TAPE STARTS – [00:00]

If someone can hear me on the contract, can we kill the workout there?

[Off-Mic]

Yeah. Or, I can do it.

Watch your cable there.

Oh, sorry. Hey guys, we can hear whatever's happening.

[Off-Mic]

Go for it, Chubbs. Do your thing. And Chubbs, is there any work you can do without the mallet tapping?

No, everything is hammered. There could be a video of me, I mean, carving.

Yeah. Could you do some carving?

Yeah. So, if it's just stamping or everything is – after I'm done cutting, everything before that is pretty
quiet. But after I'm done cutting, it's all –

All right. Could you do some carving?

Yeah.

I'm going to ask you a really hard question first and you can keep doing that. But could you tell me your
name and where you live?

My name is Michael Decoulode. People know me as Stix Duh Clown, Chubbs, MJ, Michael James. I
have a lot of nicknames. But right now, it's MJ or Chubbs. And I live in New Orleans, Louisiana, on
France Street.

How do you get the nickname Chubbs?

Well, the name of my leather company, I do leather work, Leathersmith, leather master, leather wizard,
whatever you want to call it. I decided to name it after my amazing dog who's a beagle shar pei and his
name is Chubbs with two Bs. So, when I started meeting people at the skate park, people that I haven't
met, just meeting them new and then they'd ask what I did. I'd tell them I do leather work and go check
out my Instagram Chubbs and I would tell them my name, Michael James or Stix. But then, every time I
go to the skate park and see someone after they check out my Instagram, they'd be, "Chubbs, yo,
Chubbs. What's up?" I take that back. It actually started with Wolf when he met my dog Chubbs and fell
in love with him. It was the first time I took him to the skate park and I thought things are going to be cool.
And then, he lashed out at a kid. So, I stopped taking him. And ever since then, Wolf started calling me
Chubbs. And then, when people would go to my Instagram not knowing me, they just assume that that
was my name. So, I like it, my dog is awesome. I'll be called Chubbs.

You have a lot of nicknames in your life?

Yeah. Those are the good ones though.

Could you give me the soundbite of I've had a lot of different nicknames in my life but that's a good one
maybe?

Wait, what's that?

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Could you give me the soundbite of I've had a lot of different nicknames in my life?

I'm not understanding that.

Could you could you say that in your own words like, I've had a lot of.

Oh, say it again?

Yeah, I've had a lot of nicknames.

So, I've had a lot of nicknames throughout the past. One of the first ones that I gave myself when I – back
when I was younger and started hitchhiking and hopping trains was [McHale 00:05:25] and that was the
first nickname. And then, I had joined a circus and started clowning. And my clown name was Stix Duh
Clown, D-U-H, S-T-I-X. And so, that stuck around for a while. So, people when I started going by
Michael James and doing solo performances with my music, people thought it was some made up name.
And they're like, "What's this Michael James?" I'm like, "Oh, that's my real name." Nobody knew my real
name. Ever since the beginning of coming to New Orleans in '99, it was Stix Duh Clown, everybody
called me Stix. No one knew what my real name was, so that threw them off. And it's funny because you
get a lot of people, those old friends that will introduce me to new friends now and they'll say Stix and
they'll be, "Oh, do you prefer Michael James?" And I'm like, I don't expect my older friends and people
that know me as Stix to switch over, it's like whatever. When I stopped the circus and pursued music
more being billed as Stix Duh Clown just seemed really weird and more funny and not the more serious
approach of what I was doing. So, that's why I dumped that name.

Yeah. And where are you from?

I was born in Carmel, California. And was raised a little bit by up until I was three in Big Sur, California.
And then, my parents got divorced. And my mom went back down to LA where me and my two sisters
were raised in Orange County in the little city of La Habra. And –

And how did you first start skating?

