Farang Magazine

Hey Farangs,

A few of you may have heard this through the grape-vine. Anan doesn’t really mention it unless you ask him about it, in fact it took about a year of knowing him until we found out about his shocking past.

As a young child he was forced to do terrible things, which made him insanely popular with teenage girls. Exactly! Anan used to be a child Popstar!

Check out the moves he busts in one of his biggest hits:

Anyway, this stuff is a long time ago and the only way we ever notice it in every day life is when we walk through a shopping mall and Anan has to stop for the 5th photo with a fan.

But then shit got real when Anan agreed  to perform for his old label’s Reunion Concert, along with the biggest stars of his time. He would get to sing 3 songs and do some Freerunning. I quickly decide to grab my camera and capture the event.

Anan has been rehearsing for two weeks when I decide to stop by for a look at the set and have to realize that this wasn’t all fun and games. We walk into a 10.000 seat stadium, where dozens of dancers practice their routine under a lighting construction that looks like a giant-steel spider and this was just a first glimpse of what was to come.

After working our way through hundreds of fans Shaun and me end up backstage and chill out for an hour before the concert begins. We definitely feel like aliens, being most definitely the only white guys around. This is me attempting to blend in:

Anan is a fucking badass, It almost feels like he just wakes up one morning, hits a switch and is in Popstar-Mode for a day. Shaun and me are super excited to see him on stage, 10.000 asian girls are sitting in the crowd and waiting for a show and he chills and jokes around, drinks some Starbucks Caramel thing with loads of cream on top and then proceeds to put his outfit on.

All around dancers are practicing their steps one last time, putting makeup and outfits on. Tension is rising and I take a few more snaps before I go into the Stadium to find a nice spot to shoot from.

One of the nicest things in Thailand is how you get away with stuff, as long as you act super-confident.

So I decide to climb over a small fence and position myself right next to the stage, I’m a foreigner and have a big camera so the security guard gives me a funny look and decides not to bother about it and turns away. That worked!

Throughout the concert I’ll do the same thing and hope to shoot from a few good angles.

Here we go already, the show starts!

The atmosphere is crazy! Imagine 10.000 girls screaming one of your best friend’s name and going absolutely crazy about a guy you’ve seen walking around the flat in his underwear just this morning.

The music is an asian version of the 90s. That’s right, nothing you or I would ever listen to, but I can’t help myself to get carried away by the energy that comes from the crowd. Explosions, dancers, massive screens, LED-screens, catchy melodies and you got me.
Worst music ever but fuck yeah this is awesome!

Anan busts out his routine and is officially the world’s first Popstar to do a Pimp-Flip on stage. Fuck, I guess this move deserves it’s name now.

CLICK HERE to check out the video :)

I change my position several times and take a few more snaps of the what’s happening onstage and backstage, here are a few impressions:

Anan on Stage
High Five like a Boss

Shaun watching the show.Anan’s brother Joni on stage (he’s a popstar too, but I won’t explain this now)

 Some of the dancers messing around

Watching the show backstage

The outside of the arena is empty during the show

The whole show is over and I still can’t believe what happened.

We’ll probably wake up tomorrow, Anan’s gonna walk around in his underwear and it will feel like nothing ever happened. But deep inside I’ll know, that guy in the underwear really is a fucking Popstar.

Crazy shit.

More Farang News coming soon :)
Jason

Pip Andersen is a renown within the Freerunning community, being around since day 1 of Freerunning in the UK and still pushing the limits today.

Known for casual Wall-DoubleFulls and fucking Frontflipping Imax he is definitely a household name.

The problem with being that fucking good is, everybody else looks bad next to you. Which made it hard for Pip to find friends let alone join a team. This story has an happy end, Pip just joined Storm Freerunning.

No for real, Pip’s a cool guy and he has lots of friends, he’s even got a wife so leave Pip alone!

Anyway, this is some pretty good news for everybody that loves the stuff Pip busts out and the quality content Storm produces. The two videos they featured in together have been phenomenal and we can’t wait to see more!

Tempest Freerunning made a name for themselves when they released their I Freerun LA video a few years back. Since then they’ve won the very first World Freerun Championships, built their own Freerunning Academy and most recently hosted The Takeover. Good shit!#

It looks like they’ve been in the lab for a while, working on their next big thing, the release of the TRU COLORS line. Bright Colors, Venice Beach, Neon. Shit! they’re bringing the 80s back, but in a good way…..wait!? is that even possible?

TRU COLORS is about embracing who you are and not just simply showing it, no you need to throw it into someone’s face with Holi Colors so they fucking know whats up! That’s at least what their new video suggest, check it out and then head over to www.tempestfreerunning.com and check out their brand new clothing!

Bartje is definitely one of the up and coming. In this new video he beasts a massive frontflip precision and makes huge jumps look easy.
If you want to know more about him check our latest article: Who the fuck is Bart!?

Recently we stumbled over the belgian brand KOMONO, which designs beautiful watches. We especially love their new Wizard series, greatly relying on FullPrint-Patterns without being generic and giving it their own little note.

I just got mine a week ago and fell in love with how well it is made and how versatile it works with everything I wear.

