The amount of time and consideration put into Paul Young’s latest effort Down By Law is apparent upon first viewing. The video contains forty minutes of amazing skateboarding, meticulously cataloged and edited, with a level of attention paid to music selection, camera angles, and spot curation that’s rarely seen in skate media. So much attention was paid, in fact, that we knew an exploration of the film’s (it’s that good, let’s call it a ‘film’) not-so-obvious considerations was warranted. Cue Andrew Murrell, the mind behind Overthinking Skate Videos, i.e. the perfect researcher for such an endeavor. Andrew sat down with Paul for the inside scoop.

CALLBACKS

Paul Young is over a decade deep filming with most of this crew that comprises this video’s cast, and he took this opportunity to reference their shared history, his past work, and his roots throughout Down By Law.

STRETCH AND BOBBITO
The video opens with a soundbite of Stretch Armstrong, of Stretch and Bobbito fame. (Fun fact: all the live freestyles in Zoo York’s Mixtape were filmed in Stretch and Bobbito’s studio.) Paul is a diehard Stretch and Bobbito fan and initially used a soundbite of Bobbito in Dick Rizzo’s Mother part (2018). He doubled down and used the other half of the duo in Down By Law, both as a callback to his past work and because, according to Paul, “it’s good establishing texture.”

“YOU TWO RAN NORTH JERSEY”

In 2003, Jersey Dave did an amazing fakie flip on a cellar door Josh Wilson skates in this video. “Probably my favorite thing he’s ever done,” Paul said. The spot is at an abandoned school in New Jersey near where Dave and Josh are from; there used to be a few spots there in the 2010s but it was mostly forgotten until 2023, when Paul was driving around with Dick Rizzo and a few others during a slow day of filming. From Paul:

“A lightbulb goes off in my head, like ‘Remember Village School? There’s no way that’s still there, right?’ Richie (Rizzo) is pissed, and said ‘There’s no way, it’s a waste of time.’ I had to google the school to pull up the address. We got there, half the fucking building is demolished, fenced off, completely overgrown with weeds like a jungle, but sure enough, that big door is still there.”

Paul and Josh returned a few weeks later to sweep the spot out, and Josh filmed the fakie 360 flip at the end of his part. As he’s rolling away, Paul pans the camera over, and who’s standing right next to him? Jersey Dave.

Josh returns to Village School 21 years after Jersey Dave made his mark.

“Fakie flip, fakie 360 flip - kind of distant cousins. Josh was literally Dave’s prodigy at one point. Perfect. Full circle.”

HELL’S EQUATOR

Paul edited Buggy’s part in Bleach (2016) to MF Grimm’s Emotions a big song in the underground hip-hop world (and arguably the artist’s magnum opus), despite not being on a real album. The line “…trapped on a planet of pain and perpetrators, what you call earth I call hell’s equator” appears in this song. Later in his career, MF Grimm reused the line in the outro of his song Earth off his first studio album, as a callback to his past work. In Down By Law, Paul edited Buggy’s short section to the outro of “Earth” as a callback to his part in Bleach (what Paul refers to as Buggy’s magnum opus).

“Also, that line is badass and Buggy is kind of a tortured soul, so in my mind it’s perfect.”

NYACK HIGH SCHOOL
The three stair set Joe Russo skates throughout his part is behind Nyack High School, Joe’s alma mater. Joe and Dana Appelbaum have a twenty year history of skating obstacle down that three stair: wooden benches, little hubbas, and so on. While filming for Bleach, the crew pushed a giant cement table to the three stair. Joe backside nosebluntslid it, and Dana backside tailslid it.

The following summer, the school was remodeled and all the tables disappeared, but the three stair remained and some new benches were installed, which prompted the crew to unbolt the one of the new benches and drag it on top of the three stair – a new spot was unlocked. Joe backside nosegrinded it, and Dana nollie backside tailslid it.

Joe and Dana returning to the most iconic three stair in Nyack, NY.

To double down on this concept, Paul and Joe dragged a different bench over to the three stair on a different day and skated it.

Joe doubles down, conceptually, at the three stair.

GUEST TRICKS

Not every guest trick in Down By Law has a backstory… but a lot of them do!

Jesse Chahalis had a part in Paul Young’s prior video, Bleach , with a chunk of Vin Perso footage in the middle. Vin and Jesse are best friends, but Paul had only met Vin a handful of times at this point and didn’t film any of Vin’s footage, – it was handed to him by Sam McCormick. Fast forward to 2021, when Paul reconnected with Vin at Blue Park and they ended up filming a full part together for Down By Law… so obviously Jesse had to get a guest trick to draw a direct parallel to Bleach.
Luke Malaney’s part includes fellow Long Islander Keith Denley cameo, but the appearance of Justin White might need some explaining. Justin was the mastermind behind Popills, a Skate Perception-era collective that influenced pretty much every filmer in New Jersey. In Paul’s words, “There’s this little Jersey family tree of filmers that can be traced to his influence.” Justin introduced Paul to Luke when they all lived at the infamous Chapman House in Long Island City in the late 2000s.
Every single Joe Russo part Paul films includes a Tristan Smith cameo. Tristan was an amazing filmer from the Nyack region who worked Joe Russo in the early 2000s and was another outsized influence on Paul.

Justin Helmkamp and Mark Humienik are roommates, so Mark’s clips (including the Mike Carroll-influenced feeble to back smith) ended up in Justin’s part.
Grady Smith’s part includes guest tricks from Brendan Carroll (another Florida native) and Matt Velez (a great filmer in his own right and the man who introduced Paul and Grady).

INFLUENCES

Paul and co. are all students of the East Coast style of video making established by Joe Castrucci et al. and that influence is felt throughout the video, both intentionally and by happenstance:

The Hasidic Jew in Vin Perso’s intro is an intentional tribute to Anthony Pappalardo.

Ben Tenner opens up his part with a line at the famed Windowsill Ledges in Boston, an obvious choice as Ben hails from Boston. “Maybe it’s kind of a PJ Ladd tribute,” Paul told me, “but then you could argue that any line filmed there is a PJ tribute.”

Gino and Luke at Roslyn Banks on Strong Island.

Luke Malaney’s Roslyn Banks ender isn’t a direct Gino Iannucci tribute, but everyone who knows Luke knows he’s a huge Gino fan. His trick selection is very Gino-inspired, and “…on a simple level, a guy from Long Island doing an epic trick in Long Island at a spot made famous by another guy from Long Island is perfect.”

Paul and Aaron Herrington are both huge Anthony Pappalardo fans, and Aaron’s opening trick at the Queens Courthouse reminded Paul of two Pappalardo clips: the ollie over the rail into the bank on the east side from Habitat’s Mosaic (2003), and the ollie over the guardrail into the bank, ollie over the sidewalk on Front Street from Fully Flared (2007).

Aaron’s 50-50 shove-it up a bump to bar harkens back to Robbie Gangemi’s backside 50-50 in Zoo York’s Mixtape (1998), which shares additional parallels: it was filmed from behind, with the skater standing up, and the skater having their arms behind their back.

Overthinking Down By Law