BrieSearch Subject : Zac Mertens

so you can just do my intro in general that I will put it on all of them welcome to the stream welcome to the show we are here today with Brie Cubelic and Zachary Mertens of The Hoonigansare you actually recording that yepokay so first of all welcome to Zack Mertens to the podcast I would like to ask you first thing what are we drinking oh well Thank you for having me on also welcome to me Im drinking an ice cold coors banquet you know I'm a big fan of the banquet the bandit drove long and hard to bring beer back to Atlanta from the Texarkana border Change my childhood and obviously the childhood of many throughout the years  just want to pay my respects still going strong yes ma'amI am cracking a brand new white claw themed beverage hard sparkling cider that is not white claw sorry  what are you drinking you're not drinking that Corona one are you oh God no did you know that Natty light has one now  yeah every company has one now everybody jumped on that bandwagon they saw that spike in Revenue which is funny to me because they became so incredibly popular last summer but they're essentially just like Mad Dog right like it's just like malt liquor and seltzer water which everybody's drinking so you know whatever its zima Zima's making a comeback yeah exactly  it's Zima in new packagingokay so we can go into like how our paths crossed we started working together via making content for hoonigan how I start every podcast is I ask who are you 2:10 that's probably a really good question my name is Zach mertens I am a hate to say this term but I guess a personality, I'm a host at hoonigan but also you know is sometimes editor now but it came up Through the ranks as an editor on the production side of  things mostly post production and you know that kind of most of us are Jack of all trades over there but I'm the in-house semi professional stuntman so anytime that something super dumb  and sketchy has to happen my name is automatically thrown into the ring for it whether I want to go or not so whether that be jumping cars off of ramps to Flat that should not be  jumped you know big sends you know maybe driving something that has a really high risk catching on fire at some point  Zach will do it yeah we work at hoonigan Hoonigan is an automotive essentially a Lifestyle brand  but we are a like content creating machine  we have multiple YouTube channels we were best known for our emerging Gymkhana series featuring our founder Ken Block or I guess I should take co-founder and also I guess the Amazon Prime series The Gymkhana files which is like basically a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of gymkhana 10. yes we do rad stuff we get to live like man children and Destroy cars on a regular basis very true so I came on during Gymkhana files which was how I my intro to Hoonigan which was pretty tame considering and then from there after meeting everybody and kind of getting into content is it Went off the rails was because then I got a real sense of the normal crazy-ass content that you guys do over there which Gymkhana to me was insane as as it was but then kind of getting to do everything else I was like oh my gosh this is a whole community and a whole genre of of content of being Constantly made  and you guys have a huge fan base who are really like loyal and and informed about everything you do what I think is coolyeah you know we got a there are a lot of s*** heads out there that like what we're doing .like what we're the gospel preaching  I want to talk about hoonigan now that we're talking about it we can go back  you started out as an editor right so what are all of your jobs there now. they change pretty significantly but when I started out I met the hoonigan guys through producing another show with a buddy called GnarPM Yeah I want to talk about that toobasically we were filming episode of our show and I was doing all the editing for that oh and when I say a show I mean like you know it's a YouTube channel thing it's not a TV show I have been doing the editing to that and then once we were going to close up shop you know Hoonigan had started doing the original content stuff so the daily transmission is it was  all that's what everything was called back in the day which now it's  branched off into many other shows so many other shows and I came on board  and I was just like hey you guys probably need some help Editing you know cuz  you guys are trying to crank out daily content you know which is like no easy feat and I guess they knew that I could edit that  they knew that I could actually like be in front of the camera here and there so  I kind of started as an editor you know would be  grinding with the boys still like  2 + 3 in the morning sometimes  just cranking out stuff  and I'm moved up through there but as you're there more often you know you inevitably become a character in the mix right  we are filming constantly throughout it's like  4 lack of a better word like if you had like Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory right right now all the people that work within that eventually become characters in the show  and you have your key playersright I guess mine I just was there  and would be doing stuff more more often so you just become essentially the character so I don't know I just started hosting morethat was an interesting thing to me in general kind of how you become a personality just from being around because everybody's constantly cross shooting there's a lot of  intermingling in the same  kind of people but it's interesting to see how everybody has kind of become a character like a personality within that all the content how much is the the people that we see on hoonigan content are characters on camera versus who they are in real life Honestly I think most people are very like that's just how they are in real life me like I tend to default to a character right  it's a good Outlet for me because it causes me to not be a complete jackass in real life anymore but you know like I'm essentially like this  we have a like a running joke around  that I'm the the Hoonigan Billy Mays right so I've always loved infomercials and like like televangelist I think it's hilarious right and like there's a delivery on stuff so you know whenever there is like times where we have an integration or you know we need to go to push some of our own product cuz you know the brand was originally started as a merchandise a clothing company yeah we have a clothing line we were like oh we should push some of the clothes  so there would be things like where I I created  The hoonigan Shopping Network which is like a rip-off shity home version of QVC that was like slightly offensive and really aggravated if you  willyou know that was one of my favorite things. And that was after this was after we had worked together we had gone on a few jobs together we had taken a spontaneous non necessary road trip through Utah to get to an airport I was doing research for a show that I was going to be brought onto and I hadn't seen before and I was watching like previous seasons of it on the channel and this is when you were still doing like random ass commercials in the middle in the middle of the content I got such a kick out of it was like I don't know what you  were selling hair gel or something and I just thought they were so funny  the Dollar Shave Club ones were really funnyyes yes yes oh my God it was so funny I was like this is priceless  Yeah Dollar Shave Club is actually