Jason Dill is an anomaly, a veritable modern day creative polymath … Jason Dill is an oxymoron comfortably existing as both punk and hippie, perfectly paradoxical if you will. Contradictory he may be, but this is a good man in a good place right now, brimming over with soul and love for so much around him and with his first and true love Skateboarding at the heart of the list of ingredients that make up the recipe for his desire to forge new paths and experience success. On the eve of the release of his brand Fucking Awesome’ collaborative union with Adidas Skateboarding ,The New Order jump at the opportunity to spend a good while on zoom and cell phones talking everything from clothes, creativity, life being a movie to macaques to Mark Gonzales to pride with very little prejudice …Allow us to introduce you to Jason Dill a good man that’s all about spreading the love.
TNO: Lets talk a little about state of mind / mindset if you will, here’s a quote, does this still resonate “I got my room, I got my books, I got my shelves” it pertains to the fact that having a simple set up can be a good thing, not needing more, not craving too much, less worry ?
JD: Ha!, Well you know, I think I know who said that man, ok, so now, as a, as a company owner, I of course have more going on in my mind in that all the time im doing stuff and putting in the work and, talking to everybody involved and, and whatnot. But of course I have all my general worries as a human does living in any times, especially these ones. Let me tell you something, I was riding my bike on Sunday and I seen this dude, this guy in a wheelchair and he was probably about 30 years old. And he had like all workout clothes on and he was going for it and he was going up a steep hill and I stopped and thought, God, I'm the worst person in the world. I stopped and thought, I’m constantly worried and complaining about me and all my stupid needs. And it just, it really hit me. I just thought and I stopped, man. Like, look at this dude. He’s just doing it. Like he was really zoned for it and no distractions. Really hit home … stop fucking complaining!!
It made me feel bad inside about some of my perspectives on life you know, of course every human has their deal. And they're allowed to be worried. I mean I guess i am lucky in that my occupation pays for my mother and her husband to live and, you know, sometimes other members of the family too and, you know, and that's just, that's just stating a fact, it also means I dont have to worry even tho I do. It just, hit me the other day when I saw that guy. And it's made me think, Dill, you don't do it enough, you just suck. I go through mental ups and downs daily, Ive spent a whole lot of time since March reading and walking and then I finally bought a bike and now I've been doing that and riding for like 32 miles.
TNO: It’s almost like people like that come along for a reason. Wouldn’t you agree ? There is something special about when people hit you like that and something changes in your mind and you're like, right. I'm going to reevaluate some things. Sometimes these things are sent, it's like fate, I feel we all need a divine intervention of sorts to make us have a re-set and re program our trajectory.
JD: Yeah you're right man, but seeing this dude also made me feel like shit, like I was underachieving with my privilege. It can go both ways, the way things make you feel in opposition to what you do feel.
TNO: Truesay man, who knows what we will do or feel next, which brings me to what your doing right now. So I'm going to go into a little bit about what you're doing with FA & Adidas. In the context of this, an era when a multitude of brands are using the catalyst of collaboration to project it seems like this is more of a Union if you will, two brands that wear their hearts on they sleeve working in tandem to create one vision. I mean Adidas for me growing up is one of the most important brands of my life that’s for certain. So looking at the last 2 decades, of brands collaborating with brands to amplify vision and voice, what is it that brings you together with a hegemonic brand like Adidas ?
JD: Ok so first of all I became part of Adidas quite simply because I wanted to, I wanted to push myself on a design and tech level that would eventually realise something great. Adidas have that capability, I mean my existence for the most part, occupation wise, is being a professional skateboarder and just doing that. Then over time starting to make my own stuff, which i have been doing for a long time now and to continue having the confidence to explore it. This is a new chapter for me, being able to design on a higher level. Fundamentally that was the thing that attracted me to Adidas.
