A couple weeks ago my nightly doom scroll left me reading an interview with some rapper named Sematary. While I know nothing about him, I found the format of the interview, which was something called The Proust Questionnaire, super intriguing.

Full of detours, we got through roughly 10 of the 30 odd questions. I’ll let you come to your own conclusion on whether that’s a testament to Alexis’s crazy stories or my own inability to stay on track. Anywho, enjoy the meandering talks of circus skateboarding, hitchhiking the world and emotional depth.

Ok, Proust question one. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Perfect happiness would be finding the key to dealing with yourself, your emotions and your challenges. It probably has to do with doing more meditation, because all the other stuff that brings happiness, like success, materials, travel or adventure, are temporary and you have to spend all your time cultivating it. You can’t one up yourself all the time doing crazier things. Finding true happiness probably happens more by knowing yourself. That self knowledge will bring inner peace.

Do you meditate?
I used to back when I was traveling more and had less responsibilities. There are so many different ways to meditate. Sometimes when I’m skating and in the zone it’s close to a meditative state. Playing music and enjoying a nice view gets close too. You don’t have to be fully meditating with legs crossed. Anything that empties your mind can be considered a form of meditation.

I heard your girlfriend is in the circus? What does that mean?
She does acrobatics. Her speciality is the Chinese pole, it’s like a 25 foot pole, and she does tricks on it. She does balance stuff called hand on hand too, which is where there’s a big muscle dude balancing her in the air. She used to go on world tours with this circus from Montreal. It’s a really nice world that I was never familiar with, but meeting all these people, like big wide shouldered dudes, and super small people that do the flying around, it’s like they all went to superhero school and unlocked their capacity for their body type.

Do you see any similarities between skateboarding and circus?
Circus is pretty much just an approach, like you could have skateboarding in a circus, and I’ve seen them incorporate it in circus numbers. When I was younger I went to this circus show, and the last number before halftime they came out with skateboards. They were tick tacking around, and the last thing they did was a 360 flip on flat. The dude looked all shaky and had this small foot position, and he made it. I was shook, like these people are superhuman, and now he’s learned a perfect 360 flip. There was no style though, like they really learned skateboarding just for that.

My girlfriend recognized that there’s a lot of clowning in what I do. The clowns are a big part of the circus, and it’s a whole mentality of doing something really impressive in a funny way and laughing about yourself too. There’s a little bit of that in my skating.

Do you think that people don’t respect how hard the shit you do actually is?
I don’t know, I think they do. People seem impressed when I do some stuff that actually isn’t that hard. People just don’t see it often. Usually the hardest stuff I do is normal skateboarding tricks, like a technical normal trick will be much harder for me. Filming for Dime, they have these standards where they want a certain amount of normal tricks and a couple of crazy ones. I have to try hard tricks, so when I get something crazy it’s way easier. It’s probably more enjoyable to watch a part where you have the normal, traditional skating to balance the funky shit. It’s a good challenge to do both.

“I did something stupid that makes people laugh all across the world.
That’s a better payout than being able to switch treflip on flat.”

What’s more rewarding to you, doing a hard traditional trick or some new stunt you’ve created?
I get stoked if I hear someone say “Oh shit, I didn’t know he could skate normally.” It’s usually someone who just saw my Instagram for years since most of the funky stuff goes there. Most of my normal, traditional skating goes towards a video part. If you see that you understand that I’m not just a circus clown. I see people in Asia and South America ski skating and that’s cool. It’s touching, and they say “Oh yeah” in another part of the world. I did something stupid that makes people laugh all across the world. That’s a better payout than being able to switch treflip on flat. The comical influence goes further a lot of the time.

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be?
I heard dolphins are pretty smart, like their brains are as big as ours. They have no predators and they can beat up sharks if they want. They can talk to each other. That would be cool to be a dolphin.

What is your most treasured possession?
My Fender guitar, made in Japan in the late 90s. That’s the most expensive and prized thing I own. I left it out front on my porch all night yesterday [laughs]. I got home late and left it outside, and we’ve been getting shit stolen from the front porch a lot. I felt so dumb, but it was still there and I still have it. I left my most prized possession outside all night.

Who are some musicians that inspire the music you make?
I get a lot of my philosophy and approach to music from Jerry Garcia. They do a lot of improvisation and they never play the same show twice. That kind of mentality is what I want to bring to my band. I don’t want to copy their sound, because there’s plenty of jam bands in the US and they all sound like a botched Grateful Dead, but I like the mentality they bring to music. For Jerry these things were really important, and a lot of bands run the same show all summer. If you see them twice you don’t want to see them a third time, it’s the same show, so we like that mentality of keeping the show alive and changing.

