Amrit Jain has done a lot of solid video work and definitely has some good stories. He made Like Brothers, filmed for The Berrics, and is currently working on a new project called Hard Times. In addition to this he's also building his skate wax company called Skate Sauce that has a blog that's filled with great content. We recently got Amrit to answer a few questions, the following interview is the result.

48 Blocks: You are originally from Pittsburgh, talk a little bit about the skate scene out there and how you got started.

Amrit: I started skating around '97 right before I went into high school. There was an American Hero board with plastic trucks laying around the house and I used to mess around with that. My older brother use to skate back in the '80's so there were some old Thrasher mags layin' around the house that I would look at. One had a how to Airwalk trick tip with Rodney Mullen but that shit was so hard to do! One day some neighborhood kid wanted to skate too so his mom took us to the local skate shop called Shady Skates to buy him a complete. They had an indoor skatepark too and I remember this wood smell when you walked in the building and hearing the clacking of boards. It got me really curious and hyped like "what is this shit?!" The homie bought a complete and a new mag that had a How to Ollie trick tip. I remember finally getting some ollies on that damn American Hero board, and then learning them fakie too but thinking they were Nollies and runnin' around like "yeaa I can Nollie!!"

We didn't have enough money to take the bus or go to the skatepark so I never really got to know that many people in the Pittsburgh skate scene right away. I would always hear about Jerry Cooper, Mark "The Shark" Tengowski. and Kevin Taylor. There was a big gap that was called The Reason Gap named after Matt Reason. Brian Michaud moved into our area and later got on Baker/Bootleg. The Pittsburgh skate scene seemed to really start to crack off around the time I left to go to California. Jerry Cooper started a shop with some friends called One Up Skateshop, and the Panza brothers - Nick and Henry Panza - were keeping Pittsburgh street skateboarding alive. Now there's a dope skate scene over there and a lot of kids skating. There's also a bunch of young dudes killing it like Austin Kanfoush, Drew Windon, and Zach Funk. And of course Nick and Henry are still holdin down the Fort. They got some ridiculous pop!

48 Blocks: What was it like moving from Pittsburgh to LA and what brought you to the West Coast?

Amrit: A year before I graduated high school I took a trip out to Cali to visit my older brother. He lived in LA so we chilled there for a week and then took a road trip to SF. I had sprained my ankle the night before I went to Cali just messin around with friends drunk at the park. I was so bummed walking around LA & SF just looking at all these spots. A year later high school was done and my parents were stressin me about college and what I was gonna do. I didn't get into any of the colleges I applied for because of bad grades. They were talkin about Pittsburgh Community College. I remembered Cali and how amazing it was and wanting to skate all the spots I never got to skate during my visit. I suggested Santa Monica Community College in L.A. and it was better than Pittsburgh's so they let me go.

Moving from Pittsburgh to Cali was crazy. No more winter was the shit. All the spots were perfect. Lockwood and USC were crackn at the time. Hollywood Blvd Stars marble sidewalk night time sessions were so much fun. Seeing all the pro's in real life killing shit was wild. I remember one of the first times showing up to LA high and sitting down on the brick ledge next to the rail and seeing Koston Switch flip fs board it in that run thats in Yeah Right and he came back up and gave me and everyone on the ledge pounds and I was just like "what the fuck!" Carroll and someone else got a trick on that rail that day too. It was crazy to just see it all going down.

48 Blocks: Do you have any good stories from Lockwood or USC?

Amrit: I skated Lockwood at the end of it's life so I didn't see much crazy shit go down besides good skating. Guy and Gabriel have told me some crazy stories of some dude getting jumped and someone getting robbed or something. I remember seeing Gino backside flip that bump over the planter and I remember Alex and Flo killing it over the picnic table on flat. I think Alex Nollie varial flipped it and Nollie Bs Bigspinned it and Flo Nollie Full Cab'd it.

