"YouTube sensation" and "internet phenomenon" were just two of the phrases used to describe Scotland's Danny MacAskill, as he burst onto the world stage in an incredible five-minute video in April of 2009.
Now, a year on from releasing the material that changed his life, we caught up with Danny to find out the backdrop to that video and how his life altered dramatically almost from the moment that he uploaded it to YouTube.
In part one of three, Danny tells us the idea behind the clip that has had over 17 million plays on YouTube, how he did it without getting his collar felt and what it's like being an internet sensation...
Whose idea was it to film the video?
The idea came about with my flatmate Dave Sowerby, who had broken his leg in the summer of 2008 and just as he got out of the cast he couldn’t ride much, so he offered to make a small video of me because he’s always done a lot of BMX filming.
I’d made small videos before with other people, but they’d always been for a day, whereas this was more of a project for what I thought was going to be for a couple of weeks or so. I’d never really had the drive to make a video and as soon as we started I began thinking of things I wanted to do in Edinburgh, making a list in my head of things and started putting them into practice.
I’d think about things and go on my lunch break from work and try to do them, but it was myself and Dave that came up with the idea. We really got into it, but because of the weather in the middle of the winter the blue sky days were few and far between, so when it was grey and raining I would be out riding and I’d find all these other things that I wanted to do.
So it built and built and it kind of took over my life and my thinking. When I went to bed that’s all I’d think about and when I was at work that was all I’d think about. I’d be building wheels and daydreaming about riding over a spiky fence or something like that.
Did you have permission to film or did you just have to work quickly and move on?
All the stuff that we did was winging it really. All the stuff on the video we didn’t have any permission to do. Because I ride by myself a lot in Edinburgh and in front of the police quite a lot, they can see that I’m not touching my bike pedals on things or damaging things.
I leave tyre marks, but because I’m not in a group or doing grinds the police would come and talk to me and they’re always quite cool about it. There’s a bit of an understanding there, so if they come along I’d move on and I try and keep that sort of relationship with security guards as well. If they tell me to clear off I’ll clear off and it means that I can come back another day and they know that they just have to put their head out of the door and I’ll go away.
I know I’m in the wrong when I’m doing all this stuff – I don’t feel like I have a right to be doing this, so I try to make sure that I give way to everyone and wait until I’m not getting in anyone’s way doing it really. The thing that’s been really amazing for me is that there’s been nothing negative at all. There’s been no negative comments, everyone’s been really positive about it and it’s good to think that the video is being played at schools.
I get loads of emails from primary schools, where the teachers show it to their classes and it’s good to think that kids are watching it and then going out on their bikes a lot more and doing some skids and wheelies. Last year I did a lot of demos in schools and for me that’s the best thing and it’s good to think that I’ve maybe inspired them to get out and ride.
What’s it like being an internet phenomenon?
I never think about it like that. We put it on the internet on April 19, 2009, at about 11pm and the next morning I was getting phone calls from the BBC and from all sorts of newspapers. It had already had thousands of views and made it onto the front page of YouTube because it had had so many views in such a short space of time and then it was on the front page of the BBC News website.
It was higher than the Government budget for three days, which was amazing for us just making a web edit that we had no expectations about. I had got all that I wanted out of it before we put it on the internet. I had done everything that I wanted to do and we didn’t make it as a kind of ‘sponsor me’ video, we made it for ourselves and we could never have imagined in a million years that I’d be here today doing a photo shoot with Dougie Lampkin. The whole world has just turned upside-down.
Danny MacAskill was speaking in Edinburgh at the launch of SPEA FIM Trial World Championship, which will be held in Fort William, Scotland from June 25-27, 2010.
Check back in to Red Bull for more from Danny soon!
Comments
Add a comment