They’re a generous brand and allowed me freedom to be representative of my true vision, I wanted to make Adidas stuff that looks like the stuff I saw when I was a kid. I would see photos, of heroes like Jimmy cliff wearing Adidas or Bob Marley wearing Adidas, full looks you know shoes, with the jackets and the fucking bright colors!! Man it was imprinted!
Thats why i'm not being or making conventional product, for example i've made an Adidas x FA Karate suit! Shit man if someone would've given me an Adidas karate suit when I was a kid, I would have freaked out and been so happy. So I just think that it's a really fucking cool thing to be able to design for such a giant brand and let it be seen by such a wide demographic, So in answer I wanted to work with Adidas to design and do more, they’ve allowed me and now I can't get enough of that. I really love it because its also a team effort, like, if you get me, you get FA as well, that comes along with it but you know you also get Na-kel and Tyshawn. Simply put, it just made sense to do a line of clothes and shoes with us and them. And we have more stuff coming out after this for me personally, I think it's just different than anything anyone's done with Adidas.
TNO: I was super stoked when I heard about FA x Adidas doing this, in that a brand as big as Adidas within the lexicons of cool and then looking at the legendary individuals who have worn Adidas, the fact that they're providing you with this free-reign and freedom to allow the way that your mind works from a design angle to amplify and represent utilizing their design tech, is amazing.
Very few brands allow that kind of freedom to collaborative partners, its usually more restrictive. So to gain that freedom from a brand of this size, to allow you to translate your mindset and your thought process and all of the things that make you tick into their brand whilst maintaining your own brand identity, that’s what makes it seem more like a democratic soulful union NOT a collaboration. Also with the kids that you have on board, that you're focusing on and colluding with regarding your team and so on, that says hope as well. There's philanthropy running through all of this as I say, it propels heroes and suggests hope, which I think is great. It suggests positivity for me, which can only be good.
JD: Well, thank you man. I appreciate that. If that’s what you see or what you get then the whole vibe is on point you know, its working !
TNO: You're very welcome. I mean, lets chat ‘the kids’ the new power generation. Just look at these guys, you see Tyshawn and you're like, “Holy Fuck”! That kid's not just a skater he’s a herculean next level athlete, you look at Na-kel he’s doing renaissance shit, then you have Sean Pablo he’s like a beautiful elegantly wasted rock star - I see work that yourself and Big Bill Strobeck are doing with the next generations that you're both so intertwined with them, people like you guys are the elder statesman, if you will, you know, you've lived it, you've breathed it, you've drunk It, and fucked it. You've done so much with and to skateboarding through your appreciation and ability to recognise style and talent. Now is the genesis point, giving generation next the freedom and more importantly the opportunity to do what they are truly capable of, its amazing watching it play out
JD: I really appreciate you saying that man, I mean you know, I'm grateful for the career I've had in skateboarding and when it comes to their skateboarding, I'm hands off. I let them do what they do and i am done, I'm not the one calling anybody on the team asking them if they been skating and if not why not? Because there was plenty of times in my career when i didn't skate for months and months. I'm not saying any of these guys do that, I'm saying I'm just real hands off about that shit. I'm not trying to push them in all directions, I mean look at Tyshawn he’s taking the bull by the horns and now he owns the fucking bull. All when it comes to their graphics for the pro models, you know, I run everything by them, its a democracy, i am privileged to work with these guys.
I take all of my experiences in professional skateboarding and riding for companies and I make what we're doing easy, the opposite of everything bad I experienced. The graphics on the boards are their graphics and they make a good amount of money off of their boards too, so that's another thing I made sure that was set into place from day one, is that they get fucking paid. Not one person will ever have their graphic come out and not have been involved start to finish.
TNO: Its like the narrative of a nature documentary, It genuinely feels like you're allowing a sense of natural progression to come through with all of these guys. Like the way they progress as skaters, the way they progress with their innate personal style, whatever you are, whatever you want to become, there's an allowance to that. There's not an autocracy, you're allowing and promoting a democracy, these young people are being allowed and encouraged to do what they want to do. Get into politics !!
