Man, Seth Cheeks had it! Styz, pop, tricks, it was all there and he was a nice ass dude to boot. I was sure that I would see a board with his name on it within a few years. Then one day, homie just disapeared...ghost. That was like six or seven years ago. I heard he moved back home and went to school, but I never got the full story. Turns out Seth did really well for himself, which isn't surprising because he always struck me as the type of guy that would make it. Keir Johnson comes through with another educational and inspirational interview. Check it out...

Keir: The traditional 48 Blocks interview usually has to do with your origins in skating, so Seth how did you come across skateboarding.  

Seth: I was around 10 maybe, I was super young when I started!  Man, the first board I had was a Sims Kevin Stabb model, it had a pirate on the bottom, I thought it was the dopest thing ever.  I remember seeing something on TV about a Psycho Skate video you could order...  Then I saw Hosoi flying in the air and Gonz in those videos later on.  That's what made me want to get a skateboard. 

Keir: What were your developmental years like?

Seth: I started skating in my neighborhood with other older kids, trying to just learn basics you know?  We would skate miles to local colleges and gas stations near by.  We wanted to mess with stairs and just venture out as far as we could make it on a board.  Crazy far sometimes!  And we were like 12 years old just skating and not even thinking about anything, that was a dope time. 

Keir: Were there any particular artist or skater whose graphics you liked when you were younger?

Seth: Yes! I loved the Workshop stuff back in the day man!  I grew up in the Deep South, I'm from the bottom man.  So I would get to go on trips to New Orleans with older heads and skate around dudes like Duane Pitre, the OG Alien Head.  He had this deck come out with Alien, it had 3 olives on the bottom drawn sketchy, but the colors were laid over the wood stain.  All that old Neil Blender art was fresh!  I also have to mention, the "Stick O’ Rama" World Industries boards.  They had that ill sticker packet and the street scene.  I never owned one or got one, but I would see people skating them and go to shops and just stare at the graphics thinking about those freaking stickers man!  There's so many to list but I’ll give you one last one!  I had a Mike Carroll Fantastic 4 board that I got off my friend.  He came back from Beach Plus shop in Florida with it.  When I saw it I basically gave him everything I owned skate wise for just the deck!  My shoes, wheels, the board I was riding, I was like I need that board! Haha - It's the memories of those certain times that last forever!

Keir: Those are some sick ones.  I was that way too about a few Pepe Martinez decks when I was younger, just willing to trade whatever for one!  So who was the first serious ripper you ever saw in person, what was that like?

Seth: Lavar McBride! It was a demo in Memphis, Tennessee with Kareem, Suriel and the other Menace guys.  There were these 4 big ass blocks, like maybe 12 stairs from the top block, but you could skate it by each level.  Lavar was doing stuff like no ones business man! Switch flip off the top block every time in a row!  This was back when Duffs was really hot and Kareem was doing it.  Mad World heads on that team and Duffs was super hot then.  I remember it all, I was nerding out bro!  They were rocking these all black low Duffs with gum soles and white laces.  Lavar was doing switch frontside heels down the 3 blocks and I seen him try a switch tre flip and seriously people went nuts!   But I don't even know if they really got what he was trying.  He was so chill and killing it, like laughing!  He made it look like the basics man!  Kareem was busting these crazy styled out fakie flips off the blocks and Joey Suriel did a switch frontside flip.  Seeing Lavar skate like that honestly made me feel like, "that's how they skate out there, it's like the videos!" If he missed something it just looked like he was being lazy, not like it was because he was trying tricks, he was just doing tricks…

Keir: I think I remember seeing some footage or photos from that demo, now fast-forwarding a few years, what made you move out to San Francisco from your hometown in the South?

