Predominantly indie rock and a little bit of hip hop, Red Gerard shared a snippet of 15 tracks from a playlist to pick you up without over-delivering on the hype. He even tossed in some off-beat Afro-rock and with a couple of classics. And for Red, that’s perfect.
“I’m kind of all around,” says Red. “I’ll listen to whatever.”
The lineup is of easy-going tracks ranging from familiar John Lennon to the more obscure Amanaz from Zambia. Red’s mix also includes a couple of rap artists, but they are the minority to the primarily American rock sounds. Overall it’s a relaxing list, which makes sense.
“Brothers, friends, video parts—I listen to a lot of ‘snowboard’ music, I guess you could say.” — Red Gerard
Red’s life is busy. Since winning the 2018 Winter Olympic gold in slopestyle he has been going nonstop. Not only did he film a video part for the snowboard movie “Joy,” but Red has continued to kill it at contests with winning performances; such as the one he threw down at this year’s Dew Tour Copper.
Red doesn’t listen to music when he is riding, though; he is in the moment. And when he is listening to music, it’s never through AirPods.
“I think AirPods are whack,” says Red. “Really, really whack.”
He prefers a speaker, “something Bose,” when he gets the chance to turn on some music with others, which is also when he gets the chance to be turned on to something new. Red’s musical catalog to-date has been built up primarily around the same thing everything else in his life is built around—snowboarding.
“A lot of it I get from my brother because he is really into music,” says Red of his influence and musical taste. “Brothers, friends, video parts—I listen to a lot of ‘snowboard’ music, I guess you could say.”
A perfect example of Red’s busy, snowboard-centric life, it wasn’t until he was 17 that he attended his first live concert. He had just won his Olympic gold and went with the only other person in the world that has earned that same medal. Since then he has only been to one other.
“The first was right after the [2018] Olympics, we went to Rob Zombie and Marylin Manson,” said Red, laughing. “It was actually me, Sage [Kotsenburg], some of my brothers and a few other people. We flew to New Zealand the next day. Last summer I went to a 21 Savage concert in Portland.”
Another one-off musical experience for Red, his first-ever karaoke experience recently went down. It was also abroad and, of course, with some of the world’s best snowboarders.
“I was just in Japan and we did karaoke on the last night, and I was shitty at it. Not good,” admitted Red, critically at first. “Me and my buddy Brock Crouch sang “Bohemian Rhapsody” and we nailed that one, actually. That one ended it, it was a mic- dropper.”
On Rotation is a new weekly series that shows off a sample selection of what the world’s best athletes are listening to. Each week a new playlist will drop on the Dew Tour’s Spotify account along with a few words from the riders themselves, giving you personalized insight from the pros while you turn on their customized selections.
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