Travis Jensen and Chris Long Interview Slap Magazine (May 2006)

No Comply: the Editors

Interview with Chris Long and Travis Jensen

Editors of No Comply: Skateboarding Speaks on Authority

By Isaac McKay-Randozzi

Putting a book together is no easy task. First, you have to find a topic, then get a writer (or in No Comply's case a bunch), write the text, insert any images you might want, layout the book, and then find a publisher. What makes it really hard is when you have to organize a group that cares more about going skating than doing much of anything else. That's why the accomplishment of Travis Jensen and Chris Long in putting together a compilation of similarly themed stories within a 13 week time frame is all the more impressive. Coupled with the facts that the two editors knew next to nothing about the each other and funded and printed the book entirely with their own money - you have one hell of an interesting book, both in content and behind the scenes.

Travis and Chris are skaters of an older generation that believes in giving back and helping the community that has brought them up. What they created was a book by us, relating our experiences that we've had with those in positions of authority. What these two men did wasn't just slapping together some half-assed short stories together with some nifty drawings and images and call it a book. As you will read, their labor was one of wanting to discuss a topic that until now had not been directly addressed.

No Comply, who was the smart ass who thought of that title?

Chris: It came to me one day after thinking of the subtitle. At first the book was called "skateboarding speaks on the politics of authority" but that's too many words. The title just made perfect sense – "No Comply" it's also a part of skateboard history, a trick.

What do you guys do to make money?

Chris: Hustle any way possible – bouncing things back and forth, working on projects, steady at the skate shop here and there, or if things are going good with writing sometimes float for a few years…

Travis: I'm actually the Records Manager at one of the top ten law firms in the country. I oversee the records departments in both the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices. It's a pretty demanding and stressful job, but it pays quite well. I also make money hustling my books in stores, off my website (www.sfmasher.cjb.net), and out on the street. I do some freelance work for various magazines as well. Hopefully one of these days I'll be able to live solely off my writing. That's my long-term goal anyway.

Is publishing and printing a book something new for you then?

Chris: No, not really, but each one is different and each is its own thing. I am looking more towards publishing other people now. A few people have sent samples or ideas that just sound really do-able, and it's cool to be in a place to help other writers make that happen. Definitely more "Skateboarding Speaks" titles in the works.

Travis: We both have solo titles out, so it wasn't something entirely new to either of us.

Did you take time off of work to do the book?

Chris: From late summer to Thanksgiving No Comply was a full time job!

Travis: Nope. The only time I took off from work was for the release parties and I'm paying for it now. I'm currently suffering from a mild burnout, seriously. I had to take a couple of days off from everything after we got back from the Seattle release to let the batteries recharge again. My brain short-circuited on me. I thought I was going Looney-Tunes.

How did you two first meet and how did this project come about?

Chris: Random similarities – that six degrees of separation deal. We both skated, both did a book through a mutual printer… I wrote a review for Left Handed Stories (Travis' first book) in Slap and Travis decided to give me a call.

Travis: Chris traded a copy of his book for mine with Ando at FTC, and later e-mailed me to let me know he liked my book. Attached to his e-mail was a review he had written on it for Slap, which ended up running in the next issue. The two of us then started corresponding back and forth with one another, and everything just sort of took off from there. The funny thing is, Chris and I had never even met face to face until the Ventura release party back in December. We did this book completely based on trust. We didn't know each other from Jack Frost. Crazy, huh?

Why this topic? Why not, "skateboarding speaks on pads vs. no pads" or, "what is selling out?"

Chris: That's coming later…one of the contributors (Clarkie) is handing out copies of the book to senators and lawyers, she's using it in her push to change California's wack skate laws. Another one considered is "Shortchanged? Skateboarding Speaks on the Corporate Dollar." We'll see. To just keep doing the books is the idea, not worry too much about how they turn out.

Travis: This particular theme, in my opinion, was long overdue. Chris and I both felt that every skateboarder no matter what age, gender, race, or location would have an interesting opinion or story to share on the subject.

What sort of impact do you hope this book will have on the public outside of skateboarding?

Chris: That's an interesting question. For some reason, this book seems to appeal more to the older, literature crowd than the skate world. Maybe that'll change with some media coverage in the rags, but so far older people are way more into the book which is odd 'cuz we thought skaters would be more into it. Not many skaters read it seems like, but then sometimes it seems like tons of skaters read…

Travis: To tell you the truth, I haven't really thought about it that much. To me, it does seem like the non-skater, literary types are the ones out there that are really grasping this book, which is something I didn't expect. It's funny, we've been getting a handful of outsiders contacting us about the book and promising us the world! Some of these people are too much, man. They'll say anything you want to hear when they think they can make a quick buck or two off you or your product.

You're selling only to skate shops and skater owned businesses for the first three months, then to larger shops and stores. What sort of wider distribution have you gotten? Are people on the East Coast going to be able to pick it up? What about the Mid-West? Europe?

