Words by Mathis Martinelly | Photography by Elsa Bernini, Justin Hidden & Clément Le Gall
A month on from the release of ONLYGOAT. The dust has finally settled after various screenings and the clocks have gone back, so it felt like the perfect time to check in with the man behind the edit. We got deeper intel on the name, the crew – our neighbourhood’s underdogs and big shots alike – and their bigger plans in store. Spoiler: it’s not just a video. Long live the Goats! Wasted Talent in Conversation with Killian Levifve.
WT: First things first. What does ONLYGOAT stand for? Who are you guys?
KL: ONLYGOAT is just the name of our group of friends. Nothing too complicated. We don’t even really know how or why it started, but one day Matis Dujay renamed our Instagram group chat ONLYGOAT, and it stuck.
We’re a group of friends that grew naturally over time. At first it was mainly the guys from the Saint-Jean-de-Luz skatepark: Enzo, Matis, Walid, Maxoom and a few others. Then, by skating together more and more, we became friends with pretty much the whole scene around Biarritz, Anglet and Bayonne, and even some guys from Paris.
We skate and film together, but it goes beyond skating. There are artists in the group too: musicians, DJs, painters, airbrush artists, graphic designers… It’s really more of a group of people who create things together.
WT: You’re a bunch of friends from the South West of France. What’s special about growing up and skating around here?
KL: A few things. First, we’re lucky to have loads of different skateparks, and some really good ones, like Bayonne and La Négresse. We’re also lucky that skateboarding is supported here, and that skate culture is becoming more and more accepted by the general public. For filming, having Spain right next door is a huge advantage. The architecture gives us way more variety in spots than the French Basque Country. And honestly, there are still loads of street spots here that haven’t really been discovered yet.
So I think we can try, on our own scale, to make the most of where we live and show our creativity and our level through our own surroundings. More recently, Biarritz has also started to stand out with bigger events like CPH, Zupin Race, Board Expo Culture and others. It puts the spotlight on the potential of the coast, which means more international skaters are coming through and new connections are being made.
WT: Who was already skating together before ONLYGOAT, and who got pulled into the crew along the way?
KL: Originally, ONLYGOAT was basically the Saint-Jean guys: Max, Matis, me, Walid, Maxime, Enzo and Diego. Then Thomas and Smith Soja started skating with us, and then the rest of the group, like Tim, Hugo, Ruben, Daniel, Lucas, Noah and others, started coming around more and more.
The guys from the Landes, Aaron, Lukas, Noé and Lucien, aren’t really part of the group, but they’re close friends, so think of them as guests in the video. And actually, the connection didn’t always come from skating in the first place. Some of us had known each other for years before we really started skating together. We knew each other from around town, and some of us had already been friends for a long time.
WT: There are some well-known names in the video, like Tim, Hugo, Lucien and Noah, but also a lot of guys people might not know yet. Was it important for you to put everyone on the same level?
KL: Absolutely. We actually started filming with guys from the group who didn’t have any big names, and we already wanted to make a full-length at our own level.
That’s exactly what guys like Tim connected with. They liked what we were trying to create: skating with your friends, not taking yourself too seriously, just doing it for fun.
We really wanted to make something that felt like ours. Rather than focusing purely on everyone’s level, we wanted to build the video around everyone’s personality and make something genuine.
WT: Who are the hidden GOATs in the video, the guys people should really be watching?
KL: Diego. He’s one of the craziest guys I’ve ever filmed. Sometimes his ambition is held back by his technique, but he’s got massive balls and absolutely no brain, so when everything comes together, he completely blows my mind. I obviously love his skating and his whole bag of tricks too.
Max Haramboure is another one. He’s incredibly complete and really creative. He’s a monster on gaps and he knows exactly what he’s doing. The guy has way too much energy, and he always manages to surprise me depending on the spot and whatever original trick he has in mind. And it’s starting to pay off for him more and more, because of how hard he works and how motivated he is every day.
WT: If someone watches ONLYGOAT in five or ten years, who do you think they’ll discover and go, “How the fuck did I not know about this guy?”
