{"id":311393,"date":"2020-10-13T11:55:01","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T11:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nocomplynetwork.com\/?page_id=311393"},"modified":"2024-02-10T22:52:39","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T22:52:39","slug":"jackson-casey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nocomplynetwork.com\/jackson-casey\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackson Casey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jackson Casey is a skater and filmmaker who runs Pyramid Country. Living and working in Arizona, his space meets world style skate videos capture the tricks, tribulations and triumphant skate situations that he and his Pyramid Country crew unearth whilst out filming on the challenging selection of skate spots that they find in the Midwest and across America.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through Pyramid Country Jackson films, edits and collaborates with friends to showcase their footage in an artistic way that also gives an insight to their personalities, skateboarding and creative interests.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are stoked Jackson Casey is now a No Comply Network member, so we could talk about how he first got into skating and filmmaking, travelling the US to film Boyish and Worship Friendship,Todd Bratrud, meeting JJ Horner, starting Pyramid Country, working with Thrasher, Ryan Sublette, selecting music for skate sections and his favourite artists, setups and more.<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\"\"What’s your full name?<\/h1>\n

Jackson Willis Casey<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where did you grow up?<\/h1>\n

I grew up in a small suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan called Ionia. It\u2019s a little prison town. There are so many prisons on the west side of town that it looked like the sun was setting all night long from all of the artificial light from the prison yards.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where do you live now?<\/h1>\n

Downtown Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you get your first board?<\/h1>\n

The first board I ever owned was one I \u201cindefinitely borrowed\u201d from this girl who lived in my neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What board was that?<\/h1>\n

It was a super shitty board from the grocery store. It didn\u2019t last long. My friend ended up breaking it so his mom then got me an X-Games board from the grocery store with plastic trucks, which, again, didn\u2019t last long either.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I bet. So when did you get your first proper setup?<\/h1>\n

My first \u201creal\u201d setup was an Alien Workshop with Indys, Spitfire Wheels and Black Panther bearings.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a very precise reasoning as to why I got it, just always thought my friend Cory and his older brother Tyler seemed to be doing so much radder shit than the other kids around my neighbourhood because they were skateboarding.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Right, so it was your brother’s friends that got you on board?<\/h1>\n

Seeing my friends older brother and all of his friends on a TV set doing dumb shit kind of set the tone of, \u201cI wanna do that shit, too!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

@bratrud<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cool.Who was in your first skate crew?<\/h1>\n

My friends Brad Hurlbut, Jamison Crynes, Evan McKendry, Aaron Courts, Kevin Clayton were the main dudes I\u2019d be skating with daily at first. Aaron and Kevin have since passed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where would you and your crew go skate?<\/h1>\n

We all skated all over our little town, which eventually got a skatepark that we fundraised for.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did you go to many street spots?<\/h1>\n

We grew up with super harsh winters so we\u2019d go skate at this school called Jefferson in the winters, which had a basement below the parking lot that was heated, so there wouldn\u2019t be snow on the lot. We also broke into this building at the fairgrounds a lot to skate, which eventually lead to some trouble for us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When did you begin to travel to other places?<\/h1>\n

As we got older, we began to make the 30 minute trek to the city, Grand Rapids and it really opened my eyes, like, \u201cHoly shit, there\u2019s so much more to life than I\u2019ve seen in that little town!\u201dI really appreciate growing up where I did with who I did, though.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

@sullyal<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When did you start to film skateboarding?<\/h1>\n

I started filming when I was around 13 years old but my friends hated when I filmed them skating at first, I sucked really bad at it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When did you start taking filming more seriously?<\/h1>\n

I started taking it seriously and I started seeing subtle improvements because my friend Aaron Courts was super talented at skating and making videos for the time and he showed me to this website called Skateperception, telling me I should get better to film him and the homies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you improve?<\/h1>\n

I spent all my free time learning as much as I could about how to make a dope video for me and my friends. It took a ton of trial and error for sure!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What was your first camera?<\/h1>\n

My mom had this Hi8 camera that I commandeered. I captured all the footage through S-Video and accidentally bent one of the spokes that goes into the camera. It led to all my footage being black and white for about the first year before I realised what the root of the issue was!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What camera setup do you shoot on now?<\/h1>\n

I film using a VX1000 primarily. But I also frequently use a Digital8, a VHS camera, an HVX200 and my iPhone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What was the first skate video that you made?<\/h1>\n

It was called, \u201cThe Life We Chose.\u201d Josh Kalis<\/a> was at the premiere, we were like 15-16 years old, completely shitting our pants that he\u2019d shown up!<\/p>\n

That was so rad of Josh to come out and show love for the young kids in the city.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What were your favourite memories of filming Boyish?<\/h1>\n

There are so many, way too many to even begin to do the archaeology necessary to dig them up. It all feels, now, like this enormous hum and smile.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How do you mean?<\/h1>\n

We had gas paid for through Resource Distribution, which at the time distributed Todd Bratrud\u2019s The High 5 Skateboards brand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n