MOTO XXX …  No, It’s Not A Seedy Dirt-Bike/Porn Company … 

It’s a company that’s been shaking up the American moto scene for the last 12 years with its race team and films that have captured the perfect blend of dirt-bike racing, freeriding, freestyle, hot chicks with plastic tits, the lifestyle that goes with it, and a soundtrack that’s glued together by the rawest of Californian Punk music. Kurt Haller is one of three partners, and the driving force behind Moto XXX, and on my last mission to America I caught up with the man in his home town of Santa Barba to find out how Moto XXX came about and where it’s heading in the future.

Kurt, just give me a brief background of what you were doing before Moto XXX and then how it came about: Well I was working in Hollywood doing feature films and working in the film industry, but I was really tired of working for other people and at one point I started doing snowboard movies (Raw Sewage, Fallout and Flush). I was then approached by my friend Jordan from Strung Out (Cal punk band), and he said, ‘Hey, have you seen Moto, have you seen the tricks and everything?’ I was like, no, I used to be into Moto when I was a kid, but I haven’t been into it for a while. This was in ’92, so we checked it out and started filming Metzger, Deegan, Seth and some other guys, and it all blew up from there. At the time when Jordan came to you had you heard of the first Crusty film being produced: We knew of the videos like Terrafirma, but they didn’t have the attitude like you see on the snowboard films, and then while we were filming the original Moto XXX we found out that John Freeman was filming Crusty Demons, and he just beat us to the punch with it, maybe four months before we did. So the actual name Moto XXX, who came up with that? Jordan, Eric (partner, also in NOFX) and I were bouncing around a few names and we really didn’t know what we should do. We were thinking of things that played with Moto X, and we thought of triple X, ’cause we’re like way gnarly (laughs). The porn thing did pop up, but it was never about porn, we have nothing to do with pornography. When the movie XXX (Vin Diesel) came out I think it let the mainstream know that everything that comes out with triple X isn’t necessarily pornography. In the early days, what was the vision: We just wanted to make a crazy video about Moto X, that showed the guys how they were, away from the racing scene, which was the only scene in those days. There wasn’t a freestyle scene, there was only the guys who had attitude, the guys that would go out and build jumps and try different tricks. Back then a Hellclicker, Can Can or a Nac Nac was a big thing, and that was how it all kinda started for us. What was it like on some of those early shoots you did with some of the guys like Metz: A lot of the filming we did on Moto XXX 1 was of guys who never made it as freestyle guys. Racer guys like Brian Swink, who actually did the first Can Can, he came up with that trick. Some of them went by the wayside as they were a bit older. It was the younger guys like Metz and Deegan who kept progressing and progressing to where they are now – Backflips, etc. Where did you mix that first video: It was before there was a Moto XXX headquarters, we edited the whole thing at my house in LA. Once the first one came out, how was the response: When the first video came out we thought we would sell a couple of thousand, which we would have been happy with, but the response was incredible, we sold 30,000-40,000 of that first video. And then it progressed to where the rider’s in the first video wanted sponsorship to help them race, and we thought it would be a good way to give back to the sport so we started our first race team with Brian Swink and Brian Deegan. Then the second race into the season Brian Deegan won the L.A. Coliseum SX and Ghost rode his bike across the finish line, and then everybody thought we were the bad guys that were against the sport, and not playing by the rules. We pushed that and ran with it for a while, but in reality that really wasn’t Moto XXX, that was Brian Deegan. So do you think this helped launch Deegan’s career: Oh for sure, without him Ghost Riding that bike, who knows, maybe the Metal Mulisha would never have happened. Through the years with Moto XXX have you always had the goal to want to take it to the big race teams: Well, we’ve always been a big thorn in the race team’s side. We have had good results, and our guys have beat factory riders. We have always been the team that may not have the most money, may not have the big rig, may not have the best bikes, may not have the best components, but we are there week in week out. People thought we would just go away, but it never happened, and here we are in 2003 and we have the big semi and have stepped it up to the next level like a factory-style team. Has it been tough along the way: Numerous times we have been kicked down. One time we had all our race bikes ripped off, Metzger’s, Deegan’s, Paul Currie’s, four of them, and we had to borrow bikes for a race the next day. We also had a box van burn to the ground on the Warped Tour. We have had numerous setbacks, but we have just stuck in