Did you grow up skating World/Blind/101 stuff like seemingly everybody did in the early 90’s? Were you familiar with Marc’s art before you rode for Blind?

I was a huge World/101/Blind fan. Blind video is still a top 3 video all time for me. Guy was/is and will always be my favorite skater of all time. I mean Gonz, J Lee and Rudy! It was my shit for sure. Marc’s art was a huge impact because it was powerful, controversial and just fun/entertaining.

When I knew Marc was going to do graphics for me I was truly honored. He killed it! Never in a million years would imagine people would be hitting me up over 2 decades later to see if I had them to sell. Sadly, I don’t even have an original of my Munchies board. I do have a Tech deck/Tech Dude (a lil’ action figure) of it, so that’s super cool.

You seemed like you were pretty tight with Ronnie. Is that how you got on Blind or did you become close afterwards? I’m trying to remember who you rode for before that…

Before Blind I was on a small company out of Grind King trucks called Society. It was my brother Jeremy, Luis Cruz, Robbie McKinley, Ryan Kenreich (RIP) and myself. Then I was briefly [sponsored by] Formula One (out of Acme), and then World flow. I ended up getting paid to be on Prime after everyone left. Then, Blind became my permanent board sponsor for the rest of my skate career.

I’ve known Ronnie since I was like 13 or 14, but the reason I actually got on Blind was Gideon Choi. Gideon was like one of my big brothers. Gideon told me (which I believe 100%) that Ronnie said no to me getting on initially. Ronnie denies it to this day, but why would Gid lie?

I always love hearing anybody talk about Gideon Choi; that switch tre in Trilogy in the halls of that school (I think in Long Beach?) is forever etched into my brain.

Gid had the best switch tre’s. It’s funny because I’ll tell him from time to time he’s on a short list and that one gets brought up almost every time by people who know. He’s a cult classic and doesn’t believe it at all, but we all know. That spot is close to Long Beach but it’s technically in Garden Grove.

Anyway, Ronnie and I have been really good friends for almost 30 years and he’s one of the most talented humans I’ve ever met in my life. He’s good at anything he puts his mind to. Top 10 talent ever in my books, and I’m not saying that lightly.

I know you were team manager at Dwindle for a second after you retired – did you gradually transition into that role or did you just decide that it was finally time to retire and just straight up switched one day?

The TM thing I verbally spoke into existence around 2004 when Corey [Shepard] and I skated/hung out with [Jake] Duncombe; it just seemed to be perfect for my personality. I’ve always appreciated my friends who brought me up and taught me to do things the right way. I always wanted to pass that on and help the next generation of skaters. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time.

I started as the TM for Dwindle in 2010 I believe, after Paul Sharpe left to go to Etnies. I knew my career was winding down in ‘07ish and honestly felt better on my board and in my mind since the late 90’s/2000’s. I shattered my humorous bone in ‘08 and went back to work at Liberty board shop, my fam since 93. Became the manager at the shop and did some fun stuff with them. Then Bod hit me up and I was the Dwindle TM from 2010 until 2017. Dwindle let me go just after Enjoi King of the Road. They gave me a great severance package! They didn’t have to do that, but I think Bod and Gary Valentine wanted to make sure I was as good as I could be.

What have you done since? I think you told me you were an agent?

I’d been talking with Ryan [Clements] about maybe coming to Excel Management for a little bit after judging contests with that crew for a bit. After I got let go from Dwindle, I was on the hunt for something in skating. Clem knew I had a decent chance to land a job at a brand and basically just offered me an opportunity to work for Excel right away. I was super appreciative and it ended up being the best decision I’ve made.

Finally,I gotta ask for my own self, how’d that work out with MURS doing your song in What If? I loved all that Living Legends stuff back in the day and that tripped my teenage self out to hear a custom MURS track in your part.

The MURS thing was just a fan meeting some rappers I was super fans of, and we ended up becoming pretty close friends. He wanted to do the track; my homie Justin Martin did a couple tracks for him and thus became my own personalized some for my What If part. I was just a fan who got lucky to have a legend in my eyes do me a great favor.

A short interview with Jason Adams by David Paris, owner/operator

After months of us talking about it, the prints are finally done – 1 print for every year you’ve been alive. I saw that your new company Devium also had some shirts printed in a CMYK process pattern (side note – we used a 6-color process) that looked like it accurately depicted your stencil work. Are these the first times you’ve translated your art into something screen printed?

I have done it a couple times before…..I had a shirt made for my website years ago 4 color process. Santa Cruz recreated my Screaming Hand painting 4 color Process prints. The Devium shirt turned out killer. The prints you guys did turned out so sick! The colors and the textures look so good!