Seth: Wow!  This answer could have a book to it... I'll keep it to the main time.  It was the end of 99 start of 2000.  Basically what made me do it was at the time I was going through some crazy life changing things at home.  I had friends getting arrested for serious stuff and I was basically trying to live a different life.  People I knew were losing their life to drugs and prison.  Fortunately for me I was really missing skating at this point, and I had that to help me escape back to the old joyful feelings I had lost in my life.  And another reason was also to get sober, I hadn't been skating for years really man and I was just working my ass off at this car place, just cleaning up a shop.  I spun hip hop records and liked to "think" I could get better and better, it was just mad fun.  So I saved up a little cash, sold my tables and just focused on skating in my downtown area.  My close friend Joe Barnes would visit home every now and then.  One day he was always like,  "what the fuck, you don't even have a skateboard or shoes to skate in you idiot! What are you doing?"  So, one trip during the time I was getting back on my board he came through and I was asking all about SF and skating out there.  I told him straight up, "don't fly back out there, I'm going to get a car, drive you back to SF, and skate for a few months man!  Don't get on that plane, I got to go to SF.”  So I used some of the money I had been saving up and I got a small black Geo for 3,500 bucks at this crazy ghetto lot in South Jackson.  I bought the car, showed up at Joe's family house and he was laughing at me so hard, looking at that Geo Metro.  I admit it was like driving a go-kart across the USA, but it was the hope man!  Later on Joe ended up buying that car from me for a G after I was like “dude you want this car, I can't afford these parking tickets.”  It was just a burden for me in the city.  From there I stayed in SF and pretty soon a few months turned into close to four years.

Keir: What about actually skating around in the city, what was it like cruising around, seeing all these spots in person for the first time and everything?

Seth: I was so overwhelmed!  I remember spending so much time skating around the city all day and night, just looking at the city and searching to see spots from videos.  I was really into getting lost in the city at first, just skating at night. However I quickly realized I needed to just keep pushing and not stop.  It was a rush. I would just skate down Market Street to the Pier every night when I first moved to SF. I met some really great people right away, but I got to throw this in here really quick. Wussler was one of the first heads I saw just destroying it! I had just started skating down to the Pier and watching Jason, Brad,  Pat, Marcus,  Henry, and more. I remember one of the first times I was down there chilling Jason was killing tricks on the block. All these chicks walk by and he's hauling ass and does a switch 180 backside 5-0 on the tall part of the block, cruises by this girl and was like "that was for you baby" and he's just cracking up laughing. I was like "DAMN!, I might as well spend my time sitting down I got to re-think that freaking trick he just did for laughs to some chicks. I think he might even have been staring over at those chicks walking by as he was grinding the ledge! Haha, straight comedy!

Keir: Who was the first company you skated for?

Seth: Stereo was the first and I was so psyched. I met Chris Pastras from helping pack up his boxes, I was a warehouse boy at Deluxe. He is a really cool dude and we clicked a few times out skating. I started hanging more and I was trying to film tricks to save up for no reason but just to have. I had some serious bobo footy on a tape, but he was cool enough to get me some stuff to skate. Just being in the city made me want to learn tricks and I was so inspired by everyone. I grew up in the South skating so if you saw another skater it was like family, I was psyched seeing the diversity on such a larger scale!

Keir: So you spent much time at the Pier, looking back on all that time what comes to mind and who do you think killed that spot the most?

Seth: I personally feel I wasn't there in "The Prime" of Pier 7.  It's always been a heavy hitting spot and just legendary. I mean if you skated there at any time for a bit you’d see people killing it and get psyched. Everyone killed it, when you were going to the Pier you probably had a laundry list in your head of things to get. All the heads like Marcus, Stevie, Lavar, Henry, Wussler, Pat, Igei, Brad, Welsh, York…this list goes on and on you know!

Keir: Give me the real inside info…

Seth: Ok, murder she wrote!  Hands down for me Lavar and Marcus. Damn! For me, skating there, watching Marcus skate was crazy inspiring. He might have just been chilling all day, headphones on, then get up, fly through, kickflip the block, and then start skating. I would be all tired from skating all day and then he’s like "YO! I'm ready to skate!" He would just go so fast and lay down tricks, he made it look like it was that easy.

