Hello, and welcome to season two of our Unsigned Hype series. Similar to last year, we are focused on showing young developing talent. Which looking back on our first series worked quite well, Oscar & Pascal both went on to Vans, and together we made the Re-Up. Leon Charo-Tite has just turned am for Element and is getting shoes from ///. All in all, the pressure is on for the 23-year-old Jonathan Sjöberg to deliver for you. And in a lot of ways, it was Jonathan that wanted to show himself by asking us to do things a bit differently as opposed to last year’s series. “I don’t want to do a full interview.” was the first thing he said, “A quote will do.” one of the filmers Sondre Mortensen also felt like the work spoke loudly enough. Obviously, we respect the vision,but we managed to squeeze some words out of Love Öhling, one of the filmers for this project and a close friend of Jonathan’s.
Intro & text by Roland Hoogwater.
Filming by Sondre Mortensen & Love Öhling
*Ring Ring…☎️
Yo, Roland, what is up man? Are you doing well? You wanted me to tell you something about Jonathan right?
Well, first of all, we know each other for like 2 years, and I consider him a good friend of mine. He is a nice person to work with, well planned, actually for this project he sent me a list with spots and tricks. He is great to film with, he will actually do what he says and say what he wants to do. He cares about the time you put in and doesn’t want to waste it. He’s also very good at making you feel that you are making things together. All in all, he is a really good person to film with.
Love, all good in Berlin! By the way, I feel you, a lot of times people want to keep their plans under wraps so that they don’t get caught up in a bunt.
True, but he is not a bunt-er at all. Actually, I think he is one of these skaters like Axel Berggren. Both of them are not afraid to slam, they might even hit the concrete and crack a smile when they slam. Most of us want to stay on our feet or at least be as far away from any real risk as we can be, but they welcome that feeling of danger and use it to help them focus. Maybe they know that they will be paid in full in adrenaline if they pull it off. Both of them, seem to live for that boost. I would say that they are truly a different breed!
He does take some heavy slams, I heard he cracked his skull last year and he even knocked out a tooth while filming for this part.
He actually just called me, showing off his new fixed tooth (laughs).
I saw it too, it looked good. Back to him and Axel, maybe they should do a Mike V style skatepark tour because they both seem to vibe off a crowd as well.
A tour where they are both beating up 4 guys in a parking lot? (laughs).
(laughs) I am thinking more along the lines of “Watching them skate live is still miles better than watching it on a screen” which is something people say a lot but is actually rare.
That is true though, the speed and energy that Jonathan goes at things with is something else. Another thing I want to mention is that he is rock steady tho, even as a friend.
He actually told me that he is living off of beans and eggs for some days right now. So he is doing his budgeting thing for sure.
The thing is, he won’t complain, he knows what he has to do to get where he wants to be.
He stays the same, disciplined.
About his discipline, we tried 2 times to shoot his ender. You have to remember, fall in Sweden starts early, so to try and get you ender in November is a challenge. Dry days are not common and the temperature can be close to freezing. So about his ender, the Drop-in to Feeble grind. I think we had been talking about this rail for about a year, he always wanted to do something on it. So for this part, he stepped up, we went there, he tried it and could not ride away. He got kinda worked trying it and was out for a full week at his parents’ house, recovering just in time to try it again the weekend after. It was hella windy and I remember thinking that he looked like a superhero up there. Anyway, again he took some slams but finally managed to ride away and no joke, the spot has not been dry since that day.
That is crazy, some do or die shit. Tell me about your personal favorite clip you filmed with Jonathan.
Well it was a while back, I went on this tinder date and we walked by something that looked interesting, so I told her “hold on I want to check this spot real quick”. Saw the spot, went on the date, a while after, on a rainy day, Mateo Bergil, Jonathan, Eric and I passed by there again but the gate was closed. For some reason, I had my camera with me. Anyway, next to the spot was a restaurant, we went in and used an excuse about visiting a friend in the courtyard, they let us in. Jonathan had a cruiser with him, so we cleaned the spot, I unpacked my gear and Mateo helped me by holding an umbrella. First, he just dropped it and after about 30 minutes we walked away with the drop-down to grind. The rain just makes it look special.
That is dope! It is one of my fave’s too. Just to wrap this up, Love thank you for the talk!
Thank you and let’s hope that Jonathan’s part gets the view it deserved.
To wrap it up here are Jonathans words:
“It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.”
Jonathan Sjöberg, 2021