What is your method for stencils? Do you use acetate or do you use paper? It looks from your photos like you actually cut out all of your layers; do you use Photoshop or is it all freehand? How bad is your carpal tunnel from X-acto fatigue?

I cut straight from the original image. I can’t draw at all! That’s why I got so into making stencils. Years of wanting to make art but always frustrated with the outcome. Stencils were instant gratification…and it was punk! Ha! I would say the majority of the time I use stencil board for my stencils, but I’ll use anything if I need to. I have just cut the paper, use card stock, poster board, water color paper, but I prefer .007 stencil board. In the last year I haven’t done a lot of art so my stencil fatigue is low. Ha ha, there was a time I was all jacked up! I want to get back to being jacked up!

I read that every pro skateboarder you looked up to as a kid happened to be an artist as well. What would you say your biggest influences on your art are from both the skateboard world and the art world?

The majority of my favorites seemed to be artists…but it makes sense; skateboarding attracts creative people. I was influenced by board graphics, punk records and zines. The only artist as a kid that I recognized and was intrigued by his work was (Andy) Warhol. When I was young I was all about Santa Cruz Skateboards art, so I was all about Jim Phillips and I didn’t even know it. I liked Vision too. Gonz, Blender. Later I was all about Black Label and Alien Workshop. Later Art wise I realized I am attracted to the whole 60’s pop movement.

Screen printing and stencil-making have a lot in common, especially the fact that they both require lots of set-up work but can then be used to make reproducible images. Do you usually end up making multiple copies of your stencils? How long would you say the average one takes you?

It’s all different time wise; it depends on how big, how many layers. Plus I never work on one thing at a time. I’m way too ADD for that, sometimes I do use them multiple times and sometimes I don’t; I don’t have a system. I’m pretty all over the place.

Being a Palo Alto native, I’d see you and the Tilt Mode dudes all the time in San Jose. What are your top 3 all-time spots in San Jose? Who’s in your top 3 for all-time San Jose skateboarders?

Hmmm top 3 spots…I would say from the early years Gunderson High school. I have skated the white walls bank to wall so many times! I have also juiced the shit out of the Wave as well!! I think the top three Skaters would be my friends: Tim Brauch, Crazy Eddie and Salman Agah…But I have to throw Cab in there too.

I knew the Wave and Tim had to be in the mix! I know it’s been asked multiple times, but how does it feel to back on Black Label after so many years? Is it just like old times? There seem to be more and more of them around Portland and it’s radical to see.

It’s radical! It’s not like old times because those days are over – I don’t even look at myself like a pro skater anymore. I’m not out shooting and filming too much really. I’m not out there pushing it and eating shit all the time. I’m not obsessively thinking of what I want to try and where ya know? Plus the skateboarding industry is dead. I do know that I’m back where I belong! I’m definitely over the hill in skate years.

Speaking of filming, I saw you just filmed a super cool video with our good buddy Kyle Camarillo. What other art and skateboard projects do you have in the works?

I don’t have any thing for sure right now. I am supposed to do a video for Some Label edit, but these days that will be like 2-3 days of filming and just film what ever…I’m pretty out of practice these days and out of shape!! Ha ha!! I would like to plan a art show so I am forced to get into hyper art mode! I have an idea for a book project I would like to do. I need to get focused…been trying to do too many random things.

You can check out Jason’s website at http://www.jasonadamslh.com

Most people know you for your skateboard graphics, but I recently found out that you created the Toy Machine logo—one of my favorite of all time. Have you had a hand in many other logo designs?

Not that I can recall? Or at least nothing that great or memorable. To be honest, logo-design has always been my Achilles’ heel as an artist. Even with the Toy Machine logo, Ed had specifically asked me to do a simplified “3D” version of the earlier monster logo after he received a cease ‘n’ desist from the original artist. So I really just did the illustrative aspect; he added the type and away it went from there. I never imagined it would still be running strong over two decades later, though, not to mention innumerable tattoos across the world. Oh, here’s a random one, though: I did a few of the titles on early Big Brother magazine covers, like Issue 5, the cereal box “Sugar-Coated Penis Pops” logo for Issue 6, the “Hermano Grande” for Issue 11, and then the splattery one on Issue 12.

You mentioned doing storyboards for commercials a little while ago. What other work are you doing these days outside of skateboarding?

Yeah, every once in a while Jeff Tremaine will enlist me to do storyboards for various projects he’s hired to direct, like I did all the boards for the American Airlines safety video they play prior to take-off now, ridiculous as that sounds. Other than those art jobs, I’ve only ever picked up some random poster art gigs for Pearl Jam, Blink-182, and most recently the Pixies. I’m really not sure what I’m doing with my life.

