Lucien Clarke Interview

Lucien, we’re here at the exhibition for your Supra Colorway and it’s about your crew. Can you tell me a bit about the Palace Wayward Boys Choir?

We’re just out skating a lot and you know how it goes, you get to know people, you become friends. Over the years I meet everyone. We’re all good friends, we all skate and everyone does different things: art, music.

You skate for Palace as well as Supreme, which both had a big influence on how skateboarders and videos look like nowadays. What do you think they brought skateboarding?

I think Palace brought back a lot of fun into skateboarding. People were so serious, they had to flip in and flip out into everything. I don’t know, just do what you do and make it look cool. We just have a lot of fun, we don’t take anything that serious. We just skate. It’s horrible when you see someone that takes his shit so serious. You can see that stresses him out. Everybody likes to try tricks, but that’s like so ”Oh, check me out!“ I don’t know, it’s fucking skateboarding, so have fun with it. Then you have the cool guys that act way too cool. I hate the cool guys. It’s horrible. Just have fun man, chill.

A lot of people would say Palace has the coolest guys. How do you become naturally cool?

Oh man, I don’t know. I think through the video you can see that we’re all mates, we’re all having fun, having a laugh, having a drink maybe. Just skate and be friends, I think that’s what people miss. That’s what they know growing up skating. Nowadays, it’s all about sponsorship and stacked teams and all that. A lot of times it’s not that fun to go on trips. Maybe you don’t know the people, you’re not boys with the team or something.

A good thing about trips is that you can leave the rough London spots and skate perfect spots all over the world. Or do you miss London quite soon?

I’m definitely not missing the surfaces when I’m going to L.A. Over there, it’s a lot of times really smooth. You probably have one crack. It’s perfect over there most of the times. You definitely get spoiled there after skating in London or Europe.

You like L.A. the most for skating or what’s your favorite spot?

I do like perfect stuff, but stuff always looks cooler when it’s rugged and not perfect. London footage always looks good cause the buildings are old. L.A. is cool too, it’s just a different thing. I like it because of watching Girl videos and picnic-benches, skating schoolyards. I also watched the Baker videos as well and as a kid I couldn’t wait to go to L.A. to skate this shit. From seeing that as a young kid and then actually going there skating it, is sick.

Are you traveling a lot nowadays? You’re filming for a Supra video, right?

Yeah, we have been filming for the past two years. Everyone is getting footage together. It’s gonna be sick. Penny, Greco, Ellington, everyone is filming for it.

There will be a new Penny part?

Yeah, and it’s fucking bangin! It’s looking really good.

Will there also be a new Muska part?

Yeah, there will be a new Muska part, a Greco part, Pat Rumney, Boo Johnson. Javier Sarmiento has some stuff in it. Oscar Candon. He’s gonna have a bangin part. He broke three fingers when we were in New York on a massive hubba. He’s been killing it forever. His part’s gonna be really, really out of control.

I think there are some of your heroes on the Supra team. Do you have some stories how it is to hang out with those guys?

It’s a bit like the Wu-Tang Clan, everybody is different. Muska loves the world. Just harmony and peace. Hanging out with him is cool, because it kinda rubs off on you. Penny is just Penny – some kind of wizard. Ellington is like a savage fucking gangster. He’s so savage. Greco is just… [grins] he’s very savage as well. So, so sick. Me and Ellington got lost in Lyon one time. We were so drunk and got lost and lost. It was like a Supra boat party two years ago. When it was over, everyone got back to the hotel but we still kept on going. We were drunk and had no idea, where we were, so we kept walking and it turns out we walk in the wrong direction. We bought some food, threw cheese on car windows, just terrorizing a little bit. Then we found some bikes and tried to break the locks to use the bikes. Eventually, we got to a cab, but the cab driver took us to the wrong hotel. And we were like: “For fucks sake, we don’t pay for this” , and got out of the car. Then we walked back all the way to the hotel and found it finally at one o’clock in the afternoon.

I read in another interview that you met one of the guys when you woke up naked with a girl in a hotel room and he was just sitting in the corner. I wondered who that was?

[laughs] Oh god, Jesus. It was Stevie Williams. I woke up and was like “Whoa” and got dressed. Stevie was just eating fries in the corner.

And then it was like, ”Nice to meet you“?

Yeah, it was like “How do you do?” It was cracking me out, it was good.

I guess with sponsors like Supreme or Palace, when you’re traveling, you’re also traveling from guest list to guest list. Is it like that?

Not really, man. I mean every now and then there is a cool party, but it’s not like you’re traveling from place to place and go to the coolest parties.

I thought everyone wants to have Supreme or Palace guys at their party?

