Andi Welther Blood And Thunder

November 14, 2008 @ 10:46 AM

Two interviews for the price of one, that’s what this is. That’s because this guy, who shares his birthday with Elvis Presley, basically gets twice as much done as everyone else. Still, it took us about twice as long as usual to finalize the interview, when we already had a text for, like, ever. In the meantime Andi Welther got married, became a father, graced a cover or two, produced dry mouths and still kept it gypsy, so when press time came around, I woke up one morning with Niall’s voice in my head, whispering:
“Do it again.”
Not sure if he ever really said it. Probably did.
And here we are now, with the best of both worlds—before, and after parenthood. Starts out in November 2007. Happy comparing. Oh, and never mind the title, really; the original interview spans over an hour, would have filled a whole magazine and is full of stories about bad luck, and Barcelona. Too bad you’ll never get to hear it.
interview by David Luther
photos by the famous Eric Antoine

Why don’t you have a Mac, Andi?
What a fucked up question to begin with. I don’t know, maybe because I’m…that is a fucked up question.

No way, it’s a great question. You got a Vaio instead, just admit it.
Yes, I got a Vaio instead. And it’s great! I put it up on ebay, but no one wanted to buy it. I guess I’ll make the switch, but I can’t tell you why. I like Macs, but I just haven’t gotten around to it, yet. Also, I’m not the type of guy who needs to have what everybody else has.

You love your digital camera.
I do. I had a D70, I want to get a D200. But I want to shoot analogue, too, I have a Nikon F50 as well. Learning photography is one of my huge goals.

I was aiming at the partycam, actually, but you’re mentioning almost heavy gear here—so, you’re in close contact with the photographers you work with?
Yeah, I try to stay updated on gear, and if I have any questions, I have the right folks I can bother. I try to learn as much from them as I can.

You don’t really have the time for a proper education right now either, do you?
No, well, Sandra was about to study photography, I might just feed off that for starters.

Sharing your birthday with Elvis, do you play any instruments? Guitar?
Still trying.

You can dance.
Like a maniac, but I haven’t learned that, either. I can only do the discotizer. Well, instruments, I just bought a new guitar, and I’m trying. My father is more of a musician, he plays the guitar, harp, flute, he’s got all that down.

Where’s your roots? You’re always fronting gypsy, how much is that?
Well, I’m not a 100% gypsy, and when you hear us talk about that, we’re rather talking about a certain lifestyle, not about the ethnic groups. There’s different types of gypsies, too. I’m from Romania, I grew up there, in Arad, there were a bunch of gypsies, and I was always out in the streets. But they don’t differ from anyone else—there’s good gypsies, and there’s bad gypsies. They have the same kind of variety as all the others.

Why were you on the streets?
Our parents didn’t have that much time, so they split us up. My brother Christian grew up at my father’s grandparents, I grew up at my Mum’s grandparents in Arad—and that was kinda ghetto. Grey, cold houses next to one of the main roads, and that’s where we played all day—on the road. Standing there, waiting for passing cars with German license plates or whatever to throw us some stuff, sweets or something. Or we just roamed the streets. Thinking about it today, I don’t remember feeling bad about all that. There was always enough to eat, it wasn’t exactly a low life, it was alright. But then again, if I think about it today, it makes me kinda sad. When you’re young, you see the world with different eyes. Especially if you don’t know it any other way, then you don’t care, you just adapt. There was some crazy stuff going on. I remember the revolution, when Ceaucescu fell. That was crazy. Our block, our house, got it’s fair share of bullet holes. It was wild, tanks on the street, people fleeing, complete chaos. My grandparents rushed us to the train station, and I got lost on the way. So I took another train in another direction. We just wanted to get out of town.

And then?
It was crazy, I don’t know how to describe a revolution. The whole city is…crazy. Our plan was to go to my other grandparents, to Mediaş, because it was quieter there. Actually, there was nothing to see of a revolution. But there was such a chaos at the station that I simply got on the wrong train.

How old were you?
Six. I travelled around 600 kilometres, and then met some lady who took care of me getting back home in one piece. Nothing bad happened to me on that trip, it was all good.

And after that, you went to Germany?
Not too much later, yes. That was crazy as well. We had to visit a German school. But it was easy for us, it was way harder for my parents. They had to build up a new life, from scratch, find jobs, and all that. We lived in a really bad area for three years, shared a room not much bigger than your livingroom with Russian families. My mother used to be an accountant, but her education wasn’t worth a cent when she came here. Today, she works as a nurse. My dad works as a gardener, which is not that much of a change—he used to work in the vineyards, he was a winegrower. For us kids, it was way easier, because when you’re young, you learn languages more easily.

And skateboarding? How?
It started when I was around ten, or eleven. My older brother Michi got into skateboarding through a friend. That guy was more of a cruiser, he had this oldschool Tony Hawk with fat wheels and did power slides in the streets. My brother liked that, though, and got his first board. And you know how it goes; Christian and myself stole that thing, tried tricks and whatnot, we got our own boards, and it was on. You could say I started because of my older brother. I always tried tricks, kickflips came along pretty fast, so I tried them the other way around. My brother was like: “Thats switch.” So I was like: “Whoa, switch is great, I want to do that!” That’s how it went back then, I learned a massive number of tricks. Today is nothing like it. I’m still learning new tricks, no doubt, but it’ll never be quite like those first years. My first kickflip was a pure rush of happiness, today they’re like…[snaps fingers], well, a kickflip.

Is there a category of skateboarding you see yourself in?
No. I just…skate. I’m not searching for tricks. If I see a spot that I like, I’ll just go for it first. I’ll think about what else is possible afterwards. Well, if it’s a shooting for an ad or something, I’ll make up my mind about the spot and the trick. But other than that, when I’m at a spot, I just skate. Try new tricks, that’s more fun. Three, four years ago, I used to do kickflip late shoves at contests left and right—I just loved that trick! Can’t even do it anymore—other tricks have taken up that space. They come and go. Some stay, some leave…it’s almost like money. I wouldn’t want to do the same tricks over and over again, I dig the change.

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