One FRIday in Paris

Because this collaboration is called FRIday. Is Friday your favorite day of the week as well? Or what’s your favorite day of the week?

Ville: I think Thursday. 

Eric: That’s „Little-Friday“. 

V: It’s the best day in Copenhagen. There’s always party on Thursday. If you are under 21, on Thursday everybody gets out. Always good times.

E: I am old, so Friday still has a lot of meaning. Beside from skating I still have like sort of office time with The Berrics and Numbers. Not that I have a 9 to 5, but I still have that – I’m gonna chill for the weekend, it’s Friday.

Isn’t the skateboard-life a 24/7-weekend anyway?

V: It's kind of like this for me right now. Seven day weekend.

But it changed for you Eric? You have now some office time and stuff…

E: Yeah, it definitely changed. I can’t have Friday everyday. Only when I am on the road maybe. When I can run from my responsibilities. 

How were the Fridays when you were younger?

E: It was probably a lot like Ville’s Fridays. 

V: Pretty sketchy.

E: Actually maybe not as cool. I feel like these guys have it a lot better. Also I grew up in California where you can’t drink and party in your younger age. When I was 19 or 20 I had a fake ID. But it was sketchy – I could only use it in certain places. So it was very limited to what you can do and go to. As far as where we can party and have fun. But I mean it’s probably the same mindset we just didn’t have the accessibilities of way more cool shit to go to and be a part of.

V: When we were 15 we had fake IDs and try to get in all the places. When you are 16 you can buy alcohol in the stores.

So nowadays the parties are harder than back in the days?

V: Maybe just more in Europe than in America. 

E: I think so. Definitely more, but that’s not necessarily true everywhere.

V: It’s like Sweden is right to next to Copenhagen. You can’t buy alcohol there until you are 20. And then it’s Copenhagen a half an hour away. 

You filmed for the first part of the collaboration in Copenhagen. And now you filmed in L.A. Why?

E: Just a change of environment, just for the whole overall vibe. Kind of the same core, but obviously in a different environment. And I am sure these dudes are stoked because of the warm weather. 

V: Yeah. It was really sick.

For how long did you stay in L.A.?

V: Almost a month. So we were there for a long time. It was a lot of skating. Not that much relaxing. We were just skating everyday. Trying to do shit. 

E: It’s actually one of the harder places to be able to go out and skate everyday and film. It’s just when you were doing this in this area for the last 25 years, it’s a challenging to refresh it. But there are a lot of spots we skated they were not like conventional L.A. spots. There’s a lot of crusty little things in L.A. But you have to drive around and look for it.

So the guys brought a new perspective?

E: Yeah, for sure. And stuff that wasn’t like perfectly polished Southern California landscape, you know. Which is good. That’s one thing that helps make L.A. a little bit more fun to skate is like try finding new things – even it’s not that great. Sometimes that’s more the challenge. 

V: Sometimes it’s more the mission to find anything to skate than to skate it. 

E: It’s the excitement of trying to find something new in L.A. Even just getting out and skating. It’s like get the kids to school, do some time in the office in the morning, get to them in the afternoon, get out, trying to skate. You know – something here, something there. Between family and business you’re juggling with your time. 

V: We hung out with Eric’s family. We went to a BBQ/pool party. 

E: Yeah, I got this guys over to my house. 

V: Two times. 

E: I have a Jacuzzi, too. I thought that would be nice for these dudes. Cause they’re beat up from skating everyday. We had this Taco cart come. Rather than me trying to BBQ and being busy cooking food have somebody else doing this. 

V: Yeah. It was perfect.

Is that a typical Friday nowadays when you celebrate? Pool party and BBQ?

E: Yeah, I mean: I like to do that. It’s nice to chill at home. I remodeled my pool. I have been living in that house for ten years. I’ve been working on it since then. When you redo everything and everything is layed out – you got to use it! So – that was definitely fun!

V: Yeah, it was super fun. 

You said that you found different spots or skated them differently in L.A. and you said that the second part of the collaborationship has another vibe. So what would the vibe be now for this second part?

V: L.A. vibe, but we filmed in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo as well, where it was bad weather. That will be a change in the clip, too. Cold and shitty weather – and then everybody goes to L.A. in the warmth and have a great time. Go to Eric’s pool…

E: I should have flown out to Copenhagen and just try to go film in the winter. What these guys were doing…

When the guys came over to L.A., did it spice up your Fridays? Were they getting a bit wilder?

E: One of them – but I don’t think it was Friday. But they definitely spiced it up!!

V: You can’t remember shit from that night. Falling asleep standing at a bar with a glass in his hand dropped it on the floor. We tried to get him home… 

E: The Tequila… 

V: He didn’t know where he lived, he didn’t know his adress – he was just like: „Shut up bitch!“ Like „Get the fuck out of here bitch!“ 

E: I just remember Tao [Tor Ström] trying taking photos of me. I saw the flash…

You finally found your way home?

E: Yeah. 

V: You were calling around for Scuba [Steve] and everybody tried to get that adress. Scub was like: „Let him sleep a lil bit and then he will find his way home.“

E: It’s true cause I will do that. Just like it’s funny cause Scub knows it so well. He was just like: „He will wake up in 20 minutes and he will know how to get home.“ And that’s what happened. I finally got in an Uber. It’s always funny because I do that like get in an Uber, immediately like fall asleep in it. As soon as it’s said: „Hey, we are here.“ I look up and see my house I’m like „Thanks“ and run up. A little sleep always helps.