MAGNUSSON
(From page 50) that, taking pictures on
the same ramp in the same arena
The NSA is right in that they have to
get away from that a little bit and
make it more lively and more color-
ful, but they're putting a lot of em
phasis on mini-ramps. I think in the
long run they're going to find that
mini-ramp is not as hot as they think
it is; it's just the most available thing.
Anybody can skate a mini-ramp.
Anybody can learn any trick in a day
It's not hard. The first thing that's go-
ing to happen to the companies is
we're going to have to get some
representation. I feel this heat in my
own company. There are four mini-
ramp competitions this year. We look
at the vert guys and say, "Gee, you
guys are great, but you're not cutting
it with mini-ramps. This unknown
unsponsored amateur here, he'll tear
you apart. He has one in his back-
yard and he can do fifty-million tricks
on it. That's the attitude I have to
take as the owner of a company. As
a pro skater I can't take it much dif
ferently. Then I have a choice. I can
spend the next six months learning
what he can do, which I could, or I
can keep going with what I want to
do. But the fact of the matter is, it's
going to flood the pro market. I know,
because right now we have some hot
new skaters on our team-especially
this one guy from McGill's park who
probably could have won the Hawa
contest. His name is Alphonso. He's
the guy who's making up all the tricks
at McGill's. He can do anything-to-
anything. You name it and he'll do
it. He's a good vert skater, too, but
he could never even think about
going pro for vert right now.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be
any mini-ramp contests. The point I
was trying to make is that the NSA
is kind of forcing all the companies
to dig a little further down in the bag
and adjust the sponsored skaters
and turn them pro for mini-ramps.
And then the next logical step is
we're going to have mini-ramp
boards. So now we have vert, street
and mini-ramp models. The bottom
line is that a mini-ramp contest is not
the same to watch. All these kids are
going to watch these pros and say.
"Yeah, I can do just about all of that.
And the things I can't I'll go learn this.
afternoon. Whereas a vert contest.
they know they can't do that. It's
something to watch.
How do you get along with the pros
you're real competitive with?
Everybody gets along. It's kind of
a competitive thing. I get along bet-
ter with some people than others.
Tony Hawk and I have been com
peting for a long time, and I have to
say that our relationship is a little
tense sometimes. I know that he
knows that he is the guy I'm going
after. There are other people who
beat me on a regular basis, but I'll
be going after Tony Hawk, because
he is the winner. He knows that I'm
capable of putting together some-
thing that's pretty good sometimes.
And I always get the feeling that he
takes the best run against me. Even
if it's not the last match-up in the
head-to-head. He knows that Christ-
ian has probably beaten him more
than I have, but if I was Tony Hawk.
well, Christian's style of skating is so
different that he can't compete with
it. He can't compete on Christian's
level, the same as Christian can't
compete on Tony Hawk's level. It's
whatever the judges want to see that
day. If they're going to be flabber-
gasted by Tony Hawk's incredible
trick ability, then he'll win. If they're
tired of seeing all kinds of tricks and
just want to see skating. Christian will
win. He can't really do anything
about it. But he knows that I can put
WHITE ZOMBIE article on "Running for Fitness" in
(From page 72)
"We're not trying to create some
thing that wasn't there already"
laughs Rob. "It's not like Zodiac
Mindwarp where we have board
meetings to figure out how long we're
going to trim our goatees and
sideburns. We're just trying to have
the band we wished other people
had. Down to earth heavy metal has
worn itself out-even Metallica has
a big show now. Why behave like
you're still in the practice space?"
The psycho-battery-acid-proto-
spizzola projected by White Zombie
can be traced right to Rob's chilling
artistic vision. His highly stylized.
black and white caricatures of urban
extremism have graced virtually
every one of the band's record
sleeves and t-shirts, not to mention
the numerous porn mags he earns
extra dinero freelancing for. "I'm the
guy that does the illustrations for the
one legitimate article in every one of
those magazines. You know, an
102
Big Tits or stuff like "Erotic Olym
pics" in Velvet, he chuckles.
He's also currently at work on a
comic book he describes as a "full-
length, disgusting, violent, torture-
filled fantasy, kind of like She Hulk.
"I think the artistic end of what
we're doing is going to come more
into play once the band is more pro-
fitable. I really want the visuals to tie
into the lyrical end of what we're
doing, but not in a real obvious way!"
Well Rob, what are your cataclys
mic songs about anyway?
"Killing people."
Killing people?
"Yeah, it's true. Most people suck,
and I don't have a love affair with the
world. Most people are pretty violent
and aggressive and that's the way it's
been since the beginning of time. I
try to portray that feeling with a bit
more thought involved than the stan
dard satanic bullshit."
"It's a primal, human instinct
towards violence that everyone has
that a lot of people indulge in by hurt-
together a run that competes more
on his level, because I do some of
his tricks. I get the feeling he tries to
get the best of me when we're
skating. I have a lot of respect for him.
