Our latest “Offerings” interview connects with Silas Baxter-Neal to find out about a skate video, book, album, and documentary that have impacted him. Silas came back to us with two picks which are gems from his formative years in Eugene still delivering joy today, and two more recent discoveries. Find out more about his selection and check in to see what projects he has on the cards right now…
Words and interview by Jacob Sawyer. Silas Baxter Neal on a current Euro trip. PH: Chris Mulhern
It was a pleasure to check in with Silas Baxter-Neal for this interview. Silas first visited Slam on a Sidewalk trip back in 2004 shortly before the Regal Road Habitat tour, a timestamp that represents more than two decades out there in the field. His work ethic and dedication to crafting video parts haven’t wavered. It all began with a laser-focused move to San Francisco but has evolved into an art form he can pursue effectively from home turf in Oregon, something his prolific output can attest to. His part in Inhabitants teed up a well-deserved SOTY win the following year and Silas hasn’t slowed down since. Each part he puts out there is always far from formulaic and full of surprises, proof that older dogs can indeed continue to learn new tricks. This interview caught him days before jetting off to continue work on a part with Chris Mulhern, a quest to see what learning opportunities new European architecture can inspire.
This preamble about Silas’ commitment to his craft ties into his first pick, an Alien Workshop video which laid the foundations for what a video part could be. Photosynthesis will always remain a blueprint for the impact a full-length video can have, and also introduced the company Silas has called home since we first met him all those years ago. It was interesting hearing him talk about this seminal video through to working with Joe Castrucci in the years that followed. Outside of skateboarding Silas is somewhat of a green-fingered renaissance man with a keen appreciation of his surroundings, something which drew him back to Oregon in the first place. Inspired by that, his book choice offers a plants-eye view of the world and urges us to consider our place in the natural world, as opposed to outside of it. We also learned a little more about what plants he’s nurturing at home.
When it came to selecting an album, Silas dipped back to the nineties and picked one of the most iconic hip hop albums of all time. His son’s introduction to hip hop as a teenager has opened the floodgates for reminiscing and this one came up top of the pile. Plays of this record must be in the millions at skate shops globally so if you are yet to Enter the Wu-Tang, the time is now! Rounding out the recommendations is a fascinating documentary about a visionary who was too many years ahead of the internet. Dial-up speeds couldn’t match what he foresaw but he predicted our digital lives and the effect they would have on us way before we were even sat there waiting for Metrospective clips to load up. This sobering tale backs up his book choice and rallies us to live our lives in the real world. The interview closes out by checking in about what Silas is up to right now. We hope you enjoy this read and get inspired to spend some time out there in the wild (with the Wu on your headphones)….
ALIEN WORKSHOP – PHOTOSYNTHESIS (2000)
Do you remember the first time you saw this video?
I don’t remember the first time viewing it but it was back at home in Eugene when I was a kid. I watched it at a friend’s house because I didn’t have the video myself. We would take turns buying all the skate videos, then trade them or watch them at each others houses. My friend Ryan had that video
What was going on with you at that time?
It was back in the early days. We had our little crew of skaters in Eugene which had a pretty healthy skate scene at the time. There was a local shop called Boardsports which really supported us. Trevor Prescott and Tucker Glasow were two guys who were older than us who had made local videos previously, a series called Oregon Sucks. So we grew up making videos too, relating to them, we would always be out skating street. There were a couple of newly built parks back then so we would meet at the park first then hit the streets and try to film stuff.
Photosynthesis would have been the perfect blueprint for what a skate video can be.
It was so visually intriguing, the footage in between the tricks, the music was super good. They just knew how to put together video parts as far as them being well-rounded from the spots to the trick selection. To us it was definitely the archetype of what a skate video was supposed to look like.
Is this still one you’ll revisit that transports you back to that time?
When I’m travelling through YouTube this is one I will regularly go back to and watch again. I like [Jason] Dill’s part, I like the Habitat section. [Anthony] Pappalardo had an amazing part, and Anthony Van Engelen’s part was really good too.
Were there specific parts that spoke to you more when you were younger?
