Joseph Biais Interview

Joseph’s Favorite Parts

(2007 - 2017)

Arto Saari – Flip – Sorry (2002)

Geoff Rowley – Flip – Really Sorry (2003)

Stefan Janoski – Habitat – Mosaic (2003)

Kevin “Spanky” Long – Emerica – This Is Skateboarding (2003)

Charles Collet & Lucas Puig – Cliché – Bon Appetit! (2003)

Johnny Layton – Toy Machine – Good & Evil (2004)

Danny Brady - Blueprint – Lost and Found (2005)

Chet Childress – Black Label – Back in Black (2006)

Steve Forstner – Antiz – Z-Movie (2007)

Jake Johnson & AVE – AWS – Mind Field (2009)

Bert Wootton – Cosmic Vomit 2 (2012)

Donovon Piscopo – Nike SB – Chronicles 2 (2013)

Dylan Rieder – Supreme – Cherry (2014)

Franky Villani – Zero – No Cash Value (2014)

Ryan Townley – Welcome – Fetish (2017)

Gilbert Crockett – Any part

It seems like you’re always working on a project.

That’s true, I really like producing stuff. I always want to check new spots, try new tricks, and then you obviously want to lm it as well and make something out of it. So yeah, I think I got a lot of parts out. There’s this thing with people that put out stuff all the time, in the end, you don’t really care. If you do too much, you’re not really looking for the best you can do. So sometimes I think I should maybe wait a year or two and be more selective to get something I’m more proud of.

Some people are stressed out when they have to film a part. You’re never stressed?

Not really, cause I’ve rarely been in this situation where I was told to film something for a project. I do it for myself mainly, which is a bit weird when I think about it.

You seem like a guy who thinks a lot about his skating.

I’ve been skating and filming and shooting photos with people for that long, I know what I like. I already know how I want a certain trick filmed. But at the same time, it’s not really cool when I come to the spot and say,“I’d prefer to do it fisheye,” cause I don’t have to tell them how they have to do it. They also don’t tell me what trick to do. So I respect the ideas of the people I get footage with. But yeah, I really overthink skating, but I like it that way. Maybe I plan too much. I think sometimes I should be a bit more spontaneous, but I have less time to skate now, so I want to make the most out of it when I go skating.

Do you get a lot of inspiration from watching video parts?

It’s definitely the first source of inspiration in skating. Generally, you get inspiration from videos and from people skating around you. I guess some people are also inspired by music or different stuff. But yeah, I’m really inspired by video parts and I think you can tell by the parts I listed. I tried to pick some videos that really influenced me when I was growing up and that I could rewatch today and still enjoy them.

Do you think that some parts age like wine and get better, whereas others are outdated pretty quickly?

Regarding the trick level, a part might be outdated, but it can still be a landmark for some period of time and you can still appreciate it today, considering the period it was made in. It’s not only about the level, it’s about the whole thing, the style, spot selection, music, editing. So I wouldn’t say a good part from 15 years ago isn’t relevant today.

What does a part have to have so that you like it?

The music has to be really strong in a way that it matches the skating and the skater. I like it when the rhythm goes up and down. There was a Gilbert Crockett part lately and the song goes crazy and then completely stops and the skating keeps going and then the music starts again. The spot selection is really important to me. It’s a special feeling when you look at a part for the first time and you don’t know the spot and what’s going to happen. If the part is built only with spots that are new to me, it’s way more striking. And also the filming and the way of editing. If there is a theme, something more than just skating, the part has way more power, more soul.

How did you discover your first skatevideos and what do you think has changed for kids nowadays?

At that time, not so many videos came out. So when there was a video, I watched it maybe two or three times a day for months. I think YouTube really changed the format of skatevideos from full-lengths to parts, and Instagram lately made the part format not really relevant anymore. It made single tricks or short edits – maybe not more relevant – but more striking than a videopart. I guess, back in the days, we watched less parts over and over again and would be able to name any single trick. I would never be able to do it today. But I don’t know if there’s anything wrong about that. It’s the natural evolution of skateboarding and skatevideos. As with everything, there is good stuff to pick from every single format.

The first part in your list is from 2002, which is around the time you started. Kids nowadays, with the possibilities to almost watch every part ever made and the suggestions they get on YouTube, seem to watch parts before their time as well. Do you think that our generation’s skateboarding started with the time we started, and the younger generation starts with the knowledge of every period?