Keir: What’s the hardest trick to you that you ever did at the Pier and why?

Seth: Well, this might sound crazy but the hardest trick was switch inward heelflip to manual down the block. Reason is, riding behind the benches and then curving between the trashcans. The trick wasn't even that big a deal, that's like a curb high on that end. But you know when you’ve got to do something to prove to yourself you got it? Later I said forget this man, I'm just going to try to do it up the block. There's more room, better speed, setup, and just pop the trick a little sooner. It turned out to go from something hard to way easier. I got really psyched on that trick watching Keenan Milton do switch inward heels. So I would just picture him skating in my head, then try the trick.

Keir: Nice.  So what all videos did you have footage in?

Seth: Ah, 411 videos, Logic videos, other stuff, I don't really know. I had a part in a Logic video. I had an Organika commercial in some random 411 video, I was really psyched on a few of the tricks in the commercial.

Keir: Having lived in SF for awhile and being that it’s a place that a lot of people go to visit and really experience skating, what to you stands out in your experiences there?

Seth: Skating around the city, the streets, and hills. Skating SF will give you more control of your board. You see people do stuff in videos and then you would go to a spot and its like WTF! This is like straight down a hill man! I mean people bomb hills that are retarded steep, so fast. I think bombing some hills counts as a trick! People put that in their video parts! The traffic and Market Street, the smooth part on the sidewalk and the bricks just feels fresh skating. I liked to cruise at night when I would get done Valet parking. I would go home and then skate up near Safeway and then ride the grey part of the sidewalk down to the piers. It's the entire City, that's what's up!

Keir: I feel you man, I’m so glad I got to experience a few years of those things.  Now what ultimately led you to make an exodus from SF?

Seth: I moved from SF because I thought I would live in Southern Cali and be closer to Organika, just skate down there for a bit and just check it out.  After living in the city (SF) for so long I quickly realized it (LA) wasn't the same at all. If you don't have a car good luck on getting to a spot! Too much time in the car, I liked a lot of the spots I got to skate, it was just different and took some getting use to. 

Keir: Totally different, so what kind of experiences were you having around this point?

Seth: I was going into pick up my products and would ask questions to different people about what they did. You go into a place that makes shoes and you see all these designs and tons of concepts. A board sponsor has designs all over the walls in the design rooms, It's really fresh. I was always into drawing and sketching so it never hit me that there was actually someone making money doing that end of things in a skate company. I had been thinking about school and I had wanted to just take a few classes somewhere. I didn't even know what I was going to do at a school, I just felt like taking some classes. I dropped out of high school in the 9th grade so I just wanted to check it out with some art classes or something. My uneducated ass didn't think that I might want to go to college one day and I would need to have some type of paper saying I finished high school.  So that was a big part of my decision making, which wasn't what I had planned but was the best choice I could have made. I went to school to learn design programs and design studies in general. I was like I can skate when I want and then still do something with art, so I dropped everything and made a choice for myself to move forward.

Keir: So what were you up to in the years since you moved home and sort of faded from the spotlight in skating, what were your motivations to do what you do?

Seth: Basically being visually inspired. Getting back to drawing and artistic outlets. I think as skaters we set the trends in a lot of ways. Skaters do what they feel and that's what shines at the end of the day. That's what I always loved about skating, that freedom. At the same time you got to be honest if a trick looks wack, it's wack!  But someone can do a simple kickflip on flat and it can be so styled out and smooth. So visually we are aware of style from tricks, graphics, and color ways, products; all that wrapped up. For me it all comes from being a kid and looking at board design, wheels, stickers, comic books, etc.  I recently heard a small blurb from Ed Templeton. He was talking about when did society all of a sudden decide to take art out of the daily schedule? It's so true, as a kid it's colors and paper, glue, make something and art stuff. I definitely see how skating for me relates to this continuing art as I am growing up. It keeps you young at heart. You have to find the things in life that make you happiest and follow them. It might be many different things that lead up to one point to wake you up, but I never thought I would ever be doing what I am today.

