“If there is Blood, it’s not good enough!”

FMCS: Hey Mentzoni! What’s happening?

Mentzoni: Right now I feel like a complete pile of SHIT, ha ha ha! I’m having a problems with my stomach lately, lotsa pain & almost vomiting.

But as long as I can skate & scream, I’m happy as fuck. Got up at 11 P: M today, which is quite early for a Vampire like me. Went down town to the local underground record store, SHABBY Records to pay for my Paris Hilton CD/DVD, and the Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 CD+DVD box.

As you might already have guessed, I’m a music-junkie, mad collector of my favorite music. Then skated with the local kids in the indoor park in our hometown, Helvette aka Haugesund.

The usual Hesh crew is my best friend Stian Steensnæs, Christian the Lil’ Boss, Tobias, Andenes brothers, Ruben & Habbo. Awesome kids! Then I went to band practice with Bikkjaa for 4 hours.

After practice we went to the drummer’s house and partied, I’m so crazy that I had two cups of tea & coffee. I hate Alcohol, fuck that stupid poison shit.

Now I’m back in my Crypt, writing ass-long answers to you, listening to Turboneger “Ass Cobra”, Wednesday 13 and Trashlight Vision. Wow, that was a short answer!

FMCS: Tell me a little about who you are, and how you got from there to where you are now?

Mentzoni: I must admit, I never thought I would ever become twenty. I’ve always had some darkness in me, a bit self-destructive you might say! Frode Goa aka ‘The Boss’ knows all about that.

I can’t believe he wanted me on the SHIT® team when we first spoke together. I was nothing but an ungrateful piece of shit, but I skated ‘ghoul’ good at the time, cuz my heart had just been broken for the first time. You know that first love that hurts so bad you just wanna die, well… that was that heartbreak I was going through at the time. I’d cut my arms, bash my own head with my tightened fists & scream, cry & yell all the time. But Frode Goa is a good man that sees beyond the outside of a human, and looked past the monster I was.

He knew I had something to give, that I had something to contribute. And I’m not ashamed to admit that I am a positive & good human being. Sure I have my evil & dark sides, but we all have, the only difference between me & some is that I’m not afraid to wear my soul on my skin.

I got into heavy music when I was still in the fifth grade. All that I had heard before was the shit they play on the radio, and some children’s tapes (which were, and still are awesome). Then I heard Sepultura “Roots Bloody Roots”, and I couldn’t believe that something as beautiful as that existed.

I’ve always had aggression problems, but I’ve always let it out on myself. Don’t want to hurt others with my fist, cause I’m good with words!

Anyway… Got into music before skateboarding. I saw Marilyn Manson with “Dope Hat” on MTV when I was about 12 years old, and I thought right away: “I want to be a rock star.” And I’m still going for my dream. Skateboarding & music aka S/M has been my biggest love all my life, and has been there for me always. If it wasn’t for both of them, I’d be dead & buried a long time ago!

FMCS: What first drew you to skateboarding? And what keeps driving you?

Mentzoni: I hated skateboarding & wished it had never have been invented. Ha ha, must sound awful now, since it’s one of my biggest passions in life.

But the story is: my best friend for life, R-3.14 aka: Ronnie A. Dahl, started skateboarding when he had started on high school. I was still in junior high (I’m not sure about the school system’s names etc. But he was 13 and I was 12, different schools).

Every day I would come over to his house when he was finished at school. We’d climb in trees & watch cartoons all day long. One day he wasn’t home. His mother told me he was out with someone else skateboarding. I was like “skateboarding, what the fuck?” The next day I went to see him again, and again he was out doing this “skateboarding” I didn’t know shit about!

This happened for a whole week before I finally asked “Where is he doing this skateboard stuff?” And she told me he was down at the mall; I went down and saw a skateboard for the second time in my life.

