If there ever was a bar for naming skateboard brands, it’s probably currently at an all time low. Pizza Skateboards? Thank You Skateboards? Lamebrain Skateboards? Even one of the most in-demand brands, Fucking Awesome, has an admittedly dumb name.

Enjoy the video above then read our mini Q&A below with the Rave crew for some thought-provoking comparisons between ravers and skaters. For tips on dancing at your next rave, we recommend this Eastern European guy in a bad suit.

Do you love ecstasy as much as we think you do?
Pierre-Jean: Well, it depends how much you assume we love it… each of us has his own answer on the subject.

Aurélien: I get anxiety attacks when I start compromising my brain with substances.

Which of these skate crews would you most want to party with: Piss Drunx, Nyjah + Sinner, or the original EMB crew?
Pierre-Jean:Put all of them at the same party and we see what happens!

As Bordeaux natives, are you also big wine connoisseurs?
Pierre-Jean: Actually, none of us are from Bordeaux. Tom is from Contis (a bit more south on the west coast), Aurélien is from Dijon (which is also the city where all European McDonald’s sauces are produced, which makes him really proud) and I was born in Annecy (east of France). I am not really into wine, I prefer beer and rum, but a good bottle will never bother me.

Aurélien: Dijon is not only a European sauce capital, but it’s also the best area in the world for wine. Bordeaux is a bit rotted by marketing, but Bordeaux natives will always say that’s fake news cause, of course, they’ve never been to Dijon.

You also sent over a mini-doc about setting up raves in France. Is that something you’re getting more into?
Pierre-Jean: It’s not really something we would like to do ourselves, but we are more than hyped if we can help people set up raves. The commitment needed to organize these type of parties is what I really respect. That’s why we made this mini-doc about the Fugitiv guys. People tend to think that rave parties are only about drugs and techno, but they don’t realize the commitment and the energy of the guys involved in it.

In a way, rave parties are similar to street skating. It’s the same commitment, the same pleasant feeling to cross the law.

You ever have any run-ins with the law while putting on parties?
Pierre-Jean: A year ago, we premiered [a video] in a really cheap bar in which people were starting to skate around the bar, jumping over a small stair set on the road.

It was pretty fun until this one guy decides to jump on the windshield of a car driving by, breaking the thing with a WWF move. The driver didn’t have a driver’s license or insurance, so he kinda started a fight with the guy but quickly realized he was alone against more than 100 people so he ran back to his broken car, left, and never came back.

Your graphics seem reminiscent of stuff from the ’80s design studio, Memphis Group. What are your actual inspirations for the brand?
Aurélien: The Memphis Group is inspiring for us, mostly about the color associations, especially for the packs we make. Although patterns and Memphis shapes have been a bit overused these past few years. We like to play with the imagery of different movies, The Thing, THX 1138 (which has a very accurate significance nowadays), Escape From New York (we screen printed one of the best Snake Plissken lines on the back of a hoodie).

Pierre-Jean: I would say I am more into Triple 6 Mafia than the Memphis Group. We definitely are inspired by the past in our designs and in our skating, no year in particular though. We usually say: Rave is playful nonsense, an invitation to taste what is best between meaningless and meaningful.

To end it off, can you explain why French skaters are so into wallies?
Pierre-Jean: Skateboarding in France is completely different from the United States. We don’t have the same skateparks or spots. Handrails in France usually are really high and steep whereas American handrails are lower and less steep. Our skateparks are kinda crappy so we’d rather hit the streets and learn everything on spots and not in skateparks.

It’s a different vision of skateboarding. People develop another type of creativity and another sense of taste.

Video by: PJ Chapuis
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