Todd Bratrud Interview
When I first skated a board that Todd designed, it broke after about 5 minutes of skating it on just a lipslide on a little flat-bar. Now this incident may have had something to do with me being a little over-weight due to my teenage job at the local ice-cream store and having unlimited access to rootbeer floats and mini donuts, but I was still bummed because the was one of the first boards I bought because of the graphic. I was really particular about what boards I rode, usually they happened to be wider than the trend at the time and I didn't want to spend what little hard earned money I had on some shitty shape with a cool graphic I was just going to scratch up anyway...maybe I was just dumb though. This board just happened to be perfect, just the right shape, awesome graphic; I knew it was meant to be. Then it broke. I was rendered boardless and went back to my job at the ice-cream shop with my meth-addict manager (whose side job was selling binkies at raves) to save for another one.
Well, that's in the past now, and i'm glad I got over it because I, like so many others, love looking at the stuff Todd does. So instead of pestering him with "what have you been up to questions" I figured others might be interested in what he's been up to, so we just decided to do an interview over I-Chat and put it up here with some of his recent work.
*note, we're not the best with grammar
So, let's start off with "what have you been up to?"hummmm, trying to skate a lot. working about 24 hours a day stuff like that...partying
Have you gotten to party with any celebs?
Yeah..sure, Also, by partying, I really meant working and by celebs I meant, no
So who are you doing work for right now?
For the most part Flip Skateboards
Doing just boards or other stuff too?
Actually, I just do shirts, a lot of it ends up on boards, but my job there is to do
shirt stuff which is pretty cool really I'm not spread out over a million things, just focus on a few things
How did the whole flip thing come about?
I had been talking to Rowley for a while before I quit consolidated, just to do some freelance stuff. But I never ended up having time to do anything so yeah it all just kind of fell into place once I was jobless. On Flips end I dunno how they came about wanting me to do stuff, but yeah
Probably cause you do rad stuff.
Oh yeah, I kill it
And by skating, when you said you have been skating above did that mean no too?
no no no I "thrash" everyday. mean, its never been the same as when I lived in MPLS in cali its a different thing kinda but there is some spots by my crib
So right now in the Midwest it's winter and everyone's like "yeah winters not that bad, makes you appreciate the summer." do you still appreciate the "summer" now that you don't have to deal with the winter out there.
Yeah...I miss the winter.thats what im used to but I get to MN a few times over the winter kind of so I get my fill
What do you miss about it?
What I meant to say was... FUCK winter.
You ever watch White Rappers?
No I dont really watch T.V, not that im against it I just don't have time. I actually love T.V. or "the boob tube" as I call it.
Did you ever wear a "kill your TV" t-shirt? or sport the sticker.
I want to make one that says "cuddle with your T.V."
What are all the urls to all of your blogs, cause you have like 15 now right?
Haha. deadtotheworldgangstas.blogspot.com and then I post little things on lordsofapathy.blogspot.com
Did you go to school for artistry?
No, no school
Are you anti-art school or school in general?
No but I tryed to go it just didnt work
Where At?
I just went to a little art school in MPLS for 3 months and dropped out
I just knew already what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it and they were trying to make me re-learn things in ways that I didn't like so I quit and just figured it all out on my own
You didn't want to sit around talking about how some rich girls art made you felt?
Yeah fuck all that noise
So did you start making money designing right away or did you move out and work shitty jobs and just do what you could?
When I was trying back in the day it was real hard cause there were only so many companies and they all had art dudes who had already been doing board graphics for a long time, I had real lame jobs FOREVER
What was the lamest one you think you had?
Lamest job? I worked at the Crystal Sugar beet plant
Doing what?
I had to put on one of those full body suits and smear this toxic goop on the walls of the inside of these giant bins and the other job I had there was I was the guy that stands by the emergency stop button for this weird machine where I had to try to listen over all the noise of this machinery for people to scream and I had to hit stop and then I had to hit this other button so once it was stopped, which meant someone got sprayed with this stuff that burns your skin off, I had to hit this other button that would turn on this shower thing.I dunno, it was a mess
That shit ssssssssssucked!