He told me how fun it was etc… I was being all bitchy, like “Yeah, yeah…” I was hanging around with them while they were skating, but it ended up being just as lonely as before since I had to run after them when they skated elsewhere etc…

So I told my mom & dad “I want a skateboard!!!” I was a spoiled little shit, and I still am! So when summer was closing in, I was sitting in my room with another best friend of mine Frank Flamdal playing Amiga for the summer. My dad came in and told me to clean my room. I answered grumpy. He came in again and said “Well, at least clean underneath your bed, then it’s Ok.” He was standing in the door and smiling from cheek to cheek.

I was like “what the fuck is wrong with this guy?” I lifted my bed carpet and before my eyes was a Clyde Singleton Pro-Model 23, aka Twentythree Skateboard, Thunder trucks, Bullet 53mm wheels, NMB bearings, Consolidated shock pads and Jessup griptape.

I was so stoked that I ran right out to the asphalt and rode my new, first skateboard over to R-3.14’s house. (I forgot that I left Frank back at my place, ha ha ha!) And I’ve been skating ever since.

My biggest love & thanks to Dad, if it wasn’t for Dad I probably wouldn’t be skating now.

FMCS: What’s it like being a new pro skater?

Mentzoni: I didn’t even know I was a pro-skater, ha ha! I’m a pro skater for SHIT®, and I think it’s fuckin sick to know that some kid in Shanghai is skating on my SHIT® Mentzoni-Face Bro model.

I’ve gotten some mails from different countries, from kids saying “Love your Bro model, Mentzoni! You rule!” and stuff like that. Two of the local kids just bought my SHIT® Bro Model No.3 and they say they love my board etc… It’s so weird!!! But I love the attention!

The best thing about being a highly-profiled skateboarder and pro skater for SHIT skateboard Co. is them giving me the opportunity to travel a lot, skate with all the kids, and get to see new Cities etc. SHIT® Skateboards have given me the opportunity to say “FUCK work, skate & scream and live your dream!!!” I only want to skate & scream nothing else!

The awesome thing about being on tour with SHIT® is pretending to be a rock star like Wednesday, Marilyn Manson or Kyo. Signing autographs is the coolest & weirdest thing. Why would they want MY name on their board, tits or a SHIT® poster of me?

Some of the funny things are people actually using their own money to buy a piece of my hair on the Norwegian version of eBay, Ha ha ha!

There have also been six offers till now. But the main thing that’s good about being a pro skater; is that it gives me the opportunity to promote myself, both in music & skateboarding, meet a lot of new people, travel, design and work on art in my own name, skating without worrying about breaking my board, and making kids happy by coming to their town and having a SHIT® demo skate.

That’s the best; to know I can make some kid in some little town, go to bed at night, stoked cause he talked/skated with me. That’s just awesome! And getting “Thank you for skating with me and my friends, you and SHIT® rules! I’ve bought your SHIT® pro model board & your Band Bikkjaa’s album”. The kids are the reason I still feel like a teenager & I love their happy spirit. So to all you kids: YOU RULE!!!

Another cool thing about being highly profiled by SHIT® as a pro skater, is getting people like Acey Slade from Trashlight Vision (more known as the guitar player in Murderdolls, one of my favourite bands in the galaxy, baby!!!) writing to me first, on MySpace, saying “Yo! Saw your skate videos, man. Dude, you rule! - Acey” Un-Holy motherfuckin SHIT, I couldn’t care less if I died right there and then, ha ha ha. One of my favorite artists wrote personally to me to say he likes my skating!? That’s just trippy! Thank you Acey, (hope you read this!)

FMCS: What projects have you been working on lately?

Mentzoni: I’ve just been concentrating on skateboarding a lot lately, cause it’s the only thing that truly gives me the feeling of being free. I love my band Bikkjaa, but it’s a hell lot of work & cooperation to make it go-go ghoul good.

The engine demands a lot of blood & sweat. And I’m an egoist & pretty stubborn, so there are some arguments in the band but we always come to an agreement. Skateboarding is just me & the board, having fun with my friends and doing ‘whatever the fuck I want’ (As one of my skateboard heroes says!

