If you don't get it... don't ask
S katers are perhaps the raddest people to ever walk the Earth. The Skate Culture has become so huge, so massive, that everwhere you turn, it's there. The clothes, the look, the attitude, the vibe, the revolution, it's there. For those those who have forever been linked to skatings history, for you it has been a lifestyle of radicalness attained by applying a technique that overcomes any obstacles in it's path. By using suburbia's concrete as a canvas, you paint your own picture with your own style. Skaters use things like nobody before them, and nobody since. A in-animate object that is used to sit on gets another use out of it's substandard exsistence as a skatable object on which it becomes a part of THE NOW!. Skating is an homage to a society in which a skater sees beauty in things that other people see as an ordinary objects intended for one use, and one use only. Skaters are the true champions of taking the utilitarian ethic and throwing it out the window.

When I was first approached to give some music for Thrashers Magazine Skate Rock Volume I was thinking yeah, that's cool. Skate Rock? Why not?

Fullpipe madness
Music made by skaters who really skate for skaters unlike Henry Rollins (who claims to be real skater). I 'm talking about people like Cab, Mike Smith, and Brian from J.F.A. (who really got down and dirty in the deserts looking for fullpipe madness and where the heat melts your brain awhile taking out your cars' radiator with no help around for miles). To me, that is the true spirit of Skate Rock; the guys who made the music were superstoked to be skating and make music that did not cater to one crowd of punks, rockabilly, metal, hesh, rap, hip-hip, or whatever. It was made by skaters for skaters. Period.

No thrills or special $100,000 productions. Just balls to the walls Skate Rock that was entertaining and rockin' at the same time. It was rad to be part of the whole deal but, at the same time, I always hated labels of any sort. This caused me to grow wary and tired of Skate Rock. Music is music. Is this all I'm ever gonna be known for... SkateRock? That's too limiting for me.

I kinda tripped on it for a while during the vertical meltdown of the early 90's. I kinda thought, this is all I'm ever gonna be known for... skateboarding? I wrestled with it for years skating more and more while creating music fell to the sidelines. I only played when the occasional show popped up here and there. When I had my kids I was playing a lot of guitar and lil' Jesse would always hold my amplifier for balance while bopping to my chordal craziness.

I soon realized how much I missed playing music. I started playing more and more (although I did not let it take over skating). I got Jesse some drums and we would play music in the garage with me playing my songs with the li'l guy banging away on drums. It was great! Later, Jesse asked me if skaters made music and I told him all kinds of people make music. Anyway, one thing lead to another and I showed him some of the early SkateRock tapes we were on and played it for him. He was stoked to hear T.S.O.L. (Ron Emory rips pools!), Bad Mutha Goose, The Faction, and all the other great bands on the 8 or 9 volumes. I am 40 now if you can believe it (I can't!). I never would have dreamed when I was 12 that I would be still skating after all these years. Back then I wanted to play guitar soooooooo baaaaadddddddddd.

What it all means
I did not really learn until I was 18 or so. Making music with my friends meant alot but, it meant a whole bunch more knowing that they all skate. Tracy Robar my other guitarist has been to Pipa Grande with me and has rode countless pools. My bass player Mark Cole still rides the smaller parks and is in the background of my Santa Cruz poster at the Dolphin Pool. I wouldn't have it any other way. So in the summer of 2002 I was at-ease with Skate Rock. I don't mind the label now beacause I am proud to be a skater and even prouder looking back on all the stuff I've done over the years and all the people I've met through skating. Skating has made me what I am today. The friendships that go with it all from 20 some odd years ago still sticks fresh in my mind. All my friends have shaped me in some form or another as well as skateboarding.

SkateRock!

Live tommorrow today!

SkateRock!

~ Salba