I don’t want to talk too much about Lucas or Luci as most people know him. I have interviewed him before and we have a good relationship. We all enjoy his work, and Vienna as a city to live in and skate is just amazing. So when TURTLE 3 looked like it was about to drop we were hoping the call would come. Luckily it did, Luci felt it was only right if he were to share his part via our channels. So, why do an interview again? Because TURTLE 3 is a different beast and Luci has some new things in the pipeline. Maybe you don’t press play yet, get a pen and a pad first because some of you might want to take notes! Enjoy “Place Presents: Luci Jankoscheck in TURTLE 3”

Intro & Interview by Roland Hoogwater.

Photos by Jan Federer & Niki Hergovich.

So, Luci, let’s start at the beginning, turtle 2…

Well actually to correct you, the name of the second video is “The Turtle video Reloaded”, 2017. Now we have Turtle 3 which is kind of a running joke with us because we all love Baker 3. So Turtle 3 kinda worked for us. Actually, I didn’t want to go straight back into a full length after “Reloaded” I first did the “Turtle Times” series.

So, when did the idea for a new full-length come?

After the series ended, I needed to finish my studies so I focussed mostly on that and skated for fun. The others were much more motivated on making a new video, so after a while, I also started to get excited and that is when Turtle 3 really started.

Who are these “others”?

Jan Federer, Simon Trummer & Sven Langkabel… they were the motor. I wanted to do small ideas in shorter videos instead.

Is Simon also the person who filmed your part?

Yes, I am extremely happy he supported this project with his filming. He had ankle surgery and wasn’t as active with the old projects but since 2019/20 he’s been fully back and Simon and I filmed TURTLE 3 together. He was a big part of why this project happened and brought the hype to people and brought them out to go on filming missions. We complement each other filming-wise, when those VX1000 lights turn on we feel the same.

Besides the filming, would you say this video as a whole is a group effort?

It is, much more than previous projects this one was built on the efforts of a group of people. Before I did most of the filming, editing, and searching for tunes myself, but this time I really enjoyed people joining in and contributing to the process. I didn’t have to search for different people to film me, Simon was there, music-wise we built the soundtrack for this video together with EUROTEURO, I felt truly relieved that we were working on this together.

Didn’t your brother Fabian Jankoscheck make a lot of the drawings & animations for this project?

He did, my brother is a painter and I asked him to bring some new flair to this video. I had been doing the Turtle animations for so long, in fact, at times I never wanted to see another turtle again (laughs).

At the same time, I wanted to give him another platform besides his paintings, so he worked on the video, t-shirts, and cassette tapes. He is well represented in all facets of this project.

To be honest, I was aware that I needed to make changes to the old formula this time to keep things fresh and interesting. As I said before, the turtle has its limits, I also want to try new things, and at the same time, I also feel like he should be featured in my projects. This ended up being the way to do all those things at once.

Does that mean you are happy with the results?

I am, I feel we got the best out of everyone, skating-wise, music-wise, and more. I also gave myself ample time to edit so to work out all the kinks. The fruits of our labor were then shown at the premiere in Vienna.

Before we go into the party side of things, can we get back to the music? There is a story there.

Well during the BGLD tour video we decided to make our own score for the video. Sven Langkabel and Simon were both stoked on that idea back then. So when the time came Simon and Sven were there and when Flo a.k.a. EUROTEURO who is a professional musician joined to project we went to another level. He produced the soundtrack and because he has access to a studio we ended up making most of the tracks specifically for TURTLE 3. There are some songs that weren’t made specifically for the video but instead are by some bands we know and are friends with. The focus was to have many different styles and those two elements came together to make a great album. It is interesting to both create a good album (playing on Bandcamp, Spotify, & more now!) and have the music work well for a skate video. It was a very plan-based project but it ended up working well.

So, who made the choices for people to skate to certain things?

I had the footy at home, so I made a rough edit for people to see. I then went to Sven & Flo and we talked about what we felt worked. For my part, for instance, I wanted a synth-pop style song, for Lori’s footy, I would like a more punk-style song. But those were all real discussions, not only face to face but our chat was full of ideas and opinions. This whole process took months, so even for the newly created songs, we put together parameters of what we were looking for.

That approach ended up bringing a very personal touch to the project. Gabriel Schmid’s girlfriend is playing/singing the song for his part. Is that specific touch something particular to this project or has it been there more covertly in other videos?

The personal sphere has always been something that runs through my projects. This time it is just more in your face. It was actually quite important to us all to show our friends that are very talented but very unknown. I wanted to show multiple types of people in this video because I am a fan of theirs as well not just the skaters. The artists and the musicians needed to be included.

Was that diversity of people reflected in the Vienna premiere of the video?

It was, we had an “evening-style” dress code for the premiere and because of that broad connection to multiple scenes in Vienna about 500 people showed up to the premiere. I think doing it this way lifted the relevance of this project outside of our “skate scene” and into multiple scenes.

That is something I really enjoyed because I never wanted to “just” speak to the skaters, I wanted all different types of people to form the audience for my Turtle projects.

Maybe now is the time to ask the “future” question, what does the future hold for you and the turtle crew?

Well, I don’t “just want to do my job as an art teacher”. I want to do other things and I am hoping other stuff will be crossing my path. So, instead of the next full length, I would like to do more artistic work in animation and beyond. I have done the skate video thing and it might be time to open my horizon. If I then come back to skate videos, the things I have learned outside of that bubble could elevate all my future work.

At the same time, you always wonder, how much you can actually change your style.

Let’s finally move away from you as the editor of the video and towards you as a skater. Tell me the truth, how would you rate this part of yours?

I am extremely happy, a big part is the song by Flo and the fact that I felt so comfortable with Simon as a filmer. Those factors meant for me that I could also focus on being a skater, which hasn’t always been the case in past projects.

When talking about Simon, he wanted this full-length to happen, will we ever see him doing his own video?

I think so, he has expressed wanting to do one. So, I will skate in that and enjoy being a skater, no more camera on my back.

Speaking of being a skater, you recently started skating (flow) for Magenta recently, right?

Soy asked me to start riding Magenta boards last May. I was in Paris and Soy and I went to drink a beer and the topic came up. I was very excited because I want to skate more outside of Vienna and this has allowed me to go to Marseille and Bordeaux to film and skate a bit with the Magenta crew.

Did you feel the pressure on those trips?

On the way to Marseille a bit maybe but as soon as I arrived it was cool. Everyone was just excited to skate.

I think those were all my questions for you and let’s hope you make it into the new Magenta video then!

Hold up, I wanted to say that because we filmed for 2 years on this project we will be releasing Turtle 2.5 before the end of the year. Another edit with good footage and some new songs. Coming Soon!

Looking forward to that!