interview by Sean Bendon

Përshëndetje! (hello in Albanian) I learned you’re Albanian while working on this interview – how has growing up as a first gen American in NYC influenced your life?
In every way lowkey. I’m from Woodhaven but I moved to Fresh Meadows when I was young. In both of those places all my friends’ parents are immigrants. It was cool because all of our parents came from different places. I grew up with a lot of culture, which I took for granted when I was a kid. But now I’m so grateful because I realize it’s such an important asset to life and understanding other people. I know another language, honestly every kid from Queens knows another language. I can communicate with my family. And if I go to Albania it’s super fun. 

You’re going to Albanian school on Sundays. Walk me through what Albanian school is like and why you’re choosing to do that.
I know Albanian fluently because that’s my whole family’s first language. Even growing up, that was my first language because everybody spoke it at home. I moved out a couple years ago and I don’t really hang out with that many people that are Albanian now. I notice sometimes my grammar is not as good as it was. It’s important to me so I can talk with my family. My grandmother doesn’t speak English at all. There is this really nice woman from Albania who teaches and I call her every Sunday morning and we go over stuff and learn new things and she gives me homework. It’s really fun. It’s more of just things I need to get better at and learning new dialects and stuff like that. It is a hard language to know and keep up with. I even watch Albanian shows and stuff like that to keep myself sharp. I started doing it like three months ago, so it’s been good. I have no intention of not doing it soon or anything. 

Is there an Albanian word or phrase that you’ve learned recently that you really like?
Yeah, it’s just something my teacher will say. It’s a mix of excellent and star in one word. And if I do really well, she’ll be like shkëlqyer. You know how there are certain words that you can’t really translate in English but you know what it means. It signifies that I’m doing a really good job. 

Is Martini really your last name?
It is my last name. It is not a stage name. I don’t know if it’s fully Albanian. I did ask my family and they think it comes from deep Italian roots or something. 

You’re studying marketing and media in college right now. Why did you choose marketing and media? Is that something that you’re interested in doing after skateboarding?
The reason I chose it is just because I don’t like being stuck in something specific. And as a person I feel like I like to do so many different things. I do skating, I do art, and even before skating I had so many other little things I enjoyed. So same thing with school. I did art in high school, like I have an art degree. I think for media and marketing, it’s very prevalent now. And there’s different areas you can apply it to. And maybe I might need to study more, like learn more in a specific area but I already have the baseline to do it if I wanted to. I don’t know if I want to involve it in skating in any way. I am also minoring in social change and  social work because I want to be involved in something like that when I graduate, whether I keep skating or not, as a side thing, because it’s just important for me. I like to help my community.

You only started skating a few years ago, what got you into it?
I started skating because I really wanted to get out of my house. It was just stressful at home. And then my neighbor who I grew up with, Mathew Villamel, just started talking about skating. Like, “it’s a cool thing to do and it would be cool if we knew how to kickflip” And so we would just skate the shitty flat ground park with a playground, not even a skate park. I really loved it, I just did it every day because it was something to do. All these things I like to do, they’re super focused on self, and I feel like skating is too. You have your community, you have your friends, but, it’s about what you do, and that shows. So for me it was nice because I could just keep working on it and working on it by myself. So I’d be skating in front of my house, skating with my friends, and it just kind of went on from there. Like, sometimes I have an identity crisis honestly with it because it hasn’t even been that long. And I’m like, what happened? But for progression and stuff like that for me what’s really helped a lot is just number one – skating every day. There’s really no way around it. I do not believe in prodigies! I don’t believe I have a gift that nobody else has. I don’t believe that at all. I do believe that I really care, and I skate every day and I actually try to get better. And there’s some days I feel like shit, but I will still skate because I know that’s what it takes.  Whether I’m confident or not that day I’m going to still skate, and if I have a good session or bad session doesn’t matter because I still skated. I don’t want to do something everyday that makes me sick to my stomach to try. But I do want to be a little bit uncomfortable every day with something I’m trying. It’s the journey that’s really important, because sometimes we have the end goal, but then we like to rush the process and you’re not enjoying it.

You recently had the first part of Alim Orahovac’s video On The Corner – How long did it take you to film that part?
I was in Spain for a couple months, and he told me in January he wanted to make a video because he’d just gotten surgery. So he was like, I’m going to be cleared in April. I think I’m going to start filming beginning of May. And I was like, oh, it’s perfect that’s when I come back. I started filming in the middle of May, and finished on the 1st of September. So it took me like four months. It was summer and we went out almost every day, so it was easy to make happen. He knew I was down. When you first film with somebody and you get super nervous or something, you’re like, I don’t know if this person is going to be chill. But it was always super chill and Alem’s really creative. He’ll look at spots similar to the way I do where he might not want to skate something the way everybody else did and he knows everybody’s tricks selection. And so he tries to push everybody else to be thoughtful of what everyone can do and what would look really cool. So that really worked for me. We just ended up getting shit all the time. There’s still like 20% of clips that never even got used.

