Interview: Evan Schiefelbine
Has writing changed the way you move through the world? Do you find yourself paying attention to different things now, or has that way of seeing always been there?
That's an interesting one. I don't think writing has changed how I move through the world too much. I feel like my mind has always kinda worked that way, and because of that, from a really young age, I wanted to see as much as I could, and do as much as I could. And the more I did, the more I wanted to reflect that in some way with writing.
Skating was a really big thing for me, since at such a young age I was out exploring my local world for new spots, and then going home and watching skate videos that had pro's skating all over the actual world. Last night me and my wife were watching old Marc Johnson video parts to process his passing (RIP Marc), like so many of all of us have been doing. And in Etnies' High-5, a video from, like, 1995 Marc has this perfect part queued to The Sundays. And within a rapid sequence of 3 of the tricks in his part, the first trick is in SF, the second trick of the sequence is in San Diego, and the third is in San Jose. So when I was in Junior High, I'm seeing this hero of mine in 3 different cities within a few seconds. Seeing all these heroes all over the place, it had an immediate and lasting effect on me.
I can't think of any other childhood hobby or sport that would have propelled me into so many different unsupervised places and spaces at such a young age, from burned out abandoned buildings, to dirt ditches, to ornate historic plazas, skating really just throws you out into a real diverse mix of places. Most kids are going to a baseball diamond or a gymnasium, but skating takes you to some interesting locations.
So maybe it's that I’ve always liked being in motion, and writing is a way to reflect on all the motion.
Evan's part from "What if" - 2005
What do you think makes a place meaningful?
There's a lot of factors for me. Like how a given place hits any one of the five senses. There's an air vent along a wall near Ravenna in Seattle, on the corner of NE 65th and 12th Ave NE, and at night it blows the scent of fresh-baked Cinnamon pastries out into the street, and I still think about that place and that smell. I was renting a room from John Erickson nearby at that time. Just a smell, or memory of a smell, opens up a whole chunk of time, which is cool.
Context is always a big one for sure. Like, for example, any spot that is skated in Plan B's Questionable Video is really big deal for me to visit for me. It's absurd but that's where I'm at with Questionable.
A lot of your work is rooted in real places. What is it about certain cities, neighborhoods, or buildings that sticks with you?
So many things for this question too. My favorite kind is the unexpected instances. I was leaving Tompkins at dusk once, and it was like the last minutes of pink skylight Manhattanage-run-off beaming down E 9th Street, and just lighting up the corridor down through the streets to where I was at—that's an example of how a place becomes meaningful right away. There's all those moments I constantly overlook or miss, but if I'm in an open headspace to be aware of them, those moments are like being on a good drug, and they stick with me. Also, if I step into a space that reminds me of Super CastleVania IV, then that 's also an example of a space I won't forget.
What makes something memorable enough that it stays with you?
The way I usually find that out, is that it'll bubble-up out of nowhere while I'm writing. It's one of the most enjoyable aspects of writing, the surprise of what bubbles up while I'm writing. Like I was just saying about that sunset while leaving Tompkins, those moments stay with me whether I know it or not, and when I'm writing they just bubble up. And once they bubble up I can gut-check on whether I want to incorporate them into the writing.
You've worked across writing, film, photography, music etc. Do you see them as separate practices, or are they all connected somehow? What's the throughline?
Each of these practices, I think each of them brings out a different side of me in a way, The voice that bubbles up when I start writing, filming, or editing, is very clear and just clear as hell. Music on the other hand, my mind does not have a clear voice or point-of-view when it comes to making music at all. But playing music, and making up songs is still something that I really enjoy.
The thoughline would maybe be that there's a satisfaction that I get from thinking through, and working through a rough idea, and going through the process of fine-tuning something until it feels finished. And each of these practices are things you occasionally share with friends, and that's also a cool aspect. That and the general voice I have, and point of view, is pretty consistent across anything I put together across any of those outlets.
A lot of your work seems interested in documenting places and experiences. What keeps drawing you back to that?