I think we were really psyched on Brian Wenning, and Pops [Anthony Pappalardo]’s parts because they were the younger new dudes. Their parts were really exciting. Wenning was skating so differently to other guys at the time, all that balanced grinding stuff he was doing. Then Pappalardo’s approach to street skating, his style, and the spots he was skating. As I got older I started to really appreciate Jason Dill’s part, just the orchestration of it all. How that part was put together was super good.
Any tricks stand out to you? What’s happening when you close your eyes and think about this video?
[Brian] Wenning’s nollie nosegrind on that curved ledge at Love Park. I remember watching that and being blown away by how balanced it was.
Not so much at the time. We didn’t really have many ledges at our disposal, something that was probably similar to London. The weather was pretty harsh, and the ground was pretty rough so we didn’t have the same kind of spots. We did a lot of jumping down stuff instead, jumping down stairs, or jumping on handrails back home. It did make me learn new ledge tricks though for sure, I would try them at the skatepark. I wanted to learn balanced nosegrinds really badly at the time, I just didn’t have very much to do it on.
“I think more than anything this video helped me think about video part construction, what it means to have a well-rounded part”
Is there anything you’ll still do to this day that summons up a moment from this video?
I think more than anything this video helped me think about video part construction, what it means to have a well-rounded part. It made me want to find cool spots and make things more visually exciting. That’s my take away from Photosynthesis and what has stuck with me the most.
It was exciting having the Habitat section in there, this fresh new direction.
Totally, people often forget that Mark Appleyard was on at that time and he had a bunch of really good tricks in there. The Mr. Dibbs soundtrack made the whole thing really cohesive. Kerry Getz had some really cool stuff in there. Pat Corcoran was a rail chomper who stood out because there weren’t a lot of East Coast dudes doing that, he was real sick and just kind of disappeared after that.
Did this open up any avenues of musical exploration?
Yeah I think I always looked to skate videos for musical inspiration. At that time I would have been heavily into hip hop, and the Habitat section had the Mr.Dibbs soundtrack. I got into his music through this video and the crew of people he was affiliated with, the whole backpack rap genre. They released that Mr.Dibbs soundtrack on vinyl too which is really cool, I never got a copy of it though.
It must have been amazing to go from watching this to being in Inhabitants, and being part of the same legacy. Did that add to the weight of that project for you?
The Habitat Mosaic video followed Photosynthesis and that video was super amazing, every part was a real hitter. I loved Danny Renaud’s part, again the music was amazing, he had such a wide range of tricks and spots. That made a big impression on me. So being in the van with him was a trip, Danny Garcia too, it was pretty unbelievable to be part of one of those projects. It made me really want to earn my keep and find my place. Joe Castrucci is such an amazing editor, he’s so good with visual graphics, and music selection. So just knowing someone like that was going to be putting my part together, and editing it motivated me. I realised whatever he put together was going to look good but I wanted to live up to his standards too.
Moving from Eugene to living in San Francisco, and being part of the big leagues as it were was so exciting and fresh, and was such a different thing to what I had dealt with before. I was excited to be working with those people. Brennan [Conroy] was a great filmer, someone who knew what you were capable of when taking you to spots, and figuring out what to do. It was great working with them, it really helped me excel my skating and feel like I was part of something.
Any final thoughts on Photosynthesis?
I think it was such a good video in long-form, a great watch from beginning to end. That art is lost a bit these days with a bunch of single parts and short edits. I still think it’s important for people to watch those videos that were made to be watched in their entirety. I know people have shorter attention spans these days, myself included, but I think everyone should watch Photosynthesis all the way through once or twice as intended.
The Botany of Desire – Michael Pollan (2001)
Tell us why this book resonated with you?
I like to have a connection to the world that I live in, which includes the food that I eat, and the plants that grow. This book talks about the history of how different foods have influenced our culture, and the progression of humans. It talks about how apples helped spread the Western migration. At that time people were unable to drink clean water so they would make cider. They planted all of these apple trees further West, then people were able to take those apples, make cider, and live in areas where there was no clean water. It talks about the relationship between humans and plants. How different plants are designed to attract the human eye, to make them more appealing so people eat them, take those foods with them and plant them. There’s this idea that the plants are maybe not trying to take over the world but to expand their territory using humans and animals as their vehicle to do so. I find that idea really interesting.
