, like go there when it’s wet, it’s undercover, but otherwise you want to be in the streets.
So obviously we’ve done that video and with all the different people – Joe Sivell, Jak and a few other people in it are still skating.
But yeah it was a good video that definitely didn’t exactly put me on the map, but it was definitely like people were like oh okay, this guy’s actually capable of going out and making his own thing, and I was only like 17, I think at the time.
So it was like I said, back then not many people had them sort of things, like a laptop where you could put footage onto and then edit it and then make a video. Do you know what I mean? It wasn’t as easy as that. I’m sure there were people with the capabilities. They just didn’t have the actual stuff to do it on. Do you understand?
How did you come up with the idea of the tube map cover for Routes?
It was funny actually you know what it’s mad because I used that tube map and then Magee used the same layout, like the Lost and Found video had come out and they’d done Jensen’s board with you know the London Underground stuff.
I was like, oh man, like it’s gonna look like a bit that, but I fully had that cover, like Joe Sivell made that cover on MS Paint, like two years prior but I was stoked at the same time, it had a good reception, it got in the magazines, I got it reviewed in a couple of magazines and that, and I was like 17. I was like so gassed can you imagine that I’d only been skating a few years and people like my boy Jak, and that had been like skating for like eight, nine years, and like it was nice to be able to put a video out and then people be like who’s this Jak guy?
But then everyone got sponsored from that and then I think Chris got on Heroin Skateboards and Jak got on The Harmony, yeah, that’s when it was like that was good, because everyone was going on trips because I’d filmed that video. They would be like, oh, get Morph to come on the trips and obviously it weren’t a paid thing but it was still like as a kid you’re like, fuck, yes, I’m on tour man!
Yeah of course
Yeah, yeah, I remember like all those dudes like Chris Ault, like Dave Davis, like used to skate with all of the men and they all fucking killed it.
So your Walthamstow crew came together with Henry and the Concrete Poets to form Hold Tight London. How did that go down from your perspective?
Yeah, so basically, we had obviously the Walthamstow crew, and obviously I was doing work with Blueprint as well, so it’s like I’m out with the boys and I’m filming stuff. That would be it you know? Like right, this is Blueprint stuff and this can be your stuff. Do you know what I mean? Like there was a very big difference. Do you know what I mean? Like, because you know you knew what was going where.
We were saying you knew when you had something saved for the Blueprint video and then other stuff would just be like you know, Chewy doing…not whatever, but Chewy’s one of those skaters, he could do a three trick line and it just looked good rather than being like the best skating in the world. So I’d like film loads of clips of him, loads of bits of Smithy, you know. So I was able to give Henry like quite a bit of good stuff and then I was obviously with Jak, so that was like our crew.
Jak, the Routes crew, and then obviously Henry had his Concrete Poets crew and then between us coming together like everyone else wanted to then be involved because they were like oh, it looks like you guys are doing this thing because I think we were the first people to do like consistent monthly edits. For one year innit, every month we brought out an edit, on the dot. We brought out like a three, four minute edit and then from that Henry was able to then like remix the video, like make a video out of all of it, and then at the end he had the whole type North versus South thing and it ended up being quite a big thing for the time anyway. But yeah, big up, Henry, that was mostly Henry, I just filmed alongside I was working at at Blueprint at the time.
So I fully said to Henry like you look like you know what you’re doing with the editing, I mean every edit you brought out looks sick, so just keep doing what you’re doing in it.
So like, naturally, that was his thing, you know, and I just kept bouncing and bouncing from project to project. So I wasn’t trying to call myself, ‘Hold Tight Morph’, you know what I mean? Like I just wanted to go on to the next thing. I think Henry held on to it for a little bit and you know, I think always felt like Henry could have definitely have done more. I wonder where he is now. I hope he’s okay.
Henry was fucking really good at his craft man really good. He made some really good things for skateboarding back then. Hold Tight London. It was his vision innit. Like good luck to him. I wish him all the best. I wish I could see him more, man.