For the video edits I'd make, so much of it for me, was probably more than anything, documenting skating of me and my friends at specific moments in time. So that's a main aspect, and then doing that documenting and using video as the medium. VHS Skate videos are what I spent so much of my time watching while growing up. So the video edits I've made, beyond being a time capsule of sorts, are my way of trying my hand at the medium I've known and loved for so much of my life, in a way that feels directly true to me and what I want to communicate out to my friends and family.
And with writing about certain places and experiences, I don't know exactly what it is about that that has me going back and writing about those things. There's just like a general energy or force or something that is constantly humming in the back of my mind that's saying you should write about this soon.
Certain people become larger than life through stories, and over time those stories take on a mythology of their own. What do you think makes someone become a legend within a community?
What becomes a legend most? Hmmm, well whether it's Jordan Sanchez or Marshall Stack Reid, I think that there are certain people, that just the way they live, is something inspiring to others, or just affects the community and people around them in a way that is memorable or maybe just one-of-a-kind. And maybe if it's a legend, then the tone that they're talked about in, and the way people talk about them, is generally good overall, or something like that.
Rosie's Ramona and Ocean Green audio book both use multiple mediums to create a sense of place, memory, and atmosphere. Writing, music, photography, film, and skateboarding all communicate those things in different ways. What interests you about working across multiple mediums, and what can a combination of mediums communicate that a single medium can't?
A lot of the working across various mediums for me is about exploration and experimentation. I have my artistic sensibilities and themes and influences, and there's just something cool about the exploration of what will happen when creating something from scratch with any given medium. Each of those mediums has a unique way of hitting me over the head. So for each way that a given favorite painting, music piece, or film, has uniquely hit me over the head, and how much I enjoy that experience I get from that, it just makes me want to try each one of those things out myself.
And for things like Rosie's Ramona or the audio book of Ocean Green, I've just always really liked other things that place dialogue over visuals. Chantal Akerman's News From Home, Agnes Varda's Mur Murs, Kahlil Joseph's BLKNWS, those are few examples that come to mind.
For the Ocean Green audio book, having original music improvisations played by Danny Garcia, with Lee Smith, someone whose art I really like, doing the reading, with accompanying visuals of my friends skating around Los Angeles—I just really like that there's multiple layers to it that can be tapped into for anyone that checks it out. Ideally there's a balance there, where each contribution adds up to a cool experience. If not, then all good, it's all an exploration and experiment.
I'm curious how those different influences interact in your creative process. Does a project ever begin with a photograph, a piece of music, a conversation, or a place? Or do those elements tend to find their way into the work later? How do ideas usually take shape for you?
As I'm going about day-to-day stuff, living and working, eating as many pastries as my body can metabolize at this age, it feels like I have an invisible net that's catching ideas and observations, and catching and cataloging songs, places, images, conversations. And I'm aware of most of what I'm catching in this mental net. After some time passes, it feels like I got this giant, total mess of collected bits, and at a certain point my brain just tells me to stop avoiding it, and to just start the damn project. And that's when all of those mentally collected things start to spill out as I start writing or editing.
Fiction has a unique ability to blend observation, memory, and imagination. When you're writing characters, how do you navigate that space between real life and invention?
The biggest thing for me is if my gut feels like the character is true, or something like if the overall character is yeah, feeling real and true in my gut. And every character kinda comes along in their own way. But the one thing that comes to mind, is the most enjoyable characters to write and invent, are the ones where I can take a friend's unique personality and then just exaggerate it in a way that works for the story, and is enjoyable to read and write. So in the end, the character isn't really like anyone at all, but this exaggeration I have in my imagination.
Do you find yourself constantly collecting things? Ideas, images, conversations, places....or are you able to switch that part of your brain off? Is there anything you're currently working on?
I'm constantly collecting moments, observations, and things like that. My mind is always in that process. I haven't sat down to work on anything in like 2 years. So when I mentioned that invisible net earlier, I'm at a point right now where I can tell something is about to start happening, and I'm about to have to take some kind of action soon. Usually when I start writing, I'll end up also putting together another video edit thing that's separate, but maybe a bit connected in some way. So we'll see.
