Nick has been talking with Ryan Denehy a lot lately, about his interests in film, riding, and the awesome website and film company that he runs, The Eastern Front. Nick recently sent a couple of questions his way to find out a little more about Ryan. Turns out, he manages to keep his company (which is actually a company!!) staight while getting through school, riding bikes, and drinking 40's. Check out the interview, then check out The Eastern Front!

Ryan Denehy, 20 years old, Fairfield CT.

Right now I'm going to school at Hofstra University in Long Island. I go back to Connecticut all the time though - that's where I live and prefer to spend my time.

I just got back from opening weekend at Rays MTB park in Cleveland, Ohio. All the rippers were out there: McCaul, Lenosky, Chase, George Ryan, Adam Huack, Jamie Goldman, Anson Wellington, Joe Prisel, and Mike Steidley, to name a few. I didn't really get much footage but it was dope to get out there and see everyone again. I also wrapped up a promotional DVD for DMR Bikes. We did a big roadtrip over the summer through the south of England. The DVD was given away at Interbike and I think another version of it is going to be distributed with sets of their pedals. Lastly I'm doing a bunch of work with a new online action sports community called The Banquet (bnqt.com), which everyone will be hearing about pretty soon.

Not bad, it sucks 'cause over the summer I got into a really good routine of waking up, grinding out work on my computer for four hours, going riding with my friends, working some more, and then chillin' out at a sick house party or whatever. Now it kind of sucks having to schedule in classes and school work all while stuck out on Long Island. On the upside, I'll have a degree and I've got two more years to determine what I need to do to do this full time once I graduate.

Freshman year of high school I bought a really cheap Canon ZR20 with a little fisheye and some things. I started filming my friends riding every day. Then I met my friend Andrew (Davies) and he started jumping off roofs on his bike and throwing himself down huge sets of stairs. He got me back into mountain biking in my sophomore year of high school. We would go out with a group of riders and film everything. I would always go home and watch ski movies and try to emulate everything they did in terms of filming and editing. After a year and a half of eaching myself how to film and edit I bought a Canon GL1 and starting e-mailing mountain bike video producers looking for a summer job. Of all the people I e-mailed, Thor Wixom got back to me and said I could meet up with him and his brother at Rye Airfield on a shoot for Jib 2. To make a long story short, less than a year after meeting Thor I was on a roadtrip with the E13/Evil Bikes team going down to North Carolina shooting for "The New Deal".

I wanted a name for the company that represented who we are and where we're from. My friends and I where just sitting around throwing ideas at each other. Coming up with a company name was super hard. So we figured we're from the east coast and we're just gonna take this over. The Eastern Front sounded like a good name to portray that concept. From there I pretty much used the internet to build myself up completely, make a name for myself, and establish an image for everything. For better or worse I think I introduced the bike industry to the whole "web whore" marketing concept. Nobody put out as many teasers, self aggrandizing press releases, and gratuitous internet bullshit as I did back in 2004. Being 17 at the time I knew the internet was my loophole into the business. "The New Deal" had so much web hype that magazine reviews actually mentioned the hype in the reviews. That's a first in this industry. If anything, it taught me the ins and outs of viral marketing. Now the viral concept is something that I'm using with almost all of my clients to help build strong brand recognition.

The Sony A1U with an Azden shotgun mic and a special set of filters. I also have a couple different computers with over 1 terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) of hard drive space combined. With the Sony A1 I also tweak the camera settings...but not like most people do. I know a lot of people that turn the color saturation in the camera wayyyy up and then set their white balance all perfect. That's cool and all but if you're not de-interlacing and doing some hard-core color correction in post [production] the picture will never look as good as it should. Every time you blow out a color you lose detail and get color smear. Turn your camera color down, sharpness all the way down, and then, in your editor, adjust all the color levels, gamma's, hues, and what have you.

All over the world. I've been in British Columbia every summer, The UK, Germany, Utah, California, Italy, Vermont etc... I don't travel as much as a lot of the other guys do but I definitely move around enough to keep things interesting.

The New Deal really was a new deal so to speak. I was making a video and focusing on things that people never focused on. I wanted to show that you could make a super creative and polished video for under $5,000. Raise the bar a little. We did some good numbers on that video and it was really well received. So in a lot of ways that video named itself. The Big Deal shouldn't have been made. I had no footage and no resources to make a follow up to The New Deal. It's a cool flick but it's in no way a big deal. Everybody just needs to wait until these next three projects I'm doing come out. Then you'll see what's up.

DMR Sidekick with all DMR parts. I ride street most of the time but lately I've been wanting to build a pump track and start actually mountain biking again.

For bike industry brands I'd say DMR, Brooklyn Machine Works, E13, Sombrio, Santa Cruz, and Oakley have always appealed to me. Some of those companies are my sponsors so I'm really pumped to be involved with them. Outside of the industry I'm into Nixon, Upper Playground, J.Crew, 10 Deep, Volkswagen, Stussy, Freshjive, Billionaire Boys Club, Home Depot, Salomon, Line Skis, and Motorola.

Ah shit, IPod.

It all depends on my mood. My top five albums at the moment are:
Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor
Lil Wayne - DJ Drama/Gangsta Grillz Dedication Part 2 Mixtape
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
The New Deal - Live at Camp Bisco V
Billy Talent - Billy Talent II

On an average night around here it's Bud Light, Natty Light, or 40's of OE. I'm also a huge fan of wine and champagne. I actually have a Veuve Clicquot label wrapped on the top tube of my frame.

[Laughs] I have a plan but it's not specific. I'm an entrepreneur and hopefully won't have to work for anyone ever again. I've been lucky enough to have worked for myself for the last three years. So as far as plans for later on I have no idea. Catch up with me in 2-3 years and I'll give you a little update.

Man 20 million other things. It's just crazy; I'm always writing new proposals, making phone calls, editing, and strategizing. I would say half of what I do now is strategy. I'll just sit and stare at the wall and come up with ideas. It sounds weird but it serves me well. Apart from that I go skiing as much as possible. Surfing and climbing are always fun. I go to a lot of parties, travel, and chill with my friends. For the most part I'm just completely focused on my business and getting to the next level.