Interview with Greg Sohn by Adam Facciolla

“Back in the Day” is a retrospective full length by Greg Sohn out of NJ and NY filmed between 2006-2013.

How’s it going G? So the video is finally done! When did you start filming for Back In The Day, and what motivated you to put together this film now? 

Finally done! I threw a date in the beginning of the video and it was filmed between 2006-2013. I’m sure a few clips were even earlier like 2003 or 2004. This is basically a video of all our childhoods. When I stopped filming I was so picky about what I put out. If the tiniest detail was off with the filming or skating it was considered throw away in my eyes. This 35 minute video would have been like 5 minutes back when I stopped filming in 2013. Now that time has passed and I’m looking at it 10 years later I’m hyped on all of it. I could care less if I filmed some of the older clips bad or something wasn’t perfect. I look at all this old footage as gold. Half of the skaters in this video are now fat, bald, married, have kids, own homes, and work 9-5’s. We all are just hyped to finally see this stuff and show people we once had sick hairlines and could jump. 

Haha, for sure! What was the process like gathering all this old footage? 

Well I finally got off my butt and plugged in the old Mac computer that collected dust in my parents basement. I hadn’t seen any of it since 2013. Going through it all was so fun! I was never organized back in the day and I didn’t label any of my footage, so everything was labeled untitled 1, untitled 2, etc… so the first thing I did was go back and put titles for thousands of videos and label them into folders. I literally would eat microwave popcorn and drink soda like I was in a movie theatre watching this stuff. Plus I would reconnect with the old homies and we’d FaceTime and watch everything together. Mad memories! 

For filmers trying to emulate this vintage look, what camera set up did you use while filming this? 

Come on, it’s not that vintage! For filming I used a vx1000 and a DVX100a. I still got all my gear and not even sure if anything turns on anymore. I’m keeping it for nostalgic value and maybe will one day sell my mark 1 if it keep going up in value. That or I hit hard times. Haha! 

Who were some of the people you skated with and included in this film? Does everyone still skate all these years later? 

Too many to name. I’d say most of the people in the video are still out there pushing but don’t take it so seriously anymore. No more stairs and rails for a lot of these dudes. They’re pretty much hitting the local parks and slappying curbs on their days off. Actually, it’s so crazy to see where everyone has ended up and how spread apart we all are now. A bunch of people from the video moved to California, Rob’s in Japan doing Timescan, some people are in NYC, Jordan’s in North Carolina, I’m in Maine. 

This film had such a feel good vibe to it, with all of the fun B-Roll clips and everyone laughing throughout. Do you have any stories from sessions while filming that you want to share? 

Thanks man. Endless stories. I really just remember being in aw watching both Steve Sasse and Silvester Eduardo skate. All of their footage was either first try or within three tries. In terms of a story though, I’ll leave you with one that Matt and I have kept between us all these years. As everyone I used to film with knows, I used to drive an old 1979 Buick Skylark I bought for $700 that was poo brown and would squeak and break down constantly. One time Matt and I were driving to a skate spot to meet some friends and some prick in a brand new Ferrari still with the dealer plates on zipped past us and cut us off. We both looked at each other and we knew we had to be late to meeting our friends and pass this guy in his Ferrari. We followed him for miles and waited until we hit a double lane road and raced him until he was about to crash into the car in front of him and he chickened out and we won! Then before he had a chance to catch up to us and pass us we swerved off the road and my car leaned onto just the two side wheels and we missed crashing into a nursing home by a few feet. We were hyped and giggling like little kids as we showed up to the spot late and never told a soul. 

Classic! Thank you for all the good times buddy, and for having put together this film for everyone involved so that we can enjoy it years to come. Let’s wrap it up with some shout outs. 

Thanks buddy, please send me some Caravan gear so I can feel like a sponsored skater. But real talk, it’s been honor to film and grow up with all these dudes and it’s been nice catching up and reconnecting with so many people through FaceTime and zoom. I hope over time everyone in Back in the Day will go back to this video and get hyped on our younger years.