For the most part, we all got into snowboarding for the same reason: to have a good time with your friends at any cost. This energy is apparent in Rome AM ripper Joey Leon. Acting as team leader for his crew, Spotheads, he just wants to have a good time on board and make sure everyone around him does too.
"Snowboarding with your friends is fun as fuck and that's what it's all about, let's keep it that way!"
Fresh off the presses comes Spotheads 2, a perfect interpretation of the All Ways Down mentality: stoke, stoke, and more stoke:
We sat down with Joey to talk about Spotheads 2:
1. Rome: Who are the Spotheads and how long have you been filming?
Joey: The Spotheads are me, Jake Fournier (Fern), George McKeever-Parkes, Zeb Powell, Maggie Leon, Dave Brown, Austin Esposito, and IV Stuart. There are a ton more of us who are involved but I guess that would be the main group. We are all super stoked on our friends section this year, everyone killed it, so I'd say there is more to our crew than just our group because we couldn't have done it without them!
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We started filming when we were 11 and started trying to make full length street videos when we were 13. When Fern and I were 14 and Maggie and our homie Will were 16, we started filming our first full length. We all probably had 8 or 9 clips each, realized we couldn't all have our own parts, and deleted all the footage hahah. Looking back on it that was so stupid but we were so little. The next year we actually filmed/edited a full length but didn't know how to use an external hard drive and the whole thing got deleted. It was ridiculous how bad we were with that shit. All funny to look back on now. We always laugh about it, and we always say "once we die, we'll get to watch the video all together".
2. Rome: You not only ride and put together a full part for yourself, you also filmed a large portion of the video, edit, and act effectively as the team manager for Spotheads. How do you balance all of those roles every winter?
Joey: The balance of doing all those things just kind of happened naturally. It really turned out like this because I just happened to be the one to buy the HVX and the Xtreme. It's just what I love doing because editing and filming is just as much fun for me as riding so it's all good! Recently i've started leaning on IV who has helped me out so fucking much. He makes the sickest animations, designs, and is a super passionate filmer. It is really great to have him by our side and he has made so many helpful song suggestions and editing critiques. I think he's the one who really made our crew come to life. This year though I want to get him more involved with the editing, because it'll be even more fun to edit when we can put our minds together! Also shout out Devin Bernard for always taking the time to help me with edits and learn about camera settings and all that! Love you dawg.
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As for the manager side of stuff, I just kinda help everyone get going by waking them up in the morning and making sure our cameras work and all the less fun details that go into what we do. Not really sure how to answer this because fuck it I love these guys I'll do anything for them. Me, George, Jake, and Maggie all go back to when we were 11 and have been best friends ever since. I mean Maggie is my sister but either way they are all actually my family.
3. Rome: Spotheads seems to be all about party-boarding. Do you prefer to have 10+ people at a spot at a time or do the homies kinda just roll up? Does this make it easier or harder to hit spots?
Joey: Honestly I am not too sure how to answer this. If we are on a trip or something, it is definitely easier to roll with 6 or 7 of us at once so we can all stay on the same page. If we are at the spot and a couple of homies ask us if it's okay to pull it up, let's get it. It doesn't bother us at all when we have too many people as long as everyone's on the same page and everyone's having fun. It's always fun when someone outside the main crew has a clip they want to get because it is fun for us to help make it happen! As long as everyone feels good and no one is stressing, then it always makes it more fun to have more people. Going back to what I said earlier we definitely can't do this without the help of all our friends!
4. Rome: The soundtrack for the movie doesn't quite follow the trend of snowboard video music these days. Where do you find influence for the music in the video and how do you pick songs?
Joey: I guess a lot of my influence is based around Forum/Rome/Capita videos, Peepshow: Winter Wars, all the Videograss Movies, the D.O.P.E movies, and anything GBP has done. Then throw in some Yawgoons and Sangwich and you get Spotheads. There are so many other edits and movies that have had a huge influence on me but I think those are mostly what I grew up on.
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I just pick the songs based on what's the most fun to edit too. I have no idea what that even means but a lot of the time i hear something and right away i'll say, "fuck ya Gimme Gimme by ABBA has to fucking go to George's part". It's like that with most of the movie but that song specifically really took it to another level. I definitely have help from the homies when I'm stumped but when I find a song that works I get pretty emotionally attached to it. I guess a huge part of how I edit is to have as much fun as possible, and if it feels good then we are all stoked! I also try to make our videos in a way that someone who doesn't snowboard can have a fun time watching. Always important to remember snowboarding with your friends is fun as fuck and that's what it's all about, let's keep it that way!
5. Rome: Thanks for your time Joey, and last words or shoutouts?
Joey: Huge thank you to all the love and support from everyone throughout the years. It means so much and we could not have done this alone!! Huge shoutouts to my Mom, Christine (George's mom), Joanne (Fern's mom), Jargs (Maggie), Fern, Door, Brownie, Austin, Zebbaayy, Sherm, Oumar (follow prince lood on spotify).
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Special shoutouts to Tyler Mills, Gillian Goodwill, Tucker Zink, Evan Ricker, Billy Langlands, Kyle Murray, Devin Bernard, Jess Kimura, Max Lyons, Ron Chiodi, Matt Stillman, Nath, Polly, Tilo, Jess, Snoopy, Gabe, Bridger, Darkside Snowboards, Bush Parks, Killington Parks, Parrish Isaacs (Bookclub), Okemo Death Squad, BLP, SRD, Zootspace, Eat the Guts, Sangwich, Yawgoons, Videograss, DOPE, American Dirt, CHUUCH, Bruners, Onlookers, Panic Order, GBP. I hope I didn't miss anyone, hit me up if I did!
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