how old are you?
i'll be 35 in August.
you're a damn busy guy! please give a brief list of your many
activities.
For the Past 3 years I've been really busy with Heckler Magazine. It's a
snowboard/skateboard/music magazine that I do with Sonny Mayugba and Chris
Carnel. I do all the layout, some of the writing and all three of us kind of
collaborate on the editorial direction of the mag. Before that I worked as a
bicycle messenger and started a courier service, Radio Flyers, with my
friends Craig Lathem and Jeff Azevedo. Going back even further, I've been
working as a recording engineer/producer for the last 15 years and started
Enharmonik Studios about 10 years ago.
how did the Heckler-Transworld thing come about? why?
We approached TransWorld last year because we needed to find someone to help
us with the business end of the magazine. It was getting to the point where
we could barely focus on actually making the magazine, because we were
swamped just running the magazine. Things that had nothing to do with
actually making the magazine like distribution, accounting, getting bids from
printers, etc. Having started 2 other businesses, I could see what was going
to happen next: Instead of actually making the magazine, we would have to
start hiring people and then we'd be just running the business instead of
making a magazine. We decided it would be better to work for someone else
instead of just being business guys. Despite the fact that this is the third
business I've started, I don't really like running a business. I just like to
make things but when you're done making them you end up with a business on
your hands. The deal with Transworld is great because they've given us almost
total freedom to do what we want with the magazine, so it's like the best of
both worlds.
who was the first skater you thought ruled?
Tony Alva & Jay Adams.
should skating be an Olympic event?
It should because it's at least as hard if not a lot harder to do than most
Olympic Events. But, I kinda' hope it doesn't, because skating is a cool
underground sport right now and I still haven't really been able to
completely reconcile with the mainstreaming of "alternative" music.
where do you find all the energy to do all the stuff you do?
I don't really know sometimes. I guess I'm kind of a workaholic and I work a
lot of 12 hour days and 60-70 hour weeks. For the most part I like my work,
so it's enjoyable although near deadlines you could probably get me to say
otherwise. I find that as long as I get to sk8 for an hour or so a day, that
I'm pretty OK. A week straight in front of the computer with no skate time,
and I'm pretty toasty.
what zines do you like?
Junk from Modesto, Grid from Utah, Enema from Reno, Nipple Ring Tittie Twist
from SD, Medium from Utah, Lemonade Spring from Sacto. Alphabet Threat was
great in it's time.
if you could work with any band/performer that you haven't worked with who
would it be?
I think it would be really cool to make a record with Tom Waits. I think
that would be pretty interesting and I'd learn a lot.
Name 4 of your favorite movies of all-time.
Nell, Birdy, Platoon and This Perfect World.
how about your 4 favorite record labels?
Dischord, SST, Teenbeat & 4AD.
do you and Maria have any pets?
We've got a little pond in our backyard with 3 fish, some snails and a
polliwog that we're hoping will turn into a frog by spring. He's got little
legs in the back. We also have a cat that lives in our garage. Maria feeds
it, but it hides in the garage and won't let anybody near it.
what's the best place to eat in Sacto?
You can't beat Spaghetti Factory for fast cheap grub, but I really like the
gumbo at Celistins when we can afford it.
ed note: neither of us mentioned that John also happens to sing and play
guitar in a cool local band called The Retards who are hella cool, noisy
and certainly NOT afraid to cover a Hank Williams song on occasion. thanks
to John for doing this interview.
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