of all of the like non-endemic Brands  that like advertised there or sponsor some of our content Dollar Shave Club would be like hey as long as you say some key things like we're not really going to step on your creative style too much so like I was like I'm going to see how far I can push this and so that's when we created  the one of the new products they have were the groundskeeper butt wipes  so I created a whole commercial based around like having grundle butter like #grundle butter  was the eventual theme And it was basically about like hey  you know you're working in the shop doing whatever the hell you didn't doing  and you're just going to have have swamp ass  all day so like it was basically commercial about swamp ass  but it was fun and we get 2 and the one cool thing about working in the YouTube space is like you can push those boundaries for the most part  on a lot of stuff that's very true but I love doing thatwhat other skills have you had to kind of cultivate since you joined up with hoonigan Well honestly one of the big things  that's pretty rad is that they encourage us to learn a lot of different stuff so so far i built two motorcycles on the channel I built a truck from the ground up when it's like something I've never liked the motorcycles I've done but like really was car stuff likes to strip something all the way down to bare bones and  build it from the ground up pretty cool and obviously  the other fun part about that is having to do it like after work so  work till like 10 p.m. and then start filming yourself trying to like basically screw up left and right figure some s*** out for you know months on and you know working for like 10 p.m. - 3 or 4 a.m. and then going back to work in the morning to like edit and stuff yeah but I got to learn a lot of like mechanical skills stuff like that also with the way we generate content you know where we're shooting at you got to be like this really  agile right like so you know we try out a lot of things we get to try a lot of things that were encouraged to like just go for it and if we Fail you know what it's whatever but you know if they try to like it's constantly learn from it and with an ever-evolving space  like YouTube  where we have what 6 YouTube channels  now and  we are generating usually somewhere between 2 and 3 videos  a week per Channel  it is just a lot of content so you got to be a little like come up with ideas quick execute them quickly figure out how the hell you're going to like with very limited resource  how you're going to create something radical and make it come through to the viewer  but it is just as as radical  as you think it is especially with the Ken Block stuff that it's just a little bit more  you know we try to spend a little bit more time with that because like Ken has to be one hundred percent Gnar  ya gnar all the time1234Yeah and Luckily he has a lot of like he's got a lot of access to things like you know like cool vehicles and  boats  and famous people it's a little bit easier but like if it's  Ken you know like when we met we were on a  Ken Block shoot  where it's like okay we have to go to lake Powell  and set up camp in this RV on the shores and then like rip this speedboat like Towed a dude on a 6 million dollar boat and some Pro wakeboarder and jump Can-Ams over you know a giant rock formations and that yeah tow somebody around Lone Rock like I don't know You get to like you get to try a lot of things can you get to learn how to work really fast  in production and I think that's one of the biggest assets for Hoonigan is that like that  man we’ve all worked so savagely under pressure long  that when something catastrophic happens  or like when something needs to change like immediately like everybody can pivot really quick  yeah that is very true and then they call they call it the hoonigan media machine and you know I thought that was a cute like marketing phrase when you know everything started and then I was like that's exactly what it is I think it's a well-oiled machine well-oiled is a strong word sometimes but its a machine nonetheless and it's interesting like everybody has to be a one-man band at some at some level right like everybody has to be able to kind of pivot and do something else everybody's multi-talented everybody has more than one job or more than one title and the way it all fits together is honestly just fascinating to watch it's it's unique like there's not a lot of other companies and content creators that are doing as much stuff you know in varying places in degrees of integration that's all kind of homogenized over a brand because regardless of what the content is  the Ken stuff is a little bit different but it's still all has to kind of feel the same and look the same and have the same kind of General sense of how it shot and how it's put together and I think once you guys get the voice for that it's really interesting to see everybody kind of like put their spin on it but it all goes together you know yeah it's a trip right like with the whole  hey this has to be shot kind of shity yeah there was a big thing for me because of doing  GNARPM we're like okay let's show like it's like there's three of us  doing this let's try to make this look like as  professional as was humanly possible with a budget that really didn't exist but like you know we would try like really hard to make it look like a TV show and I Came To Hoonigan and they were like okay yes like this editing Styles cool and all and it's like it's dope and I could see it is like you know it could totally be on Discovery but lose all that s*** add more shake like this shity we use a Sony RX100 which is like the vlogger cam if you will where you know and it's a really weird thing getting used to talking to a camera that you're holding there and not feeling like a complete idiot Weather so strange and yet you all are so comfortable with it that it freaks me out like Ron looks like he was born  with that Camera in his hand and I'm just like I don't understand how this is so Normal but okay Yeah  well you know you do something a lot and you get used to it you know you just got to get over yourself and  hey yeah I look like an idiot all right  and that's okay  but there is a certain element that you know we try to embody with everything that we're doing and that's you know we all came up in like we are all either teenagers  or kids skating in the 90s right now officially Ken you know having such like being such a big part of the skate snowboard industry and it's like  rebirth if you will like one of the things  we always loved just like you when you're watching old skate videos if you feel like you're in the mix and it's like if there's like this inherent awesomeness cuz it's just like  dudes going out having a session you know with like a wide-angle lens and there skating right next to their Bros hitting tricks and sometimes people are eating s*** in like but they're like nailing it you know and there's a good feeling about that and like a lot of car content had gotten so like shoot it at 8 million frames a second and you know let's get a helicopter with a f****** like Arm On it and Yeh the slow mo beauty shots exactly and it be to overproduced and we're like f*** that man let's make like let's make some skate videos but with f****** cars that  is so true and that's a perfect way to describe it which I hadn't really thought about you know I mean other than like business company wise and like the merch and stuff is all