But I think it’s good and perfect to be in a band & skateboard, gives you both the good things: independent ‘fuck-you-I’ll-do-my-shit
-the-way-I-want-it’ freedom & the art to agree in a band.

Besides being often on tour with SHIT®, like we just did “Lollypop” & “Micro Pop-Up” demo skate tour, which was fuckin AWESOME!!! I did the artwork for the SHIT® tour posters, both of them, which I’m pretty proud of.

Been working and concentrating on my new SHIT signature collection, for both men & female AND kids. Also working a lot with my two next SHIT® signature Bro Model skateboards. I’m the first on SHIT that is gonna have two signature skateboards out at the same time, so it will be exciting to see how that goes.

The good news is that my Mentzoni Bro-Models have been the best sellers on SHIT® Skateboard Co. worldwide, that’s R n’ R!!! Thanks to SHIT® for putting so much work & Faith in a Dark Devil like myself.

I feel that SHIT® really accepts & Love me for the freak monster I am, and that is very important for me. To know I am respected for what I am, not just another cheap commercial punk they can suck the blood out of and use like their poster boy. Fuck them kind of suits!!!

Besides skateboarding, I’ve been concentrating & working a hell lot with our band Bikkjaa. We’ve been in studio and recorded a 5-track EP. We’re ready to release it, but we don’t have a label to support us so we have to earn our money by playing a lot of gigs (and selling some of my hair on the eBay thing!

Hope that Bam Margera will hook us up on his own label Filthy Notes, cause he’s a skateboarder himself and would understand us better than any other label. Me & the drummer, Stian Steensnæs, started the band together.

And we both skate, to this day. Starting a band was just to have something to do when it rained and we couldn’t skate. You can hear one of the finished songs from the 5-track EP by Bikkjaa. The song is called “T.i.m” which stands for “Testicles in Mouth”. Based on a True story from Helvette aka Haugesund, my hometown. You can read the lyrics & the whole story on our myspace profile. Horror Hope everybody goes & check our musick out, and ADD us as your friend if you are on myspace. We need & would appreciate the support.

We’re having a gig tomorrow actually; hope my stomach illness doesn’t make me faint on stage. If I vomit or something, that’s just cool. I get possessed when I’m on stage, so I think I’ll be ok. Besides touring with SHIT and Bikkjaa, I’ve been getting a lot of art/design jobs from diverse people. Which is really cool.

If I like the project I do it for free. If not, I take a payment. I also write an official blog on our local newspaper website www.h-avis.no. But they censor all my postings, cause they are to macabre, sick or demented. Etc. It’s nothing serious, cause I’m as anti-politic as you can get it.

I don’t give a shit about anything else then skateboarding, music & friends.

FMCS: Anyone who inspired you all the way through?

Mentzoni: Marilyn Manson, Ronnie A. Dahl aka R-3.14 and my Dad. Manson has been like a father figure for me all my teenager years and still is. He was the one who thought me about sexuality & not being afraid to be yourself. No matter how messed up or mad you feel, never ever let anyone tell you it’s wrong to be different from the rest.

He has always been there for me, no matter how fucked up I’ve been. I used to drink a lot (so much, a junkie female friend of mine said she was worried about my drinking getting too much, WTF???) And I was very self-destructive. I used to cut my arms, torso & legs etc. Still have the scars to remember that the kid in blood was me.

I like scars so it doesn’t bother me that I have them. Chix go crazy when they see them and they always want to touch me, which I don’t mind, ha ha ha.

Ronnie aka R-3.14 has always loved me for the one I am, no matter what I’ve done or said in my life, he’s still there in flesh & blood for me. My Dad is an alcoholic, and he is one of my inspirations to never want to drink again. Cause I don’t want to end up like him, never.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Dad & respect him to a certain degree. After all, he’s still my Dad and I love him. And believe me, it was a long hard road out of Hell to come to this end of the light, to love him like I do today.

