It’s here. Mutate or Die is finally with us. I’ve been working on this one for a few years now and I couldn’t be happier with it. In a lot of respects this was the video that I’ve always wanted to make. To me it harkens back to our first video’s we ever made, when Alan Glass and I were editing them together. There’s definitely elements of Everything’s going to be alright and Live from Antarctica in this one. I’m completely honored to have been blessed with permission from Polite Bureaux to use “Broke Biscuits” for the intro. That was 100% my summer Jam last year, and this is one of the songs that I’ve been asked about a lot after the premiers. I love the way it builds up, and works with that team montage so much.
Then you have our new Pro, Hayate, that Supercar song is on the soundtrack to “Ping Pong” one of my all time favorite films. It was made in 2001 and is based on a Manga by Taiyo Matsumoto, (Check out his work) one of my favorite comic Artist and writers. That song has been on my iTunes for over twenty years, and it couldn’t have fit any more perfectly for Hayate’s part. He loves the movie and that song too, so I’m stoked that one worked out.
Britton’s part was a fun one, as soon as I heard that incredible Chain Whip album I knew I had to use “Up in Smoke” for an edit, I’m so glad it worked for Britton and the band were super cool about me using it. It might be a short part, but it’s a super fun and memorable one.
Next is Jojo’s part, I’m telling you this one is potent, when I was editing it, I kept seeing all these really unique tricks and they would give me ideas to go and skate, so I’d be trying to edit, but then cutting out to Garvanza to try a trick that his footage had inspired me to think of. I love that his part is so different, it feels to me like a dream that you would have about skating. I had a dreamlike song by Arthur J Reptillian as the original soundtrack, but he wanted to use his friend Pablo Alfaya’s song, and I was absolutely stoked with it when I heard it, it fitted perfectly for his skating, and it was this whole dreamlike feeling with his skating and that song.
Charlie Gush and Dead Dave had footage from trips to Los Angeles, I was editing it all together and Paul kept popping up, with a doubles line with Dave in San Bernardino, and he seemed to be skating all the same spots, so I thought that I’d surprise him and give him a shared part with Charlie and Dave. That Beta Maximo track was from Idiotape records, they were really rad about us using their songs in the video.
For Terry Kraus’s part, I felt I needed something fast paced. I had a different Blaank track on another part originally, and was considering moving it over to this Terry part, but it didn’t quite work for him, but then she dropped the song “Virtue Signaling” which I love and I thought it worked great for Terry, That quiet break when he’s rolling up to that Jersey Barrier under the bridge, it makes me feel like you’re right there skating with Terry to me.
Nolan originally had a seven minute long part on his timeline and it used the entire “Research Chemicals” song by Viagra Boys. That was actually the first Viagra Boys song I ever heard, and I’ve loved it ever since. We used “Sports” in our Earth Goblin video from 2020, so I like the reference back to that. Plus Viagra Boys just straight up rule anyway. I cut the seven minute long part and just kept the absolute best Nolan stuff and it still hit the four and a half minute mark. Even now I feel like it leaves you wanting more. I loved the Cameo’s by Jason Adams, Beagle and Guy Mariano in Nolan’s part, our crew all know how rad he is, but then we bumped into Guy out in the wild that day that he filmed his ender and Guy was stoked on him. We’ve all loved Nolan immediately after seeing him skate, but it’s really nice that those guys were all so stoked on him too.
That end credit song popped into my head one day, I swear, I haven’t heard it in at least fine years, maybe ten, but all of a sudden it was in my head, and I thought “that’s the end credits”. A lot of that was real Super 8, but there were a couple of riders that I didn’t have any super 8 footage of, so I figured out how to make it look like Super 8 using filters and stuff. Pretty happy with it, I mean super 8 is perfect for credits really, gives a wholesome, fun, innocent kind of feel to it all. I loved that film Drugstore Cowboy by Gus Van Sant, he used Super 8 for the credits, so it’s kind of a nod to that I guess. Anyway, It’s after midnight, I just got home from our last premier, at Tony’s Saloon downtown, in association with Pizzanista, that was our last screening as you can watch it here now. Hope you enjoy it. We had fun making it.