I basically like everybody. I ap
preciate everybody's skating and
everybody's attitudes. Even Ben
Schroeder, who wrecked our
premiere for our video. Everybody
thinks, "Don't you just hate that guy
now?" No, he's a rad skater.
What is your approach to training
for contests?
Well, I noticed that a lot of kids, like
Danny Way, have the ability to look
at the pros and say, "Okay, this is
what you guys have learned in the
last six years. I'll learn that in six
months." They can do that, they
model our tricks. From there on they
learn any new tricks at a rate that's
unheard of to the older pros. We
learned them as they were invented,
which was about two months apart.
But they learn them two days apart,
if that. So, to an old pro, that's going
to create a serious disadvantage
because he's not going to keep up.
But I looked at the methods Danny
Way and other kids use to train and
learn and I did what they do. I noticed
that I've been able to learn at almost
the same rate they do now. I make
a point when I go to the ramp, not to
go through three hours of basic tricks
before I feel like I can practice some-
thing new. I'll warm up for ten min
utes and start directly on something
new that I want to learn. By the time
you've skated for three hours you're
too tired to learn something. And
that's been the method of learning
for older pros for a long time. I try and
keep myself from being afraid of
learning new stuff. I always want to
feel like I just learned a new trick.
What tricks are you working on?
Some of the recent tricks I've
learned are a lot of varial-type things
ing each other or smashing things,"
says Jay. "And a lot of people like us
deal with it by playing violent, angry
music."
"So when you whittle down our
lyrics, they're just another way of say-
ing "hey, fuck you too!" "says Rob.
Knowing that they live in the
pressure cooker that is the Lower
East Side, where an individual's
humanity is stomped into oblivion
day after day, you shouldn't be at all
surprised to hear Straker wheezing
forth utterances like: "Give the
world/Blood symphony/How low is
your/False sympathyJustice claws/A
death horizon/Freak zone flesh/Mag-
got man rising" ("Demonspeed")
"When you move to New York, it's
a violent, disgusting, gross place that
pummels the shit out of you every se-
cond of every day. Every one of your
senses is constantly being pounded
on. You don't walk down the street
in Muncie, Indiana, and watch peo-
ple stab each other or cops beating
people to death."
"It sounds like exaggeration,"
I get credit for inventing the 540°
varial, which really John Shultes did
John Shultes made it up but he never
wired it, so I did and I got credit for
it. The trick I invented on my own was
that same trick but starting out
backwards. So now the board is do-
ing a 720° instead of a 540°, and
you're doing a 360° I call that a 720°
varial. A trick that I don't have wired
yet is a frontside ollie kickflip and
grab it on the way in. Then I copied
a few of Tony Hawk's tricks, like the
varials he does, varial-to-fakie. 1
made up what is like a half Les-twist.
You see that in Chris Miller's style,
but I varial. I haven't done that in a
contest yet. I did a frontside 540°
varial. But some of the newer stuff
I've learned is mostly lip maneuvers.
things you'd see Danny Way do, like
lipslide reverts. I learned long
backside lipslides, ollie-to-tail reverts,
Madollies, stuff like that. I was also
learning ollie blunts; I thought that
was important to learn. I've been
skating on the streets, learning some
of that flippity-dippity stuff, looks like
you're stepping on a bar of soap with
nat
one foot and then you land on it.
Anything else to sum it up?
Just that I'm stoked to do this in-
terview. I have always looked at
Thrasher as something that kept
skateboarding alive when it was
really down and needed something.
I've always had a lot of respect for
your magazine. I'd like to say that
skateboarding should be fun. If you
really don't have any fun, you should
quit. If you're a pro, a street skater,
whatever you are, if you don't have
any fun, just quit and don't bitch
about it. I'd like to give credit to my
little skateboard club called Mind
Grind. Those guys are cool and
helped me out a lot. They were really
responsible for my whole Florida tour
I stayed with Mind Grind kids the
whole time
adds Sean, "but that's really the way
it is, especially in this neighborhood."
"One night before the CB's show,
we were about to go out flyering and
decided not to when we saw a bunch
of hoodlums go into a grocery store
with baseball bats," remembers Jay
"Or how can we forget another
night out flyering when we got caught
in the middle of a bunch of under-
cover cops raiding these drug
dealers. We were standing there,
shaking in our boots, holding onto
our wheat paste for dear life," furthers
Rob. "When we got off tour, everyone
asked us if being in the deep south
was scary and I just ask, "What? Fat
old ladies in gift shops and gas sta
tions? Yeah, real scary"
Real scary a lame description of
White Zombie if ever there was one.
but they'd probably approve of it
nonetheless. They want us to believe
they're evil but they're not. They're
nice folks through and through, and
capable of mustering the sickest
moments of bile-spitting monolith
rock known to man.
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