We are hyped that Daniel Wheatley just checked in with us for a “Visuals” interview. Find out more about the video part, line, skate photo, and board graphic he picked for us. Then read on to discover some more about the process behind making his latest full-length video Soul Crusher…
Words and interview by Jacob Sawyer. Daniel Wheatley with Torey Goodall in the pouch. PH: Kevin “Spanky” Long
Daniel Wheatley began making skate videos when he was a teenager and his passion has seen him put in some serious industry hours over the years. His work as a team manager for Dickies and the Crailtap family naturally found him filming some incredible skateboarding, roles that enabled him to cut his teeth as a film-maker in a professional capacity. His work following those jobs involved crafting some videos for Lotties and a stint as shop manager at the Palace Skateboards store in LA. It would be the Palace retainer for that shop opening which facilitated Daniel dedicating his time to the Lotties Must Be Stopped video. With more creative freedom and Mike Gigliotti’s graphics intertwined, the videos he produced helped define this LA store and bring it global recognition. Unfortunately Lotties closed it’s doors in 2021 and this meant that the Kevin ‘Spanky’ Long part he was working on for the shop became the Baker “Horses” part which hit our screens a couple of years ago. This highly creative time period would lead to the realisation that making skate videos was all Daniel really wanted to do.
For the last two years he has spent his time between London and Los Angeles working on his first completely independent full-length video. Soul Crusher was released a couple of weeks ago and is proof that this is exactly what he should be doing. It contains all the elements of a great video from the music to the spots, and from the cameos to the skaters he has showcased in the best way possible. Just prior to the release of this video which should be in everyone’s pick of the year we reached out to Daniel about working on an interview to support it. All of his work on getting Soul Crusher to premieres on either side of the pond also coincided with him just becoming a father so we waited for everything to calm before talking at length about skateboarding moments that have inspired his journey. We’re glad we were able to connect and mark this moment in time.
We were stoked to hear Daniel’s thoughts on a Raney Beres part from the Anti Hero Destination Unknown video and the reasons why this particular Dan Wolfe edited part hit home for him. It was also interesting to hear about Raney’s brief residence in his broom cupboard. When it came to selecting a trick it was a line Daniel’s old boss Mike Carroll performed at LADWP that won out. This two-trick masterpiece is definitely the lesser-spoken about line in his Modus Operandi part which has aged like a fine wine. It was an epic Mosaic-era photo that Ben Colen shot of Anthony Van Engelen which represents a slice of Wheatley’s Floridian childhood. Finally the board graphic which has made the biggest impact was a James Kelch REAL board which came out before he began skating but has been under his feet as a filmer thanks to DLX reissuing this piece of history to celebrate the Mayor of EMB. It was interesting to hear all of the insights Daniel brought to the table about his thoughtful selection. We closed the interview out by finding out a little bit more about Soul Crusher and what’s next. Enjoy the read, and be sure to watch the video…
Raney Beres – AntiHero Destination Unknown (2014)
I love asking younger skaters what their favourite videos are. They always fire the question right back when I ask them, and this is one that comes to mind for me right away when I’m asked. My favourite video parts are the ones where there are friends mixed in throughout and this Raney part has that in spades. Across the whole thing you have T-MO [Tony Miorana], Julien [Stranger] is in there at the end of the part with a tailslide which, I think, is his one trick in the whole video, Gut [Sean Gutierrez]’s in it. You have a bunch of the crew appearing throughout which really gives it the feeling like you’re there on the sessions.
But also the track, that Rudimentary [Peni] track is so memorable…“Cloud Song” is such a heater. I feel like it’s one of the few video parts someone has used a Rudimentary Peni track where it actually feels the song and the energy levels of the skater are perfectly matched. It makes you want to go and skate with your friends, and also to go and travel with your friends. You can clearly see these guys are skating because they want to be and the camera is almost secondary. Raney has had tons of video parts, he’s been around for so long now, but I do feel this is his part that really hits the hardest and showcases him as a person and his skating the best. You can tell that he knows he’s filming for a video, but at the same time he’s the kind of guy that’s going to go and do all that same skating regardless.