like geared towards that but it's it's skate videos but with cars that's like bros hanging out because I remember when I first came on I was shooting at I don't know which one it was but somebody told me they're like no that's too nice, it’s too good you have to make a shittier and I was like what I've never been told that before In my life they were like it's too good they like now fuck it up like  oh okayyeah there's an inherent feeling you get when you know when you have that like that camera shaking or like you know it's like right in the mix and it's you almost get hit by the f****** car and then you're getting blasted with gravel or whatever right after it flies by it feels really gnarly and sketchy and like it brings The viewer into that space and so that's something that we always try to like we're all car bros.  we are just car dudes that are Trying to figure out how to make media like to cool stuff and to not ever have a real job not the other way around  where we are like this is my real job but I have to we're not like oh went to film School let's make some car stuff like no like most of the people like like luckily now you know we've attracted people that are really good and like in the space of  let's call it cinematography or like you know like a  we got some really awesome young editors but they all dig everybody is like inherently is a car person you know and so there's nobody at our space  that is not into cars maybe Jesse but he is Savage and like he's got his own he's never like really been like huge into cars and stuff but like he's an absolute Savage and has like this just hilarious like sense of humor and like really dark s*** And an editing style but  he bring some other thing to the table  that work so we all  mesh well  like thatit is it's a really cool environment 1930what's the coolest like thing you've gotten to do because of shooting car contentat hoonigan or just in general so there's been a couple of things in like one starting in  GNARPM right the very last episode we did in like the first rendition of it somehow we convinced McLaren to give us to McLaren 570gts for like a week  with the idea that we were going to take these and go like camping  in them  which turned into Mike and myself going up to Lone pine and just like smashing these f****** things on gravel roads for 3 days oh my God taking a McLaren off road yeah literally if you look it up on YouTube it's like off-road McLaren and it's like the first thing that pops up but like we just beat the s*** out of these things and I mean we did not like Destroy them you know what I mean but like they got worked and we returned them not that was another thing they wouldn't give us any kind of like like I even a f****** spare tire right it was like Hey you get these we're going to go out on a limb here also the only reason we got them was because like Mike at the time he was dailying a McLaren 570s and all the guys at the at the shop knew him because you know he would be beating the s*** out of it and it was always in for service and stuff but he  it was only car like he was living in an apartment and driving the McLaren and they're like this is  sick this is the only dude  that is like driving the s*** out of this thing and yeah they  saw some of our content and I guess we'd made another video about like for the exhaust stuff on McLaren and like two different people that came in and cited it as like when they were buying a McLaren so you know leg in McClaren North America was like hey  these guys have clearly sold some cars for us so anyways now McLaren does not give they don't do like influenster s*** anymore like they will not give anybody cars because I don't know what they looked  like I mean we washed them off and stuff so they didn't look like bad but I'm sure the underside of them was like fucked, but it was really fun you know somebody giving you the keys to the castle and then you just throw f****** rager in it and then your like fuck you bro  so that was  fun also getting being able to go to 24 hour lemans was really cool and then with with hoonigan I'd say some of the coolest stuff  would be learning to you know building my C10 was awesome and then being able to do our live events at sema yeah and be like such a huge part of like the Pinnacle of you know the aftermarket automotive industry and just be able to like come in as some kind of like s*** head kids A lot of brands they didn't give us some people  would know what hoonigan  but it was almost like it was almost like it didn't have the how do I put this like a red headed step child  like red credibility or cloutyeah and it was always like whatever like you know you got  Ford out front and then they give us some shity spot in the first year we did it off in the corner like no man's land and we had that f****** whole parking lot packed with people because  we're just causing pure Mayhem and you know like people weren't even like going to like the Big Show at like ford  out front and stuff and then the next year they give us a bigger spot you know we just burn that mother f***** to the ground every year now and it's a cool feeling to be like in and have to earn that respect  through it then to just see the industry come back be like yeah this is sick It's wild there is a massive fanbase I mean I admittedly was not you know particularly in the car content really in general but really enjoyed the stuff that I watched Once I got into hoonigan and started working with you guys but i  and I have like bunch of you know t-shirts and stuff now that I wear around from shoots and it's crazy like I see hoonigan stuff everywhere now it's like it's like that phenomenon where you once you know if if you're dating somebody who has a blue Cadillac and you start seeing blue cadillacs everywhere  once I started working for Hoonigan then I saw more f****** tee shirts and bumper stickers and spoilers on cars and people would stop me I've done other travel shoots and the people that stop me if I'm wearing hoonigan gear like and they're like oh my god do you know Ken Block do you you didn't have to can you like get me whatever I was like my God I had no idea how massive it is and it's not until you like no what it is and notice it that I just noticed it everywhere. Like I'll be I did a shoot in Johnson City Tennessee and I was like driving past of Waffle House and there was a guy that pulled up next to me at a red light with a giant hoonigan sticker like across the back of his car and I was like of course of course the one thing  hoonigan was the brand itself is built on you know this this idea of like doing this s*** you you're not supposed to do  in cars so like burnouts jumps  there is a When I first met Scotto when we're doing that one that shoot with  GNARPM he said something like it's stuck I interviewed him and it's just stuck in my head ever since he's like you think there's a there's a recipe for success in its jump smoke fire right as long as you have one of those things like it'll be cool if you can if you can  integrate all three into something it's going to  Bangvery true  the recipe for success yeah that sounds like scotto  so now anytime we try to do something we just try to Burn It To The Ground if possible you know completely total it take for instance that the last the last like stunt if you will that I had to do I didn't have to I kind of like volunteer for it cuz it was sick like my thing but like you know we have our Famous or Infamous if you will shitcar it's gone through