The craziest story I have from USC is when AVE was trying to do that nollie crooks revert on the curved ledge over the rough ground that's in his DC video part. He was mashing from far away but everyone skating seen him and would stay out of his way. One dude kept getting in his way and was acting like he owned the spot. AVE said some shit to him and dude started getting all crazy saying he went to USC and had a right to do whatever or something. Every skater stopped skating and it seemed like dude was about to get jumped by everyone! Shit got broken up and I think AVE was over it. The next day there's a huge chunk of concrete missing right in the curve of the curved ledge. Big ass chunk! Everyone was saying that the dude was part of a frat and they came back the night of the argument and took a sledge hammer to the ledge. It didn't stop AVE thou, I think they just put mad bondo on the thing or wax and he still nollie crooked thru it.

48 Blocks: When did you first get a camera and what made you decide to start filming?

Amrit: I first got a camera around the end of 2003. It was a Sony VX2000. I had met this kid named Ryan Stangland from skating Lockwood & USC. He was really good and had solid steez. He needed a filmer and I always wanted to try filming so I was down to help out.

48 Blocks: How did Like Brothers come together and how long did it take to film and edit it?

Amrit: Like Brothers came together from just meeting different people and homies. I met this kid Robert Santamaria from skating USC and was filming with him. Shane Jenks was Ryan's homie. I met DC (Dan Connelly) and Peter Smolik through Danny Minnick who I also knew though Ryan. From filming all these homies I figured it would make sense to do a video and help get the names out there. I drove down to San Diego a lot and stayed at DC's crib around the time when he was just starting SK8MAFIA with Peter. He showed me some footy of Larelle Gray and Kellen James and I instantly wanted them to have parts. Around that time I came up with the name Like Brothers and wanted sets of two homies that were like brothers to share parts. I wanted to represent where I came from so I hit up my homie Scott Clowney back in Pittsburgh who put me down with Jerry Cooper. Jerry helped get Nick Panza involved with the video. I met Aaron Artis thru my homie Tom Carter. Aaron knew this dude Marco Lambertucci who they said was the "Muska" of Italy. I also wanted Guy Mariano and Gabriel Rodriguez to share a part as they have been like brothers for 20 some years. I think Guy was tied up from coming out of rehab to getting back into skating so it never got to happen. I also wanted Alex Carolino & Flo Marfaing to share a part. I had met them briefly at USC and emailed Flo one day about the idea. He hit me back and said they were super down and to talk to the Santa Cruz TM. Santa Cruz TM never really responded so that never happened either. Everyone else was down for the video and I had all these pairs of two skaters except for Robert Santamaria. We kept filming regardless and then I broke my jaw in three different places and broke 4 front teeth out bombing a hill drunk. That happened at the beginning of 2006. After about 2 months of my jaw being wired shut I finally was able to be out filming again and wanted to premiere the video by the end of 2006. I met Justin Guillen throu Robert around June 2006. Justin already had a lot of dope footy and was down to have a part in the video with Robert.

I technically started filming Like Brothers around the end of 2003 / beginning of 2004 but then my camera got fucked up when I let Danny Minnick use it to master his video. He had his money backers pay to have it serviced but the place took like 6 - 8 months to get me the camera back. It was shady and it sucked cause I didn't have a camera for so long.
A lot of parts came together thanks to other filmers. I made last minute trips in 2006 to Seattle and Pittsburgh to film with Ryan and Nick Panza. Started editing parts in August / September of 2006. Premiered the video November 16, 2006.

48 Blocks: How did you first meet Sammy Baptista and start filming with him? He mentioned that you filmed a lot of his Proof part.

Amrit: Yeah I filmed all of his Proof part except for the lifestyle shots. I first met Sam Bap briefly back when I chilled with Ryan and Jesse Silvey around 2004. Him and Jesse were still good friends so I would see him from time to time at USC or out at parties. I filmed a second angle of his trick that's in the Like Brothers friend's section one day in 2005 when we were at the same schoolyard. We ran into each other randomly over the years and didn't start to film heavy until the end of 2007.

