Thrasher Magazine

Photos by Papke

What’s up, Reese? What are you doing?
Dude, I’m chillin’. Just got back from Chick-fil-A. Kicking it with the homies Ish and Justin. We were just listening to some music. Then we were making some shit on the computer—some graphics and whatnot.

What are the graphics for?
I’ve just been messing with random shit, but as of lately we’ve been making shirts and hoodies. It’s just some stuff that I make in Photoshop that I post with my music sometimes. I just started putting them on shirts and me and Ish were just making something for him to put on a shirt.

You said you were making music?
Yeah, I’ve been making music for awhile now, just in my free time when I’m not out skating. It’s something to do while I’m around the house. It’s good for days when I’m sore or something. At least for the last couple of years I’ve been trying to make stuff but sometimes I’ll be weird about it and just use it as a way to pass the time. I never wanted a bunch of people to see it. But recently I kinda thought, Why not? and started posting some of the stuff. I guess I stopped really caring as much as I was before. I would almost be, like, Oh I don’t want to be the guy posting my music, almost embarrassed. But after time I think I got more comfortable and to be honest, I don’t really care anymore. I’ll just post it because it’s really fun to make something out of nothing. It’s way better than just sitting around the house, you know? Being productive and making something feels good, especially when it’s not skating.

Making music and taking stretched Os to the street? No down time for Reese. You don’t want to have to run out of this one 

What kinda of music is it?
Dude, me and Ish were actually just talking about that. Honestly, I don’t even know what to call it. I just play my guitar over some 808s, anything that just hits, really. Sometimes I’ll put my voice in there. Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes it’s just instrumental but we don’t really know what it is. It’s weird but we have fun with it.

So you’re not a rapper? I never heard your music but just assumed it was closest to J.Casanova.
Damn, that’s sick. Not exactly but thanks, man. I really appreciate that.

One of your songs made it into the Birdhouse video, right?
Yeah, dude, it was crazy. It was a song I made with guitar and I think I just had drums behind it. I made it sometime last year but Mills was asking me about songs I made and lurked my YouTube and went with that one. I was pretty hyped to have something in there. To be honest, that was sick. My name on all that stuff is Wolftraproad.

I’ve seen everyone in the shirts lately.
Dude, it’s so crazy. I can’t believe that anyone even likes them. If you want to know what it means, there’s this road that I lived by in Yorktown called Wolftrap Road. So whenever I started posting my music I would just put it under that. It’s just crazy seeing people wearing the shirts, though, dude. I recently sent Greg Hunt a package and he was stoked on it. Kyle was about to go on this trip to New Zealand and really wanted something to take on it—some crazy clothes. So we made one, this hoodie, and he took it out there and a few days later hit me up and was, like, “Dude, you won’t believe who wants a Wolftrap hoodie.” I had no idea who it was, and then he was, like, “Greg Hunt!” I thought that was insane so I hit him up and told him that I would send him one and that I would be hyped to give it to him. He ended up getting it and even posted it. It’s cool he liked it.

No cops in sight at a high-bust spot? Reese takes advantage of slow-response time with a risky feeble transfer 

Small world. Going back to the name, Yorktown is where you grew up?
Yessir, I’m from Yorktown, Virginia. Then I started living in Newport News right before I moved out here, but I was born in Yorktown.

Did you ever see people skating or was it too small there?
Eh, not really. It was more in Richmond. Richmond is, like, 45 minutes away and that was a prominent, heavy skate scene. But when I was younger I didn’t really know much. Like, right when I started skating, I didn’t know about it over there. Virginia Beach also had a pretty big skate scene but Yorktown, dude? No way. I was just kind of stuck in the middle. Once I got a little bit older I would go out of my zone, like, if I went to the skatepark it would be in Hampton. It’s near Yorktown but not that far. There weren’t really that many spots or parks in Yorktown. But it wasn’t bad. I shit you not I was pretty much dead in the middle between Virginia Beach and Richmond. It was about 45 minutes each way. Somebody might call me out on that and think it’s different but that’s just how I always looked at it.

Was there anyone that you would ever see around when you were younger who is making it in skating now?
When I would go to the skatepark I would see people. I remember seeing Gilbert Crockett. He would skate the park that I would go to all of the time and that was really sick. He’s always been so good. Pat Burke was another one. Same with Trevor Colden every once and awhile. I remember seeing Stephen Mullen a few times too.

As if the leap from Yorktown to LA wasn’t big enough, Reese steps it up with a fat fastplant

What made you take the leap to California?
I ended up moving out here around the summer of 2013. I was in Virginia and I had a few friends from Florida that were out here. My homie Jamal Gibbs was living in LA and I ended up moving into a place with him, Nick Zizzo, Matt Militano, Cody Thompson, a bunch of dudes. We ended up living together for a few months. That spot was in East LA, Boyle Heights area. We were living rough and tough, for sure, but it was fun as hell. There were at least four of us sleeping on the floor in the living room and there had to be two or three others living in the bedroom. Then the house next to us was Tony Karr and the Spliff Mode dudes. That was sick too. We were just this conjuring force in this house. That was so fun. We would just mob downtown LA pushing around so it was cool getting that experience right off the bat moving here.