KL: Hopefully Enzo. There aren’t many skaters like him around right now. You’ve got a lot of guys who just throw themselves at stuff like crazy without necessarily having the technique to back it up.
Enzo has this ability to go for really big spots compared to his actual level, and you can really feel that in his skating. Even his build makes the way he skates pretty unique. I find it really original, and it’s always fun to watch.
WT: Did anyone completely surprise you while filming ONLYGOAT?
KL: Diego, with his heel over the wall at Fonta. He was probably 50 or 60 tries in and ready to give up. Then, on his last try, when he didn’t even really want to do it anymore and had zero motivation left, he landed it. And the clip is still pretty insane. Same thing with Tim’s frontside melon.
WT: What’s the most fucked-up, funniest or most memorable thing that happened while filming? Apart from the moment two friends were French-kissing, obviously…
KL: Filming was basically every day, so I could tell you a hundred stories. One that really stuck with me was finding a cracked-out guy’s toilet, completely filled with his own shit, just sitting there next to us. There was also this guy who had a pet rooster.
And skate-wise, probably Tim’s frontside 180 melon. He landed it in two tries: one warm-up where he didn’t actually try to stick it, and then he landed it on the next one. So technically, it was one try. (laughs)
WT: When did you realize you were done filming? What made you think, “Okay, we got what we wanted”?
KL: I was mainly focused on a few guys’ parts: Tim, Max, Enzo and Diego. Once Max had finished his enders, I’d say filming was basically done. After that we kept going, because we wanted to polish certain ideas and hit a few more spots to make the video feel as complete as possible. But honestly, the hardest part was knowing when to stop. Every one of them still had loads of ideas they wanted to make happen and could have made their parts even bigger.
WT: This your first proper full-length. What was it like putting the whole thing together, from the edit to finding the right songs?
KL: For the structure, I took inspiration from existing skate videos. Other than that, I’d been writing ideas down in my Notes app for a long time, especially for the art direction and some of the transitions. I’d say around 75% of what ended up in the video was actually figured out along the way: the order of the parts, the pace of the edit, the dynamics, some of the transitions.
Music worked pretty much the same way. I slowly built up a collection of songs over time, and for some parts I talked directly with the skaters to find something that matched their footage, or at least what they wanted their part to feel like. Then, once I had all the footage, I went all in and spent three weeks straight editing.
WT: Nowadays you can just post a trick on Instagram and move on. Why did you still want to put the time into a proper independent full-length?
KL: To me, a full-length with all your friends in it is kind of the ultimate skate video. The goal was to show that we could make one, but also that, in a scene that’s constantly shifting toward trends and social media content, there’s still room for new groups and new crews.
We wanted to push our own vision and our own energy through a big video that really defines who we are. Obviously it’s not revolutionary, but at a time when this kind of video has become pretty rare in France, especially in the Basque Country, we wanted to take the chance to put our crew out there and let people know who we are.
But beyond all that, it’s also about making something memorable for each of us. We basically put three years of our lives into 32 minutes of video. That’s probably what I’m proudest of: I made it for the group, not just because I personally wanted to make a vid
WT: Was there ever a point where you thought the video would never come out?
KL: No. From the moment we decided to make a full-length, we never stopped filming.
There were definitely moments of doubt, though. We pushed the release date back several times, because we always wanted better tricks, and more and more people kept joining the project as we went.
In total, it took three years to put everything together. At some point I just had to set myself a deadline, otherwise we probably could have kept filming for another year.
WT: Now that ONLYGOAT is out, was it a one-off, or have you already started stacking clips for the next one?
KL: Before the video came out, I was thinking, “Alright, we’re going to calm down with the skating and filming for a bit.” But since the premiere, all I can think about is how much I want to do another one with these guys and make it even better.
More importantly, I want to keep having fun with it and grow ONLYGOAT in as many ways as possible. There are already some pretty cool projects I hope will happen over the next few months. And maybe one day there’ll be an ONLYGOAT 2, but all in good time.
We’re going to try to do loads of things under the ONLYGOAT name: videos, clothes, boards, parties, exhibitions… Basically anything that makes us want to get together and have fun.
