SkateSoundsLDN: The untold story of London’s rollerskating record label and the rising subculture of life on eight wheels
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(Credits: Far Out / SkateSoundsLDN)
Editor’s note: SkateSoundsLDN is an independent record label and production house rooted in London‘s rollerskating scene. The 2020s have seen a renaissance in UK skating culture, and as a legion of youngsters ride along, living life on eight wheels, they’re bringing new music and energy to one of the most unique communities in the world.
Adam Friedman from SkateSoundsLDN, the record label harnessing this energy and offering it a home, tells Far Out Magazine all about the rising trend and its importance below.
Adam Friedman: There’s a secret nightlife in London tucked away in underground carparks and late-night street meets.
On Fridays, I head out with my favourite nocturnal characters, a motley crew of loyal disciples to our host Nana, who shepherds us through the city. Lincoln, a chatty Scot who travels here every few weeks purely for the scene, tells me in his thick accent, “It was the mods of the ‘60s, the punks of the ‘70s, and it’s the rollerskaters of the 2020s.”
After two hours of racing through side streets and weaving between double-decker buses, we arrive at a supermarket parking lot that feels like a scene out of Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. The distant thumping bass pied-pipers us in as you’re hit with the haze of marijuana smoke and party hubbub.
There are hundreds of rollerskaters here, speeding around in circles to jungle music, mosh-pitting to new dancehall bangers, whining to slow jam anthems. This is the golden era of London skating.
My move here from Australia was centred around this search for community: to find those artistic trailblazers pioneering a movement. As a record producer, I’d assumed it’d be in music. I’d gotten lucky with some early TikTok success: made songs with billions of views, ran campaigns for international artists like Shakira and OutKast, and was flown out to the US to help with political strategy after running presidential TikTok campaigns in 2020.
All of this eventually led to spearheading a joint venture in London’s Sony office. The dream came true, or so I thought.
I loved being the captain of my own ship, but got lost in the major label’s current: data, streams, engagement. “Have you got a hit?” I was asked daily. My focus was so locked on fleeting viral moments that I never took the time to invest in the long-term story or foster a core audience. By the time my financial backers moved on from Sony, I was left stranded, and it was around then when rollerskating unexpectedly came into my life.
I’d just moved next to a skating hotspot near Burgess Park, and having occasionally rollerbladed before, I brought a pair to the local spot. Prior to this, I’d always associated rollerskating with older uncles at the disco rink, but this was different. Cool, inner-city youths, speeding through traffic, all while going backwards? I was hooked. I gorged on street skates and received all the benefits the lifestyle offers: regular exercise, sunshine, mastering a craft, but it’s the people that make it what it is.
There’s a perfect cross-section of society, doctors, bus drivers, postmen, but the vast majority of south London’s skate scene is Black, which of course seeps into every part of the culture. You’ll eat jerk chicken at skate events, dance the Electric Slide, or hear afrobeat, amapiano, house, and many other Black music genres. I was getting a masterclass in music by merely being part of the scene, and many of the selectors who bring their boomboxes along also played a key role in the emergence of garage, funky, and other UK music emanations.
Naturally, the music I was making began to sound like what I was surrounded by, and all those hours watching younger ‘skatefluencers’ posting content of themselves fuelled me with the inspiration to create music for them. The skate community became my muse. Photographers I’d met on street skates were now shooting album art for me. Singers I’d met at skate events were coming round to the studio.
My worlds collided, and what started as casual collaboration progressed into forming my record label, SkateSoundsLDN: the soundtrack to the lifestyle, music that’s embedded in the scene and the culture.
I’d be grateful if I moved to London and somehow got to be a part of any scene. Imagine coming in 2005 and working at some Camden pub where Amy Winehouse and the Arctic Monkeys played every other weekend, and I got to listen to their music, see the scene evolve, and have a pint with them after their gig. But the key difference with skating is that I don’t just get to observe the community: I get to actively participate in it.
I’m learning a trick off someone and then teaching one back. I’m dancing with my contemporaries on these street skates. I get to paint with Dali and Picasso, I get to write with Hemingway and Austen, and I get to skate with JB, Ace, Vicky, and Cisco.
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