“The cool guys are evolving into emotionally aware people.
Whoever’s most in tune with their emotions is the coolest.”

People love to say “Oh, I was born in the wrong generation.” Do you ever feel like that?
I thought that way for so long. I would only be listening to bands from the 60s and 70s and I was truly feeling not in my own place in time, but the more I discovered new bands that are active now that are really good, going to small festivals, seeing new music scenes popping up, and jumping from rave scenes to rock scenes, I don’t feel that way anymore.

There’s a lot of cool stuff you can tap into now, and there’s such a variety of music now that we didn’t have in the 70s. Everything is available. So I don’t think I was born in the wrong era. You can make your own era better than any other era, it’s on us to create new movements.

Do you have trouble finding skaters or friends that have enough emotional depth?
Skaters are a bunch of dudes just trying to impress each other, like “Hey, did you see my trick?” That vibe isn’t really welcoming to emotional openness, where you are always worried about who’s the coolest in the crew. Nowadays we’re getting older, and there’s this vibe in skateboarding of “Hey, tell your friends you love them.” When I travel with Dime, there are people I can have nice talks with. I like that it’s more accepting in skateboarding, which was lacking for a long time.

Yeah, it feels like “the cool guys” are dying out.
The cool guys are evolving into emotionally aware people. Whoever’s most in tune with their emotions is the coolest. It’s definitely changing, and it helps. It’s getting less toxic. With Dime, we have girls on skate trips now, and it changes the whole vibe. It makes skateboarding feel more like a normal activity, and the trip vibes are different. We have less of a macho, dudes together vibe. It’s cool to have different people with different backgrounds on the trip.

“You don’t have to always be stressed about finding your path, it could be a lifelong journey.”

What’s a piece of advice you give other people that you believe in?
Find a way to believe in yourself and the rest will come easy. I know that sounds bad, like “Believe in yourself and follow your dreams.” But before believing in yourself you have to know yourself and take some chances. The greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life was because I took some chances and went all in. I traveled North America hitchhiking with no money and I probably learned more doing that than any other thing I’ve done. It’s because I took a chance and went for the adventure.

It wasn’t rewarding in any monetary sense, but in experiences and adventures. Take some chances. If you leave your job, try a project, give it all you can. If it doesn’t work, whatever. Everyone’s finding new jobs all the time. My mom switched her career, so have a bunch of friends. You don’t have to always be stressed about finding your path, it could be a lifelong journey. I’m still struggling to do that, but taking some chances would be the best advice.

Can you tell me more about hitchhiking?
I started around 23 years old. I was working for my father, and I was just bummed out being 23 and having a forty hour, full time job. I was starting to play music and I was getting better, so I thought “Man, I’ll just busk for money.” Play in the street, everything’s gonna be fine. It’ll be fun. I’ll make a bunch of money. It for sure didn’t go like that.

I started in B.C. (British Columbia) and then went to California. I ended up staying in Cali for a while, and I remember at one point I was sleeping at Fort Miley, busking at night and making $20, skating all day and getting clips. I did other trips too, like Dallas to New York in an RV with no money and a bunch of hippies. I did a lot of busking in Europe, in Spain and Portugal

The thing is, for me to go on a trip for 10 or 12 months, I would have to have so much money saved up. To leave like this, with a guitar, was a way to be able to keep traveling longer. Sometimes I would be in places with a lot of friends and money and sometimes I would be cold with no food and no money, sleeping in a ditch. There were a lot of ups and downs, and it made me believe in myself. Like oh, whatever, everything is going to be fine tomorrow. I’ll find a way. It was a great learning experience.

“Sometimes I had a lot of money and I felt like a king. Other times you are just in the ditch.”

Say you go three days without making any money busking. When do you get worried?
I never reached that point. I was always making enough to have a little bit, but you can go to food banks or soup kitchens. You can always manage, and for some reason I was able to make enough money to survive. Sometimes I had a lot of money and I felt like a king. Other times you are just in the ditch. It was never luxury, but I made enough to pass by.

Did you consider yourself homeless? Or what word do you use to describe this lifestyle?
I mean, when you do those kinds of travels and you meet those kinds of travelers, they have this whole subculture. If you stay in one place for longer than two or three weeks you become a “home bum” and that’s the worst thing that can happen to you in that culture. They always move, and they are pretty much homeless, but they will say that they are travelers. It’s a big culture in the US. I guess I was homeless, but I would come home for the summer and get an apartment. I was never in that situation when I came home to Montreal, it was just a way to travel.