48 Blocks: Talk about working at The Berrics and filming with all the amazing people that skate there.

Amrit: Working at The Berrics was like a dream come true. Everyday was a different challenge. When I started we were filming the REAL and Black Label United Nations. Steve would just randomly call us down to film on certain days. I was mostly in charge of filming lifestyle shots and second angles of tricks. Then after about a week or two the park got destroyed for the rebuild and I started editing and working out of Steve's house Monday through Friday. Chase started to come to the house too and we would mash out ideas and edits all day with Steve. I had met Donovan at a SK8MAFIA party and he sent me the How to Make a ButteryAss Ledge video. I watched it and thought it would be dope for the site. I showed it to Berra and he was psyched on it. We had him start coming in every week and I would edit ButteryAss Mondays with Donovan. The web guy worked out of his own house since we didn't have an official office yet. I would drop off thumb drives with final edits on them for him to put up on the website. It was hectic but we made it happen. It was like that for two or three months and then the park and office was finally done. To be able to come to work in the morning and skate a fresh park by yourself was the shit! All through the day we would just edit and skate. I hadn't really skated hard since I broke my jaw in 2006 so it was so dope to get all my tricks back. There was this crazy energy in there too. I swear it was from all the locals that would skate there cause you felt it more when they were around. Jeron, Chico, Chris Roberts, Mike Carroll, Daniel, and Guy always came through and brought a really good vibe and brotherhood.

48 Blocks: What ultimately made you decide to leave The Berrics?

Amrit: It was a really hard decision. There were some personal family problems that had to be taken care of. I needed time to handle that and I also felt like I was hurting The Berrics because I wasn't happy with what I was doing. I started off filming and editing but there were a lot of other things that needed to be handled which were non skate oriented. I was able to handle these tasks but I really just wanted to film and edit or do something creative. The Berrics was starting to get really big and I knew that the stuff I was in charge of doing needed to be taken care of by someone who was serious about doing them for the long run. Steve was super cool about the whole situation and to this day has treated me like family. He lets me skate the park and has offered me a position at The Berrics whenever I want.

48 Blocks: Tell us a little bit about Skate Sauce - what's the concept behind that. What are your plans for the brand?

Amrit: Skate Sauce is a wax company I started at the end of 2008. I wanted something for me and all my friends to rep. One of my friends helped me launch the website for it which we try to update with original street content. I got some stickers & shirts printed up but the wax is still in the works. I wanted to make the A1 bottle wax, but the molds cost too much. We're gonna do a smaller wax now to start off with and do the A1 bottle later down the line. I've gotten a lot of good feedback about the brand and the logo so I want to try to make it like an Urban Streetwear brand but keep it as a wax. Kinda like the way Diamond is bolts but they got fresh tee's and gear. I'm hoping we can take it there and it's dope cause a lot of homies are down to help support.

48 Blocks: You recently dropped the first trailer for Hard Times which looks really good. How far along is that and how did the lineup come together?

Amrit: After Like Brothers me and Justin kept filming a lot trying to work on a second video. We both were broke and had shit to take care of so we couldn't film that much. Vincent Alvarez is really good friends with Justin so he started coming around when we went out filming. I got a bunch of footy with him and then he got on Chocolate and Lakai. At that time I wanted to call the video It's A Wrap because I liked the name and the video industry is dying as far as trying to do your own shit as a filmer and making a video while surviving. Vincent started to film a lot more with Ty so we stopped getting new footy and I almost gave up on making the video. I was working at The Berrics around the same time so I was super busy with that too. After Vincent dropped that HD Chocolate part that he filmed in like three months we started skating more again and talked about the video. He was still super down. Kellen James kills it 24 / 7 and is a real good homie so I definitely wanted him to have a part in the second video too. Jesse Silvey was skating here and there. Justin brought up Jesse having a part one day and I was super down. We talked to Jesse and he was down. Me and Justin were talkin' about the title of the video and he was like what if we call it Hard Times. It sounded like a dope name and we as a people are going through some Hard Times right now so I felt like it was definitely an appropriate name for the video.