What was your favourite edit to make or to film for Palace?
I remember the DEFINITELY BRADY edit where we went to Sicily with all the others. It was basically an Adidas trip, but me and Brady went there as well and filmed for Brady’s Welcome to Palace. I think that was one of my favourites from back in the day. That was one of my favourites because it was like…I felt, I was like I done that. I filmed that. There was a couple other clips from other people, but there ain’t many Palace edits that like are me only, do you know what I’m saying?
Like, the only other one I can think off the top of my head is the recent one, the most recent Chewy one that I had out.
It’s called Morph Eye.
Why was the Palace Brady edit your favourite?
Because before that I was like taping the camera and taping the lens on and stuff and I managed to like glue a step down ring onto the camera.
Because when I was working at Blueprint, I got taught how to film good, like proper innit, not just film like if you’re gonna film, it’s gotta look like proper. Do you know what I mean? So, like you know, taping a lens on and having like the sun dial in the footage, like it just didn’t sit well with me. Like I understood they wanted to make like a crusty video about the same time I wanted to make like a good crusty video. Do you know what I’m saying?
So I managed to get the mark one lens fixed on there and that was when I was like filming Brady on that Sicily trip and I remember didn’t have to tape a lens on when I wanted to go film fish and then untape it.
When I was filming long lens, I just was able to quickly screw the mark one on, screw it off, boom, and it made my filming better because obviously I knew how to film with a mark one. Do you know what I mean?
That’s easily one of Brady’s best sections.
Man, yeah, he’s got that one clip in it as well, which is, quite funny, where my phone rings halfway through the clip. I’m like you can hear on the phone like yo, what’s going on, like I’ve got something there if you want it. I’m like one second and then, as he’s doing the trick, down the phone he says there’s two and a half, there, isn’t it? Then he lands the trick. I’m like what two and a half, how much I’m like, yeah, man, I’ll take that and then Lev left it in the edit.
When the music changes over, he does a Feeble in, it’s like on a bank and then a bar at the top and he does like Feeble pop back into the bank and I’m filming it, fish. I’m like hang on, one second, one second, film, he lands it and then I’m like yeah, I’ve just finished here, I’m gonna come back and grab that now or some shit. I was just the only filmer innit. It was me and Lev and it was like, yeah, I just have good memories of that trip.
How did Brady’s Kickflip Sugarcane go down and what was it like to film?
I just got to the point where I was lazy and I wanted to roll a spliff. I just set the camera up and told Chewy to press record. So technically Chewy filmed it, but obviously I put the camera where it needed to be, but anyway, I’ll be honest, that was pretty amazing.
When he done that, I that was one of the first times I saw a flip into like some sort of cane do you know what I mean? Like some Sugarcane stuff. It worked and it ground real nice Yeah, I was stoked to film that with Brady actually because I actually really like Brady. He’s like one of the coolest dudes I know, man. So, yeah, I’m super hyped.
Was it Lev that hit you up or through Chewy that you became the Palace filmer?
I remember Lev asking me like oh, I’m making this brand, like do you want to be the filmer? I was like really why me? And he was like oh who else? I was like I don’t know. Do you know what I mean? I’m not going to give you another name, do you know what I mean? So yeah, it just was like that. Really, I think Chewy probably played a hand in it, because Chewy’s basically taking me everywhere he’s gone. Do you know what I mean? So, like, apart from like adidas stuff and that, anything that he could have brought me in on, he’s brought me in on.
After making that Brady edit and working for Palace on more of their edits, what other edits were you filming for?
So I was like getting freelance work for Sidewalk and freelance work from loads of different people, to be honest, loads of little gigs, like comps to go and film and things like that. Then I started doing those little Yam Dat edits which were London edits where I only used music from people I knew, so it sort of repped their music and then at the same time be dope for an edit or whatever.