all these different way it was like a $350 BMW E36 that somebody just like you know gave us and its beat within an inch of his life every single day it's been like if it's been Turned on if it's been running it since like the  it's been abused you know clutch kick you see a limiter bang and slammed in the walls like jumped off of stuff but like we turned it into an off-road car and put a Rally Suspension on it and all this s*** and painted it and it was like it is every actually we put way too much nice stuff on it right we put like a full cage in it and then immediately after finishing it to take out to like round off the video I got in it and yeah we set up the ramp and it drove for I want to say 400 feet maybe because I had to drive into one side of the parking lot turn it around and then hit this jump and then basically totaled it because like it hit the jump and just like nosedived in the ground and the front wheels - we put these likes 30 in like bigger off-road intended tires on it you know slammed into the firewall  and like ripped through the firewall like it just broke everything and gave me the gnarly Whiplash but that was really fun  we get to do stuff like that still likes just you know happens in our front Parking lot yeah I remember when I started I don't know what day I started I think I came in on like a Tuesday or Wednesday and then I was there for First Fridays and I was like losing my mind so  I was like what is going on what everybody is in go carts going around there likes doing Donuts in the front parking lot I was just like Um is it a thing and they were like oh yeah it's something that happens every week okay Yeah it wasn’t the first Fridays  it's just Friday  no yeah it's just Friday All of themFriday it to be  we got kind of shut down by the city not necessarily shut down  I know the city are big fans of us cuz we're out we have a good rapport with the police and the fire department  cuz they have been by our shop so many times but you know we would do these gnarly burnout sessions in the front parking lot and you know we would always get permits for then you know but like  man we used to just be able to every Thursday it would just be  Mayhem like pure f****** carnage. Which was cool because I you’d be at at your desk and  just hear some gnarly Car fire up and then everybody just kind of like stops what they're doing yeah 2840and go outside and just like wait for somebody to slam their car in a wall or they're like accidentally Jump it off at the dock yet but  yeah it's good times  it's fine though it was great it's a cool workplace environment I remember like it's either my first episode that I was going to like be featured in they wanted me to like it was like jumping me in and they had this shity miata somebody like dropped off and cut the windshield off it in there like all right they were going to crush it with a tank and I said let me jump it so They said f*** it let's go and then it's really bad if you watch it on YouTube you can see  why it's so bad because I overshoot the The Landing ramp every single time yeah it's i Taco the frame on it  but yeah they had to jump me in and I remember like the next day we sat down and we're starting the show called tangents which we used to do on Fridays where we were just kind of sit around on the couch and talk about s*** that either happened like that week or like we had seen and the culture of there and like answer questions from fans and they're like how to do we start it. And scotto Is like Zac do you have your motorcycle here and I'm like yeah  and he's like hey Teague roll all the cameras and hes like Zack ride your motorcycle and crash it into the printer and rip a burnout and its the middle of the day so that you know we work in a in a basically like a huge warehouse and though it was never intended on being offices there's no like walls and so like you just sitting here on a Harley rev limiter just ripping a hundred-mile-an-hour wheel speed burnout just like Okay welcome to tangents and everybody's got to work in all that  fire smoke  and s*** in a office but that's how it used to be it was fun it's awesome we've come a little bit you know we've refined ourselves like we've moved the office people to another location and now it's like a club house again so I guess you know we can still do s*** head things inside of the office Or inside of the warehouse and you know nobody's going to be like hey yeah we got all of our like accounting to do it was hilarious to me because I would be working and inevitably half of the people there are like covered in grease for whatever reason you know like they're doing an episode  or they've shot one or going to work on their own car like whatever and the smells like it smelled the garage all the time because it is but like it was just a cool environment to be around and it's a kind of like permeates your being after a while like you get in there and you're like oh I get it like this is the the type of society that it takes the kind of like produces content and be be in this club3137  yeah I mean it's like this weird haven for kind of like misfit degenerates you know like it's pretty cool because everybody that works there is like really smart you know like in their own right like they have some sort of like incredible Talent or like nobody nobody that I work with is dumb or I'm like you're a f****** idiot I mean we're idiots but we're not morons no that's very true and I was going to talk about like our first impressions like or like you know things in common what brought us together and hoonigan we I've been talking about that for a while like my first impression of you like  first of all walking  into hoonigan as like of a I was a producer of film and TV as a female with no car experience is intimidating anyway so I was walking and going  oh God I don't know okay and it's just  we just talked about like what a crazy environment it is which is you know was a new thing but you know and I'm meeting all these people and they’ve all got these massive personalities they're all doing 35 things and then Gil was like you're going to go on this shoot Zach is going to host go figure the shoot out I was like okay and then I have to kind of figure out who all these people are cuz he's like this is who is going to edit this person shoots and this person to do this take them and go to this place and shoot this thing okay who are any of those people again and he was like Zacks is this Person and for some reason I suspected you to be like super Bro-ey and kind of a douche and I was like I don't know and then literally from like the minute we went to the airport the first time I was like this kid is super smart super experienced and had all of these like crazy stories to tell it I was like actually really cool and I told Gill when I got back here and he asked how the shoot went and I was like awesome and everybody is so great Aww well you can hang too! like it's just cool it was actually really cool working with you because this is the first time that you know somebody from the outside is brought into like run the production and I was like s*** man this is like we got to go and do a Ken shoot and you know I've never worked with you at that point right I didn't know I was kind of like f*** I hope she knows  like kind of sort of how we sort of do things but then also you know we're going to work  with Ken so I was like oh be like but you know it  will be pretty Semi-professional semi-professional yeah but you know