Chris: That's the just the distribution structure. The scope is worldwide in circulation, there are copies in Germany, England, Japan, Australia, Canada, all over America… wherever the right people want it we got it. I try not to go through distribs as much, especially in skateboarding. I don't wanna have the book available at Zumiez for example, when people could and should get it from a local core shop. If there's no core shop around then yeah, they can go to Barnes Noble or whatever but to me it's important to be selective as possible as to where you place your product. We just opened to AK Press (Bay area based distributor) so most all bookshops will be able to order it. As far as skate I like to know the people at the shops I sell to, and if I don't I make it a point to get out there and meet 'em…try to work with the shops that really support the scene, you know? Makes sense to give them first dibs.

Travis: I don't know if I should really say anything about it right now, but we have a couple of things lined-up that should make No Comply readily available to anyone, anywhere. However, like Chris said, this title will be sold exclusively in skater owned businesses for the first ninety days it's in print. We want skateboarding to benefit from this book first and foremost.

You've had release parties at The Shop Gallery in Ventura and the Purple Skunk skate shop in San Francisco, any more in the works?

Chris: Yeah, actually… Seattle was the last one for a minute. We're doing something in Phoenix with Cowtown, but I'm not sure if it's going to be related to No Comply or another book. We'll see… the website will have that info if people need it.

Travis: We just ended the West Coast tour at 35th North in Seattle. I'm currently working on lining up a little Midwest tour this spring for us in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. Additionally, two of the contributors, Keir Johnson and Brian Tucci, are talking about setting something up in Washington D.C. for us, which would be really cool. I love D.C.!

It took thirteen weeks to finish the book, from conception to being printed. How did you do it?

Chris: It was quite a wild ride and a lot of busy-ness. Travis and Dale were the other two mainly responsible; the three of us worked pretty damn hard but it was amazingly efficient. Not like a lot of times where people have difficulties working together. The three of us all live in different cities, so that was a trip. Also what helped was that the contributors were all really motivated for the most part. I have access to offset printing facilities so printing was already taken care of, and everybody just stepped up for the cause… a lot like building a mini-ramp.

Travis: It was seriously a lot of work. Chris and I were on the phone 4 or 5 times a day with each other going back and forth about various things (Travis lives in San Francisco and Chris lives in Ventura). I will say this, in some ways the book definitely had a mind of its own, and at times, as I'm sure Chris will agree, it felt like we were just along for the ride. Everyone in the skateboard community really stepped up for this project. We had a couple of flakers and minor setbacks along the way, but that's only to be expected while trying to orchestrate a project as such.

How was the editing process? Did you get more submissions than you used?

Chris: There were a couple good ones that came in a little too late that we had to turn away. Anthony P. had a whole story all reworked; a few other people were sending stuff, too. I definitely plan to continue the dialog online if nothing else. I lost all the footnotes to the book and that's a bitch because a lot of stories had quality footnotes. For example, Kevin McHugh's LOVE story had all kinds of footnotes, and Wez's story actually reads much more complete with his footnotes. I gotta find that stuff and post it online. As far as submissions, it's looking like we might need to do a second printing, which would be fun 'cuz we could add a few new stories and pictures to it. I actually want and tried to get more input from cops and security guards, people like that…

How much work went into editing each of the submissions?

Chris: A lot on some, barely any on others…. when editing, I tried to retain as much of the writer's original voice as possible. But it was inevitable that some things would have to be cut because a few things got repeated a lot. Other times we'd have to rearrange the paragraphs or flow of a story. There were many different skill levels of writers on this project; I think a dozen or more of the contributors have college degrees…

Travis: Some pieces needed no work, some needed a little work here and there, and others needed to be completely gutted and reworked from scratch. However, Chris and I were very careful not to mess with the voice or content of the pieces while editing, and that's what gives the book that raw, honest feeling. No Comply is a powerful, passionate, and solid fucking book. I'm not just saying that 'cause I co-edited the damn thing either. Seriously, I think that's the reason why it has been getting a lot of notoriety from the lit snobs and critics.

Who is Dale Dreiling, and how did he get involved?

Chris: Dale has been running his game for a long time now but he came up around the 805 with me… one sick artist. We grew up together skating and hanging out back in the day. I asked him to do a few illustrations and he did, then I sent a photo or two and he illustrated those… it just became evident that the three of us were on the same wavelength and it wasn't really even like working but more like being in a band where each person intuitively knows what to do to make the whole thing right. Dale just stepped up with like thirty illustrations on command and he also played a vital role on the marketing end, putting money in, making sick shirts…that's more how funnotfame runs is like a collective or co-op. I let the people retain the rights even though it's in our book, like for example Darin Bendall (www.bendall.biz) got together with SLAP and they made a really sick shirt…

Travis: That's Chris' buddy from Ventura. He's a really talented artist. He came through in a major way, thus the title of Artist and Chief. Dale is an all around solid guy. I have a lot of respect for him and his art.

