Interview by Zach Moeller

How are you feeling today Neil?

So far so good. Just woke up, listened to “Cop Killer”, and came here to meet up and drink coffee.

How do you feel about the Whole Foods on Bedford being closed today?

It’s fried because they’re always trying to be open and making money, so the fact that they’re turning everyone away is pretty weird. 

Congrats on getting a pro board for 5Boro. How does it feel?

Not a whole lot has changed except that people are giving me props. I’m stoked on it. I do see kids riding my board which is pretty sick. I saw a kid at McCarren the other day that had my board and random people online will buy it and be like “Dude this is sick!” That gets me stoked.

You just put out a really sick part in Zach Sayles’s video Vanish. What was it like filming for that?

Thanks man. It took a long time, he’d been working on that since 2014 or 2015. It took about four years or something like that. Some of my footage in there is from 2015. Everybody else probably filmed for about two and a half years. I was skating with Zach a little before he moved to Philly and started filming with the rest of those dudes. I would go to the city all the time and we’d film because I was living in West Chester. Eventually I moved up here [New York] and I’d go back to Philly to film with him trying to finish it up. I’m stoked on the way he put it together man, he did a great job. It was a quality production. 

Are you from West Chester?

Kind of. I’m from Malvern which is about 10 minutes away from West Chester. I grew up going to Fairman’s, that’s my shop, so I spent a lot of time in West Chester skating. Besides Philly, that’s where everyone I skated with lived so that’s where I’d end up most of the time.

What was it like for you growing up and skating Philly?

It was different then. I want to say, it was 2007 the first time I went downtown. It used to be the classic go to Love, go to 3 Block, go to Temple. Definitely skated City Hall a lot before they took it out too.

If you could bring back one Philly spot from the grave which would it be?

That’s a good question. There’s a lot of good shit that’s not there anymore. There’s one spot that wasn’t in the city but it was close that people would skate a lot, Blue Bar in Delco. It was a blue out rail that you’ll see a lot of old clips at. That spot’s been gone for a while. I definitely don’t miss 3 Block. There’s a lot of stuff that’s still there but you can’t skate it anymore. I mean, Love Park, but everyone’s gonna say that. I never got to skate this spot, but there used to be this bank to bank channel gap at UPenn that people used to skate in the ‘90s that looked super fun. And Afro Banks, for sure. 

Did you ever see anything gnarly out in the streets there?

Yeah for sure. Philly is wild. All the dudes who smoke k2 and hang out at Muni, that shit’s pretty crazy on a daily basis. I feel like up here that hasn’t really caught on yet. It’s a daily experience if you’re down there. You’ll see crazy shit every day. I know there’s a couple stories I can’t think of right now, but I’ve been skating Philly for a long time and have seen a lot of shit. There’s a lot of crazy fuckers over there. 

When did you move to New York?

I used to come up here all the time to skate with Tombo and the 5Boro crew. 2011 was the first time I came here and I was filming with Cooper Winterson. He made a video that came out in 2013, and after that I kept coming back to skate and film. Mark Nardelli was telling me that he wanted me to be more involved, and I got the opportunity to come up here last year so I did. I’ve been trying to skate and film a lot. We’re putting out a video soon.

5Boro is making a video? 

Yeah it’s going to be sick. Mulhern is working on it, he’s editing it, that’ll be cool. It should be done soon. 

Who’s your normal crew you like to push around with?

Giorgio Villone, he’s been my homie for a really long time. Dylan Holderness, I’ve been filming with him and all his homies a lot. My roommate Sam McKenna, he shoots photos so we get out a lot. His crew like, Jasper Stieve and Eric Swick, I skate with them a lot. Pretty much everybody that was in that Puerto Rico video we put out, that’s Dylan’s crew. All those dudes are sick. Joey Rodriguez, Zack Fashouer, Sam Cardelfe, all those dudes are sick. 

Do you feel more productive living with Sam and being able to shoot photos with him?

Fuck yeah. We just went out on Monday trying to get a trick at Grant’s Tomb. It’s sick because we’ve managed to shoot a good amount of shit since I’ve been up here. We figure it out easily because we live together. Sam’s the man, he’s a good guy. 

Tell me about your recent trip to Puerto Rico. 

It was the best trip I’ve ever been on hands down. Amazing crew first of all, and it was really well documented as well. Everyone got a lot of footage and everybody got along. There were no issues. You know how it is when there’s a lot of people on a trip, it can get hectic. There was none of that. It was great. We were just partying the whole time. Lots of photos, lots of video. I made my own edit with my VX. We covered a lot of spots. We’d go out skating every day, but we also did a bunch of other cool shit. We went to this sick waterfall. We were at the beach so we went swimming. We went through this sick town called Naranjito that has a bunch of really good spots and was so colorful. The food down there was awesome and pretty cheap. The Polar team happened to be there at the same time we were. It was sick. 

If you could put anyone on 5Boro who would it be?

I put my friend Matt Militano in contact with Mark and now he’s getting boards. We’ve got Matt in the mix and it’s sick. He’s been doing a lot. He’s probably going to be up here pretty soon. There’s a couple other kids that I think would be pretty sick. My friend Christian Wood who is from South Carolina rips. He’s super consistent and a really good kid. He’s all about skating. If I had to pick a new kid to bring on I’d probably pick him. He’s a ripper. 

Besides the 5Boro video do you have any other projects you’re working on?

Since I’ve moved up here that’s been the main thing. We haven’t put anything out in a couple of years so we’re overdue for a good video. I think that video’s going to be really cool. It’ll be refreshing and I think a lot of people will like it when it comes out. 

Any shoutouts?

Shout out to Nardelli, Keith at Nike, Josh and Pat at Theories, Vern at Bones, Venture trucks, Dylan and all the homies I film with, Sam for shooting photos, Falla, Jimmy, and…JD for being the shit.