I like how some of the gnarliest stuff is just thrown in throughout it. Things that could have been the last trick go right by the whole time. It’s gnarly the whole way through. One thing in there that makes this part hit so hard for me is a clip at some pre-fab janky skatepark. Raney drops in and airs over a wall into a mini ramp on the other side. It happens right when the song cuts. I love that edit, the song cuts out, he airs and you can tell the hype of the session. He lands on the other side and screams this maniacal scream which just lets you know the hype was real. I’m pretty sure Dan Wolfe and Julien Stranger put Destination Unknown together- but serious hats off to whoever’s idea was to cut the song out, he lands the trick and then the scream. And then when the song kicks back in, it feels like a punch in the face, and the ripping just ensues. There are only so many video parts where you almost feel like you’re doing the skating when you watch them because the hype translates through the screen so well.
This Raney Beres transfer makes an impact in more ways than one
There are Dan Wolfe classics that we are so lucky to have had bestowed upon us. All of the Eastern Exposure shit is obviously what immediately comes to mind when you think of him. But I remember getting to go to DLX maybe ten or twelve years ago, and I hadn’t seen a recent Dan Wolfe video at that point in time. So, I was surprised when I went into DLX and saw him standing behind the computer editing something. I wasn’t aware that he was still in the building. I was so caught off guard and happily surprised to see that he was there working on things. Now you’re more aware of what people are up to or what they’re working on. Destination Unknown came out, I think, on Christmas a few years later, and to see it was him who had edited it was a trip. Maybe they were already working on it when I stopped by that day. I would have to say that Destination Unknown is one of the best videos to come out in the last fifteen years. It’s really hard for a brand as they get older to keep the videos as exciting as they once were, but Anti Hero do a good job of that. Dan Wolfe fucking crushed it with this one. I know Julien [Stranger] would have been over his shoulder for sure during the editing process, but that duo editing together is so cool.
I was lucky to film with Raney too around this same time. I first moved to LA when I was working for Dickies. I remember getting an email from Ronnie Sandoval that looked like a twelve year old wrote it, he must have been about fifteen at the time, that’s how I got introduced to Ronnie. Once I saw him skate I just wanted to go and skate with him all the time and we became really close friends. Ronnie was pretty highly sought after by seemingly everyone at that time, and I was instantly skating with everyone who was in his world. Other people were coming up at the same time so I would be out with Raney [Beres], Robbie Russo, Rick Fabro. Raney wasn’t always around, he’d be bouncing around from place to place a bunch of the time. But there was a brief moment when Raney lived under me in my apartment building. Basically my landlord was renting out the storage closet, I’m not kidding you, Raney lived in the storage closet for a few months in the summertime. He shared a Harry Potter-sized broom cupboard with Jon Sciano. So when he was living under me I got to go and skate pools with him. He magically disappeared a little after that, but it was a really sick time getting to be in their world. I would say I’m a huge fan of their whole world, but I’m not the DIY, Anti Hero dude. It’s my dream to be one of those guys, but I’m not gnarly enough.
“I would have to say that Destination Unknown is one of the best videos to come out in the last fifteen years”
I do love filming transition though. In terms of being a consumer, when all of the Beauty and the Beast stuff was coming out, and all of a sudden DLX was getting this huge resurgence in skating. You had [Anthony] Papaplardo and Alex Olson and SJ wearing Dickies, and they had Spitfire T-shirts on. Dickies and a Spitfire T-shirt became this fashion trend that suddenly swept the world. I was at the age where I could figure it out. I could see that those guys were looking to Julien Stranger, [John] Cardiel and Peter Hewitt etc. That’s where they’re getting this uniform from. So you do your research and realise that Anti Hero is the coolest shit, I was sixteen.
From there I instantly started watching every single video I could find with all of that transition skating in it. I had grown up really only paying attention to street skating. It was really a huge epiphany to discover that kind of skating, but unfortunately, I didn’t know anyone who skated like that. I didn’t know anyone who even existed in that world, and it got me so hyped to finally get to film some stuff like that when I met Ronnie. For a moment it became super normal for me. It felt like I was hanging out at Washington Street, Channel Street, and Lower Bobs constantly. But as a filmer you’re pulled where you’re pulled. These days I wish I got to film transition a bit more because it’s for sure the most exciting thing to film. You can’t really tell as much from watching videos, but it’s crazy to see how consistent guys like Raven [Tershy] and Ronnie [Sandoval] actually are. They almost don’t fall down, then if they do, it’s the worst slam you’ve ever seen and they could be out for a long time.