JD: Ha yeah, It gets a voting system. I just want to make sure that they just feel involved, to whatever extent they want. They just know that they're not going to wake up one day and there's some ad I put out that they didn't know about, or the board that came out that they didn't agree with. But it's not that difficult to do. And I had a really good experience riding for Alien workshop. I was for and with them, but even that was just different. It was certainly different in how I do this thing.
“If some kid showed up at school and he was wearing a blue Adidas jumpsuit, id be like "Wow, fucking cool !!” I wouldn’t want to just to see this other kid, id wanna know him, I'd want us to be friends. “
TNO: So what you're doing with like FA and Adidas and so on, it seems to me that this is your brain on full display. So I see the influences and the sub cultural reference points and the representation is how your brain works. That comes through in how you've designed and presented this collection, it's spasmodic, jerking between so many different things. It's not following convention and I love that. I think it's really important for me and this interview to put across that pretty much since day one, you've gone against convention. You've divided opinion on god knows how many occasions from video parts to your life yet you're here and you're doing this which in itself seems like it's a sort of a defiance of the norm and you’re reciprocating with Adidas the freedom needed to manifest something genuine and fresh, almost young eyes on an older head.
JD: Weird you say that man, as the Adidas based stuff is and has to do with so much stuff I saw when I was 13 years old. This process was about wanting to see this stuff through the eyes of when I was 13, 14. You know if some kid showed up at school and he was wearing a blue Adidas jumpsuit, id be like "Wow, fucking cool !!” I wouldn’t want to just to see this other kid, id wanna know him, I'd want us to be friends.
It has to make heads turn and make people think, you know, second glance, with the karate outfit, when I first brought that up there was a lot of people's faces looked at me kind of funny, but the thing is, with the karate outfit, you can wear the pants with something different, you don't have to go out and just the whole karate outfit. You could wear the pants with a different top half piece, and then you could wear the karate top with jeans. Make it your own, make it look cool. We also made a jumpsuit, which actually turns into a bag, you can turn it into a bag and carry your stuff in it. Switching shit up is important.
TNO: Will you continue to switch things up on a design, seasonal or more drop led basis ?
JD: Fuck yeah, you cant be static. For example the next step is like a lot of really outdoorsy stuff, pieces you could totally utilize fishing, seriously, any well-versed fishermen could wear and use it, it has all the stuff that they would need on it. Whether it's boards or designing clothes or the FA store everything really goes back to me at 13, 14 years old and all the things that I was discovering and seeing, it has to be different and original. Like Kubrick, I designed my store on Hollywood Blvd with Kubrick at the front of my mind ...
TNO: So much comes back to the self, the self discovery that you had, the things that you saw and heard that stayed in your memory? Maybe it’s our age group. I mean, I just turned 45. So I'm from the same school of thought and processing I guess. That time of not being able to believe what you've just seen and then going, I have to find out either about that person or where they came from WITHOUT THE INTERNET!! Like why has that guy got three stripes running down the side of his leg and up his arm and across his leather ball cup and he's got the shoes on too you know, you've got the likes of Bob Marley and the Wailers all the way through to run DMC. It gets you. And you're like, I either have to have it or I have to steal it. I have to know more …
JD: Fucking right man, And again and again when it comes to how I design its about the experiences I had as a kid, my life wasn’t so normal as a kid, I had two half brothers and half sister and my mom being on her own to raise me. She didn’t want to go see kid movies and my brothers and sisters are older. So I was taken to see all of these really crazy films when I was a little child at an influential age when kids are watching E.T and i'm watching fucking Platoon and The Shining and all these really crazy movies, When I was just a child, my eyes were opened wider than most and that had a major influence on me. So a lot of what I make and especially the store on Hollywood Boulevard reflect the super early audio visual experiences that stuck with me. I design based on everything I love and everything I'm afraid of, imagery that hits hard, emotions that marked me. All this stuff is down to my fucking weird childhood.