When I started, there were already “old videos” out there, but I never had any interest in them and didn’t watch them until later. I was really focused on what was happening at my own time period. I can’t really talk for the young generation, but I have the feeling they don’t really watch old skate parts, they watch today’s freshest Insta clip and they already forgot about the ones from last week...

Was Arto Saari’s Sorry part the first videopart that really hit you?

My first video was a 411 – Best of 5. In the newspaper shops, there was this offer to buy a magazine and get the video with it. I think all the kids of my generation bought it cause you were able to get it everywhere, not only in a skateshop. I watched it over and over again, but there was no specific part in it that got me. I think the whole Flip video really got me then, and Arto Saari’s and Geoff Rowley’s parts were the ones I watched the most.

When I rewatched the Arto part, I waited for the El Toro frontboard before I remembered that it was in his Menikmati part. For me, the different parts of a skater often blur together into one big part. Is it the same for you or do you think there is one part for every skater that is outstanding?

I think you mixed up those two because they were filmed in a super short period of time, so everything is quite similar. But you would be able to distinguish his Mind Field part from his Menikmati part. And I wouldn’t see a skater as an overall package because of an older part, because I could love some old part and two years later, he could have a part that isn’t really sexy. I think it’s more a matter of individual parts than a bag of parts.

I was surprised that you chose Geoff Rowley’s Really Sorry part because I think the Sorry part is way better.

Actually, I was thinking the same thing myself, but what makes me like the Really Sorry part better is just the song. It’s so good and gives this mellow rhythm and the tricks are quite simple but really huge. I watched it way more often than the Sorry one because it’s way more simple and more plain.

When Arto filmed the part, he was really young and the rising star from Europe. Have you ever thought about trying it in the US?

No, I’ve never really had that dream. But I was close to this thing when, at some point, Zero started a Euro program. I was in contact with Jamie Thomas and realized that I could be part of something big, that I have the opportunity to stay in Europe, and also my skating is getting valued. But then I got on and the whole thing got cut because of the crisis in 2008.

Was Arto Saari’s Sorry part the first videopart that really hit you?

My first video was a 411 – Best of 5. In the newspaper shops, there was this offer to buy a magazine and get the video with it. I think all the kids of my generation bought it cause you were able to get it everywhere, not only in a skateshop. I watched it over and over again, but there was no specific part in it that got me. I think the whole Flip video really got me then, and Arto Saari’s and Geoff Rowley’s parts were the ones I watched the most.

When I rewatched the Arto part, I waited for the El Toro frontboard before I remembered that it was in his Menikmati part. For me, the different parts of a skater often blur together into one big part. Is it the same for you or do you think there is one part for every skater that is outstanding?

I think you mixed up those two because they were filmed in a super short period of time, so everything is quite similar. But you would be able to distinguish his Mind Field part from his Menikmati part. And I wouldn’t see a skater as an overall package because of an older part, because I could love some old part and two years later, he could have a part that isn’t really sexy. I think it’s more a matter of individual parts than a bag of parts.

I was surprised that you chose Geoff Rowley’s Really Sorry part because I think the Sorry part is way better.

Actually, I was thinking the same thing myself, but what makes me like the Really Sorry part better is just the song. It’s so good and gives this mellow rhythm and the tricks are quite simple but really huge. I watched it way more often than the Sorry one because it’s way more simple and more plain.

When Arto filmed the part, he was really young and the rising star from Europe. Have you ever thought about trying it in the US?

No, I’ve never really had that dream. But I was close to this thing when, at some point, Zero started a Euro program. I was in contact with Jamie Thomas and realized that I could be part of something big, that I have the opportunity to stay in Europe, and also my skating is getting valued. But then I got on and the whole thing got cut because of the crisis in 2008.

Talking about Zero, you only had one Zero part in your list and it is maybe the most unusual Zero rider.

I was thinking about parts I was watching more than once lately. And this part, it’s unusual skating for Zero, but this is what I really like, the weird combination of this kid being super creative and, at the same time, skating big stuff.

You also have Ryan Townley from Fetish in there, which I think is a really great video. People complain a lot that full-lengths are dead nowadays, but I think there have been so many great full-length videos in the last years – what’s your take on that?

I think there are as many good full-length videos today, maybe even more, than before. Nowadays, it’s way too many, so in comparison to when there were three videos coming out in one year and just one was bad and two were good, today there are 3000 videos coming out and 1000 are bad – it’s just a ratio thing. There are just so many that it’s really hard to remember all the good ones and it’s really hard to stand out.

The parts you named, did you already like them at the time they came out or did you discover them later on? Cause for me, it took a while to discover some of the parts that are my favorites now.