What’s a travel no-no when you’re moving through the world like that?
I never got black out drunk. I remember, before leaving I probably got black out every weekend from like 18 to 23, it was just my way of drinking, like I didn’t know how to drink. When I started going on these trips that was the moment I stopped getting black out. If I have my guitar, skateboard, and my bag with all my belongings the last thing I want to do is get blackout and lose all my shit.

That way of traveling sounds so foreign to me.
It’s getting foreign to me too. That was years ago, and sometimes I look back on those days like “Woah, that was wild.” I’m glad I did it though, because it opened me up spiritually. Being alone in the world you have nowhere to go. You’re just trying to survive or reach a certain destination. I started to recognize signs, like “Oh, this person looks cool,” and I ended up making this wonderful connection. It’s believing in those things and remembering that life is an adventure, like saying I need something and I think really hard about it and it happens.

Who do you admire most in this world?
I’d say my daughter. She’s three and a half. It’s so fun to see her grow and talk and dance. She’s just amazing. I’ve learned more about life and myself in the past three years than ever before. You get challenged a lot, and you get to know yourself in critical situations. Having a baby also teaches patience like nothing else.

My parents are easy to admire too, especially since having a kid. We’ve been reconnecting more, and having the whole family around has been great. It would be hard to name someone I worship when I’ve never met them, so the people around me, my parents, my daughter, it’s cheesy but those are the people I admire.

Has your daughter hit an “Oh Yeah” yet?
Yeah, a couple. She’s surprised me a few times with it. I don’t say it much around the family, I probably say it more when I skate or party, but she’s surprised me a few times for sure.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in the right time and place to have a real board sponsor.”

What is No Fear Skate Co?
It was supposed to be a board brand done by the people at Dime, but it never worked. There was some stuff about the name, like it was already being used by this old brand called No Fear from back in the 90s. That was the main reason, like it was going to work but the name stopped everyone. It was Phil [Lavoie]’s crazy idea, and he was basically the only one pushing for it, so he didn’t get much support from Dime. I was going to ride for the company, and because of this I’ve been sponsorless for like a year. I was waiting, and it just never happened. There’s this expression in French “It died while in the egg.” I’m not sure if that translates.

So you don’t have a board sponsor right now?
I don’t think I’ve ever been in the right time and place to have a real board sponsor. There’s this thing in Canada where you get sponsored by the distribution and they give you boards, which then means the companies in America get represented without having to give us skaters a dime. It’s really hard to step out of that and go directly to the company. That’s been a problem for Canadian skaters for a long time. The model was that if you get sponsored and rip hard enough then you would go to America, move there pretty much. That didn’t really work for me.

What is your greatest fear?
Fear itself [laughs]. No, that’s the easiest answer. I guess the greatest fear of mine is being in a situation where I am stuck with no escape plan. I see people like that, stuck in their everyday life, and in their mind they see doing anything else as impossible. That would be a wicked zone to be trapped in.

I also hold some fear about where society is going. I get worried about finding my place within it all, whether inside or outside of society. I’m not buzzing on that every day, but this whole eight billion people on one planet is getting crazier and crazier all the time. Sometimes I feel like I want to know less about what is going on, but you don’t want to be living with your head in the sand.

“I’m not making a plan, like a nuclear fallout plan, but I would love to be able to live in the woods and understand how it works.”

You keep saying outside of society. Do you mean living off grid?
That’s kind of what I mean. A lot of people talk about an off grid lifestyle, and I’m not ready for it now, but considering how crazy the world is, that option is getting better and better in my mind. I’m not making a plan, like a nuclear fallout plan, but I would love to be able to live in the woods and understand how it works. Living in a big city you get disconnected from that. It’s probably pretty doable, but for now if I went into the woods and tried to survive it would be really hard. That kind of stuff should be common, basic knowledge.

Would you consider yourself an outdoorsman?
My parents were all about hiking, camping, snowboarding, mountain biking and climbing. I kind of ditched all that while being a teenager stoked on skateboarding, but now all I want to do is all those things. It’s a bummer because now my father’s too old to do these things, and he’s the one that showed me. I’m like “Fuck, I should have done all this in my 20s with him.” At least he gave me the passion.

How would you like to die?
I wouldn’t want to die in a tragic way, like skateboarding. That would be too gnarly for other people. It would be poetic though, like the Viking who can only reach Valhala if they die with their sword and shield in hand.

What is your life motto?
I’ve been stoked on “Roll all day, rock all night.” Joe Valdez would always say “Stay alive” before doing some death defying thing. That’s a great motto.

Interview by: Ben Komins
Header Photo Courtesy of: Maxwell Lincoln Neubacher
Skate Photos Courtesy of: Jacee Juhasz
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