So the survival of the fittest means becoming the most appealing to human desires?
Yeah and it gives the natural world it’s own intelligence which is a cool idea. It’s not something that most people consider.
From what I read this invites you to think about how we are influenced by the plants we share the world with, that we are not in control of them like we think.
It does, I also think that we as humans often think of ourselves as being outside of nature but we are part of the whole ecosysystem and what we do affects the life of plants in the same way it affects humans. I don’t think many people think of it like that. People talk about this idea of trying to save the natural world but it’s about trying to save ourselves as well. The book includes us in this world of nature and I like that perspective.
“People talk about this idea of trying to save the natural world but it’s about trying to save ourselves as well. The book includes us in this world of nature and I like that perspective”
The book focuses on four things?
It talks about apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes. It delves into how those four things have played a role in the progression of the human race, and how they have affected us. The tulip chapter is really interesting. It talks about how our desire for beauty and vanity created this huge bubble, there was a boom in the popularity of the flower, there was this Dutch industry. People were buying all these tulips at expensive prices and putting them in their gardens. Then this disease affected the tulips and made a lot of them die, and the tulip industry died as a result. The economy crashed as a result of it which I find pretty interesting as well. Every chapter deals with our relationship with plants and how they have helped or hurt the human race. What we’re attracted to is what we propagate, and what we consider attractive changes so at different times different things excel or don’t.
You have a farm on your land right? Do you have any exciting new plants growing?
We turned most of our yard into a garden. We grow the basic things that we know do well in our area: tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, leafy greens, and whatnot. I like to do a lot of the fruit tree stuff too, we have pear trees, apple trees, we grow cherries, plums, persimmons, figs, a bunch of stuff. I really like those a lot because with many vegetables you plant, they die at the end of the season, and you have to plant them again. With the fruit trees you have this ongoing relationship with the tree, you’re pruning it, shaping it, and treating it for disease so you’re watching how it develops over the year. You’re learning from your mistakes and figuring out what you need to do for the next year having seen how each season affects it. I like this ongoing relationship with a singular plant, and I love fruit trees because of that.
Are you interested in mycology also?
I am a little bit, I haven’t gone too much into the science of it but I have some Garden Giants. You plant them in your garden and all the mycelium helps put beneficial rhizomes into the soil, also when they grow you can eat them too. Mushrooms are fascinating, I spend a lot of time foraging for them in the fall and the spring, looking for wild mushrooms is really fun. I like to eat them but it’s also a great chance to get out off the trail and search round. It helps you get to know the forest a little better. Having a connection with the natural world, the land you live on, and live around is an important thing for humans and something a lot of people don’t ever engage in. I think having a garden, foraging for mushrooms, and all that stuff gives you a different viewpoint on your land and where you live.
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) – Wu-Tang Clan (1993)
When did this album enter your life and how did it impact it?
My brother or one of his friends had this album, the first time that I heard it was through them. It’s incredible, one of those things where every single song on it is a banger. I listened to it so much as a kid. Growing up I was exposed to a lot of West Coast rap so this was my early intro to East Coast rap. Through them I began listening to The Roots and other East Coast crews as well. This album was just so well created.
As time went by I learned more about the Wu-Tang, how they constructed the group so each individual member signed to a different record label, and how that changed the world of hip hop. Each member was getting royalties from different places, putting more power in the actual artist’s hands which was a pretty intelligent thing to do at that time. How some street kids from New York shook things up. This album is a soundtrack to my youth, we listened to it so much that it’s ingrained in my brain.
Is this one you still put on from start to finish?
I recently listened to the whole thing but mostly tracks just pop up on my Spotify playlist in the mix. I would like to say that I have a record player and I play records but I don’t, I never have. I found my CD zip-up folder the other day and realised I don’t even have anything to play these things on, our computer doesn’t even have a CD drive any more.
Do you have any favourite tracks on the album?
