Defgrip Audio mix: Click on the Pic to download.
No place represents the creative side of the BMX world like Defgrip.net does. Videos, interviews and BMX news, but also music, art, design, or photography, Defgrip covers it all, and always with that BMXer swag. The Defgrip crew put together a rad selection with tracks by The Raveonettes, Killer Mike, Air France and…Mark Morrison (!) among others.
To make things even better, Defgrip founder Harrison Boyce answered our questions. Read the interview below.
What’s the story behind Defgrip, when did it start, and what are you bringin to the table?
Defgrip started in the Summer of 04 as a little blog for me and my friends. We would always send links around with stuff we were psyched on, so rather than just keeping it for our little crew, I thought we should share it with the world and hopefully inspire some BMXers! Since then it’s turned into more of a hub for the creative side of BMX and an access point for other creative people that are into BMX. We post everything from new BMX stuff to art, design, photography and music. It’s a pretty wide range of stuff that is based off all our personal interests. Everyone that posts on the site is a BMXer, but we are all interested in so many other things. It’s a pretty dope group of guys!
I started the site and run the day to day stuff, as well as do all the design, html, and site management. I’m a full time designer, so Defgrip is what I do for fun. It’s a lot of work, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Do you feel BMX and music are closely linked?
Oh yeah. I think videos link the two more than anything else and a song can pretty much make or break an amazing video part. Once a song has been used for a video part it almost defines that era or rider and the second you hear the first few notes of the song, you are replaying that video part back in your head.
What are you listening to these days?
Right now I can’t stop listing to Air France. I only have their “No Way Down” ep, but it is constantly on. I’ve also been listing to a lot of Four Tet, The Album Leaf, Soulwax, and one of my favorite albums of the year, M83’s “Saturdays = Youth”.
Best music to ride to?
I only really listen to music when I ride by my self, but the more upbeat the better. I seem to listen to more hip-hop stuff when I ride… Mainstream, pop, get you going tracks like Kanye, Jay Z…Actually I usually just load up my shuffle at random and hope I get some good stuff.
Best use of music in a BMX video?
Two songs come to mind and I know if a BMXer was to read this, they would totally disagree, but The Avalanches “Since I Left You” in the Mosh video and M.I.A. Pop in Chase D’s part for Fit Life.
Has the internet had any kind of influence on BMX culture?
I think BMX has completely changed because of the internet. Videos get ripped and uploaded so easily, that the pros are having a harder time justifying killing themselves for a big video part. Short “web video” edits have become the standard and all but a few companies have stopped producing DVD’s. Kids have created a “career” or at least got sponsored from having one hot web video and magazines are having a hard time, as more and more companies are not doing print ads any more. I think we are in a weird place right now with the internet, but it is the future and everyone is just trying to figure out how to utilize it to their fullest potential.
How do you see the internet evolve in the next few years?
I think the quality of original content that is being produced for the internet is going to get better and better. I think watching a shitty quality video in a small box is going to be gone real soon. We’ll be watching full HD, full screen stuff as a standard and I know we are going to look back and say “remember when we had to watch those small shitty videos”…Video is definitely the future and it’s going to be interesting to see where photography goes. Look at the new Nikon D90…Full HD video with 35mm lenses…All on a sub $1,500 consumer camera. Why shoot a photo when you can make a video? I don’t think photography is going to disappear. I just think video is going to take over. I know I’m not alone when I say this, but I’d much rather watch a video interview with someone, see them speak, see how they interact, watch them work, get a tour of their studio, etc. then look at some small photos and read a bunch of badly designed text on screen. With the cost of bandwidth, storage, and gear going down, this will all happen very soon.
