Video by Hawke Trackler
Photos provided by Colin Ward
Interview by Daniel Nodzak
Colin Ward also known by the stage name Happy Tooth is a rollerblading indie rapper from Columbus, Ohio. With the help of fellow Ohio blader and videographer Hawke Trackler Happy Tooth has released an edit called This Won’t Age Well’ which serves as both a comeback edit and music video for the song of the same name from his latest solo album ‘The Laughter’s Rehearsed.’ So after you’ve checked out the edit join us for a conversation about rollerblading, music, COVID-19 and more with Happy Tooth.
Hey Happy Tooth thanks for chatting with me today. Let’s start with the basics. How and when did you get involved with rollerblading?
I asked my parents for rollerblades for my 10th birthday and instead they got me a cheap Walmart skateboard. I skateboarded for years after that and was pretty good, but I still felt limited by it. When I was 16 or 17, a friend of mine (a jazz musician I collaborated with on one of my first records) let me mess around on an old pair of Razors he had, and I fell in love with it. I kept going and felt more natural on skates than anything else I had done. Eventually I met all the Columbus heads, filmed some edits and sections, and traveled all over, skating constantly for years.
How about music, what’s the story there?
My general love for music was engrained in me from a super young age. I used to sing along with The Beatles and Tom Petty songs when I was a kid. My father was a musician - he played guitar, wrote and recorded songs, and brought his musician friends around. He never officially released anything while he was alive, though I released all his songs posthumously a few years ago on Bandcamp. I started to make my own music when I was closer to 21. I could play a bit of this and that and I had always been a writer - at one point I was heavily involved in the Columbus poetry scene. I taught myself how to record and produced and made two albums on my own before I showed anyone. I just liked the idea of seeing what my own music would sound like, good or bad. I started working with my friend Dug and we ended up forming a 6-piece band called Happy Tooth & Dug. Since then, I've released a ton of music as a solo artist, with the band, and with other projects. I've gotten to go on a few tiny tours here and there and it's been both extremely rewarding and heartbreaking.
Most rollerbladers owe a good deal of their musical taste to the soundtracks of videos we grew up on and the latest rollerblading videos continue to influence our Spotify playlists to this day. Can you tell me a bit about how rollerblading media may have played a role in shaping your tastes and artistic sensibilities?
One of the first rollerblading videos I had ever seen was Demode. The whole soundtrack is amazing, but Chris Haffey's section used a song by Themselves, which is a rapper/producer duo made up of Doseone and Jel. I learned all the words to that song when I was in high school, and I loved it and didn't even realize it was super underground. From there, I kept going further down the rabbit hole of underground hip hop. If a section and song were fire, then the song was for sure on the iPod when I skated.
Okay, so let’s just get this out of the way because we both know I’m going to ask. Top five skate video soundtracks?
This is in no particular order, but I'm also just going to start with the one I already mentioned.
Demode
Teach Them Well
Killerboots
Know Rollerblading
Candy
I really enjoyed your edit particularly given the fact that I know you took a lengthy break from rollerblading so I was hoping you could walk us through the filming process for this one?
To set the scene, I hadn't skated consistently for 7 or 8 years when I started again late last year. I had gotten hurt, rollerblading had been dying more every year, and I had started to get interested in music. I realized with music I could fully express myself and it was safer than trying to grind drop rails. Every so often, I would throw on my skates and session a practice rail if the urge hit. Last year, my friend Kenny started sending me a bunch of amazing edits and I saw the newest Cody Lampman section and that was the one that did it- I wanted to skate again. I started back up slow, using my old setup until I finally bought a pair of Sways. I tried skating flat for the first time a couple months later and loved it, which got me even more obsessed with skating again. I really love the dynamics of it all and trying to land a trick perfectly. Everything just felt more solid and better than it ever had for me.
I’m friends with Stefan Brandow and I've known Hawke Trackler (who filmed the edit) forever, so I just tagged along with them for their sessions. I even drove to West Virginia for a day one weekend. I was able to film everything in just two months, just getting 2 to 5 clips each day we skated, all while working full time Monday through Friday. We actually filmed the last tricks that went in exactly a month and a day from the first time they'd filmed a clip of me. I always loved the idea of using my own music for a section of mine, so I used a dark, moody track off my newest solo record and I think it works perfectly. There's a ton of stuff in the song, but the overall metaphor is that my body won't age well. Or the body of work - the section you're watching and the song you're hearing - won't age well. That phrase comes with mostly a negative connotation, but hopefully it won't age well in a positive way either, because the next project or section will be so much better than this one. I had only been skating again for 6 or 7 months when we filmed this, so I’m happy with how it came out. The whole process felt really natural.
It’s hard to talk about life in 2020/2021 without eventually coming to COVID-19. What’ve your experiences throughout the pandemic been like? Has it had any noticeable impact on your creative efforts in skating and music?
If anything, it just made me want to create more. To escape or just to have some purpose, I guess. I just kept pushing and making stuff. I made my most insular solo record yet, The Laughter's Rehearsed. I didn't show almost anyone any of the record until it was done. I just kept rewriting and refining it for months, while everything with the pandemic was at its peak and I was still working full time. I know the pandemic is a reason a lot of people got back into skating, and I guess I’m one of them. I realized I need skating as much as I need music and that I'd been neglecting this side of me for a long time, so it's been nice to reconnect with that.
You’ve chosen to credit your rollerblading edits to your stage name, Happy Tooth. It’s an interesting name, what’s the meaning of your pseudonym and what made you decide to use it for rollerblading as well?
My stage name/rap name/moniker is Happy Tooth, which is a nickname I had as a kid. I had messed up teeth before I got braces and was just a generally obnoxious kid, so my skateboard friend group started calling me Happy Tooth to fuck with me. At some point, it just became a nickname and (I think) a term of endearment. I ended up knocking out my two front teeth skating, so I’ve got fake ones now, which became part of it all too. We were all really into underground hip-hop and Atmosphere had a B-side album that had samples about dental hygiene and part of it was like, "It's Happy Tooth!" It's still out there on YouTube somewhere. I should probably sample it in one of my songs at this point.
I chose to use the name in my rollerblading edits as well because the older I get, the more I realize that everything we do is art in some form. I think of a rollerblading edit/section the same way I think of an album or an ep, or any other project. I just don't see the need to differentiate between the two things. It's all art. Since it's me in the section and it's my song, it's also technically a music video too, right?
Okay well I’m gonna let you go but before I do, would ya like to make a few shoutouts?
Shout out to Hawke Trackler for filming this, of course, and Stefan for doing crazy shit and letting me tag along. Shout out to my band, Happy Tooth & Dug, for being way cooler than me. Blader Union for just all the stuff you do for blading in general, and Daniel Nodzak for this opportunity and interview. And shout out to whoever takes the time to read this!