Which Wu-Tang member has your favourite flow?
I always loved Ol’ Dirty Bastard because it was always super unexpected where he was going with it. I think GZA would be my favourite lyricist out of all of them.
Favourite solo album?
Liquid Swords is amazing.
Did you take in the Wu-Tang television series?
I did, I watched it a while ago. Recently I started watching it with my son who is thirteen now. He’s starting to get really into rap so I told him he needed to know about this. I thought it was a good way for him to learn about it in an accelerated way. I thought it was pretty good.
“This album is a soundtrack to my youth, we listened to it so much that it’s ingrained in my brain”
Does new hip hop reach you through your son?
He listens to all the new rap, stuff I never got into but now he’s listening to it I’m hearing stuff that I like, putting it onto my playlists and exploring stuff that way. I’m revisiting it because of him. Because of the content of rap and hip hop songs I chilled out on playing it when the kids were young. Now that my son is older and listening to that stuff on his own I’m listening to a lot of old stuff again. It’s back in my mix more heavily.
Have you pilgrimaged to Staten Island?
No I have never been to Staten Island, I should do that next time.
Is there anything else you want to say about Enter the Wu-Tang?
If you haven’t heard it you should go listen to it.
We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner (2009)
Thanks for recommending this, it’s a wild story. What made you pick this documentary?
I haven’t seen it for a long time but I thought when I watched it how well put together it was. That era is kind of the era I came up in so all of the pop culture stuff aligned with it like Friendster or the stuff he was doing is familiar. It’s an incredible story about how he [Josh Harris] laid the foundations for the current social media we are so obsessed with.
After it all died he tried to come back and he was just a nobody, no-one knew about him or cared who he was. All of the social experiments he thought up were super interesting though, the human terrarium he built in New York was crazy. I have an interest in human psychology and how people behave so I think that was such a huge human psychology experiment. He was also live streaming his whole life from the apartment he lived in with his girlfriend which was super weird but interesting. It was all just so ahead of it’s time that no-one understood it but it seems so normal now. He opened the doors for everything that followed but doesn’t get any of the credit for it.
I guess he envisioned it as a social experiment more than an enterprise as well.
Yeah and it has become our world in a way. It’s how people live now, it’s how people make money. It’s such a part of our culture.
It seems he was ultimately interested in what living like that in the future would do to a human being.
He was, and we’re seeing what’s happening.
Did this story affect how you view your own digital existence?
I think it did, I think it made me realise how people can get carried away with how much stuff they’re putting out there. How we create community outside of our own world, obsess over it, and create our own realities because of that. It made me realise that world isn’t all that real in a way. For some people it may seem really real but forward-facing relationships are so much more authentic and satisfying.
I found it interesting that someone so ensconced in that world of media and broadcasting escaped it in the end. He had the most extreme version of the modern world more than a decade before it was part of reality, then ducked out before it got there.
I think when you’re inside of it like he was it’s so scary and overwhelming. You see all of the unhealthy aspects of it. He saw it before anyone.
Tell us why everyone should watch this…
I think it’s a good reflection on where we are at in our world and how we got here. It highlights the pitfalls of falling too deeply into the digital world. Again… it’s our connection to the real world and the people around us that’s important.
“I think it’s a good reflection on where we are at in our world and how we got here. It highlights the pitfalls of falling too deeply into the digital world”
Your reality in Oregon offers an escape from the digital world. It seems like you have carved out a healthier more grounded existence for you and your family.
Yeah I think between my garden, and spending my free time in the woods or by the river is a way to appreciate the world I live in which counterbalances the world I create online.
Do you ever miss city life?
I’m fifteen minutes away from downtown so we’re not out in the sticks but I don’t miss the city aspect of life. I appreciate it and enjoy it through the communities that are here, the schools for my kids, the access to good food, the skateboarding. But as far as my mental state, I prefer to be in quieter spaces with more privacy and less people. More nature, that’s what centres me and makes me feel like I’m alive.
Was adapting to living in San Francisco in the early 2000s a challenge?