TNO: It's like you've become the Kubrick, the director regarding the store and the brand is your movie, and it's allowing your inner child's vision and fixation to come into play in your adult life, dictating the play via this period of time in which you are emotionally ensconced. Your memory is something else man, the fact that you’ve taken maybe these two years and enabled it to forge this path forward. Now you're reflecting back on it and using it as a means to pull together a global union with arguably one of the world's most recognized brands. I have a theory, people that push boundaries with extreme levels of devotion and detailed subjective attitude, they're the people that don't necessarily talk about what has occurred or happened to them, but they can't forget it, so they have to use outlets our material. Canvas, jersey, clay, skate decks to put this down on so that their vision becomes realised, its a therapy of sorts.
JD: You're right you know, and the analogy you used regarding the movie is great because, I guess I do treat it like that. But I'm making the movie that they want to show up for every week. Whether it’s funny or it fucking scares me, all this is a culmination of what I saw as a child. Then being lucky enough to survive the periods of my life when I was doing things that could have easily ended it, a lot of that comes through in the thinking behind what I do.
TNO: Well now you have this opportunity but you haven't been given it, there's a difference between being given an opportunity and taking an opportunity. You’ve taken this and you’r running with it. You discovered it, found it and run with it, which is great. And it's influencing a lot of aspiring people. The title polymath comes to mind. I have no idea how you find the ability time and desire to keep this up and continue to deliver it. Not only that but you use art design, clothing, skate to be philanthropic, you’r benevolent towards people. How the do you keep doing this? Where's the energy where where does it come from, where is the reserve !! I look at someone like Mark Gonzales as well, this irrepressible energy, this ability to like infiltrate people and make them feel like they want to become something, do something It's an incredible ability to have. How do you maintain this energy level and keep putting it out there?
JD: Well in contrast to your kindness I actually spend a lot of time thinking I'm quite lazy and I get really down on myself, saying that i think my work and especially paintings aren't that good. Then there's been people that I love & respect that come along and they say, “Hey I really like your paintings”, and its that little bit of encouragement that will help me to switch out off the negativity and carry on my painting and the clothes and the boards. Regarding Mark, we can certainly get to that, he’s a one off, an anomaly but me, I mean I just get down on myself because I'm not painting when i am not active, there will be a period when I really don't like what I'm painting and I feel unmotivated and down. That part sucks and I know I need to get out of that thinking, but, I really appreciate you saying what you said and when it comes to making each line for FA, I truly enjoy it, I truly enjoy what I'm doing. I think that I fire off ideas and deliver as rapidly as I do, because I know I'm really lucky, like, I'm really lucky to have this life and this outlet. Im also learning as I go and what’s vital is to really not care what anyone else besides your friends who you respect think about what you're doing. I'm not looking at the internet. Like I look at YouTube and Marks Youtube and seriously that's it. I mean I don't, I cant care what the public thinks. If those I am lucky enough to know and those that I love and respect like what I'm doing, as in my friends and the team, then that's all I need.
TNO: Sir lets get to Mark G, you guys have some history right ?
JD: Oh fuck yeah. So I met Mark when I was about nine years old and then over time I became friends with my childhood hero! Mark has this ability of being a truly magical human being. I will guarantee you right now, as we speak, Mark is either skateboarding or drawing or making fucking tops or pants. Oh my god, its not the energy that man has, it's the abundance of energy that man is!
I have spent so many hours with Mark, especially in New York, and lt’s insane. You just have to go with it, with him, he will take you all over the fucking place, its like being in a dream, he is my big inspiration and absolutely always in my life as a friend and you know. I look up to Mark immensely and he was and still is a giant influence on me. Im influenced by people a lot. One time I did a little interview with Cass Mcombs the singer and I said to him “Man you put out, a lot of music how do you do that?” And he said " I just fire off. I just keep firing up and just keep doing it” “It's like, man, I'm so glad that you do that, i am the same, I have to keep moving and creating”. Right now I'm making a photo book. It's photos from around 1999 maybe before, up until recently. I cant not be doing enough, that’s what gets me down. I have so many people I loved that have passed away, I do this for them too, one of my dear friends who's passed - Dash Snow - Dash really pushed me, he'd always be, do this. No do that. That's good. Those photos are good. I love that kinda stuff. And because I'm always filled with self doubt, that encouragement from my friends that I still get to this day, its so so important.