Videos that get me the most stoked to go filming are the ones where you see how well a crew can work together, where you can see how much people are enjoying themselves around one another. Those videos that show that camaraderie. Everyone is on the session, everyone is having a blast. A lot of that comes down to editing magic for sure, which is one of the things I’ve learned over the years. But you have to be there. Take a 917 video or Destination Unknown, videos where you get to see the whole process. Here are these guys at breakfast – Andy Roy is eating oatmeal and Robbie Russo is eating pancakes or something. It makes me feel like I’m with my friends on that adventure. Great videos make you want to recreate them with your own friends. You want to shoot something that shows you and your own posse having those good times. Of course, whatever crew you’re with, every day is not going to be as magical as the videos may make you feel. You have to go out a hundred times to capture maybe ten of those magical moments, but chasing that feeling is what makes me excited to want to keep going out to film.
“You have to go out a hundred times to capture maybe ten of those magical moments, but chasing that feeling is what makes me excited to want to keep going out to film”
I’m sure it wasn’t by accident with this Raney part, but they did a really good job of making it feel like an older Anti Hero video, something that fits right in with their classic videos. When you’re watching Two Songs or something like that it just feels so janky, in a good way. There’s a line in [John] Cardiel’s Epicly Later’d where he says the video camera was like having a baby, something he didn’t really want to carry around, a responsibility. That is so well ingrained in most of the Anti Hero videos, you can tell that they don’t necessarily care to have a video camera around. I like that you can tell from Raney’s part a handful of different cameras are being used. He obviously doesn’t give a fuck that they have an HPX with the ‘right’ fisheye lens, and that shines through so well. That’s what sticks out for me filming-wise from this part. There’s a smith grind he does on a bump to a fence in there and when I think of Raney that is always what comes to mind. The noise that smith grind makes is stuck in my brain, fucking incredible. I could go on for five more paragraphs, but I won’t.
Mike Carroll – Modus operandi (2001)
It’s not surprising to me that Scott Johnston’s frontside 180 to switch crooked grind at Financial was already picked by [Dave] Mackey. That was my first choice, but this was my immediate next thought from the same part. In terms of favourite video parts this one in Modus Operandi will always be special. It’s Mike Carroll, but it’s also Scott [Johnston] and Rick [Howard]. It’s not a super long part, Mike [Carroll] probably has about twenty clips in it but it’s crazy and I could rant about the whole thing for ages. But this line specifically stands out for me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone nollie flip to backside 5-0 and frontside 180 out before that or since. I’m sure someone may have now, but it’s such a weird and unique trick. For me, growing up, ledges were few and far between in middle-of-nowhere Florida. So to see these two perfect ledges at this heavenly looking spot, that you come to learn is LADWP, was incredible. Such a classic spot. There are a lot of tricks in Modus that have been talked about but this stuck with me for some reason. I have definitely tried to get friends to do that trick, but I’ve yet to get someone to film one. I definitely will get someone to.
I think another reason why I like this line so much is that more and more these days the most popular skaters out there have evolved into these kinda ATV guys. Those are the ones who really stick out the most in videos to me for this most recent generation. There are, of course, plenty of psycho fucked up solely-ledge skaters that exist, but you don’t see it so much in the better videos that have come out these last 10 years or so. I feel like there’s very few people who exist in that area between the ATV guy and the extra tech wizard. Someone that is obviously fucking insane at skating, but isn’t a video game character. Maybe like a Vincent Touzery comes to mind. Someone that can go really fast, and do something tech but not over the top. You know Vince probably could nollie heel into a ledge trick and then sit on it for 40 feet, and then flip out, but that shit is kinda gross, and I love that he doesn’t do that kinda shit. It feels like the Nick Michels of the world all got so good at this very ATV approach with really sick basic tricks. But now that’s kinda become the norm? Nick is one of my favourite skaters, of course, and that kind of ATV skating is my actual favourite, but I find it really cool when you see younger kids who have taken the time to get good at this very specific style of skating. The tech-but-just-tech-enough, so that it doesn’t go overboard.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone nollie flip to backside 5-0 and frontside 180 out before that or since. I’m sure someone may have now, but it’s such a weird and unique trick”
Watching the part, you kinda get the idea that [Mike] Carroll’s pushing himself to be doing all these gnarly rail tricks. And then you see Plan B Carroll shining through with a super weird techy move, that let’s be honest, he probably did pretty fucking easy, but I don’t think we ever saw him do that before or after this one. I don’t doubt that every trick in this video part was relatively easy for him at this time. I’m not saying he didn’t work for it, but even being around him when I worked at GIRL years later, you could see that when he wanted to even just attempt something he hadn’t tried in ages, the muscle memory would just be there. He could just go and do whatever he wanted to. There are some serious handrails in this part- I have a funny side story about that. When I was first working at Girl, the Lakai warehouse was in a separate building. There was a small office bit there with massive photo blown up to enormous poster size, probably some sort of promo thing behind the front desk at reception. It’s him lipsliding this pretty classic rail, it goes right by in the part. Carroll had signed this huge poster to Kelly Bird and it just said “To Kelly, is this enough stairs?” Signed Mike Carroll. Hahaha. I read that and just imagined this scenario that there would have been some kind of rift at this point in time while this was being filmed. Kelly telling him to hit some handrails or something. You can tell he’s doing some of this stuff thinking, “You kids want handrails huh? Here you go!” So good.
