indcsn

indcsn is a skate and streetwear brand based out of Leeds that features decks, pillows, disposable cameras and bulldog rings as part of its eclectic output. Just three years old, indcsn sponsors a bunch of musicians and skaters and recently dropped an eponymous skate edit, filmed by local skate lad Josh Hallett. We caught up with the filmmaker to find out more about shooting the northern shred scene.

What is indcsn?
For us, indcsn is a crew and a lifestyle based around making items us and our friends want to own.

Why did you make the recent edit?
Well I’ve known the indcsn guys for two or three years and we have been talking about doing something like this for quite a while. I moved over to Leeds about 18 months ago and started skating and filming a lot with Mike Arnold and Dale Starkie. It was easy to just go out with those guys into the streets and get footage. They were both down for indcsn and therefore were obvious choices to represent the company and join current riders Liam Hobson and Chris Parsons. The promo video was just a good way of letting a new audience know all about the brand. I think the skateboard world was aware of indcsn, but maybe didn’t know too much about it.

How do you hope it will have an impact?
Honestly, I just hope people enjoy the skating and the lads get a bit more exposure. They worked hard at spots to get their tricks and they are the ones that deserve the credit. Dale even broke his leg towards the end of filming the clip. Thankfully he had racked up two-three minutes of footage already though!

What’s the skate scene in Leeds like?
The scene in Leeds is really good. I’d say it is one of the best around. The level of UK talent is insane and we are fortunate enough to have a fair bit of that talent up in West Yorkshire. The city itself isn’t too huge, so spots are close together which makes travelling really easy. The thing I like most about the Leeds scene though is that it is very accepting. Even though it is a big scene, everybody knows everybody and we all get on. I found it really easy when I first moved to Leeds and I think this is the case for a lot of new skaters today.

Who’s involved in making that indcsn edit and what does everyone do?
I’ve know the indcsn guys for a while now and they were aware of how my life is pretty much 100% skateboarding. They run the actual brand, but asked me to help put together a small crew of dudes to represent indcsn and to film and edit a clip to put out online. I spent a few months with Mike, Dale, Liam and Chris filming mainly in and around Yorkshire. I had some help from some friends and acquaintances with some extra clips of Chris and Dale as they had spent time in Amsterdam and Berlin over the summer.

How can people get involved/show support?
People can show support by checking out the indcsn clip on the vimeo channel or by keeping up to date with everything new by getting on instagram and following @indcsn. Ask your local skate shop or boutique if they stock the brand and if you’re already into the items we make, then you’re already involved wether you buy them or not. If you want to buy a ton of cool shit and shout bout us from all the corners of the globe, then feel free to do so!

What were the challenges in bringing the indcsn edit to life?
I’d say the hardest part was getting footage of Chris. He currently lives in London and the rest of us are based up north. With work it meant it was hard for me to go down south and film with him. I had to rely on other people going out and filming him and of course they had their own lives so it wasn’t necessarily a priority. The other stumbling blocks were that Dale broke his leg in August and at the start of September I ended up in hospital needing surgery, therefore I was completely unable to film at all. However, this did give me plenty of time to edit the clip until I was finally happy with it and I had made something that everyone involved would enjoy.

What have been the major inspirations?
It’s hard to think of inspirations really, because we are always going out skating and filming so the indcsn clip was just a natural thing for us to do. I love watching any skate videos and do so every day of my life, so I guess they are the things that inspire me the most. My favourites range from any from the first Girl Skateboards video ‘Goldfish’ in 1993 and Blueprint Skateboards ‘First Broadcast’ in 2001, right up until modern day videos like Alien Workshop’s ‘Mind field’ and Sidewalk Magazine’s ‘In Progress’. To be honest, I just love watching skateboarding and being apart of such a great UK scene.

What’s next?
I think the next step for us is to put out some shorter individual clips of the crew. Mike and I are going to put together something very soon and that should be online in the next few weeks. There may also be the possibility of adding a new face to the crew over the winter period or in the new year. Hopefully we can get some more ads in magazines and online as well, which will help the exposure of the company and the riders themselves. We will all just continue to have fun and venture out into the cold nights with our boards and try to put out as much content as we can.

You can see more from indcsn on their website.

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