So far Vincent and Justin have a lot of footy. I used all of KJ's and Jesse's footy I had in the trailer but me and KJ haven't even gone out filming much yet and KJ handles biz like no other so it won't be a problem. Jesse seems like he's motivated and has been coming down to film in LA more. We're just trying to get the ball rolling and see if we can make this thing happen. I want to try to put the video out before summer of 2010, but it probably won't come out until fall 2010.

48 Blocks: I'm personally really psyched to see Jesse Silvey involved in something new. How has it been getting him back into the swing of things as far as filming a part?

Amrit: Me and Jesse have been cool for awhile now. Since 2003 / 2004, we went through some hard times together. Up's and Downs but he's finally back up and motivated. We had filmed some stuff back in 2004 thats in the Like Brothers friends section. He's comfortable filming with me and I think that's an important thing between a filmer and skater. We filmed some things in SF less than a year ago which is in the trailer. When I asked him about the video he was super down.

48 Blocks: What's your current schedule for skateboarding and filming and who are you filming with nowadays?

Amrit: I try to film every other day and I am usually filming with Justin Guillen, Vincent Alvarez, and their friends from West Covina, or making trips down to SD to film with the SK8MAFIA heads. It's hard to do everything because I wake up and try to take care of updating the Skate Sauce site while getting calls to go out and film, try to make time to edit small pieces for the site, come up with new ideas for Skate Sauce and new graphics for tee's, and working on a business plan for Skate Sauce. I try to skate a lot too. It's hard doing everything yourself, you get exhausted both mentally and physically.

48 Blocks: Are you currently working on any other projects other than Hard Times and Skate Sauce?

Amrit: Besides Hard Times and Skate Sauce, I have been working with JSLV Clothing (Jus Liv) on producing some video content for them with Kellen James and Nick Tucker. It's gonna be dope! I've been filming with SK8MAFIA a lot too, helping them out because they don't really have a filmer right now. HARD TIMES. I'm currently living off unemployment so I'm good for 2-3 more months but will then be needing some money if I want to make this Skate Sauce thing work!

48 Blocks: If you could pick any lineup from past or present skateboarders to be featured in a video, who would it be?

Amrit: Damn, good question. I would have to say Tom Penny, Mark Gonzales, Eric Koston, Stevie Williams, Guy Mariano, Rodrigo TX, Gino Iannucci, and Keenan Milton. the video would be called S.T.Y.L.E.

48 Blocks: Any last words or shout outs to wrap this up?

Amrit: Don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't do something. You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it and got love for what your doing. Life is crazy and I'm pretty sure you're in charge of creating it to be whatever you want it to be. College and all this shit society says we have to do is BS. Live your life to the fullest.

Major Shout outs: 48 Blocks for hookn this up, Scott Clowney for making me watch Trilogy, The Choc Video, Mouse, Zoo York vids, and keepin me motivated to skate throughout high school. Jerry Cooper and the Panza brothers for all their help, One Up Skateshop, major shout out to Ryan Stangland, Shane Jenks, Tom Carter, Aaron Artis, Moses AKA TNM (That Nigga Moses!), SK8MAFIA, Dan Connelly (DC24), Kellen James, Damian Bravo, Robert SantaMaria, Nolan "POW!!" Lee, Luis Tolentino, Felix Arguelles, Gabriel Rodriguez, Justin Guillen, Vincent Alvarez, DUB C, THREATZ, Jesse Silvey, Jimmy Gorecki, Mike Lowe & Fat City Reprise, Steve Berra & Eric Koston for all the love, Zach and the OG Berrics crew, J Dubs and Chris Roberts for the fun Berrics sessions, Jayson V. and Josh Preebz @ JSLV for the gear and helping me out, and a major shout to Guy for letting me stay in his back house during the hard times. It's a WRAP!