Did it ever go down, someone getting their skin burnt off?
Yeah a lot kinda, I couldn't take it. cus it was so fucking loud in there that you couldn't hear people yell to hit the buttons. high stress. it was harsh
When was all this?
A while back
So are you pretty self-sustaining off what your doing right now or do you still have to work a random jobs?
Naw im doing good enough to live I guess I live in the corner of a warehouse still in Costa Mesa, but I like it like that I don't need much to be happy
You have an office you sleep in?
I have a little cave kinda thing
You said you hate everyone, so how do you still pump out cool art, rather than super bitter lame shit.
I don't hate everyone I just don't like to deal with people in general or im not good at it rather. social angsiety
I didn't think you were that bad. I thought you were going to be way worse to be honest because most artist dudes I meet can barley make eye contact with people let alone carry on a conversation. It seems like the more out there the people's stuff is, the more out there the people are.
Do you have any other weird artist ticks, I myself hate door knobs, I think they are super disgusting and I can't touch them. It seems like a lot of my arty friends have some weird ocd like ticks.
I have ocd pretty bad door knobs are bad news I have to sort things and stack things in neat piles all the time I could go on and on its ruff once a beverage is set on a table...it had to stay on the little circle it leaves you know what I mean?
Totally. I do that too. or If I move it, I have to wipe the circle up and start over.
Every time I drink from it has to go back in the same spot
That's so funny.
Its lame
Yeah. I can't let my food touch either. For example If you have mashed potatoes and ketchup touch, I'm over it.
Me neither I get extra plates, well I do when im with my friends or alone
I can act semi normal around people I don't know very well
What was your proudest skate trick moment?
Actually here you go...
Whoa.
It's pretty suspect on the roll away
Whatever. that's no joke [note: that P is very steep].
Those letters were the best man
Yeah they were so fun. Did hutch take that?
Yeah
Wow. That really makes me miss those letters; I never knew anyone did that.
Well I did it so shitty that I didn't really ever want anyone to know but now that they are gone I cant even go do it better so it is what it is
Did you ever catch on the way down, like grind the side?
Not really it was in the mega bust days there so I only had a few tries that one was while the man was walking up
Those mega bust days sucked. Especially when they radioed to ever spot around there and they would just be waiting to kick you out, downtown was just screwed after one dude kicked you out and called around.
Yup. you had to keep moving in the right direction to beat the calls
Have you been shooting alot of photos lately?
Yeah I have been kinda just whatever though, I don’t know what im doing and I don't care
Do you think that's kind of why you like it, just cause it's fun, and your not worried about getting paid to do it?
yeah yeah. I guess cus nothing is ever riding on weather or not I get a good photo
Who are some of your influences right now, or who's doing shit right now your feeling?
Art wise?
Yeah. or life wise.
Patrick Jilbert
Devon Green
This shit is awesome. the Devon stuff.
I dunno if you can post that on anything cus of all the dicks
but yeah its my favorite stuff out
We can always link it until dad yells at us. art weiners are different than porn weiners.
So what are your duties at The Skateboard Mag?
Um for the MAG. I do the mailstrom thing
Do they ask you to do shit or do they just pick from what you have already done?
and whatever else, I read all the letters that people send in to Dave carnie
or I read the ruff drafts of the letters and Dave's answers and I illustrate them
That's got to be pretty entertaining.
Yeah
So what's in the future for TB, if you can divulge such top secret info.
Uh I could tell you all about the future if I knew it. Im working day to day
Do you have any shows coming up?
I have one up at KCDC in Brooklyn right now
For how long?
KCDC is up for a month I bet, and i have an art show at the Tampa Pro contest soon.
You just did the Keep A Breast benefit as well...how was that experience?
KAB is amazing! I do all I can for them; I have done casts for a few shows and its rad
How did that all come about?
No clue they just got a hold of me musta saw something somewhere and asked if I would paint some boobs
Did they sell for allot?
I think like $800?
Did you get to go to Tampa to see Dinosaur Jr.?
I could have, but I was too busy I should have went
You totally should have.
Free Nike ticket and everything
You suck.
I guess that says how busy I have been huh?
Yes it does.