How did you start filming with Big Narstie?
When I started Piff Sticks it was because I bought this thing from America called a G-Pen and it was like a vaporiser.
It was one of the first electric cigarettes. I’d looked online and seen that you could pull out one of the things and you can put the weed, you know, like extract stuff, put that on the coil and you could burn it like a pen. You could get like six, seven lugs off it and it’d burn like an electric cigarette, and obviously at the time it was perfect because you know there’s a smoking ban. You could get away with just puffing two puffs on that put it in the pocket and walk away and like someone’s going to be looking for someone with a spliff but there ain’t no spliff, though, do you know? So after I sold loads of these pens, there’s still a demand for them.
So I was like, oh, I might have to buy a load of these and see if they work. Do you know what I mean? Like see if they get sold or whatever. And then, at the same time, I was like because I remember they’d done a collab with Snoop Dogg innit and on a Snoop Dogg pen. So I was like, well, maybe I can do the same in England.
So they had Action Bronson pens, Snoop Dogg pens, The Game pens. So I just took a chance and hit up Big Narstie and was like yo big man, I know that you smoke weed and you actively don’t care, do you know? I mean you’re not, you’re not like you don’t try and hide it from anyone. Like I’m trying to do this, you know, weed pen thing and I’m wondering if you wanted to maybe do a collab and then he literally hit me back about 10 minutes later and he was like that’s fucking weird, bro.
I was just having a conversation with my friend an hour ago about how I wonder how he could get these pens made, because he had also clocked onto them as well innit. So he’s like, yeah, like chat to me innit.
Obviously I explained it to him. We sat down, he came over, smoked a joint and was like yeah, come, let’s do this, let’s get into business innit. And then just yeah, from then for a little while, we were in each other’s pockets for a bit, it’s pretty mad. Like every day this guy would come to my house, like every day, come to the castle and all the young geezers be like the fuck it’s Big Narstie in here, like it was weird as fuck, but, it was fun, man and then, yeah, we just got real tight from then.
Then, yeah, I didn’t actually film any of the edits he put out. I filmed stuff of him and used them in edits of mine right, but I was just a spectator and they just used my house to film some of his videos in it.
Okay.
It’s actually funny because, like today, me and my girl, saw a meme come up today of Big Narstie. It’s the one where he stops the tune and he’s about to spit some bars. I’m literally there and it’s like, fuck man, that was me stopping the music and it was my dad’s house. And this meme’s like still going around. My dad sold the house about seven, eight years ago. It keeps coming up on my internet feed. I’ll be like fuck, that’s my house, man that’s mad.
It’s funny that clip took off when loads of legendary tricks went down at the Calpton Castle too.
We had like loads of people pass through the castle. Man, it was crazy back then like had the whole Flip Skateboards team one time, and that’s when Tom Penny got that cover with the Tre Flip on the mini ramp. I’ve been filming with Tom a bit recently, only a little bit but I’m hoping to get some more stuff of him.
Morph, Shot by Jamie Moses.
Yeah, I need to ask you about the two videos you’re working on but I guess the next question I wanted to ask you about, was what happened between you and Palace and why are you’re no longer working for Palace anymore?
If I’m 100% honest, Palace is a very big company, isn’t it? And things are very different now. They’re not like…how to explain it, it’s not like how brands back in the day you had some wild guy on the team and it was all great. The Betamax video finished and was released and there were certain things that I promised them and I didn’t stick to it, I don’t really want to go too much into it. Like they expected a lot more from me and I fucked up innit.
Do you mean going out and filming with people?
Okay, yeah, I just mean to say like they expected more footage. So it was hard for me to film because everyone has their filmers in it. Like everyone was filming with Austin Bristow or Jack Brooks.
My main thing was to film with Chewy but when he hurt himself I kind of felt like a bit of left out and no one would hit me up. And you know, the only person I really filmed was like the people who come to England like from another country because like they’d be on it.
