After the success of the wonderful CÉCILIA video and that lovely 5-days in NYC style, Pat Hoblin part. Esteve Femenias is back with this new Place Presents called DULCIE. This time focussing on one skater at a time in order to properly introduce his new skate brand, named…Cécilia. More on that in the interview below but for now you should focus your attention on Xesc Alomar’s skating. Why? Because as Esteve basically says in the text, he is amazing to watch. Enjoy!
Interview & Text by Roland Hoogwater.
Film & Edit Esteve Femenias.
Colorist Adrià Cuadrado.
Titles Maties Adrover.
How have you been and what have you been up to Esteve?
I have been good, thanks. I have been working and filming as much as I could.
That sounds great, can’t wait to see more from you! You work as a teacher, but what do you teach?
Right now I’m working as a reinforcement teacher at a town hall in a small city on Mallorca. We also do other public educational projects for the city. I am really grateful for this job, especially after working as a bartender and mechanic before.
Who is in the new video and what is it like filming with him?
Xesc Alomar is the star of the new video. He has been my favorite skater since I first watched him destroy his local skatepark. I was dying to do something together. In the last video (Cecília), he was living in Madrid and we couldn’t really spend enough time together to make a part. So… as soon as he came back to Mallorca I bothered him as much as I could.
Filming with him was a blessing. We are really good friends, so doing this project was a great opportunity to spend time together, and get to know each other even better. He has a really unique personality, and I fucking love talking about anything and learning relaxation techniques together with him.
What has happened to Cecília since the last video dropped, is it a brand now?
We just decided to make a brand, but nothing serious or pretentious. We just thought that we could enjoy designing products, making graphics, and having an excuse to keep doing videos. Making money is not the goal, we would be satisfied if we could get the money we invested back. I don’t know, it’s just a reason to keep in touch with the homies and do things together. And yeah, we thought that Cecília could be a good name for the brand after the last video dropped. We only have some hoodies and t-shirts, but we would love to do more clothes, boards, or whatever that will motivate us in the future.
What can we expect from you in the future?
My idea now is to keep dropping parts by every Cecília’s rider and hopefully make more products. Lately, I have been filming with Charlie Armstrong, who is going to have the next part. We have finished filming, so now I can concentrate on the edit. Charlie has become such an insane and solid-grown man skater, I think people will trip with his new part.
“He has a really unique personality, and I fucking love talking about anything and learning relaxation techniques together with him.”
Esteve Femenias about Xesc Alomar
Who’s work inspires you?
Fuck!! Too many!! Nowadays we have access to many skate videos every week, and you can find inspiration anywhere. But if I have to name some names, I would start with French Fred without a doubt, who in my opinion was a pioneer in using the VX and creating new angles (frangles). The Threads Idea Vaccum crew (Matt Creasy, Alex Rose, and Chris Thiessen) have influenced me a lot, and I think they found their ways of doing skate videos and using the VX. Of course, I need to highlight all the Colin Read videos. I still remember how I was tripping the first time I saw “Tengu: God of Mischief”, that was definitely a before and after for me. Actually, I went to New York this past summer, and I was dying to get to know him. Also, Jacob Harris and Sirus F Grahan are amongst my favorites, I think I don’t need to explain why. Fuck, I almost forgot Grant Yunsura. I don’t know what happens to me when I watch a WKND video, but I watch them on loop every time they drop a new one. Grant is definitely a genius. I’m sure I forgot a bunch of big names, but I don’t want to be a bore. I also get influenced by movies, but if I start to drop names we wouldn’t finish today (laughs).
Well, Esteve, thank you for your time and excited to see what Cécilia will be dropping in 2023.
Yes, you will see, soon!