TNO: Weirdly, I'm literally talking to you, sat underneath the Dash Snow Supreme deck triptych with the Saddam Hussein FAIR GAME graphic, I love it as it’s constantly a reminder that skateboarding and art seem to be inextricably linked, the life of a skateboarder through the community found within skateboarding is like no other - it can take you literally anywhere and give you the courage to do so much. To never rest on laurels or to be ‘just content’.
This brings me to the concept 'to be content and yet not to be content'. I think this applies to yourself, Mark G and many other people in the world that have come out of skateboarding and used it as sort of a springboard. All of these amazing directions that you manage to keep going in. You know, you have people like Mark, like you said, he's like the eternal sunshine. He always seems to be happy. Whenever you see him talk, behind anything he’s saying, there's happiness just to be doing something, whether he's goofing off just having fun or hanging an exhibition. Driven by being content to not be contented and it consistently pushes you forward to the next series of things that you do, or the next body of work that you put out and so on and so forth. So it's almost like a condition governed by heart, soul and mind that are giving you this sort of determination.
Having that reward of heroes and friends who are constantly keeping you going, I always think that people who are in that situation, you're in a pretty incredible situation that you have people care enough about you to push you forward. So that bond is, inextricably linked to your creative process and trajectory.
JD: Yeah man, so true … so fucking true
“With Fucking Awesome. There’s a lot of humour in what we do, and that comes from friendships and influence.”
TNO: So would you, would you say that your creative process is driven and comes from a source of love and respect ?
JD: Well yes for sure and then there's also the aspect of, you know, things that I make that are ‘funny'. That's what I like with us, with Fucking Awesome. There’s a lot of humor in what we do, and that comes from friendships and influence. For example I grew up idolizing Richard Pryor on every level. So if you see me like in a video and I'm goofing off and playing basketball or something like doing karate or whatever, it's like, I'm kinda enjoying myself but like Richard Pryor i am masking the sadness, not that I'm walking around depressed, but I think too much about the world and I think too much about people who don't got it so good. I think about my really weird childhood, but as my mother says, you know, if you didn't go through that, you wouldn’t be this. He went through that too as a kid. You cant be who you are without carrying some stuff around with you, I mean not to speak for Mark, but we talked about him and I think Mark has that stuff going on as well. I think I can describe my better self, not Mark, but, um, yeah, I think like him I used a lot of humor to get me by.
TNO: Humour as a defence mechanism alongside a devoted unerring passion for curiosity and fathoming shit.
JD: Right. I'm just baffled by the absurdity of life and how absurd the thing is on a day-to-day basis and i am baffled by our existence. And I'm baffled by the lack of love and compassion. And I'm baffled by one's ability to make insanely good paintings and one's ability to land a a spacecraft on an asteroid!!
TNO: You know, you remind me of MCA when you talk like that which is dope.In fact you know, I've always thought there was a part of each of the Beastie boys in Jason Dill, you know what I mean?
JD: Ha ha ha! I mean i've never thought or heard that but ill fucking take it man !!
TNO: I think there's something about you, you know, as you've just said about doing karate or goofing off or playing basketball, and your whole philosophy on the world and seeing the world as it is, and this is what I like, your confusion and being baffled and bemused by the lacking in things is beautiful and like the engine, the turbine room that drives you and enables you to be able to give what you think is missing. So when there are things missing, you fill that space. And I think what you do is incredible by working so fucking hard to fill that space, because you're concerned that there's things missing in the world. Hats off to you man, its a big deal. Ok we are getting spaced the fuck out here, your a spiritual dude, so i am re directing the traffic and now it’s time for a quick fire round to keep us pepped up.