Man. So, it was the mid to late 80s. I remember the first time I saw a skateboard. And there was those
little plastic, I guess, they still call them banana boards. It's so visual right now. And I went across the
street to this kid and the memory that I have is I wanted to try it and I was watching him and I just got on
it. I didn't ask what to do. I just saw him. I was really young. And I stepped my foot on there and just
went up into the air and slammed on the ground, scraped my knee. I believe I cried. My mom came out
and was, "What the hell are you doing?" It was a fiasco. But I was still, I mean, always intrigued in a – I
mean, I was pretty much a poor kid. I think my mom bought me one skateboard later on. But everything
was always hand-me-downs for my friends or my friend's brothers. Tails just done, grip tape falling off.
But I mean, for me, it was just whatever, whatever I could get. So, when I got my first real pro board –
well, no, my first real pro-ish board was a hand-me-down and that was that was an Alva skateboard or the
dagger tail. And then, the first board I ever got I believe was an ED Templeton.

And what was it about skating? Talk to me about your first moments of holy shit, I love this.

The freedom. Just having anything go wrong. Like I said, pretty rough childhood. There was a lot of
good memories. But for the most part, we were poor. And it was just an escape from anything and music
was so involved in it too with the thrash bands at the time. But just leaving home and just being out in the
streets, being in gas stations or schools and just riding around on this board, jumping off curbs, this
awesome beautiful destruction, and it was just such a release. And not only that, but especially for young
kids, just energy release. But just the freedom to do what you want to do and nobody can tell you. It's
like anything you do is all on you, it's your fault, the freedom.

Was it an escape?

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Oh, for sure. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I'm sure for a lot of people and mainly for me escaping from home
and just other problems and stuff and not fitting in with other kids and stuff and trying to – back then, it
was like the cops and just straighter people but the jocks were always battling with those guys, being the
freaking outcast. So, and I had friends that I'd skated with but I was pretty much a loner. I skated a lot by
myself up until I think midway through high school, when I started meeting the cooler kids and their older
brothers that had just gotten sponsored. And so, that was really cool. But I was always the awkward kid
too. It was rare. I had friends but I never really got invited to a lot stuff where I would stumble upon stuff
and it was like, "Oh, Michael's here." Like, "Oh, hey, what's up." But I mean, for me, I wanted people to
skate with but just skating by myself, I mean, I enjoy that even now. I love skating with people. But just
being by yourself and doing shit is really awesome, real freedom.

And what about this scene in California for skating back in those days. For someone who doesn't know
anything about skateboarding? Tell us about California and how important that scene is.

There's a lot of different groups. Everything, I mean, you had the hessians, you had the punkers, you had
the richer white kids. Everybody skated but there were different types of who you skated with. It's
definitely different now. This day and age, everybody's all in one and it's awesome. And it was awesome
back then too, because you had your people, but it was fun, it was hard. Especially back then, I mean,
cops would threaten to arrest you or running from cops or running from store owners, it was pretty – it
was brutal, brutal, and awesome. And it's different now with skate parks. Back then, sure there were
some parks but it was all – for me, anyways, it was all streets, there wasn't too many parks and less.
Some pros in a big company we're doing demos in a parking lot or something. And even then, it was like
you were watching the pros skate. I never actually went to a skate park when I was a kid. I was just all
street and just whatever, bombing hills, bombing parking garages.

Can you talk to me about how California was the motherland of skateboarding? Any of that history.

Jesus. It was. But I feel Texas and California were too. I didn't realize – as I realized now, but as a kid
not knowing, I assumed every pro skater was always from California. And just coming to find out even
now, when I was younger how many pros, I knew about that were actually from Louisiana. I just learned
that recently. That's crazy. I was a young kid. So, it's different back there. It's like I tell kids with phones
and the internet and everything. It's like everybody should is out there. Everybody knows. When I was a
kid, all we had was MTV Music videos and Hit Parade magazine. That's all you knew about whatever
famous person or even skateboarding. Back then, you would order – a lot of the shops would do ads.
They didn't even have their stuff in shops. It was like you'd open up a magazine and there's all these new
skateboards and then the address and you mail, it's pretty crazy.

And in your own words, and tell me if this is true or not? People often think that California is where
skateboarding came from and where everything still centered around skateboarding but tons of other
people like in Louisiana and all throughout the South were doing crazy things.