If you’re interested, click here and have a look.
-Jason

Back in the days all the “Oldschool-David’s Word is Gospel” – Fanatics used to go on and on about how they train to be useful and to save themselves in an emergency situations. If you go to a jam they are the guys that discuss a move more than they train it.

To be honest, it is more likely for Freerunning to cause you an emergency situation, than for it to save you from one. Period.

And if you get in to one of these emergencies good spacial awareness can save your live, as this video beautifully showcases:

ALL GOOD!

Elliot Erwitt is definitely my favorite photographer right now!
The character and variety in his work is just outstanding and picking a selection of his photos was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
Here are some of my many favorites and a nice little Interview:

There are so many creative people in the community trying new stuff every day, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with it.

Here are two we really liked :D

What are we up to?

Except for training Shaun and Jason are mostly hanging out in the Farang Base editing some fresh content for Youtube.

Anan is off practicing for a concert he will be performing at in a week, he’s doing a load of singing and dancing, but managed to get a little Freerunning segment into his show.

Pasha embarked on an adventure to Russia, where he is handing out medals. We don’t know what exactly they are for, but who wouldn’t wanna get an honorary medal from the Boss?

In February I stopped by for a training session with Kie in London and ended up snaping pictures of the most crazy jump I’ve ever witnessed:

Kie doing the massive Kong-Precision at Imax for his new video, which got released yesterday and is being shared like weed at a SnoopDog concert.

Before I had to leave I made sure to sit down and ask Kie some questions and this is how we ended up having this Interview:

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on a new video, a bit like the “Letters from the Sky” one. I just wanna try to do the best things I can and trying to push my style of Freerunning.

Trying to be stronger and better.

Farang: Here’s the finished new video

What does the process of making a video look like for you? Who shoots, edits and so on?

I kind of direct everything, so I’ll choose the angles of the camera and stuff, how I want it to move and then whoever is around that day shoots it. I have ideas of what moves I what to film that day and if I feel it I do it, if not then I just ignore it.

I find a song I like, keep it to around 3 minutes and get what I can. I always give myself a rough time period to finish filming, otherwise clips get stalled.

Right now it’s February in London and the weather is terrible, how do you deal with that?

I just train at any opportunity I have with good weather. Even when it’s cold you can get yourself warmed up and it’s not too bad. That’s the hardest bit I think, getting yourself motivated and warmed up, after that it’s alright.

The guys in Russia have it so much worse, so I’m like “Grow some fucking balls”.

Filming a new video makes you want to push your limits, how do you deal with fear?

I always break the movements down in my head and even physically, if I can.

I think the thing with confidence is, as you get better your confidence grows and you have more understanding of what you do anyway. I’m more physically aware of my body than I was last year, so I’m more capable.

I don’t overthink, I spend a lot of time thinking in the shower and breaking it down in my head, visualizing the movements, and they become so real that in the end it becomes easy to make my body actually do it.

How do you develop your jumping power and precision?

Precision is just something that I quite enjoyed – like rail things – so I got better at that, because I was doing it a lot.

Jumping power as well, when I moved to Cambridge Phil was doing a lot of running jumps. And I was hardly doing them back then, except maybe a few roof gaps here and there.

I started doing some, found out I had a decent power and then built up as I got more confident

I think the trick with a running jump is your confidence, because you need to run really fast and also get the technique right on the take-off, knowing when to bend your knees, when to point your feet, getting into the right air-position, opening out to like “air-break” and things like that.

That definitely makes a big difference.

What shoes are you wearing right now?

They’re girls Asics, I don’t know what they’re called actually and I found only one pair of them online – oh fuck, they’re almost broken as well – and those looked alright so I bought them. I didn’t really care that they were girls shoes either. They’re the right size so I said fuck it.

What do you look for in a shoe?

Comfortable and quite rigid, like when the sole is a little bit dense, but still soft. They absorb impact, but not to the point where I don’t feel it.

The shape when you look down as well, how they have the seem that goes across the front. The pointedness of the front and how you see your toe-line. I kinda like that.

What’s your biggest passion next to Freerunning?

I quite like filming and stuff like that, I got a little bit back into skating as well. But mainly filming,….and Piano as well!

Top 3 favorite cities you’ve been to?

1. Failaka Island in Kuwait

2. London, I love living here.

3. I really like Bukarest, it’s such a beautiful city, amazing architecture. That’s where we shot the ad for BURN.

What’s on your playlist right now?

Oooh right, okay, alright. So Tim’s like properly into Drake and that stuff and I never really listen to that shit. I heard him playing it and thought it was a little bit whack.

But I’ve been riding my motorbike quite a bit recently, into town to train. So I’m always looking for new music and I was like “fuck it, I’ll just download some Drake” and I downloaded the Django Soundtrack, which has a little bit of Rick Ross on it.

So I’m giving it a go, but I’m not a 100% sure if I like it or not, that’s the thing.

We leave with this way to sexy image of Kie on his motorcycle, girls pull your panties up from your ankles! Guys, don’t show this photo to your sisters!
We definitely can’t wait to hook up with Kie again and ask him some more.
OUT!