Tommy Guerrero

As a teenage member of Powell Peralta's legendary Bones Brigade, San Fransico's Tommy Guerrero had a massive part in defining street skating as we know it. In the mid-to-late eighties, Tommy was the Bones Brigade's 'street guy' in an era moving on from vert domination. Along with the likes of Mark Gonzalez and Matt Hensley, Tommy pioneered fast, smooth stylish skateboarding. Just check Powell videos Future Primitive, The Search for Animal Chin, Public Domain and Ban This for proof. While all this was happening, Tommy was playing guitar in Bay Area punk band Free Beer, playing with some of his heroes and featuring on countless Thrasher Skate Rock cassette compilations.
After leaving Powell, TG and his mate Jim Thiebaud started up Real. Tommy still works at DLX, but nowadays spends a lot more time on his music, usually latin-soul-jazz-folk-funk-rock instrumentalism, but occasionally- as in 2000's 'Hoy Yen Ass'n' collaboration with Gadget- wandering towards downbeat hip-hop.
With 12 years worth of essential albums and EPs on labels like Mo' Wax, Galaxia and Quannum under his belt, it seemed like it was about time we had an interview with Tommy to learn a bit more about what he does...

Which came first, the music or the skateboarding?
Skating. Around 1975. Music came around 79-80...

And did one lead to the other?

Yeah. Skating was so inline with the punk ethos at that time. The whole 'fuck you' DIY ethic.

How do you manage to split your time your time between music and Real/DLX?

Well I'm not involved in Real too much these days, I'm the art mis-director for Krooked- I do most of the board and ad layout. I'm a computer monkey really, but I'm going to switch modes here soon. We're talking about a TG online show of some sort- music guests and shit. It could be cool, it could be lame. We'll see. I work at DLX four days a week, make sure my shit is taken care of then off to the studio. I have a six year old son so I have to make sure we get plenty of hang time. Two jobs plus working with Levis Japan, random design work and a fam is exhausting... too fragmented... trying to figure it all out...

Non-stop then? Cool. Who would you say are your musical influences just now?
Everything under the sun.

Are they the same as when you started playing?
Yes. I keep the punk attitude close- never know when your gonna need it!

Did you plan on making so much of your music when you retired your pro board?
No. It just sort of happened. I need to be in motion at all times or trouble comes my way, need to be in a creative mode to stay sane.

You've never really built any connection between your skateboarding and your music. What do you think of people using their position as a professional skateboarder to kick-start a music career?

Great! I just have a hard time with the self promotion. I guess if you tell everyone that you're hot stuff constantly they start to believe it.

I want a large stick that says "TG's great! Buy his music or die!" and I'll run around cracking skulls until they submit their cash to me.

The masses aren't the most self thinking lot. I also  want the music to be able to stand on it's own. The whole 'skater-musician' or 'skater-artist' label is a misnomer- you're either an artist or not. Same with music.

You grew up in the thick of a pretty amazing music scene. What do you think's the best show you've seen?
Bad Brains hands down. When they first came to bay area we played with them at Ruthie's Inn. They blew minds and shattered any preconceived notions about Rastas. I seen 'em at the Stone is SF way back, and me and my friends were nearly in tears... So intense.

I just seen 'em a few weeks ago- I almost cried again!! (laughs) ...old seashell collector.

Is it a coincidence that so many of your old Bones Brigade team-mates were musical? Have you ever thought of recording together?
Skaters are creative. And tenacious. Me and Ray (Barbee) have a band called BLKtop Project with Chuck Treece and Matt Rodriguez. I also play with Matt and Ray occasionally. Me and Stevie made a flexi-disc for Thrasher about 100 years ago too. Funny tune...

Do you record at home?
Yeah. Also at my friend Monte Vallier's studio, Ruminator Audio. He's recorded and mixed many of my projects

What kind of set up do you normally use?
Pro Tools, and a four track at times. Outboard mic pre-amp and just a bunch of instruments.

What do you find is the best environment for writing music? A lot of people have said it's on tour...
I don't really write. I just go. So much is written in the studio, I don't have the time or luxury to make demos- what you hear is what you get. I think the road has the ability to free up the mind from the daily bullshit. It cleanses. I wish i was on it now... 

You've worked with a lot of people in the past- do you have any plans for further collaborations?
Perhaps with DJ Krush from Japan. I have some others in mind but we'll see - everyone's so damn busy! The hustle is on twentyfour-seven!

Can you recommend some albums to the Sidewalk readers?

Too many. Here's a few...

Bad Brains - I Against I

john Coltrane - Ole

Bill Withers - Just as I Am/Still Bill

Anything by Joy Division

The Cure - Head on the Door

Grant Green - Ain't it Funky Now 1-2

Squeeze - Singles

Rush - Moving Pictures

Talking Heads - Remain in Light

Nice one. Finally, do you see any current skateboard companies doing the kind of thing Powell Peralta achieved?

Not even close...

James Lavelle

Since forming the 'genre-defining' Mo’ Wax record label in 1992, James Lavelle has since introduced the world to DJ Shadow, DJ Krush and Money Mark, released records by OG Bones Brigader Tommy Guerrero and collaborated with Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft, Josh Homme, Mike D, Kool G. Rap and Ian Brown. With his band UNKLE he has written the music for the second Relentless ‘Lives of the Artists’ full-length documentary, which will be available for free right about now.

We took James to one side for a quiet word.

So how did you become involved with the Relentless ‘Lives of the Artists’ project?