At this same exact time you have the Jason Dill tricks at this spot in Photosynthesis. It must be Ty [Evans] filming this stuff. I feel like LA had these moments of being really cool, really popular. LA being perceived by the outside world as ‘cool’ seems to come in waves. It will never not exist as the epicenter of skating, but there are obvious moments in time where footage coming out of LA really hits the right way. And it must have been pretty sick to be out there at that time when all that era of LA skating was going down. Those ledges have been freed up randomly at times over the last ten or twelve years, but they’ve always been a bust. With this specific spot, I feel like it’s so hard to capture someone doing something good enough that would be memorable there these days. What kind of line is going to be worthy that we could get before getting kicked out? What is going to hold up to what [Mike] Carroll, Rick [Howard], and Arto [Saari] did? There are certain iconic spots that I feel like you can actually film something at and capture some of that magic or nostalgia and make it look cool and give it a fresh spin on it, but I never felt like I would be able to capture the magic of that spot, so I have never really tried to.
AVE – Switch Backside Nosegrind. PH: Ben Colen (2003)
Asking about this stuff is great, it’s some of the most fun stuff to talk about, and as you can tell I have talked a lot, but it’s also the hardest to be able to narrow questions like this down to one image. There were a few flashing through my head, but I had to do some searching for this one. I went on Chromeball and started poking around. I realised on my search that you could pick any Ed Templeton photo from any era and every single one is so good, all the way through to the last photo he ever shot skating. I settled on this AVE one though for a number of reasons. I think it stuck out so much in my mind because during this time Mosaic had just come out. Growing up in Florida we were raised on Alien Workshop, so when Habitat came out in Photosynthesis it hit really hard. Everyone in Florida really fucked with Habitat, all of the older guys loved it. So, for Mosaic to come out and have all the Alien guys in it was exciting. There were guys from Florida in it that weren’t Andrew Reynolds, and they were skating in Florida as well which obviously hit home. The moment it came out I was just getting old enough to know where certain spots were, to know what they were skating and understand the significance. I think Mosaic as a video hit specifically hard for me as well because we went on a family holiday to Philadelphia, and because it’s such a small city I got to see a lot of the classic spots they skate in Mosaic just from out of the backseat of the car. Drive by and see City Hall and LOVE.
This photo has always stood out in my mind, it’s one of AVE’s handful of tricks in Mosaic. There’s that shoe he is skating in the photo, the DC Avenue, we were all into. It’s in LA too which was so far away from anything resembling Florida, any kind of table or bench was super exotic to us still. I was blown away by it, thinking a picnic table must be the coolest thing to skate, it must grind so good and be so fun. Fast forward to moving to LA –they’re not, they’re honestly terrible, they’re terrifying to skate, all the worst shit can happen to you, and the ground at the schools is usually not great. But to see this photo elicits so many memories of my childhood, and makes me fantasise about this era of AVE. His stuff in Mosaic looks like extras from what he had for The DC Video. Everything is great, his gear, his hair, how fast he’s going. AVE still goes faster than anybody, but how fast he looks like he’s going here, and during this era, may be his fastest he ever skated. It looks like every single thing he can do is on demand, he can do it without trying too hard, he’s probably going to get loaded afterwards- it’s so epic.