It weren’t a fact of me being lazy, it’s just I didn’t like begging people to come skate with them, I felt like, oh, if you’re not going to ring me, then I feel like a bit of a dickhead ringing you. Do you know what I mean?
So it kind of looked like I probably wasn’t pulling my weight. And then, I basically said something online to someone. Well, basically I sold some clothes online – Palace clothes – which you’re not allowed to do and then I know it sounds petty, but basically some kid called me out about saying it was fake and I was like what do you mean it’s fake? I was like, I work at Palace innit and we got into a back and forth argument and I think he reported me. I learned that day that like things have changed and when you’re working for people you have to represent the brand innit.
You have to remember everything that you’re doing represents them. Palace really helped me out from when I came out of jail and yeah, I hold no hard feelings against them at all because I get it. You know. They tried to help me. I just couldn’t help myself. But I won’t say any more than that.
You’re one of the people who helped to make Palace what it is and in that way you’re always going to be a part of it.
I was there from the start, but nothing justifies what I was doing at the time for them to have kept me on. You know? It wouldn’t have been fair because if it was someone else doing the same things…
So, yeah, it’s all love on my side, because they kept it 100 with me, they said they’d have a job for me. When I came out of prison and I did and that was priceless, that stopped me from like having meetings every week with probation, you know, they went to monthly meetings because you know I’ve got a job and I’m busy and I’ve got stuff to do. So they weren’t trying to like disrupt that.
That’s great man.
It helped me to transition back to just being out yeah, it was actually really good good of them. When I did get fired anyway, we’d just finished the Betamax video. I’ll be honest with you like, as much as it sucks about money or whatever, it’s given me an opportunity to go and film and do my own thing, and that’s when I’m most happy.
Like working for Palace was great, but the trips were what you’d look forward to.
Because, everyone in London kind of does their own thing innit. I mean Lucien Clarke, he filmed with Austin, Kyle Wilson filmed with Austin and Chewy would have been on to me, but he don’t even skate that much due to his injuries. He was trying to get it back together but I wasn’t trying to push him. You know what I mean? So like, yeah, it’s one of them.
One man I used to get on with was Jahmir Brown and all the others who used to come over from America because I’d go out every day and they’d have a plan, whereas, like in London. It’s more like oh, let’s just go skate and see what happens.
So when did you decide to start filming these two videos in London and Barcelona?
I would just go out and film wherever. So I started this video in London and then, I’ve been filming back and forth from Barcelona, so yeah, I’m working on two videos.
Who was the first person you filmed that got these projects going?
At first I was probably was trying to prove myself by going and filming a load to show everyone that I’m still keen for filming. And then it kind of stopped being that and it started actually being quite fun going out and getting it because me and Chrissy started filming actually me and Chris Oliver.
So me and Chris had the load of stuff stockpiled and now that’s not getting used because he’s got the most footage at the minute and he’s got a new shoe sponsor – he’s skating for adidas now.
I know he’s getting shoes from them through Benny Fairfax, which he deserves yeah.
I can’t think of a single person who, deserves like, more coverage than Chris Oliver. Like he’s consistently blowing my mind, skating everywhere, the dude’s amazing.
Chris is one of the gnarliest skaters out there man and he’s such a chill dude as well. Are there any trick that you think people should know before the video is out?
It’s gonna be good because Chris is just a really good all-round skater. So, like you know as much as he’ll go and find something with a big hip or on a quarter pipe or something, he’s also doing like Wallie Manny Flip Outs and stuff. Do you know what I mean? Or like dope Back Tail Bigspin Out on ledges. You know that he’s still isn’t holding on to something like, he can do tech tricks, he can do handrails, he can do like big drops, big gaps. You know it was depending on the day for him. It’s just different every day.