That I like. I mean, I actually can't answer that, I don't know. But California always gets the hit for – I
mean, it's California, bleach blonde hair and the place that they always get hit for everything. But
actually, I would say, I don't think it originated in California but I could be wrong. Are you guys recording
this?

[Off-Mic]

I don't know. I honestly don't know the answer to that. Like I said, California is California and it's the land
of whatever. I mean, I'm from California but I also left California because of a lot of things, so.

Why did you decided to leave California?

I mean, I wanted to see more. I just got sick of everything. I just said of just how the stereotypes and
stuff. I'm sorry, I should have turned my phone off. I wanted to see more. I wanted to see other places

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and travel. And it wasn't, I mean, I just – yeah, just being that kid just always in the same place the same
town and just wanting to see other things. And I went up and down California. And my mom would take
us into Mexico and stuff. But it wasn't until I think right after high school when I actually – the girl that I –
my girlfriend I was with at the time rest her soul. We just decided to just quit everything, got our last
paychecks and just started hitchhiking. And then, went straight up to Oregon and then to Washington and
then just kept going and would meet people and just went all throughout United States. Hopping trains,
did that for many years. And once I started doing that for years, I didn't want to be anywhere, I didn't want
to be from anywhere. It's like people are like, "Where are you from?" And I'd be, "All over." I couldn't just
stay in one place. Once we got the bug to leave, it's just why live somewhere. Stay somewhere for a
little bit but then, all right, on to the next thing, what's the next adventure? What's the next – people are
going to be – what's the next danger we're going to come into? It was just the thrill and the love of that. In
terms of traveling like that and hitchhiking I think in my early 20s or so is when that stops and then still
continuing to travel through the world was when or not the world, the United States was being on tour.
With the circus I was in for many years and then becoming a musician and being serious about that and
touring. So, I've always traveled and always been different forms. But it all started off raw was fuckin
beat-up clothes and a backpack and my thumb or jumping on a train and just evolve from there. Now, I'm
44 now, in the age, it's like I still love to travel and stuff, but I definitely am like more of at home. I like
having the stability. I like having things, working for myself for one. I've worked fucking jobs in the
French Quarter cooking. I've done some janitorial. I've done so much stuff, roofing and being able to be
– this is what I do and I can literally be I'm done, I'm out and just leave and not have to be like, "Is it okay
if I clock out?" Like fuckin.

And how did you get to New Orleans?

How did I get to New Orleans? Wow, you guys are going to bring up some stuff I haven't thought about
for a while. At that point in time in my life, I had left Oregon. I used to do a lot of tree defense and trees
sitting, living up in trees and defending old growth trees. And we were hitchhiking to the WTO protest that
was going on in DC. And a year before that, this group of people that were just traveling around in a van,
they were just Know Nothing Family Zirkus. And they just heard about us tree sitting and they were,
"Let's go out there and put on a show for these people that are just living out in the woods trying to
defend." So, that was the first time I'd seen performers in that realm and clowning and stuff. And me and
my friends [Stumps 00:19:58] the Clown. We're really intrigued by that. We weren't clowns yet. I called
him Stumps the Clown but then, he was just – well, I won't say his real name. So, a year later, there's the
protest and we head out to DC. And we're out there and we run into one of the people that was a part of,
her name is [Mickey Love 00:20:20]. And we were just chatting. She was at the protest. She had left
New Orleans. We didn't know that the circus is based out of New Orleans. And after it was all said and
done, she was, "Hey, what are you guys doing? Do you want to come down to New Orleans?" And I had
always – my girl from the time, if you want to come to New Orleans. And I didn't care about New Orleans.
I'd heard stuff about New Orleans and the Voodoo. And I was just, I'm not really into it. And I was, fine,
let's go down there for three days. And so, then, we caught a semi-truck somewhere in Pennsylvania, and
that guy was coming down here and he took all three of us. And that was when I first came to New
Orleans, that had been '99.

So, you hitchhiked your way down to New Orleans?