I saved this here for last to this question, cause I know my Blood Brother Vidar M. Thune is probably pissed & offended I didn’t mention him as one who inspired me all the way through and my best friend & drummer in the band Stian Steensnæs. The SVM-crew never dies motherfizzyes!!! They Love me for the Monster I am.

FMCS: What’s your dream?

Mentzoni: To live from skateboarding & music until the day I lay six feet down, no sound, in a beauty bed for the lovely dead. Like my favorite Marilyn Manson phrase, what keeps me motivated in dark days: “I wanna grow up, wanna be a BIG Rock n’ Roll Star!!!” From the song “Lunchbox”. Love that song! Always make me feel better in hard & difficult periods.

All I want to do in life right now; skate & scream! Be on tour or in the studio with Bikkjaa. Giving out records and selling large, touring with great bands like Dir En Grey, Marilyn Manson, Murderdolls, Wednesday 13. Trashlight Vision & Paris Hilton.

So yes, there you have my dream, become a rich & famous rock star. So I can flip my bird and say “FUCK YOU!” to all those motherfizzyes that never has and doesn’t believe in me, FUCK them! All you need is faith in yourself & your dream. There is so much power in just thinking that way. And I’ve always, since a little child HATED the concept of working 9 to 5 jobs.

If I end up flipping burgers at the age of thirty, I think I’ll get so disappointed that I kill myself, ha ha ha.

FMCS: What are you shooting for at the moment?

Mentzoni: Right now we’re just chill and filming when the whole SHIT® team gathers at the SHIT® skate facility. Which we often do, and that’s what makes the SHIT® team we have now so great, we all really get to know each other and skate a lot.

I love the SHIT® team as it is now, and my ultimate favorite skater on the team is without doubt Toggi! Love his skating! He represents all that skateboarding means to me: Have FUN!

I also love Luis, he’s awesome! Little crazy moustache man, ha ha ha. Don Luis! We’re gonna shoot a music video for one of Bikkjaa’s song, from the 5-track EP coming out. We are holding back on which song will become a music video, until everything is 666, 113% decided!

So be out on the look! Lurk! I’m also working on a SHIT® flick that will be released on www.shittm.com, www.tacky.no, my own myspace profile and hopefully our great comrades at www.syvfjellmedia.no. Also working on a SHIT® photo series of skateboarding that will be published on the same websites. And… Ahem… this photo series is something a little more unusual then what else you see in skateboarding nowadays.

Wait and see, I guarantee you’ll react in some way, ha ha ha. But the filmer/photographer, (which I won’t mention his name), is slow as a dead animal sending me the footage. Part from that, filming shit for the SHIT® movie to come out sometime.

Oh, how could I forget!? We’ve been on tour with SHIT®, as I mentioned earlier, and ALL the footage will eventually become a “SHIT Demo-Tour” DVD. It will include the whole SHIT® team, the kids at the demos and more crazy stuff. Most probably a music video or more by my band Bikkjaa. We are also shooting all our Bikkjaa gigs atm, and hope to release our second DVD with Bikkjaa.

If people are interested in Bikkjaa CD/DVD, please do contact me on my band mail toyATbikkjaa.com.

FMCS: When no one is filming, what’s your skating like?

Mentzoni: I don’t mean to brag, well maybe just a little bit, but I skate like I skate when filming.

I like to think that my skateboarding appeals to the freaks & ghouls in skateboarding, the old-schoolers and the outsiders. I skate like I feel. If I’m tired and worn out, like I was today, I’ll have a chill session in the mini ramp, flippin the little euro gap and the bank.

Having “S.H.I.T.” or “V.I.T.O-13″ aka “S.K.A.T.E.” on everything, with my hesh crew. Just cruising around and doing funny tricks. I love, just LOVE skating spots that are really fucked up & almost unskateable. That’s what I like about skateboarding. You can take something, look at it and get a bucket full of chicken ideas. You can basically do whatever the fuck you want, it’s only your mind and your soul stopping you.