you're always on it you know you bust ass and you’re right on top if it and if there had been some s*** happens you know like if it's something crazy it seems like you could Pivot really quick too so you're kind of like a natural fit and I think Gil even said that afterwards he's like oh yeah I like she used to produce all these like live music shoots with me she eventually like she was the only person I trust to take over that like you know like where I could just like separate myself from it and not have to even worry about it and yeah I totally saw that you were cool fit you're rad you know if you were like super girly or like omg like it probably would have been a real like a much more different Trip it would have been miserable can you imagine like all the boys would  have been like never mind no it would have been like hey we got to go work and uh blow shit up now yeah by so let's go backwards so where are you from when and why did you leave there  tell me the things34:56 any more questions oh yeah A lot of them about growing up like what's up with you from that place you know what do you carry from your childhood oh okay Right all right well originally I'm from St Louis Missouri you know I grew up in both st. Louis Missouri and then Memphis Tennessee you know Parents divorced it's kind of thing always up and down the Mississippi River and I moved out to Los Angeles in 2011 and honestly I came out here because I had a Buddy whose parents bought some condos actually in Long Beach oddly enough when the market tanked and it was like brand new condos and he was living out in one and I went to school I did a study abroad in Amsterdam had a bunch of friends that were from Cal State Long Beach. We're doing a study abroad at the same time rights as a I'll just go see my Bros from Amsterdam hang out with my buddy Dylan you know whatever and then I came out I think this is  sick like there's a totally different vibe you know you got to remember this is even in 2011 which wasn't that long ago this is like before instagram and  s*** like that and like you know when I would be home I always have it have ideas like I wanted to do this you know or whatever it would be cool but it would sound f****** retarded to people back home and they be like you'll never be able to do that to you that you know it seems impossible to do anything creative but when I came out here you know I remember where we were at Sharky's you know with a bunch of people so I waslike I always wanted to do this and my buddy was like oh that's sick man I got a boy that does it I could connect youGuys you know  when I was just like what so I don't know it was just a Vibe you know that the positivity towards creativity and enthusiasm towards it instead of people shutting you down constantly that was that was like the biggest driver for me 3700so at that time I had planned it was like right after I graduated college so I can plan on coming out stayed for like 3 weeks a month or so and then I went home and then like work my ass off for a year and saved every penny and I lived with my parents you know what I mean like and then as soon as I I just remember it was January and I had to shovel my driveway cuz it snowed a bunch and it was like it like 11 p.m. because I had to like get up early for work the next day and I shoveled the driveway and then I wake up at like 5:30 in the morning and it had snowed like another Foot and a half and I was like man fuck this and like just so happened my buddy's mom called me yeah she's like hey Dylan was living in our like two bedrooms spot cause they rented the other one out and would you want to move out to California  and I was like yesYepyou can live in our spot like rent-free for a couple months until you guys find your own place and I said bet so it's like as soon as I got off the phone with her I found like a company to ship my motorcycle out and then as soon as I could find one that like you know I think I have like five hundred bucks or something I was  willing to spend on that and somebody like accepted the bid I remember it was like he was going to land on February 14th and I got a flight and I flew out February 15th with like two suitcases and my bass guitar andThat's it and I never looked back  Nice so were you always into cars  and like mechanic motorcycles and that kind of s*** Yeah A lot of people most of my mom's family Or like super mechanically inclined and like built Rod Custom Boats cars my grandpa was in there like a small planes and stuff and yeah so that's all that came to my dad's really mechanically inclined although he's not like he doesn't waste his time and money on cars cuz you know you he knows it's dumb you got it you he got out of that like by the time he was in his twenties was like  f*** this this is just a money hole I had this phase I've always dug it but I had the same but I was more into motorcycles I got in to the cars like briefly when I was I was really into it  like 16 and then by the time I was like 18  man this is way too expensive to do anything that's cool cuz like so essentially I just gave up on ever wanting a fast car and then I just always like messed around with the different motorcycles and stuff and went back to Riding cuz you know for like at that time for Four grand and you could have a thousand CC Sport bike  that was faster than like everything on the road right so what were you like super into when you were a kid  growing up like what did you want to be when you grow up did you like school  were you into it or did you find other things to doI liked being around people School was fine and it wasn't hard I think it was like more like I needed more input not input but like like a s*** to do you know like I would always like find like gnarly you know every day after school was like trying to find stuff jump on my bike you know or like stuff like that but then  High school obviously you know you get certain shifts where you're like hey let's go get some beers and try to get laid right but you know I mean it's Missouri right is not much to do so yeah I mean  school it's it never was hard for me it was more like I would just do it to get it out of the way and then like you know Try to do fun s***you majored in like Finance or business or something what was what did you study in amsterdam oh well my degree is in International business finance with like a focus in strategic marketing management which I guess technically I  sorta use that now Because essentially what we do it's like how do you make s*** cool Its like how do you make things fun in like make sense to people you know and it's like constantly trying to think about it from that perspective is like  hey man like make it radHas Hoonigan changed your perspective on like Automotive Motorsports and the Automotive genre  yeah it definitely opened up a  well it's made so much s*** possible right because like before if you had most things like most of the shit that we do for a job is like frowned down upon in Racing right racing is so f****** expensive that it's generally like really uptight unless you getting stuff like like NASCAR and stuff like where you got some good ol boys it's still pretty uptight you got sponsors which it to like you know you got to make money you can't make your sponsors look bad you know they don't want to give you know in like when If you get into something like endurance racing where  lmp1 class which is the fastest s*** at 24-hour LeMans for lack of a better term right spending over a hundred