Everybody who’s anybody, and anybody who’s nobody’s talking about this new skate video that’s been five years in the making – Flip Skateboards’ Extremely Sorry. Probably more discussed than Geoff Rowley’s long-awaited part full of bangers, though, is the DJ Baron-produced-soundtrack. Baron supplied an unexpected aural assault of beats, remixes, and covers (featuring Lemmy from Motorhead and Dave Lombardo from Slayer). We’ve asked him some questions about the soundtrack available through Volcom Entertainment.
How did you get in touch with Geoff, Ewan, and the rest of the Flip dudes?
I met Geoff Rowley and the Flip guys through a mutual friend and pro skater Alex Moul. I was in Huntington Beach in 2003 hanging out with Mouly after a gig I played, and met Geoff. Things kinda grew from there.
Do you skate, or did you grow up around skateboarding?
I used to skate and have been involved heavily with skateboarding for many years. The drum and bass night in Oxford that I originally began Djing at was run by local skate store.
Describe the process of making sure your songs would fit the skater’s style.
Most tracks developed from a meeting with Geoff; we would choose a direction to develop the track in. I am friends with everyone on the team, so it wasn’t so difficult to know the final direction.
Did you have any special inspiration for this soundtrack?
The skateboarding!!!
What was it like working with Lemmy from Motorhead? Is he as crazy off the mic as he is on?
Lemmy is an amazingly talented individual and you really only need to see an interview with him to know how intelligent he is. To work with him was great. He was extremely receptive to ideas and he nailed all of his takes very quickly. Lemmy is a true rock and rolla – one of a kind, never to be replaced.
This is one of the first times that a skate video’s featured a completely original soundtrack. The old Physics video and new Element video did something similar, but this seems to completely outdo those two soundtracks. Do you think this is going to be the new trend for skate videos?
For sure for the bigger companies. Skateboarding is the most progressive and cutting edge of all the “action” sports, for want of a better word, so I think this will lead into most “action” sports productions having bespoke soundtracks.
Whose song was the most fun for you to produce?
Funnily enough, I didn’t feel so much pressure for any of the them. The Lemmy and Lombardo collaboration was great, the Black Mountain collab track I made for Bob [Burnquist] was also a lot of fun, especially when I saw it against the footage.
Who would win in a fight… Lemmy or God (trick question… Lemmy is God – but if he weren’t)?
God doesn’t exist.
How did you get in touch with Volcom Entertainment?
Geoff Rowley has had a very long working relationship with Volcom – being one of his original long time sponsors – so it was a no brainer to want to work with them. The record label, Volcom Entertainment, is going places. They are totally committed to making projects work.
Everybody had been hyping the video up so much for the past few years (probably more than any other video I’ve ever witnessed in my 12 years of skating). Was it hard to live up to the pressure of the video? Were you nervous?
Not at all. We were making something that we wanted to watch. And beyond that, if others liked it that’s great too. The second you start really trying to second guess what people would like to see, you’re in sticky territory and will probably make something contrived. To be honest, the process from initial idea to finished product was a very long journey and a lot of things happened along the way which gave the video immense personal gravity for everyone. But looking at the finished product now, I feel like the skateboarding on the video is going to be remembered for a very long time.
What can we expect to see from you next?
Another Flip DVD and a Baron solo record.
Interview: Kevin Duffel
Tags: DJ Baron, Extremely Sorry, Flip Skateboards, Geoff Rowley, Interview, Music, Soundtrack, Volcom