“With this one it’s the trick, the clothes, and how gnarly it is to do that on the back of one of these benches where your leg could easily go into the bear trap…no photo could hit in more ways than this one does for me”
This switch backside nosegrind specifically reminds me of being raised on Alien Workshop and the importance of balancing nosegrinds. You would just get lectured by the older heads about things like this. It’s also the fact that it was taken by my favourite photographer. I think of Ben [Colen]’s work differently to how I would think of a Spike [Jonze] or a Lance Mountain photo. Their photos probably stand out to me the most, but Ben’s photos from this era (and before) up until now, are always my favourite photos. You see the flash go off in the footage too so you knew there was going to be a photo. I got to work alongside Ben [Colen], he was the staff photographer when I was working at GIRL. He is definitely one of those dudes who would continue shooting while you were filming. He was never a dick about it, but sometimes we’d be filming, and I’d know he got the shot, and maybe ask him if I could film without the flashes. He would agree to move them but was always going to shoot the photo every time. I love that about Ben. I think him and Ty [Evans] got into it about that once. Ty, I assume, would have asked him to get out the way and Ben probably refused because it’s his job.. So I think Ben refused to move a flash and Ty [Evans] threw a trashcan at him, hahaha. Ben [Colen] is the epitome of who you want to be shooting your photo. You know it’s going to turn out great, you know he’s going to be thoughtful about shooting it, and also he’s the funniest fucking guy to have on the session. He is the low-key silent killer, he’ll throw out one thing that’s gonna have you thinking about the funny thing he said for weeks or even years later.
With this one it’s the trick, the clothes, and how gnarly it is to do that on the back of one of these benches where your leg could easily go into the bear trap. You know how fast he’s going, how tall the thing is, how good he did it, the song he’s skating to in Mosaic… It was probably a really sick, gorgeous evening in LA at the schoolyard, AVE was probably there with all his homies. I’m creating this hypothetical, perfect afternoon here for myself in my head, but no photo could hit in more ways than this one does for me. The photo hit me then and it hits me now. All of the memories combined, which I could seriously go on ranting about, for me, make it the perfect photo.
Real skateboards – James Kelch “Flyer” deck (1992)
I am one of those Chromeball nerd kids, when Eric Swisher put that site out I just devoured it. The same as with Epicly Later’d. I want to say that I saw this board on Chromeball first in a James Kelch post. So, when I was thinking of boards, of course my first board came to mind and various others. But in terms of thinking about what board I would buy a hundred of, and I did buy a reissue of this one, a slick, this was the one. This came out way before my time, I’m thirty-five and this came out in 1992. There are so few boards that I have had which elicit any kind of emotion. So, without having an actual personal connection to this board, it hit me when I first saw it. The colours, the kid, the field, and the scene on a skateboard is kind of random. What does it mean? Is there a secret meaning?
[James] Kelch said in an interview that he was driving along before his first pro board came out and saw a billboard with this image on a random Delta Airlines advert. I love that story, how completely flippant it was to make that. Who gives a shit, let’s put that on a board. I find it funny that this board with a child in a field hit me so hard. Any time that I really like a graphic that’s what I’ll pick for my filmer board because I know I’m going to have it for a year straight. Aside from that I don’t have any real connection to it at all. There’s just something about the colours, it’s such a beautiful scene. I could stare at that board for a really long time which is why it was an easy pick.
“I feel like most girlfriends or wives don’t particularly want to have skateboards on the wall but this one could sit happily in any room in the house, it’s just beautiful”
James Kelch, especially at that time seemed like a pretty tough guy. He probably liked hip hop, and cutting it up with his friends. Then they stick this really sweet child on a board and think fuck it, that’s cool. I like that ability to remove yourself from the equation and see how cool it can be, not something that represents your exact vibe. You see it now when they do those Deck-Aid shows or celebrate 30 years of GIRL. Sometimes you’re looking at something which is ultimately a bad graphic, but it’s still so good. You need a graphic so you take Tommy Jeans and put Jovontae Turner there instead, you’re looking at this incredible board but it’s just the Tommy Hilfiger logo. It’s that “fuck it, who cares?” energy from when board graphics were coming out all the time in the 90s. I think for some of those brands there isn’t a single bad graphic because of the feeling from that era you get from looking at every single one of them. There have been eras with super bad graphics, but in the 90s it seemed like the best companies just couldn’t miss. Like they could just throw some shit at the wall and you’d need a thousand of them at every skate shop.