You’ve been lurking at Tenant skateshop a lot in the last couple of months?
Yeah they relocated to Greenpoint which I thought was so sick because I think that’s what the community needed. KCDC closed. The other Labor in Brooklyn closed and so there was this gap of there being no shop there. I feel like that’s really good for a lot of people. And I already knew Kasper. I just want to help and support them. They’re from New York. They’re nice. They’re good to everybody. They just want to create something and have somewhere for people to hang out at. And they’re also big Knicks fans and so am I. And that was actually the first connection we all had because I came back from Spain and the playoffs were happening and they had one series against Detroit and we were going against Boston after and those were some big games. And so Kasper’s like come to the shop, hang out when the shop closes, like we’re going to play the games at night and stuff like that. And so we would all watch the games together. And I was like, damn, this feels like family for real. 

How did you get hooked up with Bronze and how does it feel to be a New Yorker getting put on by a New York brand?
Fucking sick. I’m really hyped. Pat and Peter (Bronze owners) followed me on Instagram and then I reached out to Pat Smith (Coda owner) and I was like, do you think if I text Pat he’ll give me a box? And Pat Smith was like, nah, I’ll talk to them for you. Pat texted Pat. And then, he was like, “She’s sick. We can definitely get her a box.” I met Peter a couple months later, just at a video premiere, and he’s like, “yo, I’m hyped on you, you got something. Just keep going.” And for him to say something like that meant a lot, because his videos really moved me and inspired me for so long. I was like, “yo, if you’re ever down I’d love to get clips for a video.” He said that would be so sick but he wanted to see a part first. I was already working on my first KCDC part and I was like, I’m doing this right now. It’s going to be out in less than a month. After that he hit me up and was like your part is sick, let’s get outside. I remember I was in KCDC when that happened, and I was running around the shop. I was so stoked. I was like, he said we could get outside! 

You’re roommates with Poe Pinson. How is living with someone around your age doing the same thing that you’re doing? And, sidebar, who’s better at doing the dishes?
Poe is the best. She’s always been such a good friend and such a sick person. She came to visit me last fall and she was like, I love New York so much. I really want to live here. And I was like, please live with me. And we actually ended up making it out to chat. Super chill. She did not expect that she would be a pro. Obviously she’s so pro. But she’s like the most humble person. But yeah, living with someone as sick as her is really cool. And she inspires me a lot. And she’s just the best, like super sick person, super good skater. I love her a lot, she’s one of my best friends. We’re both pretty good at doing the dishes.

What’s your favorite Dua Lipa song?
I just went to the Dua Lipa concert with my family because my mom is really hyped on her. It’s more for the culture. I’m hyped on her because she’s a successful Albanian person, but I don’t really listen to her crazy or anything like that.

Do you have any dream sponsors?
No, it’s not good to really expect anything. It would be sick if I got on a board company. I would love to be with people who love skating, who are outside. I do love New York, so I don’t want to leave New York. I just want to build my career here and I have a lot of stuff here as a New York skater. It would be a dream to skate with people who live here or skate here a lot. My goals are not really about sponsors and stuff because I just can’t control that. What I can control is the footage I get and getting better. I genuinely love filming. If I can look back on something and have super sick memories with my friends and shit like that, which I do for On the Corner, and even for my stuff for KCDC, then I’m hyped. Those are such fun times with so many different people. With Bronze or stuff like that, of course I’m going to say yes and be a part of that and see how that is, but it’s more about the vibe.

How many pairs of Air Force ones have you owned?
A lot. In Queens, everybody wears them. I have white and black ones too. I recently skated in a black pair this summer, but probably like seven or eight.

Have you ever seen Action Bronson in real life?
No, I wish. I saw Big Body Bes though this summer. Shit was fire! Another Albanian hero. Dude is so sick. He’s such a funny personality on Instagram and he’s hilarious. And he’s from New York too, which is so dope. And yes, his Albanian is so good. 

What’s on the horizon for you?
Just more filming. I have another part coming out in January/February sometime. We’re gonna finish filming by the first week of January. And then I don’t know when my friend Brendan’s going to be done editing, but I think probably by the end of that month, maybe the beginning of the next month. The next two months are going to be just continuing to get the best stuff. And we’re going to go to Barcelona at the end of the year to get our last clips and to celebrate because we’ve been working on it for like a year and a half. 

Do you have any words of wisdom to end the interview?
Can I shout out to everyone in New York who’s supported me? I feel like a lot of people have seen me as such a jit here. Like if you saw me with glasses and braces, just trying to kickflip, like all those people. That shit really means a lot to me. And I think that’s the reason why I get so hyped now and I feel really grateful that a lot of people have been super cool and been really supportive. Especially as a woman skating here that’s from here. Shout out everybody from Bronze for putting me on the team. I feel super blessed about that. Thanks to everybody. Honestly, shout out to my immigrant parents for coming to NYC and giving me the opportunity to do stuff like this. I just feel really grateful.