Me & ex-team rider, (still my best friend), Kim Ottermo aka Clint Eastwood both like to skate weird spots. Like, me and Kim Ottermo went on our own private journey last time in Barcelona, skating spots no one else wanted to skate.

I hate the fact that he left SHIT® Skateboard Co. I Hope that someday he’ll drop his sponsor and come back to his real family; SHIT® Skateboard Company!!! But yeah, my skating is like I said; like I feel. Some days are all Hammers & bolts, some days are mob flips and funny faces, ha ha ha!

FMCS: What do you do with your time when you aren’t skating?

Mentzoni: Practice with my band Bikkjaa, relax at home with a ghoul good HORROR movie.

I also like comedy-series like “The Office” and other series. Especially “Dead Like Me”, goddamn good series I recommend EVERYONE to check out. I want to marry the female lead role “George”, damn she’s pretty! Hope she reads this and loves me at First Fright, ha ha ha.

I write a lot of poetry, I make my own comic book called “Mentzoni’s Monster magaZine”. I’m having an artist break now atm. But I have released 12 issues around the globe, on my own… Thank you! No label or something to support me! I send them out personally to people in Norway, Sweden, Poland, US, UK… And now a girl in Finland is about to get an issue.

So if you are interested in my comic book “Mentzoni’s Monster MagaZine”, write me an email at MentzoniATshittm.com and I’ll send you one. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll get some candy to.

I get a lot of request from people, so don’t be surprised if it takes some time to post it.

I watch a lot of Viva la Bam! I love the skater and his show. Also love porn! And now that my mom got a computer at home, I’ve been a slave to youTube, MySpace & Ahem! Some other sites.

Been watching everything I can find about Wednesday 13, Marilyn Manson and Kyo and Dir En Grey. Other things I like to do when not skating? Hang with the band, friends, mostly female friend’s cause they got something more to look at when I’m with them, Ha ha ha. Love & hate girls.

Spend some time at graveyards, listen to music and just get some time off from the world being with the dead. They’re quite quiet. And no, to answer some questions already bobbing inside your minds, I don’t take a shovel & bottle of wine with me to the graveyard!

I give a lot of myself every day, like to be social (sometimes). But that means I like, and need to get a lot of time alone. A cup of coffee and a good movie with lighted candles is always a classic. If some chix want to join, sure!

FMCS: Tell us a bit about you being a singer in two bands.

Mentzoni: Well, as you might have noticed. I have a very wide taste in music. I like bands like 1349, Gorgoroth and Mayhem. Which is Black Metal bands, all from Norway. And I’m a big fan of Paris Hilton, Bertine Zetlitz, Bjørn Eidsvåg and Avril Lavigne.

My all time favorites are Marilyn Manson (Believe it or not, but the cult-famous Charles Manson also makes great music and has released a handful of albums. Most famous is his album “Lie”, Wednesday 13, HIM, Dir En Grey & Dark Throne.

Also LOVE Mindless Self Indulgence, NIN and lots of other industrial bands.

What I’m trying to say: Bikkjaa is the heavy, dirty, snotty, punkish, crazy freak band for me. While Familiens Sorte Får (meaning “the black sheep of the herd/family”) is just me & my blood brother Vidar M. Thune doing an acoustic style of music. It’s just me & him, me on vocals and him on guitar/piano and backing vocals. We played in-front of 700 people last year, with the local symphony orchestra in our backs.

Just thinking about that gig gives me goose bumps! It was one of my most memorable moments in music, ever! It was so massive & amazing, listening to those 70 people or so, playing OUR songs with us in front. Amazing! You can hear Familiens Sorte Får at www.borninshame.com. I am actually a quite shy & emotional person, but I get my kicks from standing out as a torn (beautiful torn, might I add) in the crowd.

Always loved getting attention. So it’s important for me to get these two different sides of me expressed in music. But Bikkjaa also has a lot of quiet and emotional parts in our music, but maybe not as fragile & innocent. The dirty pervert in me comes out for full in Bikkjaa. The shy Martin most of my closest friends & family know comes more out with Familiens Sorte Får.