I feel like most girlfriends or wives don’t particularly want to have skateboards on the wall but this one could sit happily in any room in the house, it’s just beautiful.
__S O U L ___ C R U S H E R____ by Daniel Wheatley
We were super-stoked on Soul Crusher, it was a breath of fresh air. How do you feel about it now, are you your own worst-critic?
I’m definitely my own worst-critic. I can’t imagine there are too many people out there that make skate videos who really think they knocked it out of the park when they make something. There’s just too much history of really creative awesome things in skating, how can anything being made actually hold up? So, it’s always pretty nail-biting for me. I never like showing the video to anybody who is in it while I’m working on it. Usually I ask my girlfriend to take a look, I ask her to watch it and tell me what she thinks. Even though it doesn’t mean something to her, as she may not grasp exactly what’s going on, but if I can elicit some kind of emotion from somebody who doesn’t participate in what we do, then I know it’s kind of where I want it to be. Even though it’s probably only skateboarders who are going to watch it, if it can hit an emotion for somebody who isn’t a skateboarder, then that emotion is going to be ten times more impactful on the intended audience.
Going into this one specifically my girlfriend wasn’t around for the last couple of months of editing so I had nobody to show it to. Going to the premiere and seeing that Rick Howard was there for instance, was fairly anxiety-inducing. I’m always my own worst critic. There are a few things in there I think I should have changed having watched it back a number of times. The fact that anybody likes it at all, and the guys in the video seem happy, then I’m happy, the job’s done and I don’t need to worry about it anymore.
You’re hyped on the feedback?
Any time you get a text congratulating you on anything is special, everybody is so busy, so it honestly means something to hear from friends who took the time to reach out. I don’t typically care about the amount of views something has. We’re really lucky with the group of guys that we skate with and are surrounded by. If we make a video and a hundred people see it, at least that hundred people will be our peers, and the people we look up to. Overall, I have to say that it got way better feedback than I expected it to. We had the video in finishing stages, we’re getting ready to put it out there and guess what? The Nike SB video is coming out the exact time and I know it’s going to be beyond gnarly. I honestly thought it may have gone under the radar because of that, so to get the feedback it did I truly couldn’t be happier, especially as the dudes who are in the video fucking deserve it. Way less for me, but more for Mingus [Gamble] and Matlok [Bennett-Jones] who put so much hard work into it. I’m glad to hear they were well received, and made it on some peoples’ radar.
Was it liberating grafting on something completely yours?
Hugely, I would actually say that was the scariest part. Working for brands for so many years you get to almost hide behind having to make things in their image. When there are four other cooks in the kitchen who want something to be a certain way, even if I put it together, you still get to hide behind the reputation of a brand. Then with the Lotties stuff, when it came to Mike [Gigliotti] and his shop, all of the art and stuff became so massively popular that sometimes I questioned if people actually liked the videos or were just so hyped on Lotties that I could have made anything and it would have worked. This was scary as there was nothing to hide behind. I would say it was refreshing to make things any way I wanted, but I’ve been making things the way I have wanted since starting to make the Lotties videos, as Mike, thankfully, never gave me any direction. But I was definitely more nervous this time around.
“it was the most rewarding to put out a video that has no kind of brand legacy or distinct imagery behind it to hype it up, and a crew consisting of mostly underdogs, and have it be received well”
One thing I’d like to say is, it was the most rewarding to put out a video that has no kind of brand legacy or distinct imagery behind it to hype it up, and a crew consisting of mostly underdogs, and have it be received well. Even Matlok [Bennett-Jones], he is a fresh face as far as an American audience is concerned, Charlie [Birch] the same thing. To see that all the guys got some love was great. I was mostly nervous because I wanted to make those guys who need bit of a push look as rad as I possibly could.
In Cole Nowicki’s review for his Simple Magic blog he talks about the great names involved as in the actual names of the skaters Billy Trick, Mingus Gamble etc. Skateboarders have always had memorable names but this is backed up in your video by the titles and the individual fonts, like you’re creating superhero identities even if it’s Andrew Allen’s homie CARL. This makes their footage something more which all ties into a very old part of skateboarding where a name had an identity attached to a visual graphic almost separate from the skater themselves. Is that something you got a kick out of creating?