There is something like that with me too, but it’s not only the part, it’s more about the type of skating. For instance, the Chet Childress part, I didn’t even pay attention to when it came out, cause I’ve never really been skating any transition. At some point, it became a little bit trendy, or maybe I opened my mind and I looked a bit more into it, and I started liking Chet Childress and Dan Drehobl as well and started appreciating those parts which I didn’t see when they came out.

That’s an interesting point cause I used to only watch parts with the type of skating I liked to do myself, but now I’m able to enjoy watching all kinds of skating. Is it the same with you?

Yes and no. I would say you like videos which have the skating you can identify with, but also the type of skater you can identify with. When I was a kid, I would really get into Lucas Puig and Bastien Salabanzi just because they were French and they were super young. Now that I’m 30, I think if I watched a part like Bastien Salabanzi’s first part today, I would probably not be into it.

Same with the Spanky part, I liked it back then, but I’m not into watching kids skate nowadays.

Exactly. If it came out today, I would think this kid is too young to have his own style.

It surprised me a bit that you had Lucas in your list cause his skating is quite different from yours.

First of all, Bon Appetit! is one of my top three videos ever and Lucas is just an amazing skater. In this part, he doesn’t really have the power he has today in his legs. This part is way more creative and maybe funky and, nowadays, his skating is way more technical and powerful, but I still really like it. You can tell from the footage that it’s kind of magical how his legs move. And watching him skate in real life is so impressive, how powerful and fast it is.

Yeah, you see videos and all the stuff looks gnarly, but it’s even ten times harder when you see the spot in real life.

Or sometimes the other way round.

It was just the fisheye…

And sometimes you see someone really struggling… There is this thing in the US that they go to the spot again and again. After having been to a spot twice, I never want to go back ever again.

With Danny Brady, you have another European part on your list. Do you especially have an eye on European skateboarding?

Being European myself, I really pay attention to European skateboarding, of course. I watch American videos as well, but European skateboarding speaks a bit more to me because I know the spots, I know the crews.

Also, there are a lot of US parts in the list, did you have the chance to meet some of your heroes over the years?

No, but nowadays with Instagram, you can directly connect to them and really feel someone through social media. It happens that you like someone’s skating and are a big fan and with Instagram, you get directly into his life and see that he’s not as interesting as you thought and you’re disappointed and see his skating with different eyes. That’s the dark side of social media. It’s so weird. Today, I could send a DM to Eric Koston and he might answer me. And what’s really weird is that story thing. I try to avoid it now cause it really makes me feel bad. You see what people all around the world are doing and it looks like they’re doing the coolest things and it makes you feel like shit while you’re at work or doing nothing.

Sometimes, skatevideos give me the same feeling social media does when they show stuff that embarrasses me, e.g., how some passer-bys are treated or how they act as cool guys.

For me, it depends. Cause, for example, when you look at the Cherry video, there is some footage where you think those guys are kind of assholes, but at the same time, the whole atmosphere pictures a reality, even if it’s a tough one, and the video is so good that I just overpassed it.

Talking about the Supreme video – you named the Dylan Rieder part. Besides his unbelievable skating, he was also a big fashion role model and although your style is pretty basic – besides some exceptions – it seems that you’re always aware of what you’re wearing.

It’s definitely important to me – not just in skating, cause the clothes you wear tell a lot about yourself. And no matter what people say that it’s not about clothes and that it is superficial – of course it is – but in another way, it definitely counts. Because if you dress some way, it is a choice you make. No matter how you’re gonna dress, it’s gonna influence how you look, but just because someone is dressed super fancy doesn’t mean he’s cool. If you’re a stylish guy, you will wear whatever kind of clothes in a stylish way and if you try too hard, it’s pretty obvious to overdo it. You don’t have to wear the fanciest clothes, I think it’s quite easy to be dressed well, to have something that fits you and looks okay with your body shape.

Is the silhouette important for you? Cause you mostly wear slim pants.

It is definitely and, by the way, I’m a bit out of the skinny jeans era. But It’s important, it changes your silhouette and the way you look on a skateboard. Of course, it’s your move, but if you’re wearing super skinny jeans, it might not look as good as if you’re wearing regular cut pants. It can play a huge role.

If you could’ve filmed one of the parts in your list, which one would it be?

I guess I would say Arto Saari just because it was this crazy level of skateboarding that long ago. When you film a video part today, it’s hard to get away from this classic way of filming a skatevideo. I guess, at the time, it was a little bit newer.