million dollars to season and in for like Prototype stuff and then like the manufacturers when you get in like Chevrolet and Ford they're doing endurance racing in Porsche and Ferrari  they spend millions and millions of dollars but  I meanthey are also developing Technologies for the road cars so they kind of make sense but it's like racing is burning tons of money it doesn't make money for anybody they like it's basically like a write-off where we made too much cash let's go and Flex it's much better it's more fun to have a dick measuring contest  than to give it to the government I guess Yeah but like for the most part unless you're talking about like f****** monster truck just destroying your car every time was not like an acceptable thing but now  hoonigan becoming as popular as it has has made it totally acceptable in United States I should say because australia was huge on the f******  just building cars straight up for burnouts and f****** Carnage for a while but like in the United States and I feel like you know are there places in the world it's made it like a hey you know how people can get on board with this and you know build cars it's just go out and have fun you don't have to be the fastest car on the track you don't have to if you like For instance F1 drivers most F1 drivers  those kids start as kids and Red Bull has a school where they send these kids for years and like they train them out at be a professional race car driver everything that's like the racing but  how to act how to f****** carry themselves how do I hold in interviews and stuff yeah like their  branding and all of it and it's like they're just cranking out machines like f****** Terminator T1000  and that's why you know it's like sometimes he is very rare that you get these like a huge personalities and sometimes when you do it's like they seem like Hot Heads or something just cuz they're talkin you know right Just because they are different then all the homogenized people that we are used to seeing 4450exactly so I feel like  hoonigan was I totally forgot what your f****** question was but I feel like it's definitely made it possible like It's bringing fun back to Automotive having some good times with your brothers doesn't need to be drifting doesn't it could just be fat burnouts in a parking lot or having fun with whatever you could have like a $50  shit box it going take off a dirt jump  you’re a self-described thrill-seeker and I have seen this in action so I know this to be true especially in the car arena what does that include and what are you afraid of 4530oh man Ill tell you what I'm afraid of I hate getting stabbed that hurts so bad why do you know that cuz I've been stabbed before man it's just a terrible feeling I hate needles I don't like being on fire but I don't think anybody does I don't Hang on fire yeah I know  that sucks yeah I don't know I think those are those are the big ones you know it definitely getting stabbed I hate  things puncturing my skin that gives me the heebie-jeebies Do you have any tattoos  yeah I have one tattoo did it freak you out like the process  no but it was kind of like  I was cringing it was the only reason I got it actually is before I work at hoonigan they were promoting my Can-Am Maverick X3 when they first came out and they are they did all of their content with it and they basically totaled all of them and had that one left and vinny was like hey do you guys want to make some content with us make some content with this thing we're kind of done with it but it would be so kind of like some Sing on the cake for the manufacture you know we are like sick yeah we were actually about to go and do this like off-road shoot so he sent it out and if you've ever driven a can am  I mean you know  what a Can-Am obviously  cuz we've shot with Ken with them but like most people if I can ams are super fast and super capable right Can-Ams are like like dune buggies  but in like an off-road  capacity Yeah it's a side-by-side it's turbo charged and has like long travel suspension on it and you know anybody can go and buy one for like 30 G and it's like the most capable s*** on the planet right And their crazy fast they can take some gnarly whoops and like rock climb  they do some crazy s*** so for normal humans like those things that you see in Westworld that there's like flying through field and jumping over rocks those are like can ams those actually are Can-Am so I never drove one of these before and I have a problem we're like normally  when I drive something I try to like find where the limit that so I can kind of be like all right that's what I'm going to lose control and I  can dial it back well I had been doing that leading up to before shoot them like yo this is f****** sick like it's so fast it can I was taken whoops at like 90 miles an hour it was like wide open throttle just it was so comfortable this shouldn't happen anyway  so we're doing this shoot and then we were trying to make a show how agile it is and how fast it is without you being lame you know anybody else so we had these fully automatic paintball guns and Mike was like yo let's set up a course where you going to like basically do laps and I'll just like hang out of the  Jeep and just like fire paintballs at you In full auto. And then if I hit you x amount of times you lose if  you can do ten laps without getting hit like it was like 30 times you know that you win  so I'm like cool we are doing this and then he doesn't hit me all that many times in like I did 10 laps and I stopped and he gets out of the Jeep mikes still shooting at me like walking toward me and Im like shit I got to do another pass cuz we're still rolling and I can I come by him hot and get hit right in the neck right and i duck down and I'm trying to like run the course like below that door line so I'm not getting like hit anymore and I took the wrong like a like a left  sweeper and there was an outside instead of an inside and I've been taking the outside the entire time and since I was ducked down I just went to the inside run and I would usually just shuck it into it and slide it sideways through this it was a little Sandy on the inside and it i came in real hot and it over Rotated and pitched and I flipped it like six times  I was going to say you flip the f*** out of this huh oh dude I tore all the suspension off of it and we have it on film  we have Never released it because but anyway so before that happened Vinny was like he sent me an email with some talking points on the Can-Am and he's like hey you know this is whatever and then the last line was just don't die  don't kill yourself ha I was just going to say just dont die right and when I got out after the wreck it was the first time it's like my buddy Nick that was shooting it was like still rolling, camera. No one had Stopped Rolling the whole time of course. Of course not and I was stoked cuz  I didn't get hurt you know cuz they are a really well like caged  and stuff but I get out and was the first time I've ever felt comfortable on  camera like I didn't give a f*** about anything's going on like that was so sick and it made me realize like it's okay to f****** up that like that's where the fun is that right 5038that was the most fun I've had had on camera because like I wasn't worried about what I look like you know I wasn't worried about anything and so when that happened You know I processed all that we happened to we did like a later like many months later we did a fundraiser to get my buddy