‘The soundtrack to skate parks was punk rock music’: Tony Hawk on the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater soundtracks, and the way they formed a era of videogame skate youngsters

It is tough to think about video games whose soundtrack had an even bigger impression on a whole era than the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater sequence. Standard music had been part of video games for many years: Journey Escape for the Atari 2600 was a very bizarre instance, and using Track 2 by Blur in FIFA: Highway to World Cup 98 was iconic. However the Tony Hawk sequence was the primary to make use of punk music on this approach, and for a lot of youngsters from the suburbs and the nation, it was the primary time they interacted with punk.

The construction of bite-sized two-minute ranges was excellent for placing the music on the coronary heart of the sport as a lot because the skating was. The punk—or perhaps hip hop or thrash—charging over every run turned inextricably linked to skating, even for youths who had by no means touched a board or been to a park.

On the current THPS Fest in Los Angeles, celebrating each the approaching launch of the brand new Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4 remake and the legacy of the soundtracks generally, I spoke to a number of the folks concerned with the music of the Tony Hawk video games. Here is what legends of skating and music needed to say about their enduring legacy.

You could like

For Hawk himself, all of his goals for the sport got here again to 1 factor. “I believed it was necessary to signify the tradition of skating, and the tradition of skating in my early days was early punk rock music. Then Activision’s music division needed to maintain it balanced with newer music as effectively, so that they leaned in in the direction of newer punk on the time, and it is loopy to assume that Goldfinger was ever new,” Hawk says, sitting in his trailer earlier than the THPS Fest live performance. “Additionally, simply different sounds that signify skating, like hip hop. So the music was necessary to me, however I did not assume it was going to be one thing that may be a standalone hit, by way of folks saying ‘Oh, we won’t wait to listen to in regards to the soundtrack to the sport’.”

It is coming full circle now

These lofty expectations imply updating the soundtrack for Tony Hawk Professional Skater 3 + 4 had added stress—you are updating one thing folks view by virtually 25 years of nostalgia goggles. This time Hawk was extra concerned within the soundtrack of his namesake. “I suppose it is rather a lot to stay as much as, however I’m happy with all of the soundtracks, together with this new one. I had extra enter this time too, so I hope it lives as much as the expectations.”

Steve Caballero was a professional skater featured as a playable character within the video games and now, on the age of 60, his newest punk band Urethane has a music featured on the three + 4 soundtrack. When the unique video games had been popping out he was within the privileged place of getting to select songs for the soundtrack that may additionally function in his skating video on the finish of the sport.

“Skateboarding is gnarly,” he says, “and so when you’ve got a punk music driving an element, it flows very well. I simply picked music that I felt would go together with my video half. For quantity two I requested for Millencolin, and for 3 I introduced Bodyjar from Australia. It is coming full circle now as a result of Bodyjar is again in Tony Hawk Professional Skater 3 + 4 and we’re touring with Bodyjar this summer season.”

Lupe Fiasco is the artist behind essentially the most well-known skateboarding hip hop observe of all time: Kick, Push. It was first included on Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, a departure from the Professional Skater and Underground titles. Now it is being featured in a principal Professional Skater soundtrack for the primary time.

“It feels good,” Fiasco says. “Licensing firms are gonna license. You have to allow them to do this after they need to do it,” he laughs. “No, Tony’s a homie. When Kick, Push first got here out, he was one of many first skaters of word to ask me out to L. A. to carry out it at one of many occasions, so that is type of a full circle state of affairs.”

One of many placing issues about these conversations are how right down to earth all of the skaters and musicians within the tradition are. The godfather of freestyle skateboarding, Rodney Mullen invented a stunning variety of methods, together with the kickflip—he additionally has a stunning air of humility given all his achievements. In response to him, the soundtrack is without doubt one of the principal explanation why the sport was so profitable.

Individuals have a tendency to search out their music between the ages of, like, 9 or 10, up until 13 years previous, and lots of people discovered it at the moment.

“They created one thing so enduring and particular that it stood above every little thing else,” Mullen says. “I believe the way in which that Tony included all of these bands and the music, the way in which that he reached outdoors tradition—even when you did not skate, you appreciated the vibe. It conveyed the feel of what the tradition is. Avenue artwork, every little thing else. All of it labored collectively to make it one thing distinct and totally different from something that is ever been achieved earlier than. That is why it is lasted so lengthy.”

After all, as with all issues which have vital impacts on tradition, it isn’t simply the factor itself. It has to search out the correct folks on the proper time to have an impact, and Mullen posits that whereas having all of the components for fulfillment was necessary, Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater was positively in the correct place on the proper time. “There is a magic period in all issues, proper? A lot was occurring by way of music, every little thing.”

For what it’s value, Hawk agrees that timing is why the soundtrack had the impression it did. “I believe it launched a era that was impressionable. Individuals have a tendency to search out their music between the ages of, like, 9 or 10, up until 13 years previous, and lots of people discovered it at the moment. However they honestly preferred it, it wasn’t prefer it was simply being pressured upon them. But it surely was the identical for me. I began skating after I was 10. The soundtrack to skate parks was punk rock music. It was Devo, Useless Kennedys, Buzzcocks, Black Flag, Agent Orange, and that is what I heard whereas I used to be skating, and that is what I related to skating.”

When you can by no means return and expertise the issues that modified you for the primary time once more, this golden age of remasters and remakes means the millennials who fell in love with this music and tradition on the proper place and the correct time can revisit it. The expanded Tony Hawk Professional Skater 3 + 4 soundtrack additionally means these now-middle-aged millennials can uncover much more new music, whereas artists akin to Caballero show that we do not ever need to cease discovering and making new music.

With every little thing Y2K coming again in trend once more, maybe a complete new era of children are about to fall in love with punk music by videogames.