Not at the time, I think during that period I was living, eating, and breathing skateboarding. So it was a great place for that. I really loved the playground aspect of that city, and the wildness. Coming from a small town like Eugene and relocating to there meant I was learning so much about what cities are about. All of the interesting things they offer, and the craziness. I really enjoyed that period of time, I had a lot of fun. There’s the beach there too, it was a great city to live in during that time. I still love that city, I just don’t think I could live there again, it’s got even more crazy since I left. I enjoy visiting there now, it’s fun for a couple of days but I easily get overwhelmed by it all.
What’s new in your world right now? You just got back from a skate camp?
I’ve just spent the whole weekend at a soccer tournament my son was in. It was three day soccer tournament in Washington. Just before that I was at the skate camp on Mount Hood, it’s called Seek. The skate shop I ride for Tactics have their own week there so I went up for two nights, skated, and hung out with the kids. It was super fun
Do you have anything new you’re working towards?
I’m currently working on a video project with Chris Mulhern. I’m trying to skate a lot, trying to find trips, and travel as much as I can. I’m working on more of a long-form video part where I take my time with it and put it out the way I want to. I don’t want to rush myself. Chris [Mulhern] has his own [ untitled ] projects, the web series he has done for Thrasher. He has done six of them now. I’m stoked to be working with Chris because I’ve worked with him on adidas stuff and I’ve always been a big fan of his filming and editing. A lot of the stuff we do with adidas is curated through them, so I’m excited to work on a project that’s his vision completely.
It’s cool because he doesn’t really have a deadline for this so it’s down to how long it takes me. He’s filming with a bunch of other people at the same time. When there are a number of people close to finishing parts he puts it all together. I think it’s very important to spend your time on a video part. Through the process of spending a year or two years working on something you get to know your current skating, and push yourself in different directions. You go through the period of getting all of your regular tricks then you want more so you’re learning stuff, travelling more, and finding new places to inspire new tricks. Spending more time results in a more well-rounded part.
Silas gifted us this poetic two-piece from his trip to Malmo filmed by Laurence Keefe
You are someone I get the sense is always filming regardless of a set goal. Are you happiest when there’s a bigger project to work on?
I think so. That’s the style of skating I came up in, when people were filming for full-length videos. There was always a long-form project to work towards. When I lived in San Francisco that was the first time I ever lived in a major skate city so being removed from it I feel like travelling and filming all the time was how I could justify living where I do. I always wanted to be productive to stay in it if I wasn’t in the scene so much. I wasn’t being seen face-to-face so much so I always worked to keep putting stuff out there. It feels really good, there’s the sense of accomplishment, filming, landing tricks, putting something together, always thinking about what you want to do next. I like that stuff.
Are there any immediate trips on the horizon you’re excited about?
I’m going to Europe in a couple of weeks, we’re going to Norway. I’ve never been there before so that’s exciting. Then we’re going to Sweden and Copenhagen, it’s going to be really fun. I haven’t been to Europe in a long time. Most of my recent trips have been domestic so I’m looking forward to it.
Do you foresee a trip to London in the future?
I love coming to London, I love England in general. I would like to go back to Manchester as well because I had a really fun time there. Nothing is on the books but adidas do a lot of things based in London so hopefully there will be an adidas trip that will find me there some time in the near future.
Any last words?
Thanks for letting me be a part of this, I’m psyched to be doing it. Free Palestine, free Congo, free Sudan.
We would like to thank Silas for spending the time on this interview and look forward to seeing what he’s cooking up with Chris Mulhern.
Recent Silas Baxter-Neal related viewing: Out There: Silas Baxter-Neal , Silas Baxter-Neal for Thunder Trucks , Topography: Wallrides with Silas Baxter-Neal , ROUGH CUT: Silas Baxter-Neal’s “Burrow” Part
Previous “Offerings” Interviews: Matt Pritchard , Matlok Bennett-Jones , Spencer Hamilton , Aaron Herrington , Rowan Zorilla , Beatrice Domond , Chris Jones , Kevin ‘Spanky’ Long , Helena Long , Tom Karangelov , Bobby Puleo , Ray Barbee , Zach Riley , Ryan Lay , Casper Brooker