there. You mentioned you have Eric and Jordan, are they like your silent partners: Well I call them my silent partners, because they don’t do too much with the team. They are a big part of it, especially with the music side on the films, but the day-to-day running of the business is pretty much the guys in the office and myself. Jay Schweitzer was with you for a while: Yeah, Jay worked with us for a while and he did a great job with Moto XXX, but during the last year he has been getting into his own videos so we parted on good terms. He still does filming for me sometimes, and we have the Eargasm film project we’re working on together, but he mainly has his own videos now – he has one called Crush coming out with Transworld early 2004, but he doesn’t work at Moto XXX in the office any more. Looking at Moto XXX from the outside it seems to be the company that gets on with everyone, you don’t have any gripes with anybody, and I’ve never heard a bad word from anybody about you guys: There are a lot of guys out there in the Moto X industry that say one thing to your face and do another behind your back. I’ve always been the person that does what I say, and I make sure that the people that work for me do the same, and that they’ll pull off what they say they will. Numerous companies in the industry come and go, especially freestyle ones. A lot of them make these big claims and promise you this or that, but nothing ever happens. A long time ago I decided I am only going to have good people work for me, only quality people in my organisation, which is what I’ve counted on. Moto XXX videos are well known for its hot girls with fake boobs, and now that you have a family and a young daughter does that change what you film and your outlook: I am still young at heart, and I think it’s important to know your roots and remember where you came from. I don’t think we will change our formula, we have one that works for us. We are not trying to reinvent the wheel here, we know what works for Moto XXX, people like it and we are going to stick with it. Sometimes my wife doesn’t appreciate what I do all the time, but that’s just the way that it goes and the girls have just gotta learn to live with that. You are in Santa Barbara, away from the crux of the industry, does that make a difference: We live like an hour from L.A. and about two hours from the motorcycle industry so at times we have to travel a lot, and at other times it is so good ’cause you don’t have to deal with all the attitudes of people coming by all the time wanting to get hooked up. It’s nice to be close to the ocean and away from the tourist loop, it’s cool, and when we go travelling we are close to L.A. and the airport. Moto XXX has been famous in the past for buffing its fans, what’s the deal with this: When we started we had no fan base, we came out of nowhere, so we figured that with our music connections through the videos, we could give a lot of stuff away, which would pump people up and make them happy to come back and see us again. In the beginning we used to give away a lot and we still do, it’s all about giving back to the fans and the people that support Moto XXX. Looking towards the future, you have a really solid foundation, how far can you take this thing: I think that with the help we are getting with our race team from our sponsors Honda and Yoshimura, it just gets bigger and better every year. The one thing that we have never had, who knows one day we might, is that corporate sponsor to grease the wheels and make everything easy. We are continually struggling with our team that has a budget close to a million dollars. We are always paying bills here and there and not having the money to put into something else, so with a big corporate sponsor it would make everything so much easier. Who knows if it will ever come, if it does great, if it doesn’t it’s like we are here and if we get there that’s great. But who knows, sometimes when you sell your soul to a corporate sponsor you find out a year or two later that you did the wrong thing, but if we don’t go there we’ll never know. Look at Brian Deegan, he’s the general of the Metal Mulisha, but he’s got some corporate sponsors too. From the outside it looks like Moto XXX is a huge company, but there’s only like four or five guys working here: Yeah, everyone thinks, Moto XXX, you guys are huge, you got all this money. People perceive it that way and maybe it’s good that people perceive it that way, but we are not so huge at all, we’re just happy doing what we are doing and that’s about it. And your lifestyle’s pretty good living in Santa Barbara: Yeah, we love where we live, surfing is a big part of our culture here, it’s great. We eat out at Longboards on the Santa Barbara Pier all the time, and the Santa Barbara skate park is a five-minute walk away. Anything you want to close with: I’d like to thank all the people that have been involved with our organisation. From the riders to the sponsors and partners, without them the ride that we have been on with Moto XXX would not have been possible. I appreciate everything that everybody has ever done for us. Oh, and also my good friend Goba who’s doing this interview, thanks.