I would say that with titles in general, the last ten years we have seen the antithesis to: here’s your single part, here’s your name title, followed by another person’s part with their title. That idea of “the footage will go in, and it will be really raw, because you’ll know who everyone is already, skaters are smart, they’ll figure it out.” Following that was a wave of no titles in so many videos, and everyone filming things the same way. I will say that those graphics, those names, and seeing those words have always stuck with me, as I’m sure it has with tons of us. For me it’s partly about paying homage to the videos I really enjoyed growing up on, but another part of it is that I want my friends to be known. I want their names to ring a bell, so if you put a massive fucking title on the screen it’s going to help, there’s no way around it. Even if it just blinks by in one split second. Skaters are smart, but if there are twelve blonde guys in the same Carhartt jeans, all skating to a similar song as the last song that came on, who all happen to be from some country you maybe haven’t been to… Why put all the blonde guys together in one section with no titles? You’re doing them a massive disservice.
Watching Mike Gigliotti draw things every day was inspiring, he would draw a thousand things in one day. I don’t want to bite Mike too hard, but seeing him draw all those illustrations made me want to try, and I’ve always loved to draw. So, when it came time to finally do them it took me fucking ages. I’m definitely not as talented and time proficient as Mike is with these things. With the Lotties videos, I would tell Mike that I need Nick Michel’s name, twelve skulls, and barbed wire with somebody puking on Arnold Schwartzeneger, and he would be like “Snap!” Done. With me it took all day to just draw Matlok’s name. Those are the things that go through my head thinking back now, and I’m chuffed that anybody enjoyed that sort of thing because it was painstaking and took a long time. It’s also massively rewarding to think that doing things this way did help drill Billy Trick’s name into someone’s head or that Andrew Allen’s homie Carl (Depaolo) will get some recognition.
Two special guest tricks appear in Soul Crusher. Heath Kirchart and Daniel Wheatley after filming them. PH: Jack Moran
Where did the name for the video come from?
Thanks for asking, it’s one of those ones where it’s such a silly name but I know anyone who has made a video has gone through the plight of trying to pick a video name. Creating a name that somehow means something, and sounds cool, is kind of meaningless when so much shit comes out these days. Naming a skate video is probably one of the stupidest tasks bestowed upon you when making a video. I had a couple of different options but one day someone said something, I think Shane Farber said one day when we didn’t get a trick that it hurt his soul. So, this soul crushing moment went through my head. I know everyone goes through this same thing but you have a year-and-a-half to film a video, you get to the spot and fix it up, then you show up the next day and the concrete has been ripped out. Or you go somewhere and it’s the classic scenario, dude tries the trick for two hours, nearly does it, and the we get kicked out. Or it rains, that feeling when your soul has been crushed by how arduous it is to go and try to film a skateboard trick in 2024. So, Soul Crusher came to mind as an option. Then, I thought of how it would look on a T-shirt. Once I realized that I, personally, wanted that on a T-shirt for my own self just for kicks, I thought it could be good.
It was nothing but good times making the video of course when I look back on it a year later, but in the moment things were fucking gruelling for sure. I filmed this video while simultaneously filming Casper Brooker’s Baker part. I went to that Tate spot with Casper [Brooker] probably about fifteen times over the course of a summer. I’m there at seven in the morning on our twelfth attempt watching Casper just crumble, and I think that feeling is relatable to all skateboarders. You don’t always get the trick and that feeling of defeat will crush your spirit. It’s funny because I watch the video nowm and it’s quite a fun video to watch. It doesn’t feel so taxing or depressing watching it but thinking back there were many moments which went exactly the opposite way to how I wanted them to. That’s where the name came from, in a very long-winded story.
Who or what trick surprised you the most?
I kind of just include all of Casper’s footage in with the filming of this because Casper was on almost every session, so I’m gonna throw one of Casper’s in there too. He did the 360 flip off that thing in Bank for the Baker video [Baker has a Deathwish Part 2]. That 360 flip definitely took him a couple of days to do, but you see how good somebody has to be at skateboarding to do that. The ollie up is insane. I watched Tyshawn [Jones] ollie up that and switch ollie up that the other day, but I also watched him mess up on some of the ollies up a couple of times. I think that explains how difficult the ollie up is. When you watch the guy with arguably the most pop in the world struggle a little bit and to see Casper 360 flip the living shit out of it, and he did it four times was super surprising. Also, Matlok [Bennett-Jones]’s frontside heelflip over the Victoria rail and Mingus Gamble’s back tail to 50-50 on that classic corner ledge. Both of those tricks could have easily not gone down, but they both went back on multiple occasions and tried for hours and hours.
