INTERVIEW, Part One

I = Irving
E= Ethan

I: Hey
E: How doing Irving?
I: fine, fine. Lets talk about Laek House. Lets talk about you first though.
E: Sure, sure
I: Okay, Name?
E: Ethan Benton
I: Title?
E: Founder/Lead Design
I: Sign?
E: Uhh, probably ‘No Parking’…
I: Vehicle of Choice??
E: I like that you put it like that, instead of asking me kind of car I have. I haven’t had a car in 5+ plus years now. In part because I live in Manhattan and in part because I can’t afford one. Mostly though because I love bicycles and don’t really see the need for one.
I: Cool. Lets elaborate on your feelings on Bicycles.
E: Sure. They’re pretty much one of my favorite things. They exist on several different levels for me. Physical, Visceral/Emotional. Bear with me though, I not sure what visceral means.
I: Yah, me neither.
E: Oh, and mental too. A bike can really feed the soul sometimes. That’s corny, wait I, uhhh… A bike provides for the mental stability of the individual. Uhhh, yeah
I: Heh, that’s okay. Sometimes these things are hard to nail down. Metaphysics aside though, can you spell it out?
E: Oh sure. Well physical is easy. It is a low-impact exercise that you can make as easy or as hard as you’d like. You can ride 5 miles or you can go crazy and ride 500 miles (like a Brevet). Endorphins rush in. You’ll feel good, and after some time you’ll look better too. Mental; well regular exercise can’t possibly be bad for you unless you’re really doing something crazy like playing Ultimate Frisbee. Cycling has always been a meditative experience for me. I bleach out the world and focus only on pedaling and whats going on it front of me. The world ceases and time sorta stops… Also, its good to change environments too. My bike takes me to the woods or at least New Jersey (which I might add, is MUCH nicer then people give it credit for). I can smell the pollen, the leaves, the mud. I can cross streams and lunch at little cafes to my little heart’s delight.
Yeah. So there.
I: gosh, it almost make me feel bad for only having a skate board.
E: Those things are figgin’ loud too! I can always tell when some one is skating past my apartment. It sounds like a shopping cart. I mean, can’t they do something about that? You’d think that Black Ops would be the way for street sports like that. Everyone knows when you’re sessioning because it sounds like a roller destruction derby.
I: haha, that’s pretty venomous Ethan
E: heh, I don’t mean to hate. I even designed art for a longboard but never built it.
I: Learn to not hate the skate.
E: I’ll try, but NYC can really make a snarky person out of you.
I: What got you started on Laek House?
E: Well I’ve always had some sort of a creative inkling but invariably ended up in some office job that stoned my brain. Changing my live/play environments really caused a gestation of ideas in me. First came spray paint stencils and then, a few years later came silk-screening. Silk screen was a big step up for me over stenciling with spraypaint in terms of image quality and compromises I had to make. I made my first shirt, Boy vs. Door and felt that people could appreciate what I was trying to say so I brought them to Trackstar. Brad got BVD right away and that was a real stepping stone for me. At this point I’m concentrating on increasing the number of designs offered.

END PART ONE!!!