JD: Ok cool man, I mean i will talk for fucking hours so you need to distract me.
TNO: So what do you listen to the most of music wise? And then what person do you listen to the most?
JD: music-wise, um, currently for example, its well you know how that stuff shifts, but for me it's the constant of Stevie wonder & John Coltrane, I remember when I heard Stevie wonder as a child, I dont know man, it just clicked, the sunshine that is Stevie wonder and Stevie Wonder is the sunshine, it's just that the epicness of everything that person is, he’s the greatest thing to me, the world needs Stevie Wonder's music. And then there's John Coltrane. And when I passed his age, I just thought how unfair that is. And there probably isn't a God or anything like that, because why would you only let that man live for such a short period of time? So unfair. And I think the same thing with Dylan.
TNO: Its fucking cruel but what makes them indelibly marked on us, the legacy with which they leave in such short periods of time, that you will turn to again and again, whether you're designing a collaboration or whether you're skating, like you say, whether you're smoking a joint, it doesn't really matter. This person will always be there. And it's for that reason that regardless of how long they lived, I always believed that that that legacy is something which is inexplicable yet written by genius. You can't explain what it is or how they managed to achieve what they did in that time. But the fact that it gives you so much pleasure and pain, it's an incredible thing. So I completely agree.
JD: Right. For me its watching Dylan's video parts. Given how difficult it is to accept on a day to day basis. And it is for anyone close with Dylan, we go to a day-to-day basis of acceptance that he's not here. And just thinking of what he would be doing right now and how incredible it would be. Again it goes back that thing of you're just really lucky to even be born and not starve to death. you're lucky to be born and just even exist. And then you're also lucky to even have had the time you had with certain people. And that's really a difficult thing to stay focused on for me.
TNO: You can hear in the way you're talking. You can hear that it kind of hurts. I never knew Dylan but I mean, at the same time I can watch his parts over and over again from Mindfield to Cherry and its something else, its other worldly I must have watched that part in Cherry soundtracked by INXS and cried so many times and I didnt even know the guy, he just had ‘it’
JD: To me, it's a personification of perfection and perfection is not necessarily a good thing, but with him, it absolutely was. And, it's tremendous. I find myself at night putting his videos on watching them and, it's life and you have to accept that, he was my my dear friend.
I mean there’s a real sense of mortality when you see friends, heroes and contemporaries leave this part, I mean look at Keith Hufnagel he just passed as well, way too fucking early. It's only about 10 months ago Keith came to the FA store and I hugged him and told him I loved him. I just spouted off all this stuff quickly about his career and everything he’s done that’s been such a huge influence on me and I thanked him in my store. That's a big deal to me, the fact that I got the chance to say that to such an inspiration and friend. He picked me up and hugged me and called me pickle, all the East Coast OG’s call me Pickle, then I find out he died, it's just another thing that you to accept despite the fact that it hurts, as I said you're just so lucky to have the time you've had with these people.
TNO: Heroes and people that change your life cannot be understated or underrated, their impact cant be measured. Even people you dont meet who change the game for you are special, you form a unrequited love affair with their persona and aura. They offer you romance, somewhere to go to. When I was first introduced to Glenn O'Brien who, I'm sure you probably met back in the day. I never got the chance to meet him but he was like my absolute hero, he made me want to know everything about him, he made me want to ask questions in interviews that weren’t being asked, seeing TV party and seeing the way he behaved and, and also the way he thought and wrote, you know, that sort of turned me on to doing something different.
I wondered if there was anyone in your life, I mean, you mentioned Mark before, but is there anyone in your life as well? Who's just, you've seen and you'r like, that's me, I don't want to be that person, but I want to do what that person does?