Yeah Chris has next level amounts of control
So at the minute I’m gonna be dropping a promo of my London video, because we’ve got footage that we know that ain’t going to be in the main video, so it’s just sitting there and we’ve got all this crazy stuff. So I thought let me just make not a whole video, but a 5 to 8 minute video, so it’s a bit of a teaser, basically yeah.
Aside from Chris, who are the main people who will feature in the full London video?
People like Jak Pietryga, Joe Sivell, Neil Smith, Chris Oliver, Billy and my friend Jonathan for the London video.
I’m not sure if they’re all gonna have parts they’re like my main guys, but obviously I’ve got footage from loads and loads of people in London, so you know there’ll be a few cameos in there, but not for the promo, in the full video. This preview is just going to feature Jak, Chris, Jonathan, Billy and Joe Sivell. I might add in a couple of the younger gen too.
You said you’ve been working on another video too in Barcelona, at the same time?
I’ve been filming in Barcelona. Every time I go out there, I end up filming someone new and getting like a minute’s worth of footage and I didn’t feel like the videos would work together. So I decided to just make a London one and then make a Barcelona video, because people’s attention spans as well.
Why have you decided to make two videos?
I don’t want to bring out a really long video that has a lot of sections. That’d be like 11 parts. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, like are they saying this is the Girl video? You know what I mean? And plus, it always just takes longer.
Like, if I’m doing the London one if these guys are finished, why are they waiting for me to go over to Barcelona? And that’s kind of what we felt like with the promo edit that I’m going to bring out with this, because we’re sitting on enough stuff that by the time we get to the videos out next year, they could possibly one-up themselves or we could realise there’s a clip they didn’t want to use. You know what I mean? So this is why I’m putting the teaser out there, just to show people that, not only is this going to be a dope promo because there’s going to be some good footage in it, but it’s also, to show a little sprinkle of what’s to come!
Yeah, it’s a good idea, it’s a matter of me just taking my life-sized Piffman cardboard cutout thing and taking them out on a session one day, and I think I can get enough people off of that.
Okay, that sounds funny.
Yeah, Piffman might even have a part, you know.
Morph and The Barcelona Crew: Shot by @pal_photo
Haha ok. I’ve seen that you’ve been filming with Tom Penny and Flo Marfaing in Barcelona. Who else is going to be in the Barcelona video?
This year I’ve been there three times over a couple of weeks. Do you know what I mean? So, like on average, like 20 days each trip, but on average, one time I was there a month, another time 18 days, another for about three weeks.
So yeah, so let’s just say that, but then I thought maybe I can get a part with my man, you know like that. But then I was always speaking to the guys in the group and they were like, basically, do you think one Barcelona person is going to fit the video? So then I had a bit of thing where I was like, oh shit, maybe I’ll just film a Flo Marfaing part on its own. So then the next time I went to Barca we went to film for this Flo Marfaing part. But I was only there for like a week or something, so he couldn’t.
Morph and Flo Marfaing: Shot by @pal_photo
Actually we went to try to film a couple times but he had like family over in town and he had to spend some time with them innit, yeah, so he had to like take care of them. So I respect that, yeah. But then it gave me time to film with another couple of dudes, who have now got loads of footage, and it’s kind of like okay, I’ve got skaters people in Barcelona, who all have a decent amount of footage each, and it’s like okay, I’m going to have to do two videos.
Yeah, who are the five skaters?
A guy called Francisco Rios on Instagram. He was in that Brian Panebianco’s recent video ‘Not Bad!’. Yeah, he does the Fakie Pop Shuvit Switch Crook on the blue outledge.
Then Pascal Tawadros, Florentin Marfang, Luypa Sin and Nassim Lachhab – The Moroccan brother.
Sick you got Luypa Sin on it!
Man, that dude has just been killing it for so long and it’s all like, if you’ve not noticed, it’s like old school guys in it, people I used to film or would have liked to have filmed. You know what I mean?