Keir: How did you start to become a commercial artist doing work for people?

Seth: I started sending stuff to people and networking. Skating is so beneficial from a business standpoint; you really have no idea until you get to apply it. We have to put ourselves out there, get rejected, hear a lot of "no’s" and you got to grind your ass off to shine even a little. Anything else is the same, except from a way different perspective. I looked at sending my design and portfolio to companies like you would send out footage to a company. You want to work for someone dope, you can't have no filler in there.  I knew while I was in school I wanted to move to NYC, so I started networking with companies here that were major design companies that I was into at that time. I worked on some heavy flash and other interactive design, then I would send a link to art directors in those companies. I started freelancing from Mississippi while I was in school for companies in NYC. I was pretty fortunate. I read a lot and studied my ass off.

Keir: When did you make the actual move to NYC?

Seth: Start of ’07 I came up here. I got asked to work in-house for a company in Manhattan doing flash work. I did that for about six months and really got burnt on the hours and went back to freelancing, mainly because I wanted to get back to more design and I was feeling like I was getting into programming too much.  Freelancing is dope because you can pick and choose and have more time to make ideas you want to see happen. So I freelance and work fulltime for MTV Networks doing design.

Keir: How did you meet Greg Grammen from Palace 5ive? 

Seth: I met Greg through my website, he sent me an email. He had seen some other work I did for someone and hit me up. We started talking back and forth about his new project, "Palace 5ive" and we just went from there with making things happen.  The site is launching really soon and online store as well so definitely be ready for that.

Keir: What else are you working on?

Seth: Man it's never ending…I'm always trying to find more time to get out ideas and concept directions I want to see happen. I work close with a variety of different companies from clothing to straight interactive media for MTV Networks. I've been really fortunate to meet certain people and have learned a skill set that has at it's root in something I love, which is design and art. All that just comes from being a kid involved in skateboarding for me. My childhood was comic books, drawing, hip hop, and skateboarding. 

Keir: Word, who else?

Seth: Hopps Skateboards is a company I work close with out here in Brooklyn, Jahmal William's company.  I focus on the online presence of Hopps and have some new adventures coming up with Hopps as well. I just got finished with some stuff for Rockport publishing. I got asked to be in a new book "101 Successful Freelance Artists" which was a really big surprise for me, I was honored for real.  There's another book being released this year by Cey Adams, The Art and Influence of Hip Hop, I have some selected designs coming out in there that I also am extremely humbled to be apart of.
I'm working on mad different things, mostly at the moment sketching concepts and writing down things to start on personal projects.

Keir: Sounds like you’re definitely busy, do you find time to go out and skate around?

Seth: I have actually been skating every day lately. I'm crazy busy so I don't get to have mad time to skate like I use too.  But it's new again, fun and free is the best way to put it.  I've been skating on this 5boro board with soft wheels, the wheels are 52's so you can still do all the tricks.  The board is the one with Mary on the bottom, it's kind of smaller with a tail on it.  I’ve basically been skating over the Williamsburg bridge into LES and in the streets back to BK.  I have basically been skating through the streets and having fun.  The weather is getting really nice here now, so you can't sit still!

Keir: Any advice for skaters out there on life?

Seth: I'm learning about life every day man. Well, a lesson I learned, but needed, was not wrapping myself up into skating to the point where it's not actually what it really is at the core. It's good to check yourself now and then.  I was so busy skating that I was not in touch with people’s lives outside of skating.  Skate, have fun, do what you do and don't lose focus of what's important. And don't believe the hype!

Keir: Thanks?

Seth: Thanks to all the hustlers and most importantly, you, the customer!