| Alright, lets start this off. Who are you and where did you come from? |
| My Name is Dominik Wrobel, I´m from Cologne, Germany and was born in a little town near Cologne but grew up in Heinsberg which is near Aachen, Germany. |
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| You have a website called Woozy. You want to let everyone know what Woozy is all about? |
| Woozy is an Online Magazine. I try to see it as an open forum and a way to promote and show BMX in a postive way. |
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| How did the site start and how long have you been doing it?
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| The thing is running since 1999 but i started doing it "serious" since 2004.
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| It seemed to me you were one of the first people to offer a site that wasn't just about the best tricks and hottest parts. Why did you decide to make Woozy the way it is and has it morphed from the original concept? |
| I never thought about that but maybe you are right. Sure its not all about the best tricks and products but its all part of it. I try to keep the quality of the content as high as possible - and i am definetly convinced that there is more to BMX than just tricks and parts. People listen to music, people make a lot of jokes, people are partying together, people are creative, etc - I try to show that. But i am also trying to listen to the readers - their opinion is important to me. The whole concept morphed for sure. It all started as a local zine and t-shirt thingy. I am still very into designing shirts and hopefully someday they will be available to some more people. |
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| You do a lot of design work on your site, what's your design background? |
| I just like to look at things. Its something that naturally progressed during the years. I worked at some Marketing and Advertising companies but it never felt "right". I am just not into designing a medicine package - and that was what they wanted me to do. I want to do my own stuff and use my energy for something that i can relate to. |
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| I'm feeling all your crazy backgrounds and the whole bitmap steeze. How does the design of the site relate to what Woozy is about? |
| Doing the backgrounds is one of my favourite things when layouting a page. The little .gif images i use are fun to work with. |
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| What's the deal with the robot? Where did he come from? |
| Emiglio is one of the funniest guy i ever met. I found him with my good friend Pierre in a suburb next to some glass container. Then he went to Subdivision, Interbike and all that and even more. And right at the point where you think the whole thing is over i get an email from Sandy Carson telling me that Emiglio is human. Its fun and made some people laugh. Thats a good thing. Emiglio on Roadfools ? maybe....... |
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| You have quite the list of contributors on your site. How do you know so many people? |
| Well, i am not sure about that....i like travelling a lot - you meet a lot of people that way, then Cologne as a city has a lot of visitors due to wethepeople, the spots, the mag, peoples store, the events that take place here and all that. yep. Thats about it. No big deal. |
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| Have you asked everyone to help, or do people just volunteer? |
| Some ask to contribute, some get asked by me. Its almost 50 / 50. I like it if people send stuff. myspace helps - hahaha! |
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| Is Woozy a full time thing? What kind of other stuff are you up to? How do you pay your bills? |
| Yes, currently its morphing to fulltime. But its still very hard to keep everything going. I am still the one who always needs to talk people into running an advert, which is definetly one of the things i don´t like. But no magazine can survive without advertisers. Then i do film/video/edit jobs for Props and Soul here and there. I also helped layouting some issues of freedombmx, the german print mag. I try to contribute to magazines whenever its possible. Then i do advert layouts, web sites, video adverts, general video projects (editing and filming) -stuff like that. We also do 2 woozy-jams every year which i really like to do. Sounds big but at the moment i definetly never know if its gonna work for the month. At the moment my bills depend a lot on advertisers. Can be scary but i choosed that way of living. There is no big publisher behind woozybmx mag. Beeing self employed has good and bad sides..... |
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| If you could do a feature with one person, who would it be and what would you do? |
| Thats a hard one ! I am not sure....maybe the person who reads this on defgrip and thinks: "what the hell is this guy talking about ?" |
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| What kind of things do you have planned for Woozy? Where would you like it to go? |
| Woozy is there to grow. Its a magazine and open for all positive things. I would like to see it stay for a long time and work with some nice people. I would like to see the quality grow all the time and the list of contributors and supporters needs to grow. You are welcome. dominik@woozybmx.com |
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| Do you have any plans of an analog version of Woozy, or any sort of spinoff? |
| I guess it will stay online. People inform themselves more and more over the internet. A video would be a good thing again (i did a lot of projects a while ago). We´ll see what happens. |
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| What is your take on the whole internet communication thing? Do you think you communicate more through emails and instant messages, or do you pick up the phone? |
| I do most of my communication via email and instant messaging. Phoning around the world would be way too expensive but picking up the phone happens quite a lot, too. |
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| Woozy is focused around BMX. What's your background with bikes? |
| I have been riding since 1996....i love it and try to do it as often as i can. I guess you can call me addicted. |
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| Do you get to go on many trips, or do you just hang around home? |
| I try to go on as many trips as possible but the magazine work lays down during this time which i sometimes get a little nervous about.... If i go on a trip i usually ride, take photos and/or film, too. Its all good - travelling is a good thing. I like beeing productive on and off the bike. |
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| Who do your ride with? |
| I ride alone a lot also with my good friend Pierre and Christoph. A little session with Markus Wilke can be fun. Thomas Fritscher is pure bike control... I love to ride with Jörn Streitbürger ans Seamus even though that doesn´t happen a lot. Cologne Locals are always good to ride with. Lately Ed Docherty kicked my ass pretty good to go ride... everyone who enjoys riding. |
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| What do you think of BMX today? |
| Its all good. Lots of people do their own thing and BMX develops into lots of directions. The super good thing is if you go out and ride you don´t need to give fu%& about all that. Go out, have fun and a good time. |
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| What do you think the most valuable lesion you have learned from BMX is?
Everything you set your mind to can be done. |
| What is the craziest thing that went down, while bikes were involved?
For me the riding at the Backyard Jams is pretty crazy... I witnessed some of the hardest stuff there... |
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| What's your daily routine? |
| Kiss my grilfriend at 7:00, get up around 9:00, check emails, write emails all day. Setting up themes for the daily updates. Layouting the updates and pump it up. Emailing some more. Ride, eat, sleep. |
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| Are you good at getting stuff done on time, or do you like to wait till the last minute? |
| I have to get news-stuff up asap but i am trying to get way from a news only thing all the time. I like good, indeph articles better. If i contribute to other projects i am usually using the deadline till the last day but i hate beeing too late. |
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| We have to do the inspiration question... What kind of stuff inspires you? |
| Everything i see while driving and riding. I look at a lot of art and adverts on the streets. Magazines, videos, internet, nature, music. ya ya ! |
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Lets get into some top 3’s...
The first three websites you check out in the morning: |
woozybmx.com if its still running
Google news
A random site (i try to check almost every bmx company site everyday) |
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| The last three textures you used for backgrounds on Woozy: |
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| The last three people you met because of your site: |
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Hard one....i have no clue ! |
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| Three favorite magazines: |
DIG
CREAM
FREEDOMBMX
RIDE |
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| Three favorite computer applications: |
Adobe Premiere
NETobjects
Adobe Photoshop |
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| Three things you keep in your pocket: |
Keys
hankys
money |
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| Three things you want: |
My girlfriend
a long life
emails |
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| Thanks so much man, any thing you would like to end with? |
| Thank you Harrison for this interview, everyone who checks out and supports the mag, friends and family and sponsors. |
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