Yeah. But we had gotten an hour ride and then we got picked up by a trucker. And he was just like, "I'm
heading to New Orleans." And it was a straight shot, he had one of the big back calves in his thing. We
just all slept, it was totally chill. Drove with him. He took us all the way down here, dumped us off, gave
us some cash. And then, we went off over to, goddamn, what was the name of the place? I can't
remember the name of the building they're in. But it was on the other side of Canal Street, in the Garden
District, this big old warehouse. And underneath was owned by this construction company that stored all
their stuff and then you went upstairs and the other three stairs was 10 to 15 performers and clowns, total
squat looking. And that was when we first got introduced to the whole realm of the circus. And we're
here for a week. And I was ready to go but I was digging the city and then me and my girlfriend, to make
it short, we ended up splitting up and she left town. And I ended up going and just doing this one tour
with the circus and was like, we'll meet you up in New York and we'll discuss, we'll see how we're doing if

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we want to. And then, I just fell in love with the circus and then fell in love in New Orleans and then just
never left. And I never even wanted to come here. Came for a week and then that's been 20 years now,
I think. It was close to 20 years, yeah.

What are your favorite things about New Orleans?

The way the city is laid out. I really love the swamps. But there's a lot of culture. The biggest thing that
really got me that I wasn't used to is walking down the street and pretty much every person asking how
you were doing. And I remember I didn't understand it first. The first time someone is like, "Where you
at?" And later on, I come to find out that that's just how you doing and it's just every person just walking
down the street. Even now, when I go to – I'm like that when I go to California and anywhere and I'm just
saying hi to people and they just don't give you – don't even listen, people won't even respond, there's
just. And that was one of the big things just how the hospitality down here, the music, the food.

Did that make you, in my mind here, this renegade, traveling around the country, doing your own thing
and then you get to New Orleans and it's like at least to me this place just feels acceptance.

Yeah. So, then the next big thing too, which I started realizing was every place that I was going to
whether I was hitchhiking or hopping trains or driving and discovering things about certain places, just
people and attitude and culture and arts and music. I would say the biggest thing that I finally was
realizing is all these places that we would go to because we loved this and we loved how this was there,
and we loved how that was there, a lot of all that was all in one city. It is the acceptance of so many
things. It was wow, it's like everything we love about certain places is this city is all of that. And of
course, at the time too, just being able to walk around and drink beer and open containers, that's just
crazy.

Could tell me in your own words of this is a city where I just that acceptance or I felt –

Could you say that again?

Something in your own words of New Orleans was finally a place where I felt accepted or felt a part of
something.

I think I want to say, when I came back after the six, I think it was a six- or seven-months tour with that
circus. Getting to know all of them and coming back and not really realizing what I was going to do yet
but then deciding that I was going to stay in New Orleans. The decision was because of this circus and
everything they were introducing me to once we got back. Because when I first went with them, it was
really quick and I didn't experience the city that much. So, it was after that first tour where I really started,
I was like, "Why do I want to leave the city?" Especially, even just the rent used to be really cheap back
then. Yeah. There were just no beefs or no – everything – things have changed and there's still some
things that are the same but it was just so easy and simple. And just even trying to get a job or hustling,
just sustaining down here out of any city that I know of. And I'd say probably less than that first year, it
was just like, "Why would I want to go anywhere else?" The city just grabbed me. And this city will tear
you up though, too. There was a couple of chances, couple times with me that that happened. I have
friends that fell in love with the city and it just ate them up and they can't even come back here for visits
because they'll just fall into too bad things. Did I answer your question?

Yeah. Absolutely.

As you tend to do the aren't things I tend to ramble off. It's like, "Wait, what did you ask me?"

We can cut this put together. It was awesome.

I was, "Fuck, here I go." And my dog.

Tell me about skating. How did you get back into skateboarding?

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One second, guys. We just want to move.

Thank God.

[Off-Mic]

How did I get back into skating? Okay. Everything good?

You good there?

Can we swap media right now? Is that okay?

Yeah. Let's cut and swap.

Cool.

[Off-Mic]

TAPE ENDS – [27:54]

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