Mobbing around with that many people can get crazy sometimes.
Dude, yeah. This one time we snuck into the LA county parking garage downtown with a whole gang of us. Ended up getting away the first time ’cause we were too deep, but the next time cops rolled on us and we dipped out. We ran down our escape route and took a corner thinking we were slick. The cops pulled up on us on a dark street where we were hiding at and pulled guns on all of us. They tried to scare us and harass us for like 45 minutes ’til our arms were numb from holding them up. I totally accepted that I was going to jail that night. They ended up just throwing our boards and told us to get the fuck out of there and not to come back. I was fully prepared to call my dad at 1AM from LA County Jail.

That’s heavy. Would you ever do the skate-house experience again?
No, sir. Love all of those dudes but I’m scarred for life. Never again. You know how that goes.

Once you accept that you’re going to county jail once, a second time doesn’t sound that bad. Ollie over to 50-50 at UCI before Johnny Law delivers the boot 


So how did you end up getting involved with Birdhouse?
Well, originally it all stemmed from knowing Mills from being in Long Beach. I was hanging around Long Beach a lot, staying at friends’ houses and I ended up going on a session with Mills one time. That turned into skating a few times and he was kind enough to let me stay over when I had nowhere else to stay. He would always look out, and then I ended up meeting more of the guys on Birdhouse through that. I was skating for Foundation at the time but we would be skating together all week and then they would be doing a Birdhouse trip on the weekend and Mills started letting me tag along on those. I would go on trips with them before I was even getting boards so eventually they said they were down to send me boards and it went from there. Ever since it’s been straight glory.

What’s your favorite thing about being on Birdhouse with all of those guys?
My favorite part is that it really is a group of friends that are always trying to skate together and everyone puts a crazy amount of passion into what they do. You can always be yourself and everyone just does them—it’s refreshing. We all love skating and hanging together. It just feels like you really want to go on whatever trip is happening. We always feel like we’re going on some big adventure. Every trip we go on feels like a little page in my book that I will always remember, just on the road. They’re all just road dogs. It always feels like you’re surrounded by family. You’re never uncomfortable.


Was it a big thing for you when they asked you to start filming for your welcome-to-the-team part?
Well, when they were all filming for Saturdays, in the middle of that is when I officially started getting boards. So I was just filming and not really thinking about where it was going. I just wanted to stay getting clips. I guess I was just already in that mentality of just trying to go for it and film with Mills as much as possible. That’s who I love filming with and I was getting the boards so I just went with it. Once it was solidified that I was working on something and they were down I was already in the right mindset of being productive so I kept it going. I was stoked, but there was definitely pressure and I wanted to get certain tricks. Just the idea of how close you can get to something and no one will know the battle that you had to put into it, but that’s just regular shit for skating. That type of shit you can’t even worry about. You just gotta suck it up and do you. I just wanted to keep the mentality of skating how I want to skate and try my hardest pretty much.

Before the premiere, was Mills showing you guys any of the other dudes’ parts or did he keep it a secret?
Oh, I was kept in the dark, for sure. All I saw was a rough edit of my part just to show me what was cookin’ and to see if there was anything else I wanted in there. I only saw that one time so my shit was fresh for me and it was really cool. I really enjoyed watching what Mills put together.

If the Birdman’s down with Wolftraproad, you know he’s down for this back three. Congrats on the part, Reese! 

Whose part were you most excited to see?
Dude, to be real, shoutout everyone. Shawn is doing the craziest, fucking off-this-Earth type of maneuvers out there. Then you have Clive who is, like, Breaking Bad on every trick. I was really excited to see Ed’s footage because I knew that he was going to have stuff in there. As far as Clive and Shawn, they skate their own way and you can tell that they went as hard as they could go.

Who’s your all-time favorite Birdhouse rider?
Andrew Reynolds, for sure.

Have you ever gotten to go on a trip or party with the Birdman?
No, dude, I haven’t been on a trip with Tony, but hopefully soon we get out there and skate some fun shit. I actually gave him a shirt at the premiere the other night. You know I had one for him. I think he was stoked. He said he had seen people wearing them around.

Maybe he saw it on Greg Hunt’s instagram.
Oh my God. Probably. Dude, Tony is so fucking sick. I had to get him in a shirt. How could I not?!

Who on the team do you think fits the term Beautiful Mutant the best?
Dude, I would say Jaws is a Beautiful Mutant. Hell, I would say I’m a Beautiful Mutant. I’m not beautiful, but I’m a mutant. I’ll tell you that. Everybody’s got their own little mutation!

Everyone has a little Mutant in them