It was to a point where I knew they were both capable of what they were trying, but if I were to put money on it I would bet on us getting neither of them. It was our fifth trip back to the shittiest ledge in the whole of LA that’s covered in grease and pork garbage from years of tacos being made there. I would leave there dirty, just from filming it and Mingus would be covered head to toe in disgusting filth. Sitting in 100 degree weather melting while your friend doesn’t land a trick for four hours, then going home for a shower thinking he may not have a last trick, but knowing the video has to come out all ties back into the name of the video.
Matlok Bennett-Jones’ efforts were rewarded with this frontside heelflip for Soul Crusher
You put your project out there while your partner was subsequently working on a very important nine month project herself.
Yea man there was a crazy serendipity to all of it. I knew the video had to come out before our child was born. Even then I had a hard drive crash after the premiere, had to wait a month, and somehow it came out literally the Friday before our daughter was born. In terms of everything I have done in my entire life it has been a pretty crazy high, I got to make a skate video with all of my friends and then got to have a child with the love of my life.
Congratulations, it sounds like it all worked out perfectly.
I appreciate that dude.
What does your reality look like now, do you have the space and resources to begin another project?
Right now everything skate-wise is just dependent on me getting work. I have been very fortunate to make everything happen this far, but after so many years of having a salary from a company, freelance doesn’t ever get any less stressful. I’m going to keep working outside of skateboarding to do more projects inside skateboarding. I figured when I turned thirty that all I really want to do is make skate videos, so if someone wants to fund a skate video holler at me, but until then it’s actually so fun to not be held accountable to anybody. I’m going to go and buy a can of Bondo because I want to, I’m going to concrete this spot because I want to, I’m going to buy a plane flight for a friend here because I want to. Being able to work and afford to do all that, I’m massively thankful for sure, because it keeps me doing the thing I want to be doing.
“In terms of everything I have done in my entire life it has been a pretty crazy high, I got to make a skate video with all of my friends and then got to have a child with the love of my life”
Where feels more like home these days London or LA?
I still feel like a bit of an outsider being American in London. I don’t know if I would claim London the same way I would claim LA. Just because even after spending cumulative years here, there will always be part of the joke I’m missing out on, or parts of the culture I just can’t relate to because I didn’t grow up English. But honestly, both feel like home. I probably have nearly as many skate spots in my phone in London as I do in LA if that says something. Since I’ve been living in London it’s been really welcoming. Compared to how cliquey LA can be, London felt way more approachable. It definitely helped to have spent plenty of time here over the years skating, and working for Palace and all that. Plus, I’ve always paid a ton of attention to the skating and videos coming out of here- that has helped form a bond here for sure.
What can we expect to see from Blanket or are you still evolving this idea?
The idea is definitely still evolving. I just needed a place to put all the ideas I have. Almost like a CV for the projects I have worked on and the things I’ve made. For now, it’s just trying to make skate videos with my friends. But I think the ultimate goal for Blanket is to eventually be able to use it as a vehicle to help friends out by making cool things with them, whatever those things might be.
Thanks for your time Daniel. Any last words?
Thanks Slam and Jake for taking the time. Sorry if I went too in depth with any of the questions! Big thanks to everyone that lets me point the camera at them and doesn’t get annoyed when I try and tell them what trick to try.
We hope you enjoyed this window into Daniel Wheatley’s world, we’re grateful to him for his time, for the video, and for whatever is coming next. Follow him on Instagram and keep them peeled for Blanket updates. Massive thank you to Ben Colen for the AVE photo.
Related reading: Village Psychic: Daniel Wheatley Interview , 5000 Words: Ben Colen , Offerings: Matlok Benett-Jones.
Previous Visuals Interviews: Braden Hoban , Jaime Owens , Charlie Munro , Lev Tanju , Jack Curtin , Ted Barrow , Dave Mackey , Jack Brooks , Korahn Gayle , Will Miles , Kevin Marks , Joe Gavin , Chewy Cannon