Did you ask the illustrators to create images specifically for the book? Or did they submit images they thought would go with the theme?

Chris: The illustrators got stories to read, and they drew images as inspired by the stories. On a couple of occasions the illustrator just donated something they already had that they felt fit in some way with the theme of the book.

Travis: Both. Some of the illustrators handed in images they thought would go well with the theme, and others created their images based off of pieces we had given them to read. In the end, like the completion of a complicated jigsaw puzzle, it all came together quite well.

Do you think release parties help to spread the word about the book? Or is it another excuse to get drunk? Both?

Chris: You have to have release parties! Especially on a project like this… and yeah, they really do help spread the word about stuff. Of course a lot of the people that go to stuff like that are just scenesters but there are heads with roots and true interests everywhere. We had a lot of skaters from all ranks coming through to the events. And of course there was beer flowing, DJ, food or whatever… make it cool.

Travis: Both, I guess. All of the release parties thus far have been beneficial in some way or another. They definitely helped us spread the word about the book, and build solid contacts with people in different regions.

Chris, you printed this book yourself, had you aver attempted anything like that before?

Chris: No. I had my last book printed by somebody else. Printing's an interesting thing. Ben Franklin used to rag all his workers for drinking on the job and he was a printer.

What's next for you? What's the subject for the next in the Skateboarding Speaks series?

Chris: I'm not really sure… it depends what gets the most response. I'm working on two other books not related to skateboarding at all. I've also been talking to people off and on about a skateboarding-based feature (film), but nothing solid. Possibly a TV show that actually does something beneficial for skateboarding… I don't know where writing will take me next. So far it looks like the next installment for the series is going to be "Skateboarding Speaks on Religion, Spirituality and the Paranormal." Definitely not something you would expect out of the skate crowd.

Travis: Chris and I both have solo titles coming out soon. We are also going to do a second run of No Comply, which will include more stories and illustrations, as well as interviews with individuals in positions of authority. So be on the lookout for that. Man, there's a lot more stuff in the works right now, but it's all a little too premature to speak on at the moment.

How long have you been skating?

Chris: Off and on since 87/88. I was heavy on it from like, 96 until 03. I've been mostly writing and focusing on other stuff lately, but I never stray far from the sessions. I'm actually wanting to skate more now. We had been working on a team for a while and that's starting to come together finally… I just put two new faces on, both from Ventura, Angel Saucedo and Mike Andersen. Also my friend Vix. So I should probably actually go skate with these guys more…

(Chris broke his wrist skating a few months before doing the book)

Travis: I started skating in '88, but didn't really take it seriously until '90 or '91. I skated religiously until '02, and then stopped for a couple years. I kind of got burnt out on it. I picked it back up again two years ago and am having more fun with it now than ever.

(Travis broke his elbow skating a couple days before we sat down and did the interview)

Lets say a cop happened to pick up the book, what do you think his/her opinion would be?

Chris: That's a tough one and it would depend on who they were as an individual. If they were one of those cops that were super testosterone charged and irrational, they'd probably banter it as terrorist material or something. If any officer were to read the book, they would probably walk away with a much greater understanding of why the skaters they encounter are the way they are. The officer that's chasing you of course doesn't know that the officer before him may have hit you or treated you unfairly, but I think if more people in positions of authority realize the effect of mistreatment, the flow of respect will increase in both directions. More levelheaded cops may even enjoy or appreciate the book…I'd love to hear feedback on that.

Travis: At first glance it would probably make their blood boil. To tell you the truth, though, I don't give two flying fucks what they'd think. Fuck 'em!

Any thank yous or fuck yous?

Chris: Thanks to everyone who helped make No Comply happen: Travis and Dale, John and Albert at the Vintage Press, Lizzie, Rodney and the crew at Purple Skunk, Tony, Ryan, Abe and everyone at 35th, Shooter and the Fed Way posse for hooking Harold Hunter shirts and MOET, Gavin, Guy and Jesse at the Shop Gallery, thanks to Antisocial (sorry we missed ya), to everyone that's put No Comply in their mag, website or shop, thanks to Mark @ Slap for hookin' this up and of course many kind thanks to all the contributors! And I suppose I should thank authority for inspiration…

Travis: Eva Dancel, Chris Long, Dale Dreilling, all the No Comply contributors, Mark at SLAP magazine, the Purple Skunk family, FTC, The Stereo Sound Agency, MESH Magazine, Clout Magazine, Versus Magazine, Isaac McKay-Randozzi, Fecalface.com, J.R. aka: Shoot Loc', Adek, Ismael, Bigg Wigg Loc', Andy Schoultz, Leland Ware, Tony at 35th North in Seattle, Bill Kaschner, Rach, Chuck Deal, and anyone else that has helped me out along the way -- Thanks! Rest in peace Trevor Prescott! One.