Skateboarding
Olympic skateboarder Jagger Eaton teams up with Spotify to drop his Skate Noise playlist – sharing how music fuels his skating and revealing his go-to genre.
It is no great leap to imagine that Jagger Eaton’s life has been connected to music even before he started skateboarding at his parents’ KTR skatepark in Arizona, USA.
The unique acoustics of indoor sound systems and skateboarding mean that you are surrounded by familiar and unfamiliar music while you roll; that galvanising power of music in skateboarding is experienced both in accompanying video parts and within events.
From soundtracking his video parts to firing up the headphones to drop in hard on the beat for a contest run, music has always been a power-up for the Scottsdale, Arizona, native who splits his non-road time between there and Los Angeles.
As someone with insights into both the worlds of filming and competing, where music is a constant feature, Eaton has a breadth of taste that may surprise, and his all-new Skate Noise Spotify playlist strays from some familiar jams to more eclectic choices, all selected by Eaton to get you sparked to go skate.
We checked in with The Heart Supply pro skater and two-time Olympic medalist to talk about the violence of skateboarding, getting into rap early and running through walls!
Check out Jagger Eaton's top songs to skate to on Spotify.
Was music a big part of your life growing up? What kind of music did you have playing around your house as a kid, and do you think your taste in music has changed since then?
Music has been probably the biggest – one of the biggest – things in my life when I was a kid, and now more so. I would say that when I was younger, my parents were big, old rock and roll fans, country fans; a little bit of rap, like old stuff- like, you would hear Dre and some stuff from when I was younger. My dad's wakeboard song was ‘Regulate’ by Warren G, which was my favourite rap song for years. I love that song. As I've gotten older, skateboarding is so intertwined with music, right? You can't really do one without the other. I noticed that there are certain genres of music that just make you want to rage and be 100 percent OK with doing both.
And when I was younger, I just loved listening to music that was just made me want to run through a brick wall. And that's what helped me skate, right? It's what helped me commit. It's what helped me, especially when I was skating alone and training; it's what helped me make it important. So I would say, as I've gotten older, my genre of music that was… that was all rock and roll, that was country, and I still love country music to death – but it graduated into kind of like heavy metal… like Metallica, and these bands that just make you want to run through brick walls. Which ended up actually being rage rap too, like (Playboi) Carti… and it just, you know, it just graduated to this thing. And I just… I love music to death.
You're always listening to music at contests – what kind of music gets you pumped up or helps you focus when you are skating?
Oh, yeah – 100 percent! When I'm skating for specific things, I'll listen to different genres of music. Like, when I have my pads and a helmet on and I'm skating park, I'm listening to Metallica, it's faster paced – I'm going up in the air, all these things. But when I'm skating street and I'm skating down rails and stuff, I always listen to rap, so it just changes.
For your ‘Body of Work’ video part that just came out, you featured Chris Stapleton, a little bit of a contrast to previous parts. How did you decide on that track?
It's really not a contrast. It's a fast-paced rock song and it's done by a country artist. And for me, country is so ingrained in me. I love country music, probably more than any genre. The problem, though, is that it doesn't feel right to skate to Alan Jackson. You know what I mean? I love taking my truck down a back road, or my Harley, or shooting guns, and I love doing that to Alan Jackson, but I can't jump down a nine-stair handrail on Alan Jackson. Just doesn't feel right. So for me, that Chris Stapleton song was a song that I have not only skated to for years, but I also competed to it for years in park, and that skating I did in that video part was fast, like it was very fast. A lot of it didn't feel like a rap song fit either. And when I picked that song, it just felt right. My buddy, Cage (Cocalis), who did the editing and filming, put it together, and he goes, “Man, this just fits so well.”
All I do every day is wake up and turn on tunes
When you're making a video part, are you adding in a song based on how you're feeling in the moment and what gets you pumped up, or are you adding a song in based on how well it fits with the content? What role does music play in a video part, and how do you bring that to life?
Music plays a huge part in your video part, and for me, I base my songs off the pace that I'm skating at, so it has a lot to do with the songs, rhythm and beat and how fast the song is. My skating is very fast, so I picked a fast song for ‘Body of Work’, and I think that just varies on the type of skater that you are.
If you're going to skate, this is the playlist
Which song do you think will be in your next video part and why?
If my ankles are healthy and I do another video part, I’ll have gotten a blessing from God! But if I do another video part, I will probably pick the same type of song, like ‘Arkansas’ by Chris Stapleton, a fast country song. I'm such a country fan, and I would love to see country music ingrain itself more into skateboarding. I think we're just getting to the point where that’s kind of intertwining itself.
For your pro debut part, you used Igor’s Theme by Tyler the Creator. What do you think it is about his music that resonates with so many skaters your age?
Well, you know, what's funny is that we actually picked a country song for that part, too. And the reason why we didn't pick it was because we didn't get the licensing, so that part, so that was interesting, right? But the reason why we used Igor’s Theme by Tyler was because it just fit – it just fit the pace of the skating right in that video part at that time, and that's why we picked that song. And also I’m a huge Tyler The Creator fan – but, you know, it's another thing too, right? What we're talking about right now is a playlist that I made for Spotify, and it's all rap music, right? But for me, when it comes to video parts, it's all much more about what fits the skater and the skating.
Everyone's got that one song they don't want people to know they love. So, what's your guilty pleasure song?
Oh boy… ‘Dirt Turns To Gold’ by Zach Top - everybody’s blowing up on Zach Top right now. ‘He's bringing old country back’ and stuff. I've been listening to this dude for years! I was listening to him when he had like ten thousand streams. Everybody's on it. I'm like, ‘I was on that early!’ I feel like, though, also at the same time, I've been on rap stuff for a long time, too. I'm just such a big music fan, like, it's all I do every day is wake up and turn on tunes. So, I feel like I've been pretty involved in that space.
If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what album would it be?
Oh, my… ‘American Heartbreak’ by Zach Bryan. I mean, here's the thing: this is kind of where you find the line, because I love country music – because of the values that I was raised on, right? Like, that's just what I did as a kid. I was out in the dirt, I was shooting guns, I was fishing, I was hunting. I just loved all of it. But the problem with skateboarding is that it's there is something about it that is just so violent, right? There's so much commitment, so much fear in it, and you can't listen to songs about falling in love when you skateboard. It doesn't work. So this is why this playlist is 100 percent for the skateboarders, right? I'm the person where I will get in my car and be listening to classical, jazz music, country, and then I will show up at the skate park, and I will put on Ken Carson, and I'll be chucking myself down a stair set and I just love every moment of it. So this is for the people who just love all the music. If you're going to skate, this is the playlist.
If you could only pick one music genre that best matches your skateboarding, what music do you think best describes your style?
Oh my gosh, that's so hard. I feel like a lot of people would describe it differently than what I would; but in my head, like, if I were to put a song or like an artist to how I skated or a genre, I would say it’s… It's country rock, right? Because I don't feel like I'm like a Slayer song. I don't feel like I'm that aggro. But at the same time, I feel like part of me has that vibe, but the other part of me just really enjoys what I do. So I feel like I'm a country rock guy. I'm like Jason Aldean (laughs), or even better, would be Kid Rock. I love Kid Rock. Kid Rock's a dawg!
Any last words for us?
This playlist is for the skaters. Go enjoy it. Go headbang.
Check out Jagger Eaton's playlist below, or head over to Spotify to hear it there:
