Remember when Christopher Wallace a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G. said: “Tell your friends to get with my friends. And we can be friends.” That is basically what this video between Derby CC and the group called Paris Smoking Club is. Last week we launched their first video and today we won’t just let the skating do the talking we sat down with some prominent members of the club and cleared the air about what these projects have been all about.
Intro & interview by Roland Hoogwater.
Hey, guys, the connection seems to be working now.
Yeah, sorry about us we are a bit of a… mess.
No problem we are all skaters and we have all had our moments. So, introduce yourselves.
Well, my name is Cameron Vuillemenot and with me are Augustin “Augi” Boussagol, Lucas “Langui” Languasco & Theo “Giliz” Giliberto.
So after last weeks introduction, tell me a bit about what the Smoking Club is.
Lucas: Well, I moved to Paris, where I met Augi and he was the first friend I made in Paris. We really clicked not least because we where smoking spliffs the whole time (laughs). Augi and me then met Cameron and we went skating and partying together and became friends through that. Giliz I know from Nice where I am from, he came to Paris to work and studies. As you can imagine everyone also met other people so now the Smoking Club consists of 10 people.
Some of them are not here but I will name them for you: Robin ‘Robz” Remond, Steven Faure, Kemisse Zouikri, Florient “Flo” Taverne, Theo Mura & Adrien Chabiron.
So none of you are from Paris?
Lucas: Well, some of us are Niçois, Cameron is from the UK and ike in Berlin, many people from different countries and backgrounds gather in a town like Paris.
Cameron: We are like a whole group of skaters from all over living in Paris, but most of us aren’t from Paris. That also is one of the things that brought us together. We are all in this place to make the most out of ourselves.
Lucas: Half of the crew is from the south of France, so we all met at an early age, when we were still children.
How did that grow into becoming a “Smoking Club”?
Cameron: The thing basically started with us playing this game called 8-ball. It is a pool app, the name comes from that game. A place you could play pool was often branded as a smoking club. So obviously it is a pun because we like to smoke weed, you know.
I like it because it is such a simple nice sounding name, it sounds like it is a fake thing. Also, it sound a bit posh, it feels different than some of the other weed-related brands.
Cameron: Exactly, it is about the refined side of it (laughs), if you could see what we made together with Derby CC you would get that vibe.
You guys did team up with Derby CC, rolling papers and bearings is that all you guys need to keep the session rolling smooth?
Cameron: 100%, great combo (laughs). We have been friends for a long time and for us it hasn’t really been about making product. All we really want to do is, have fun together and make some stuff that we really want to use ourselves.
Lucas: There wasn’t a commercial aspect to it.
Cameron: We want to make shirts, and things, but it is always revolving around us wanting to make things to wear as a group. We will make more so we can give it to our other mates and maybe some others.
“For us it hasn’t really been about making product. All we really want to do is, have fun together.”
Cameron Vuillemenot.
So Smoking Club and Derby CC is more like a friends thing.
Cameron: It is, we made the rolling papers and we made some grinders as well. Actually some of our mates went to S.F. like 2-years ago they saw these containers, mostly used for medical marijuana, and they weren’t really around in the EU. So, we felt like we could bring that type of product over and do our thing, first of all, we just wanted to have them but we ended up making a bunch and giving it out to people.
Lucas: We are on our second batch now because, apparently we are not the only people that want these containers.
Word has gone around town!
Lucas: You will get a box so you can see the product.
Cameron: Maybe the club goes international with a Berlin faction. Still though you have to know us, it is a private thing, not open to admissions (laughs).
Very French of you to start a clique by the way.
Cameron: France has a long history of crews and it isn’t easy to get in some of them. But in reality we are just people that get along, that like to chill in a group and make videos and other things. It might be art, clothing or other fun product, it is a part of skating, I know between my friends in the UK and this we have being doing these types of things forever.
I do like the fact that it is based in friendship, you can’t just buy into it.
Cameron: Yeah, what keeps this thing going is our friendship.
Lucas: And the weed (laughs).
Who has the best plug in Paris though?
All: (laughs).
Cameron: We all have the same plug, so I guess he is a happy and rich man.
Augi: There are so many plugs in Paris, and the crew, we tried them all out, but in the end, we now buy together, things are cheaper in bulk (laughs).
So who started the videos then?
Augi: That was Lucas, he started with phone edits, and IG edits with great music. He then got a little handheld cam and we put stuff on youtube. Not as promotion, but for us to see, one day though, a friend of Cameron brought a VX and we started filming a lot more. The videos started to look more serious, and we wanted to do a long video.
Lucas: But to keep a “friends” video good you have to not make it too long. Your group of friends might be able to watch the crew for a long time but if you don’t know the people in the video that is different.
So true!
Augi: You just have to mic the fun and the serious tricks together.
Giliz: We want people to look at our edits and not get bored!
So, between last weeks edit and this weeks edit together with Derby CC, can we expect you to step up your game and keep putting stuff out at this pace?
Giliz: We will see, we just started filming again, and we hope to continue, so we will see when it is out. For now though we have a lot of motivation.
Cameron: When we did the last video and the Derby project it had some overlap and that gave us a boost, just to keep going. It showed us to keep pushing it, shoutout to Lucas because he does all the Smoking Paper videos*, without him those wouldn’t happen.
(*not the Derby collab video that is by Thomas Courteille.)
Augi: Both the projects gave me a lot of motivation, let’s keep going! It is fun and we started skating for fun!
Cameron: The situation obviously hasn’t been great, we have had many Covid-19 restrictions, we hope that summer 2021 will allow us to do what we do. The thing is that it changes all the time, so we don’t put to much faith in it.
Well, it seems like you are on a good path, I don’t feel like friendship and business are mixed, so, we are just stoked to see what will happen in the future.
Lucas: And I would like to add, thank you guys for the support!
It has been a fun talk and we hope to do more in the future!