Social distancing precautions mixed with record-breaking rainfall for Los Angeles, CA in April is giving skateboarder Chris Colbourn, aka Cookie, ample amounts of time stuck at home. We dialed up Cookie on a rainy day to hear what types of music he’s been spinning as of late, learn his musical and hometown influences, travel down memory lane with CDs, and so much more.
“Been listening to a lot of music since I’ve been chilling alone lately.” Cookie starts. “It’s been really fun going through a bunch of CDs that I burned back in high school. So nostalgic to listen to these playlists I made because it takes me back to that exact time in my life, which is pretty special because my memory is not always the best, and music really helps re-live memories. I’m kind of pissed though because I labeled most of the CDs with dates but not the year.”
When asked what type of music was on the CDs, Cookie replies, “There’s a lot of old Lil Wayne on the CDs that are great. A lot of the music that man has put out is gold. One that comes to mind—Me and My Drank— it’s all autotuned, but it has a special place in my memories.”
Cookie has some deeper cuts into hip hop too. “When I wasn’t listening to Lil Wayne, I was listening to a bunch of Atmosphere, too. That whole mid-west hip-hop scene got me sparked because they would come through Vermont and play shows, and I’d go and them. Artists like Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Sage Francis, and Eyedea and Abilities. They all rip.”
Skateboarding is an individual activity, but it brings individuals together, Cookie continues, “Being in the Element van helped mold my musical taste as well. Hanging out with like Evan Smith, Nick Garcia, and others and all those guys have really good music taste.”
Skateboarders spend hours in vans traveling while on tours. A touring DJ is crucial to get a whole crew ready for the day. “I try to cater to everyone. Some mornings would be mellow music like Willie Watson. This song called Never Recover by Lil Baby, Gunna, and Drake. That song slaps. I’m a big Drake fan.”
“This band called Tortoise has been in the front of my mind for a while,” Cookie replies when asked what gets him psyched up to go skate. “They have a song called Shake Hands With Danger. It’s kind of like rock, dark rock. If I’m going to something scary, I like playing heavy metal or like death metal or stone metal. If I’m trying to get hyped on a hip-hop tip, I like Kodak Black lately that guy makes a lot of good music. I get hyped listening to Earl Sweatshirt. This one song he did with Mac Miller called Guild is really good. It just gets under my skin in like a good way. Goosebumps style.”
Cookie keeps himself preoccupied at home when he’s not skating with art projects. “If I’m in my room working on projects or like at my desk, I’ll have my speaker playing, but if I’m in the living room like icing my ankle or working on a picture frame, or if I’m cooking, then I’m going to play records. I rarely bring the speaker out into the living room, it just doesn’t feel right.”
Back at home, growing up Cookie explains how his dad had a whole music room. “My dad is a talented guitar player and musician overall. He had this really cool music room downstairs which is how I got into playing guitar in the first place. My dad was playing Stevie Ray Vaughan a lot around the house. He had these VHS music videos of his that were so sick. That song Cold Shot had a pretty badass video.”
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