So like, yeah, Joe Sivell, Bill, Jak, Pietryga, Smithy and then from the Barcelona side, it’s like dudes I’ve like got clips with over the years, who’s skating I love and I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to work on something, for them to have another part. Like this is it.
Morph and Flo, filming: Shot by @pal_photo
With Flo and Luypa, it’s like you’re bringing back Lordz’s They Don’t Give a Fuck About Us
I was actually gonna call it ’Now They Give a Fuck’ or ‘Now They Want To Give a Fuck About You’ because I wasn’t there at the time.
Filming with Tom Penny, must be a trip man. Have you managed to film many clips with him?
Yeah, I filmed a couple clips with Tom but yeah he was filming a video part. The whole time he was up there with someone, so I wasn’t trying to step on their toes, you know?
Right. So how has it been making this video and putting it all together?
Basically, I’ve just had a lot of fun filming the boys who I used to film back in the day, and it’s crazy because I’m not getting paid anything to do it and I’m having the best time of my life. So it just goes to show sometimes, you know, I mean like it doesn’t matter about the job or the money. This is like all it comes down to, is the fact I’m still out there and I’m still being positive and still skating and making sure that’s like what I’m doing instead of any other shit.
That’s why I spend so much time in Barcelona. Man like I go over there, I get showed mad love and it’s like people want to film.
Speaking of things you like, what’s your favourite skate video of all-time and why?
Probably Lost and Found, because at that point I was in a position where it wasn’t crazy for me to maybe have been involved if I was more on it at the time. I saw that Andrew Morgan had credit, he’d filmed some stuff with his brother Steph Morgan for the video, and I used to skate with them guys.
So I was like, ah, the next video they bring out I want to be a part of. So it was like for that, like seeing that video and them using the tunes that I wanted to use and everything. I was like, oh man, it’s like. So yeah, that’s my favourite video, because it made me go out and know what I want.
I was like I want Blueprint to know about me and yeah, it happened. The dream came true.
Who had your favourite part in Lost and Found?
I think it was Brady’s. I think because we hadn’t seen much from Brady since First Broadcast, and in that you knew Shier got tricks, you know Colin had tricks, you know Vaughan had tricks, Smithy you knew was a bad boy, it was just like Brady, we didn’t actually see much, he didn’t have a part in First Broadcast and that, you know what I’m saying?
He had a couple tricks in Mark Baines’ part, but that was it yeah and so for me it was like when I saw that part I was like, oh my god, this damn Brady guy, because I used to just think from the photos that I saw like, he was big on Backside Flip stuff and you know just a certain way of skating.
But then I watched that video and it was just like, nah, he’s got it and that tune is one of my favourite tunes and the way that goes on to the Sixto Rodriguez Sugar Man tune as well, it’s just, hard.
I think unbiasedly, I was stoked on Brady’s and Jensen because they felt like they were like not our age, but like a tiny bit older.
Who’s your favourite skater of all time?
I guess it’s a bias, but it’s Jak Pietryga.
To be honest, he’s one of my favourite skaters but obviously, growing up, Jensen was my favourite. I used to look up to Jensen.
But Jak, because he’s like consistently always been good and like he’s my fucking brother.
Yeah, man, and like he’s been slept on for years and that, like, obviously he didn’t…like he got…
He was, you know, he was doing his thing with Nike. He didn’t get completely slept on. But you know, like he could still be in the game. But he’s always worked a job. He’s always just been grateful for what he gets and skates because he wants to skate. I mean he ain’t doing it because he’s trying to keep up a skill set or whatever. He’s just going out to skate for fun innit.
What’s your favourite skate spot in London?
It used to be Shell Centre. I loved it, man,
Sick. What’s your favourite trick that you’ve done that was filmed?
Maybe that Tre Flip Hippy Jump was a good one, because I needed a trick. And it was like you know, I haven’t skated for four years, isn’t it? So I was like it’s so tricky, man. I was like what am I going to do? I can’t be arsed to do it down anything. It’s going to look shit if I do it down four stairs or something. Do you know what I mean? So I was like what can I do?