JD: Um, yeah and this is for real… Willy fucking Wonka. That first movie is a giant influence on me and that, that movie has influenced FA in huge ways. And Malcolm Gladwell. Yeah. I like Malcolm Gladwell a lot. However when it came to designing the FA stores, I most certainly took cues from Stanley Kubrick as far as the aesthetic and what certain things look like and giving myself a theme to kind of stick with as we created it.
TNO: I hear you're are you a fan of David Foster Wallace as well? Is that right?
JD: Absolutely. Yeah.
TNO: Would you ever put David Foster Wallace on a t-shirt or let him influence a new range?
JD: I wouldn't, I wouldn't want it. He wouldn’t want it either. I think it’s an interesting idea and yeah as I say, I liked David Foster Wallace, but I don't necessarily know how I actually feel about him. I never finished that book, Infinite Jest and of course there's people that has finished it, but anybody who says they understand that book thoroughly, I think is lying.
TNO: No one needs to place that many footnotes in a book. It's insane
JD: I cant honestly say that I even understood what I read, however I do think he was just predicting the machine. I think he was predicting people looking at photos for self gratification on phones and to him was a generalisation regarding screens. There is part of the book where he gets into it, but it just doesn't make sense. And it was difficult for me to move forward. So I switched to a short story book of his ‘Forever Overhead’ all about a 13 year old boy in the heat of the summer, it resonated you know.
To be honest I came to the David Foster party pretty late, i would be sitting in this restaurant in New York called lucky strike. That's no longer there anymore, but I ate at that place regular for like 20 years. I would go there and read the newspaper and get my coffee and all that stuff and see that he had put something out and I saw his photo and was basically intrigued by him. I said, Oh, that's the guy that wrote that big book that everyone was talking about not understanding ha ha. So I thought, fuck it, and I started getting into him and reading his stuff. Then I'm reading the paper one day and It says he hung himself, this made me even more intrigued, more intrigued to find out more about this person. And I did, and he's a complete fucking weirdo. I liked that, just like with Richard Pryor, he put it all out on the table, when someone puts all that on their table and then says, all right, time's up, I'm doing it. And they kill themselves. It's intriguing.
TNO: You like people to challenge you to in turn be intrigued by them, not personally per se but via their output whether its literal, political, art, commerce? Was working with Supreme a conduit experience whereby you're intrigued and then subsequently you're challenged, you're challenging yourself to do FA , surely someone with the pantheonic knowledge and standing of James Jebbia at Supreme as an incredible businessman had an impact on you. ?
JD: Oh fuck yeah, I mean I don't work with Supreme anymore, just for the sheer fact that FA is and has to be my every day, it requires my undivided attention and focus, it's a constant, my occupation. But I learned a ton from James, a ton, and for that and those experiences I'm forever grateful, he’s built an empire.
“I'm baffled by the absurdity of life and how absurd the thing is on a day-to-day basis and im baffled by our existence. And I'm baffled by the lack of love and compassion. And I'm baffled by one's ability to make insanely good paintings and one's ability to land a a spacecraft on an asteroid!!”
TNO: It seems to me at the moment, looking at New York that there's this sort of ethos of community, which is taking brands to a wider audience via genuine and credible means. The whole less quantity, more quality with regards to the product championed by yourself but also people who are legends in the game like like Brendon Babenzien or Angelo Baque. They’re focusing on working with community and trusted networks to build, represent and take their brands further.
Are you in that school of thought where you're trusting your networks to take, and place the brand ? How do you choose to sort the architecture of the brand and plot the journey, do you think that's like the most genuine and true form of marketing if you will when taking a brand forward. I mean when you work with bigger brands like Adidas do you still invest in your network or your skate team to ensure you're putting the FA brand out there in the right way, so its about the people utilising them to generate the success of what you do right.