You are largely accredited along with Marc McKee in shaping the narrative of skateboard graphics of the ‘90s. Who are some of your favorite contemporaries from that period, and from that era do you have any particular favorite graphics? Favorite graphic that you ever did for the World camp?

Well, thank you, but Marc McKee deserves about 95-percent of that narrative credit. I was just lucky to be working alongside him then. He set the bar and I did my best to try and keep up as he kept raising it higher and higher, especially with his slick bottom work circa 1992–1994 for World, 101, and Blind—the majority of which went largely unseen because the industry was in the shitter. Companies like to liberally throw around the “limited edition” word these days, but back then there was no such marketing thing and the boards were only produced in quantities of 200–300. So many good ideas for so few eyes. Anyway, back then, I always liked the Alien Workshop slicks by Mike Hill. And as far as my own personal favorites, there were a few on 101, like Eric Koston’s “Day at the Zoo” board, Adam McNatt’s “Charles Manson Brown,” and the Markovich Pushead/Zorlac spoof, and then of course the Chico Brenes “Nude Beach” board for World Industries.

Closeup of “Charles Manson Brown” graphic for Adam McNatt/101.

You recently started a company, Paisley Skates, along with Paul Urich, based in San Francisco. What was your main motivation for doing so?

On one hand, I was trying to add some stability to my anxiety-riddled life of freelance feast and famine; on the other, I was frustrated by the industry climate and trends, and how the “creative-fuck-all-outcast” elements of skateboarding had been superseded by the whole “business-sport-athlete” aspect. So I wanted to revive a bit of the finger-flipping freedom, along with the aesthetic desire to screen-print the graphics in the same manner they were back then—bottom line and budgets be damned. Needless to say, none of this has made for a lucrative business model, but it’s been a lot of fun and I’m really proud of everything we’ve somehow managed to produce. The best thing, however, is that Paisley has grown way beyond the original “art project” origins and “wall-hanger” perceptions to take on a legitimate life of its own, which is awesome because the last thing I wanted to make were skateboards that people didn’t actually skate.

The “Serial Killer” graphic you did seems to harken back to the World era graphics of the 90’s; was that something you recently completed or had been sitting on for awhile?

What’s funny is that I first conceived the graphic way back in 2003, but my son had just been born in 2002 and for whatever reason it made me feel weird in that way you never fully understand until you’re a parent. Maybe ten years later, though, I finally got around to doing a rough sketch. Even then a few companies passed on the idea, so it never found a home until we founded Paisley in 2015. The fact we were able to get the “Serial Party” screen-printed made it even better, although I think it may have given the printer a near nervous breakdown and he refused to print it ever again. So on subsequent runs of the board we had to get them screened down at Screaming Squeegees.

Your book Disposable: The Skateboard Bible is seen as the authoritative guide on skateboard collecting. Are you much of a collector yourself, or were you just interested in documenting the history of skateboard graphics? Any plans for new editions?

At one point in time I was very much an out-of-my-mind collector and managed to acquire a near complete line-up of original Powell-Peralta and Zorlac boards, but then life threw some curveballs—as life is known to do—and most all my collection had to be liquidated along with the personal archive of boards I’d done. But aside from all my OCD and nostalgia issues, yes, first and foremost there was the desire to document the history before it was forgotten or lost. Not to mention I was bothered, irritated, and embarrassed by most all of what had previously been published on the subject. Every once in a while I still get the itch to do another book, but I just haven’t found the time required to devote to such an undertaking—each of the previous books took two years to complete, making them very much of the passion project sort—and I just don’t have that luxury at present.

You’re primarily known as an artist, but have worn many hats including being the editor of Big Brother at one point in time. Do you enjoy writing or drawing more?

What I enjoyed most, I think, was the ability to bounce between the two, because it kept me from getting burnt out. Ideas, especially for board graphics, aren’t always easy to come by, at least for me, so the supplemental writing work probably prevented me from committing a gross number of tragedies throughout the ’90s—or at least way more than I did.

“Clint” prints that we did in 2015 (available here).

Do you have any good stories from the Powell days that nobody has heard?

Most all of them pertaining to graphics were written about in Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art, but I still have very distinct memories of the time in 1990 when Guy Mariano and Rudy Johnson quit the Bones Brigade to ride for Blind. I skated with them quite a bit back then, so it didn’t come as a total surprise when Gabriel Rodriguez called me up one night and said that they’d been hanging out with Mark Gonzales lately and that Rudy and Guy were going to quit. I went in to work the next day to let Todd Hastings know what was going on—he was the Powell team manager then—and he dismissed me, saying everything was fine, the guys were totally cool… but I knew better. The company was losing touch and that was the point when it really began to feel like the end of days for Powell.

You can buy Sean’s 101 Markovich print here.