From Squamish to Seoul — Etienne Gagne’s ‘Etienne 2023’ Part

📝 Interview by Doyun Baeg
📹 Video by Baltimore Loth

What’s good with the tuxedo?

Oh shit, the tuxedo. It was during Halloween time in Japan, and Balti [E.T’s videographer for this video] and I were taking the train. We saw this guy who had like a Superman shirt under a suit. He would unbutton his button-up shirt and had the Superman logo popping out, I remember being like: “that’s so sick.”

And then I was looking for a costume. I went and got a Uniqlo suit. We tried to find a Superman shirt, but there was nothing. So I just ended up wearing a suit and I was going with the flow of what everybody was telling me what I was.

“Oh, like, are you American Psycho?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, are you James Bond?”

“Yeah.”

I was supposed to be Superman, but fuck it. And then one day, Popeye magazine from Japan asked me to do an interview for them. They told me to bring my board. I didn’t know what to wear. I showed up with a suit on and they took a photo of me. They were like: “What the fuck, this isn’t what E.T. usually wears…”

Were they bummed?

They weren’t that bummed, but I don’t know if they are gonna use the photo. It was just me with a morning coffee and a cigarette.

Yeah. I feel like it’s SUITING because it’s in Japan. There’s such a culture of salarymen and suits.

When things would get kind of spicy with security, I was blending in so good with the suit. I looked like every other civilian. I was the most disguised. People were like: “what the fuck, what is that guy doing on a skateboard?”

What’s up with all the cars in the video? Were you shopping for your future car? Did you get to test drive any?

Nah, that F-150 is Balti’s truck. When we were in Squamish, driving that shit around was mad funny. Doing donuts on Balti’s friend’s property. There’s like a mud pit and stuff. It’s so stupid. It’s so fun. And then that’s pretty much it.

I don’t even know if it’s a Porsche or Lamborghini or Ferrari in that other clip.

You should have test-driven it. That would have been dope.

I bet they would let you, they were so chill: “Oh yeah, you want to try?”

It’s like how much shit can you get away with by wearing a suit, you know?

I wondered if they would let me. I was trying out these watches and they would let me try the most expensive ones. They wouldn’t even bother looking at you if it was in the States. I was dressed as a skater and they were actually thinking that I could have bought it.

Did you do any shopping?

Yeah, in Japan I went to so many places: areas like Akihabara, Nakano, and Koenji. And every time I see an ABC Mart [Ed. note: pretty much the Japanese equivalent of Foot Locker], I would go into one. Last time I went there, ABC Mart released those Vans Air Forces. I kept trying to find them, but apparently they don’t make them anymore. But I got some crazy Vans shoes. Some Vans that look like Wallabees — skateable and really sick. I got an all-leather pair.

Tell us about the clip of you getting crazy at the club.

Balti kept bragging about how he has the best time at the club when he doesn’t drink, how he dances so much, and how it’s the best when he’s sweating and stuff. He kept bragging about it, which is like the worst brag: a brag about dancing. Ok, cool.

This girl was DJing and started playing super cool music and I was like: “Fuck it, I’m just gonna go off.” We danced for a solid 30 minutes nonstop. Balti had brought the camera so we went crazy.

Who would win in a dance battle: Balti or Anthony [E.T’s partner in Punkandyo]?

Balti’s fucked because he’ll push anybody that’s in the way. Anthony’s funny because I’m sure he practices all the TikTok dances at home. They have different styles.

What’s up with the smoking situation in Japan?

That was pretty insane. I got my wisdom tooth taken out a month before going. I somehow stopped smoking for a month-and-a-half. Didn’t smoke in Squamish or Vancouver. I arrived in Korea and everybody was smoking. And I just could not resist. I gotta start smoking and Balti had a pack of smokes on him for some reason — he never smoked a cigarette in his damn life. And he’s just like, “Look, just have one.” Worst homie. He’s just like: “Dude like you’re not happy, have a cigarette.”

He gave me one and I had a coffee; it felt so good. I’m glad I started in Korea because I would not have handled Japan well. You can smoke inside. I started like smoking like two packs a day when I was there. It was so bad.

So you went from Squamish [British Columbia, Canada] to Seoul, and then Tokyo?

Yeah, we went to Korea and did two pop ups [for Punkandyo]. We went on a four-hour drive from Seoul to Gwanju to do this convention kind of event. And then we went back to Seoul for a week and then back to Japan for two weeks.

When you were in Japan for 2 weeks, how did that go?

Kevin [Shealy] and Rowan were going to Japan to do the [Rowan 2] launch, and they were like: “Can you please stay like two extra days? We’re coming to Japan.”

“Fuck, dude. I don’t know. I’m having a pop-up the same day.”

And somehow Kevin has booked my flight saying “You’re staying.”

“Fuck, I’ll stay if you book me a business flight back.”

He was down, but it ended up being a coach flight.

Then Rowan peer-pressured him to change it to business last minute.