Morph, Tre Flip Hippy Jump, Shot by Rafski,.
Then I had this idea of like, doing it outside the Courts of Justice with police tape. So we bought the police tape and just done that. So, yeah, that’s one of my Favourites, I think. Or the Tre Flip on the mini at Clapton Castle where I’m holding the fake AK47!
What’s your favourite spot in the world and why?
MACBA. Easy choice, because it’s just the best floor in the world. There’s just always stuff going on there. Man, it’s a good place to hang out.
What’s your favourite trick you’ve seen go down in person at MACBA?
I saw Jak do a Switch Bigspin down the four year probably the best thing I’ve ever seen, man. I’ve seen other stuff and that, like real technical skating, and I’ve got lines there for my video. But we were only kids innit. I was like, yeah, that’s nuts to this day, man.
Who’s your favourite skate filmmaker?
Magee is not my favourite filmmaker, but he’s made some of my favourite stuff, some of my favourite things I watched or loved growing up. It was him who made them and like he gave me an opportunity on Blueprint, which was crazy at the time. Do you know what I mean? Like so, yeah, I’d say Dan Magee, but then,I love Rye, I love Kev Parrott.
Kev’s probably done for me, just as much as Magee has done for me as well. Do you know what I mean?
So it’s just Kev didn’t make First Broadcast, but he’s made some banging videos. But it’s just First Broadcast and Waiting for the World, they’re them videos that are ingrained in your head. So I’d have to say Magee, like when I was growing up in it, I was gassed, just to meet him or whatever, like I was gassed innit.
Do you have any advice for skaters reading this?
I mean, I think people just need to be quite aware of what they’re doing. I’ve done a lot of drugs in my time. I’ve smoked weed since I was like 16 years old or whatever and I fucking always thought that I was invincible to that sort of stuff. Do you know what I mean? Because, like you know, if a couple of mates you know stopped smoking 10 years ago, it’s just makes you probably a bit skitz or whatever, and like none of that stuff’s ever affected me.
But then one day it did last year around the same time around now, yeah, last year my birthday, and I thought when I got hospitalised, innit, it just it made me realise that like there’s a lot of things that you go through and you don’t realise that you haven’t really processed them and it can hit you anytime. So like people just need to be aware that if it hasn’t happened to you yet, or if you…hopefully it never will happen to you innit, but like, just be aware that like it could innit, like because, like I said, I didn’t know where it came from.You know what I mean. Like I didn’t know, if there weren’t people around me that at the time I would…
If you’re smoking weed and it’s not doing you any good, like mentally or money-wise it means you’re smoking too much, and then you’ve got anxiety because you can’t pay your bills or things like that, you need to knock it on the head.
Anxiety because you can’t pay your bills or things like that, you need to knock it on the head. Like weeds are drugs as well as everything else. Do you know what I mean? And I’m not saying…I still smoke, like I still smoke myself, but like that wasn’t what hospitalised me. Do you know what I mean? But certain things can be detrimental for certain people in different stages of your life, if someone says I’m not trying to drink, don’t push it on them.
You know, like you don’t know whether they’re trying to not drink because it’s not healthy, you don’t know what’s going on. I think people need to be a bit more mindful about the certain things they normalise to other people. But if I could say anything to the youngsters, it’s just to focus on skating and this whole like trap life, is fucking bullshit that people think that makes you cool, it’s really not. Put your passion and time into skating, because even if it doesn’t pay you back in money, it pays you back like in karma.
Any shoutouts you want to make?
I want to give a shoutout to Paco, Kev Parrot, Dan Magee all of the boys. You all know who you are anyway, Chewy, Jonathan, Smithy everyone I’m filming at the minute, all the people in Barcelona that I’m trying to get to help me on my journey to film these two videos. So, yeah, hopefully you should be able to watch that promo today when it drops.