FMCS: When can we see you on stage next time?

Mentzoni: We’re having a concert, or a ‘ritual’ as I like to call it, with Bikkjaa tomorrow. Playing together with a band called Rift. In Stavanger. Frode Goa, female friends, and the SHIT® team are coming to support us. As I might have mentioned before, I’ve been feeling quite sick lately, so it’s gonna be exciting to see what happens.

I have this amazing outfit for tomorrows’ show, ha ha ha! And also the make-up this time is awesome! Hope to send you some pictures from the show, which you can use in this interview or something else.

Hope a lot of people show up & that a lot of pretty chix come, that’s always fun!!!

FMCS: Where do you take the ideas for your designs?

Mentzoni: I might sound like a self-observerd A-hole for saying this myself. But that’s the truth. Funny fact about the inspiration for some of the new designs to my next & new SHIT® Mentzoni Signature Bro Model & my third SHIT® Mentzoni signature clothing Collection; (I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this, but I’ll let you feel special).

I get a lot of shit lookin the way I am. I’m used to it, so it doesn’t bother me that much anymore. In my first official SHIT® picture series, a lot of skater-haters wrote all kinds of negative crap about me, me not being a “Real” or “True” skater cause I wear make-up, have long hair and use girlies underwear etc…

This one kid, with intention of bumming me out, wrote: “Ah, you’re so ugly, I hate you. You skate like a Crow!” And I was flattered the fuck out! That was the coolest compliment I’ve ever gotten from someone. So I wrote the kid a mail personally, telling him thanks for honoring me with such a style-title. I associate the word “Crow” with Brandon Lee in the movie “the Crow”, the Goth scene, the black Crow silhouette was, and is a symbol for the Black Plague that killed a lot of people in Norway, 1349.

I told this to Goa, about the kid, and what the kid wrote. We joked back and forth about a logo of me, as a ‘black crow’. And me being portrayed as the Misfit King on the Norwegian Skate scene, the Black Mentzoni Crow SHIT® logo seemed perfect!

So I hope the kid who wrote that crow stuff, sees my next SHIT® Bro model signature board and goes “No!!!”, ha ha ha!

The other Bro Models I have, like the one with the leopard and me posing like I’m head banging while playing the guitar is me as what represents me: Rock n’ fuckin Dirty Roll!!! So Frode has a lot of fun when it comes to coming up with new logos and ideas of me. We work together and I have to approve ALL the art & designs, and I come with ideas etc… The Mentzoni-Face Bro Model 2 is drawn by my good friend and artist Kim Stokke.

He took the Manson obsession of mine and made me look like Manson on the board. Just wait until you see the other one of my two next signature Bor Models!

FMCS: Last words/ shout outs?

Mentzoni: You know what… If I wanted to mention everyone I wanted to give shout outs to, You’d Hate me even more then now, writing you a book instead of short ass answers, ha ha ha!

So I’m just gonna thanks all the people that love & believe in me, Thank You. And you know so goddamn well who you are!!!

A special thanks go out to: Mom, R-3.14, SVM, Bikkjaa, SHIT Skateboard Company, Vans Skate Shoes, Frode Goa, Kim “the Tank” Goa, Porn, BJP, Camilla Haug (my first Love;), Remz, Torbjørn Kolbeinsen & Kristine Wee, Dad, Markus & Christoffer (my nephews) and Dadda (my sister).

Also big shout outs to all the skater kids out there, those who hate & love me, thanks for supporting me in any way possible. Ghost, ghouls, vampires, Satan, Jesus, monsters & my nightmares.

Myself, Satan, Wednesday, Acey Slade, M. Manson, Jonathan Davis and very special thanks to Kyo (whom I love with all my soul!) Horror Hope you ALL go NOW and check out my gory-glory band Bikkjaa.

SKATE & SCREAM, Motherfuckers!!!

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