I suppose so, yeah, but on a trip it’s not like that. But if there’s something cool happening, that’s good. Free booze!

You hang out with some celebrities as well, FKA Twigs, Skepta and I saw an Instagram clip of DJ Khaled.

Oh, I don’t know him. That was at Agenda trade show and he was DJing and that was his entrance. He came down the hill on a skateboard and straight afterwards went to DJing. He went down on a skateboard to hype everyone up. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen. That clip is funny.

I think Palace brought back a lot of fun into skateboarding

Do you like his music?

Yeah, it’s good. Skepta as well, he’s a boy. It’s just London, isn’t it? You just meet people. You know how it is. And everybody is appreciating skateboarding, you know how it is. We’re all rolling on the same boat in a way.

Are you also into music or DJing?

I have a few records at home but nothing like Rory, he DJs a lot and makes money of it, too. He DJs with Bankhead from the Trilogy tapes. We’re friends with people that are really heavy into the house scene. Bankhead is a proper legend. But I’m not really DJing, although me and my friend went to Paris for DJing at the W hotel. I can’t DJ, but we got paid and everything. We were basically just the worst. I put music on and went to the bathroom and for some drinks and then I see my homie right behind me and I was like: “Who is at the decks?” and he answered, “I thought you!”. Then the music stopped. I can’t DJ.

You said some of you guys are into house music. I heard Palace has also a pretty strong following in the house scene.

Yeah, we all love house music and some of us know people who are heavily involved with it, like Theo Parrish. It’s the same again, they just respect what we’re doing and shit just grows from that. He made a track for us. This whole Palace thing brought a lot of people together, not just in Skateboarding.

Let’s talk about Supreme cause I’m curious how you managed to still get sponsored by them after they kicked you out of the shop on the first day, before you even started working.

I got the boot at the opening day of the London store. I think it was alright because Dill and me were talking about even working there in the first place, because a lot of traveling was happening to me. A couple of month after I went to L.A for three months, so that wouldn’t have worked obviously. So everything kind of worked out. There are no bad feelings at all. They just fired me.

Switch Varial Heelflip | Seq: Ryan Allan

How is it to hang out with Dill?

There’s never a dull moment. It’s good, man. He’s a really funny guy. He got a lot to say and when I’m with him, I just listen.

What kind of advices did he give you?

You should be skating. You should be in the shop. You should skate and try to do something to turn it into a career.

From the outside Dill seems like a weirdo, but sounds like he’s pretty focused.

Yeah, he’s focused. He’s a very creative guy. You can literally see it in his face when there are ideas all over the place. He’s just great.

Have you seen his porn collection? I heard he has a lot of old school porn stuff.

I’ve never been to his house before. That’s crazy. 70s porn, that’s sick. I found a bag of 80s porn when I was 12 or 13. I guess, it was from my dad. A bin bag full of them and when I found them I was hyped like: ”Let’s get it!“ I told nobody, grabbed a copy, went to the attic, jerked off, grabbed another one…

Talking about sex. Does it help with the ladies to be a model for Supreme?

I got a girlfriend now, but before as a single it definitely helped.

So they are coming to you telling you they know you from the Supreme campaign?

Yeah, I got approached cause everybody sees the Supreme lookbook. It definitely helped with the ladies as a single man.

When I prepared the questions for this interview, my colleagues told me I must ask you about Rihanna. So what’s up with Rihanna?

Rihanna? She’s part of the team man. Ask Sean Powers about that one. [laughs]

I found a bag of 80s porn when I was 12 or 13. I guess, it was from my dad

Palace is growing and growing.

Yeah, it just begun man. It’s crazy.

Isn’t it sometimes hard to control everything, when it explodes so fast?

Nah, everything’s under control, everything’s planned. We know what we’re doing.

Did it help that people like Rihanna wearing the shirts?

Definitely! Rihanna wore it, Jay-Z, looking for a house in Paris, wore the coach jacket. A$AP Rocky, that’s our boy, he really loves what we’re doing.

You know him?

Yeah. He rocks our stuff. That definitely helped. The craziest one was Jay-Z.

Is it because you know people in the music industry that gave the shirts to the stylists?

I think Rihanna actually bought that. We don’t give things out to people. I think they just buy it.

So what’s up next?

Just the Palace video. And I wanna work towards getting a pro shoe. I wanna just keep working hard, skating loads, having fun and I’m thinking about doing a shirt line. Just for fun. Something creative. Cause I do a lot of art and stuff, so I think I can come up with something cool.

You wanna do your own shirts?

Yeah, my own little line. Just for fun, just a few t-shirts.

I’m curious to see that!