I’d worked with Ross the director, many years ago, in the early days of Mo’ Wax. I hadn’t seen him for about 15 years when he approached me about wanting to do the documentary. He showed me the first film that they’d done and I was really into the whole concept behind it, and the stuff they’d been doing with relentless, and the potential for help with what we’re doing as a band.

You’ve had your music appear in a number of films before, but other than the ‘Exit Music for a Film’ album you’ve never really done a proper score. Was this something you’d always been keen to do?

We’ve had stuff in various films, and ‘Exit Music for a Film’ was really just work that we’d done over that period that hadn’t seen the light of day- from working on various multi-media stuff, from film, TV, computer games, stuff like that. We wanted to get the music out because a lot of the time nowadays music doesn’t get released in the soundtrack format. It’s great to score this. I like the way they’ve done it- it’s taking place in such extreme places and it’s so beautifully shot, it’s great to be able to put some music to it. Even though it’s strange being in it... It’s amazing looking at the shots of Jeremy and Xavier, and kind of going “Why am I in it?”.

Have you been able to put forward musical ideas that you previously wouldn’t have been able to use in your own material?

Working on film gives you a different template to work with, it’s a very direct emotion. When you’re writing a song you’re reflecting on whatever subject matter it is. You’re just putting it out there. Whereas with a film it’s like “Ok, that bit’s scary, does it need scary music or do I juxtapose it?”. In that sense it makes the process a lot easier at times.

So how did you go about scoring it? Did you see the finished film before you began putting music to it or what?

We started with a rough cut, and had discussions about ideas. Ross had quite a specific feel that he wanted to get across, so you start referencing those and building ideas from that. With this film, there are three characters, three different identities throughout the film that you’re trying to address, and give a direction to.

Where do you do most of your writing? On the road or in the studio?

I find that lyrics tend to come when you’re away, just randomly, and then writing is mostly done in the studio.

So how did it work on this tour, knowing that you’d be writing the score to whatever happened when the camera got pointed at you?

I really just didn’t think about it very much, and most of the time when the filming was done it was fucking absolute chaos. We had a nightmare in Russian, Japan was cool because it was just DJing and running around, and it was the initial meeting. It was quite adrenalin-led, because you’re in Japan and just want to stay up 24 hours-a-day because there’s so much you want to do. I hadn’t struck me until I watched the rough cut. It was like “I’ve agreed to do this, and now I’m scoring myself...” I find it hard to look at myself on camera, but all of us involved were quite happy to throw ourselves in the deep end and not really think about what we’re doing. It tends to be quite like that with me and Pav and Aidan within the band.

Going back to the beginnings of what you’ve done, it’s fair to say Mo’ Wax was a pretty important label. A lot of people reading this will have heard Mo’ Wax stuff in skate videos. The music was always excellent, as was the artwork and packaging. What was your intention when you started the label?

There wasn’t really much thought. I just wanted to put records out, DJ, put my mates’ records out and have a platform to be heard. Beyond that it just... happened.

What went wrong in the end?

We worked with Universal, then worked with Beggar’s Banquet, and the dynamic just changed. The landscape of the record industry changed, and the landscape of the people involved with the label changed. The best analogy for me is that it’s like a band that’s split up. It just didn’t really work anymore.

Can you imagine a label like that happening again nowadays?

I don’t know. There’s a side of me that’d like to say yes, because there’s still great music out there, but the industry’s so different, the life-expectancy of records is so different and the desire to invest in packaging and identity is so different. It could never really be the same again because it was also a period of time, in the same way that a band like Led Zeppelin could never happen again, a band like the Beatles will never happen again, The Clash, the Sex Pistols - any defining  moment in musical history can’t be repeated. That’s not to say that something similar can’t happen. It’s evolution. I don’t think there’s a label around just now, but that’s not to say it won’t happen. Things are always about reaction- everyone’s always got a million ideas and concepts, but in the record indusrty I don’t think anyone’s really got a clue about how people are going to change, and what formats there will be. I’m a great believer in the end that people do want something to hold and feel, and feel that they’ve invested in. I think music has to come back to that place to a degree, and maybe a label that could do that would be great. I was 18 when I started Mo’ Wax, and it was something that a particular generation could understand. There’s a lot more clued-up 18 year olds around now than there was when I was doing it.

Do you think it’s more diluted now?

Everything’s disposable now, the internet’s changed everything. Everybody has the information, kids are more savvy on every level possible than when we were kids. I’m 36, and when I was a kid it was definitely a much smaller group sharing ideas. But it seems like it’s saturated now, and there’s not much time to develop anything. That’s the big problem, I think.

With UNKLE, you’ve worked with a lot of massively well respected musicians. How do these collaborations come about?

It really just comes in a lot of weird ways. From the first record, everybody was beginning to come together and people were beginning to interact socially because a youth movement was happening. So Thom (Yorke), Richard (Ashcroft),(DJ) Shadow and myself were all at a similar place in our lives. At that time walls were breaking down, whether it was working with Alexander McQueen or working with Thom, everyone just kind of met. You just kind of meet people through these scenarios, it can be from going to a gig, or a band is a friend of a friend. Very occassionally  you’ll put it out there and get in conatct with people. Sometimes that’ll result in something, sometimes it won’t.

So what’s in the future for UNKLE?

I’m working on a big exhibition just now, trying to keep this record going- promoting the record- doing new videos, a new single coming up, touring and then working on another album. A lot going on!