In 2012 we are going to start yet another project on the blog: interviews with the World/Amateur riders from our partners. James Meliota isn’t a World/Amateur rider from one of our partners but it’s a friend of Aaron so we thought let’s start things off a little different.
James Meliota is a Bmx rider from Portland, Maine. James is such an unique guy, his style and attitude are awesome.
He has been on FlyBikes and 90East for a while now and has just started his clothing brand: Accent
Find out about his background, average workday and also his strong passion for relaxed music:
Hi James, could you tell something about your background?
I grew up in San Pedro, California (West Coast) till I was 8 and then moved out to Maine (top of the Northeast) and I’ve been here ever since.
I was raised on the ocean and its been nothing but coastline all way up. It will probably stay that way haha. Theres so many beautiful views and relaxing spots to kick it and enjoy yourself while your cruising along the coast.
How many years have you been riding, also you have a really original style, what are your influences?
I’ve been on a bike since the day I learned how to ride and it seems like I’ve been on it every chance Iv’e had but I bought my first bmx bike when I was 15 and I’m 24 now so its been a fair amount of time now.
I definitely don’t feel any different riding now and it seems like it just gets more and more fun.
Thanks for the compliments…its hard to narrow it down to just a few things that influences me.
I would say that 90 percent of it just comes from within. Sometimes I just wake up, get on my bike
and pedal 100 mph just because I’m happy to be alive. To me riding is just expressing yourself and
celebrating how you feel when your out there.
What’s your average day like?
My average day would be to get up at 7:00 am and kick it for a few minutes. Then head to the constuction site for 8 hours. I try to not only get work done at the site but I also try to use that time to think creatively on what I can do when I get outside of work. Outside of work it’s go time and I usaully just try to ride a bunch and take photos/videos with friends. It’s wintertime right now so lately Iv’e been getting really into music and working on some different things. I try to incorporate everything
I’m working on so they can all work together. So for example if im working on a jazz hip hop beat
I can put it in a bmx edit when its finished if I want to.
I’ve been playing the trumpet a bunch playing along to alot of my favorite jams and thats a good time too. In the future I’m hoping to release an album of tracks.
Could you describe the scene in Maine, portland?
Portland is a small city that is really ocean oriented. Almost from every angle theres an expansive view out to ocean. The scene here is unique and every rider has a style thats been molded out of riding around on spots like brick setups and stuff like docks taken out of the water and onto the State Pier. The riders here are real genuine in there approach to riding. Every year theres a new arrangement of ten docks or so that they pull out of the water and set up onto the pier so that’s some of the talk of town for the riders here every early winter and spring. Sometimes I’ll go in town with a new trick or something I want to try and I’ll just get comletely distracted just watching the boats and harbor life. Theres been alot of times where my day completely turned around for the better just by going downtown and enjoying that atmosphere.
You’ve been on the Fly team for 2years now, how did that work out?
Ruben saw one of my edits and he told me to contact the owner of Fly (David Quesada) where he then asked
me if I wanted to be on the team.
For your edit’s you always use chilled out songs and mostly Nujabes, why do you always use such songs?
Haha yeah I do. I’ve always been into a mixed batch of genres like brazilian, latin jazz, bossa nova, nu jazz, spanish flamenco, hiphop/hiphop instrumentals, smooth jazz etc…When I discovered Nujabes in mid 2010 I was blown away by his music.
I had never heard another artist blend so many different styles of music so well. He took many elements from different genres and not only mixed them into songs in a creative manner but he made them sound amazing in a real soulful way.
This is where I think Nujabes is set apart from other producers. Also the way he presented everything he ever produced was in the purest form possible. He was really peaceful and content about the way he ran his music, record company, and two record stores in Tokyo.
As far as inspiration this guy really came through and filled the gap of what I was subconciously looking
for in music and really helped me to fully realize I should continue to work on another passion of mine.
As far as using his music in the edits its just because I think it helps express the feeling I’m trying to bring out in the video. Its just the well produced music that
does the talking and the rider, not tied in with someones opinion on how much they hate the lyrics haha.
This being said I also really enjoy a way bigger horizon of music than just jazz hiphop type stuff.
I just feel like this tiny pocket of music could use a bit more exposure than other styles.
How did Accent come around and what’s the story behind the name?
Accent is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now and just recently decided to get it going.
In music if theres an ^ (accent) over the note it means to strike it with emphasis.
It also means in general to add special detail, energy, or emphasis to something. The Accent brand is about pure freedom and expression.
I also want to give a place for a lot of less known/foreign/new riders a place to be a part of.
90East does all their designing and screenprinting inhouse, did you benefit from that and in what ways?
90East is ran by Animal Bikes rider Lino Gonzales. His direction for the brand is rock solid.
The prints are not only done by hand but they are done with original design AND thought.
I’m definitely inspired by that procress of care and will continue that into Accent.
Anything good coming up soon, upcoming plans?
Well the second 90East dvd is coming out soon and I have a full section in which I’m really happy about because I’ve never had any sort of big part in a dvd before.
I’m just going to keep riding once spring comes and continue to have fun with photos, videos, music, surfing
whatever it may be and I’m sure some new things revolving around that stuff will happen haha.
Any thanks for making this possible/any last words?
I really appreciate the opportunity to speak on a few things for quick moment. Thanks to Lino and 90East, Flybikes and all of my close friends who have helped out in a big way over the years. Again, thanks for interview!
FlyBikes – James Meliota – Across Town – 2011 from flybikes on Vimeo.
Questions and first word by: Aaron Zwaal