back in Racing we raised like three hundred grand for him and got him back to racing Lamborghini Super Trofeo and we are all in the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas it was Cinco de Mayo and so we all get like shity drunk and we're like we should all get f****** tattoos and Mike was like hey you should just get don't die tattood on your arm and it was in the spot where like a lot of other episodes we did I would write Our Land Navigation notes on my arm and the last line was always I would always put the last night just don't die right And he's like  oh you should  just get a tattoo on your arm so you don't have to write anymore and so that's why  I got don't die tattooed on my arm I remember that write on your forearm but I have literally no other tattoos I really dont want to get another one  cuz I hate needles that was a 30-minute exclamation of that no that was amazing I still don't understand how you got stopped but well.okay so you guys are all extremely well-versed in car shit and things and I mean you've taught me lots of like random ass Carfax give me a Carfact like teach me something that is a good like general knowledge car tip Auto fact you know FYI for people I still can't drive a stick would have been waiting for you to teach me feel like a year so  wait wait I didn't I know  this we have barely talked  you've been waiting for me to teach her you've got to tell me it may have been somebody else you got to also come up with stick a car I know it's like you don't even have one so it's fine I've gotten this far and I don't have to bother you all their fun everybody should know how to drive a stick shift   I know well I don'tyou know you go to to Mexico South America Europe you know any basically anywhere else in the world Rent A Car  besides here  you're going to need to learn how to drive a stick yeah I'm  fucked5250 besides teaching me how to drive a stick teach me something teach me a car fact if I'm I'm thinking of two that you've already taught me which came in handy do you have one if you're if you're going to jump a car try to keep it first gear because what you getting at second gear range man you better be really committed and really willing to get knocked out or like the gnarliest Whiplash of your life that you know when you want to come up to that Ramp you want to have it like almost high in the RPM range as you can and you let off a little bit right as you hit the ramp than to flip it again to get to the nose up you know so you can load the the trajectory the back suspension you know to keep that nose up so fly straighter otherwise you know like let's say if you go and run up to the ramp and then you grabbed second and then just kind of bogs down well then you hit that ramp for then you nosedive and you know  you just  wreck everything then you just can't yeah next time I jump a car I'll keep that in mind for all the time also Isuzu Amigos AR phenomenal for jumping short wheelbase is really what you want because you know that they tend to  fly nose up so that's what you want short wheelbase car to jump a longer  the  wheelbase the more the more risk you run with  nose diving nosedive and then you just f*** yourself up you want to know what I remember your lesson it was just don't slow down  oh yeah yeah yeah that's all I mean you are talking through driving through sand specifically but you were like just don't slow down I was like copy Got it okayfunny is that when you  went and buried your car  at Lake Powell  Maybeand we had to pull you  out no that was backing up cuz then we moved the first time and  then we had to back and get out this was coming in we were going down for the first time and you were Like okay just don't slow down  and I was like all right and we just like gunned it all the way down to the beach.  hell yeah it was fine good timesOkay so what else are you working on besides like all of this  hoonigan stuff like how are they dealing with quarantine  oh you know quarantine is actually you know like I said  hoonigan is really good  at pivoting because you  no we make changes so fast that like everybody's used to it so the quarantine stuff we did a quick  pivot and started to a live broadcast on YouTube and Facebook and stuff we do the same broadcast it's you know we be able to do it live on Facebook and YouTube at the same time and then you know we've developed A live show it's actually been really cool to do because we've learned a lot about it and the main host  AR myself and Corey Hosford who you know we always host all of the live Burnyard bash  that we hold at hoonigan  burn  yard Bash which is basically like a we do it live at Irwindale Speedway thats our burn yard location and we have like a 10,000 person grandson or like 2,000 not that big not that big yet and those are Rad like the last one sold out within like an hour or so  that is cool and then then usually Hert, Dan myself you know where all on it sometimes John Chase and then you know sometimes the other guys  we'll kind of come in we use Zoom to kind of be like the host for the the live you know like having everybody in Hollywood Squares if you Willyeah Brady Bunch yeah man exactly and then we've been able to sell integration into that and you know keep keep the business still alive and flowing and it's actually been doing good until we get like really good fan engagement you know we can talk to the fans on the Live cast we can show Ridiculous things that we found on the internet That is the awesome thing about hoonigan  not being as overproduced as other people stuff is that you're able to Pivot and just keep doing what you're doing in a different format you know cuz it said that it hasn't changed all that much you know  yeah and then like the we  do Build content where you know we've sent the different guys like We call it home  wrenchers right and so that's basically fill it in where the guy is just bring all the cameras and shoot it all themselves  at their own home garage right and they are building there car and which is rad cuz it's like now everybody's because everybody's been a jack-of-all-trades like everybody knows how to operate cameras everybody knows how to set up different stuff set up time lapses do you like head cam and do update stuff so you know everybody is pretty self-sufficient when it comes to doing filming something where they they can do enough of it by themselves and then just hand over the footage to one of our editors and then they can take that you  no make  no content it's actually like been really rad I really like the home wrenchers  stuff that's true it is like hoonigan University it's like we're going to let you come in and you have to like learn all of this stuff to be able to be like proficient on your own Oh yeah  basically Scotto is like an African warlord that is like going into Villages and then  pillaging and taking the children and then like training them as child soldiers  that's kind of how this works you know we bring we take in the youngsters  and then groom them yeah train them in fire a in Brimstone and just  turn them into absolutely killing machines Warriors exactly  it works out really good you know and everybody's pretty much everybody's like I'm really self-sufficient and you know it's like we're a team of Navy SEALs  that could just get dropped in like you know find our way back to the that is true cuz like no man Left Behind everybody can fill in for everybody elses liked skill-set too it's like oh I can do that or I'll do this you do