Danny Larsen is the black horse that gallops through the white hills. He is a rocker, illustrator, slasher extraordin"hair". We've covered him multiple times in the past but we're always happy hear about what's new with him. Read up as we Ketchup about the past season, his wife, his guitar, his drawings, his new company, his little friend that is growing on his lip, and what we can expect from this season as he continues his reign of radness.

You finally got married to Gro after being engaged for forever. Are you still in the honeymoon period or desperate for divorce?
Forever? I had the normal preparing period of 1 year plus some added time due to the fact that I’m not home for most of the winter. But yeah, it’s great for sure, she’s the love of my life and marriage just seemed like a great way to celebrate that. Things haven’t really changed too much, I’m calling her my wife instead of my girlfriend but that’s about it.

Danny spikes this method into the Austrian sky. Take notes, kids. Photo: Carlos Blanchard

Word on the street is that you recently started your own company, what is it and where can we see it?
Yeah man, it’s called VINTER. It’s about as much in the start-up phase as it could be and since it’s run by me with a little help from my sister, it takes some time to set it up properly. Basically it’s a t-shirt company, but I’m also doing artwork for other companies. I wanted to make a t-shirt company with a strong focus on artwork. So for now pretty much all the artwork will be prints of my drawings. It’s all going to be drawings created while listening to Norwegian black metal, so it will naturally be inspired by that. But none of the satanic bullshit though, that stuff is just childish, haha. Right now in the start-up period I’m working on putting up an actual web page, but for the moment you could check out vinter.bigcartel.com and vinterclothing.blogspot.com.

Danny does the inverted ground-floor version of a method. Mini-shred Andrecht. Photo: Carlos Blanchard

Happy Movember! Did you celebrate?
Yes! Like every man should, I got a thin, twirled-up bad boy resting on my upper lip for the benefit of men across the globe. It’s basically an anorexic version of what Tyler Chorlton's been rocking lately, but I’m proud of the little bugger, keeps my manliness alive. It feels good to increase my masculinity in a rather metrosexual pretty-boy scene.

How was the first snow up in Norway? Did you make a lil jump on the local hill and over tweak the shit out of some methods with mucho afterbang?
You know it. Gro and I headed out to the first open in resort in Norway to get a chance to shred again, it was so much fun. It was just an icy hill but still damn fun. I just love cruising the pre-season hills, there are no kickers or anything like that, you just have to use what you have and spin off whatever you can find. That method you’re talking about isn’t off a jump by the way, that’s a full-on ollie method, “rocker boards don’t got pop” my ass.

Danny cranks a mega method lien off the hip up in Trysil. Photo: Lorenz Richard

What K2 deck are you gonna be riding this season? What percent of your time are you on a rocker board?
I’ve been riding the K2 Parkstar all year and that’s what I’ll be rocking this year too. It’s a rocker board, naturally, and I will spend 100% of my time rocking the rocker. If you ask me, camber boards is a thing of the past and I believe the guys at K2 have truly nailed this new technology down. I guess that’s what you get when you spend that much time and effort to make a better riding experience. So in short, no reason to stick to old habits.

Danny shatters through the pristine silence of the Leogang wilderness. Photo: Frode Sandbech

You filmed with the Pirates again last year, how happy are you with your part?
Yup, the Pirates are like a family now. When I look back on it I’m happy with my part, it didn’t turn out at all like I had imagined it but we had to get creative due to the crazy winter. The avalanche danger just prevented us from doing classic cheese wedge “do the the best trick you can” spots and we basically spent more time riding our boards and trying to come up with stuff that would look cool on film. It’s a part that motivates you to go out and ride yourself, and personally I think that’s what is most important in a snowboard movie. It’s cool and impressive to see guys hucking in all kinds of flippity flops, but too often you need the right kind of special jump to make something like that happen, it’s just not something most people get the chance to try out. So I would say it’s cooler to see creative parts where you get inspired to try out some of the stuff yourself when so many are focusing on showing their repertoire of hard tricks.

Danny clobbers this cheese wedge to fat marshmallow landing. Photo:Frode Sandbech

Are you shooting more with Jérôme Tanon next season? You guys seem to make a good tag team.
That is the plan for sure, that free meal-loving cheese-eater is wonderful to work with! Besides shooting amazing photos, he’s also great to hang out with. When he fires up his supersonic English with a slight French twang and talks about where he wants to put his “fuck-us” (aka, focus) you just can’t help smiling. He’s constantly broke and it sometimes feels like we’re taking care of a little child, giving him food so he will survive and stuff like that, but it’s all good fun. Jérôme gets all thumbs up from me, that guy is awesome!

What are trying to do less of this season that you did way too much of last season.
Staying inside when Mother Nature is doing her best to make sure I’m having a horrible time. I’m over that, she was a grumpy old bag last year, so with that in mind I’m working on some backup plans when she gets to that time of the month. Being inside is boring.

More and more of your artwork is cropping up (check the new Method tee, free with your subscription!), is death your favorite thing to draw? How did you get started? You were probably a huge doodler at school...
Oh yes, all of my school books were covered in drawings, that was like one of the coolest things about school. Getting new books and covering them in protective brown paper (that’s compulsory in Norwegian schools, by the way) which also acted as a fresh canvas, ready to be transformed into a masterpiece of small and obscure drawings. I’ve probably drawn skulls and stuff like that since the first day I heard Guns 'N Roses and still do. Lately I’ve switched over to other stuff though, birds or animals with antlers being the current favorite. Antlers are sick, I wish I had antlers.

Danny doesn't sleep, gettin' some of that nocturnal gnar. Ollie transfer. Photo: Carlos Blanchard

You dressed rock before it was fashionable in snowboarding to do so. Do you embrace the hip-hop kids wearing leather jackets or are you pissed they stole your look?
I couldn’t care less. People care more about what type of clothing style you have than what grab you’re doing. Who cares if you pre-spun 180 on the kicker as long as you got sick steeze in the lift line? That whole rock 'n roll vs hip-hop bullshit belongs in kindergarten, “my dad can beat up your dad, baggy pants are so much more snowboard than tight pants”. Grow up.

Would you rather cut your hair short or wear baggy pants and a basketball jersey?
Damn, you got me, There’s no chance in hell that I would wear that stuff, so I guess I have to go with cutting my hair short. Haha!

Carlos had to get a neck brace after grabbing this shot. Massive Method blast! Photo: Blanchard

Would you secretly rather be in a death metal band for a living than a snowboarder?
No, snowboarding is way cooler.

Word has it that you just started to learn guitar- are you ready to make the above question become reality?
Not entirely true, I have been a lousy guitar player for a long time. But recently I got more interested in playing, so finally I kinda know how to play. I’m in a band called Beist, but that’s something I rather keep just as a hobby. It’s just a great way to zone out, you know. No better feeling than playing something that you actually like to get that “holy crap, this sounds great!” feeling.

Now that you are happily married, do you plan to tone down the riding/ traveling and settle down, have kids and live happily ever after?
Hell no.

Danny and his rocker blade. Photo: Frode Sandbech

Any names that you suggested to your wife for a future kid that your wife responded with a "oh, hell no!"?
I suggested Tom Kingsnorth once, but then she started crying, accusing me of ruining the future of our imaginary kid. Other than that, we have a great time coming up with horrible name suggestions, at the moment Dan-Jan and Gro-Gry (combination of actual Norwegian names) are our favorites.

Companies that help Danny pay his rent and give him cool free shit: K2, Whiteout, Spy, 32, Etnies, Transform Gloves Session Boardshop.

Keep up with what's new in Danny's life at www.dannylarsen.net

Interview by Tom Kingsnorth