Its becoming prevalent that the smart conscious people are moving away from mass distribution, people like yourself are bringing more to the table as a complete brand, to make it more of something about quality, and agility from the way you think, and then equally making people think about how you produce, and what they in turn consume, using a very focused network to deliver lesser quantity of product and the brand in the quantities you do. Is this something that you're considering as well with the way that you collaborate, making in smaller quantities, you know, is it deliberately environmentally conscious?
JD: I mean the whole planet thing freaks me out all the time, doing this you get a scope of the conditions in the world, and you question yourself you know, does anyone need another fucking t-shirt, the answer is no. However then there's a self fulfilling occupation and you obviously pick picking up and climbing the ladder instead of shutting down your company. I mean I'm guilty of adding this addition as far as product goes, being manufactured then shot out all over the world and, you know, skateboards are made from fucking trees man, you know?
There's so much fake eco friendly in clothing and the skateboarding industry. I'm not going to claim any of that perfect person and brand bullshit that so many people wax on about because It's just not true. And, you know, humans, we’ve just been all over and fucking the planet for so long … you just need to think and act responsibly when you can when running a company, make small steps and I roads to be good.
You know, we try our best and I'm trying to use less plastic, trying to use less plastic with the Adidas project and I mean those guys are conscious and actually doing so much in areas I cant touch, doing a lot to cut down on their waste and all of these different things. I honestly as just a human, I can only try to do better in that whole department. We will always choose to make quality garments and decks before quantity, that’s not up for debate. As far as the way we put out products and what we do as far as as it being seen in like a sort of like community way, I suppose it's like between New York and California, we're only in a certain amount of stores where, and I suppose in talking about this differently regarding the brands you brought up like NOAH, and AWAKE they’re not skateboard companies they’re fashion brands, so it’s a different kind of ball game.
I mean as an example there's more skateboard companies that exist, that are in more stores in California than we are across the United States. Im just trying to help us exist in the best way we can.
TNO: Do you see stores beyond the Boulevard ?
JD: I'm not trying to make stores around the world, I do want to do our store in Japan. Yes. I totally want to do our store in Japan and then the pandemic got in the way but I still want to do a kick ass store in Japan!
Right now my saving grace is that we're actually a pretty small company. We're doing these things like the big Adidas thing and everything that goes with it. But even that, we're not making a large amount of the stuff. And that's the thing, we don't make the large amount of anything, again it’s about the quality.
TNO: I mean, Adidas, ahead of the other big guns in sport and lifestyle are revered as being one of like one of the first companies to do circular, in their footwear, and properly, with a plan that makes sense to the planet - huge props to them and their roll out.
JD: I'm just going to say that it's good working with Adidas because I value them and they value me, that’s all you can ask for in a collaborative or union as you say… partnership. Their programs and tech and desire to do good things is good for me too.
TNO: Good vibes all round - we salute the three stripes. So here we are my friend, the final question - this one comes from us and PALACE SKATEBOARDS.
JD: Ah fuck I love those guys - send my love man.
TNO / PALACE: So you're not Jason Dill. You're somebody else, you're looking at two skate videos, two parts, which one do you love the most - the 101 trilogy video or the final part on photosynthesis on alien, which is the favourite version of you skating?
JD: Fuck man, I'm honestly thinking about it ... I, you know, I, … fuck!!
Ok so I'm not me and I look at it objectively as being separate brains, different humans. And I think there's two different things to take from either one with, with Trilogy, at that time in skateboarding, you really had to bring your A game. At trilogy I was doing shit that no one had done yet. And that's not patting myself on the back, you simply had to do that back then
You couldn't come to the table without shit that no one's seen yet. And then with Photosynthesis I think it caught a person on a certain personal journey of exploration. And he's only like like 21 years old and trying to do things completely differently that’s what hasn’t been presented in the past, whether it's good or not, I suppose with photosynthesis there’s a young guy trying to present himself in a completely different way than ever before, and really not caring what the general public thought, again, you had just put out what you put out, leave it all out there every fucking time you go.
TNO: That's a fucking great answer. We’ll park it here, its been a pleasure and a privilege to talk to you Jason