that or here's a better way to do this while I you know edit this content cuz everybody kind of has their hands and everything so  I like itYeah I think I was the only editor who was a host though that was where it came I don't do so much  editing anymore because I do more hosting and it's like  obviously if you're editing you know you're you're f****** buried in a computer for 12 to 16 hours a day cuz you can't break that that that flow so I don't  edit that's really too much anymore but you know I was able to train a handful of guys that are you know absolutely  beasts now and I would be gladly say that they're much better than I am just you know they're just their sense of humor and stuff  goes further Beyond than what I'm capable of Plus I'm getting kind of rickety and old You know I'm not that old but in the sense of this like YouTube you know  I'm 34 so like a lot of the people doing this are in there like early twenties you know and so you know we got a lot of young guys now  editing that are f****** crushing it and that's cool nice what's on your bucket list what do you want to do in the next year or so what are you looking forward to  oh man I haven't you know that I never think ahead  there's like some immediate things I like and know I likes absolutely have to like I bought before this whole quarantine thing started I mean  there's actually this is a couple months ago I bought a 1978 K5 Jimmy Blazer basically and yeah we had set up to build that  there's actually this is into a radical off road vehicle  but then  covid hit and it's stuck at the donut garage and I can't work on it and stuff so I got to build that you know that it's definitely something I need to do but I don't know I would like to expand on a few things that I'm already doing like I have my own camshaft with this company Called Texas Speed they  allowed me to do something really ridiculous but it's worked out really good like the camshaft is for like LS based engines right and it's called The BFd which stands for Bigfoot's dick kamprad so it's like a giant cam it's almost like stupid to have on a street car but just like Chops super hard and it just sounds radical and you know as it turns out a lot of people are like really into the  fact it's just like yo f*** having like the fastest thing on the street or  the most sensible thing I want the loudestI want that s*** to sound so Savage when I pull up to a stop light or like Idol through a parking lot you know that people like damn so that's worked out really good but I like to expand on that you know I've always been into creating new stuff and I'd like to there's a lot of like products stuff that I would like to create and you know like collaborate with people on and then yeah there's a lot of I want to get out and go on longer motorcycle rides more I do it all the time but there should that I want to do like abandon life for like a month or two and then just Ride a Harley across the states  yes that would be awesome I have a friend who did that last summer hell yeah it's a good idea when we get out of quarantine we have a lot to do yeah I also I'd like to shoot a minigun out of a helicopter I don't know why but I've always wanted to do that  so if you're listening get at me on Instagram you know I am @MISTER_Zachary if you got a helicopter and a minigun and you're down with me just blast and rounds out of the side of that b**** officially I'm your guy  let's say you have an offshore speed boat and you want to Go full Miami Vice if you just need a bro. You know where the f****** Pink Suit  Boy do I have the bro for you.  full like look I just want to live a Don Johnson lifestyle Circa 85 1987 white pants and all  Imma big fan of white suits and pastels and sunshine you know yeah I love it we got off on a tangent there it's good to know I was just about to ask what's your what's your preferred social media site and where can people find you so  It's that Instagram is  what time heaviest on Don't really use the Facebook or anything like that By the way speaking about that era I'm really bummed about covid-19 because you know we've got hooked up with a buddy to get some I don't think it's going to happen but it's like May 29th you know I'd never been to the Hollywood Bowl so my first show of the Hollywood Bowl is going to be a bitching table at Hall & Oats  Oh nice yeah they're opening the season this year I forgot are they were supposed to  Yeah  oh that sucks dude and then to see Dave Chappelle oh yeah yeah but I don't think it's going to happen so pretty pissed about that I just really wanted to go to the Hollywood Bowl I can't believe you never been  I went like 9 times that summer  because they have the whole session season and one of my girlfriends and I  wood just like look at the schedule and if you go like day of tickets are like $29 cuz it's just like random shit so we would go like sing alongs a random concerts on like a Tuesday we were like do you want to go to the Hollywood Bowl great so we would just jump over and go see whatever was playing it was awesome I have a bunch of friends who bought Alanis ticket cuz she's coming back and she's doing like a week at the Hollywood Bowl and I doubt that'll happen too 10450probably not I don't think we're going to be in large groups for some time which is a bummer man like the one thing this quarantine thing is really made obvious is like it's really cool to be around a bunch of people isn't it strange when you watch stuff like on TV now that you immediately kind of it takes you out of it because I'm like I saw I saw like giant crowd at a bar or something I'm on some show or like people waiting in line and I was like that would never happen now like that seems so foreign to me seeing you know sporting events where everybody is crammed in the stadium and I'm just like oh right that was normal Just remember back in the day we'd be in Las Vegas  we'd be in the Club sweating and doing Body Shots  Just  packed shoulder-to-shoulder  or down in Cancun ripping tequila out of some random girls  belly button,10530 exactly they would never  do that now if would get all over your mask no no no I feel like  human nature will bring us back you know cuz obviously we had the Spanish Flu we got back to it back to it I just wondering how long it's going to take I wonder how much a pussy is everybody's going to be but obviously nobody wants to be sick and die but you know it's like people need to be around one another That's just how human nature is  I think it is teaching people a lot of a lot of life skills maybe we all need to get your tattoo and just say don't die Yeah just send it  send itYeah and f****** open mouth kiss everybody you see  and like whatever if you die  just don't  just don't stop it  Yeah Awesome anything else you  want to add this is a lovely conversation with you zac Mertens thanks for chatting  with me you know what this has been great Brie I'm glad you hit me up I had a lot that a lot of fun Drank some Coors talked about old times this has been great and I hope we get to work on a project again in the future here  that involves you know more people than justleaving our apartment Exactly I want to get back to gnar  stuff you know what I mean.  and we need need somebody to keep the f****** wheels on the bus so that’s what I'm here for Exactlyall right thank you so much Brie thanks manare you actually recording that yeah  oh s*** I'm sorry I was looking at my dog  that's fine it was great yes it's nice and cool  yeswhat's going on brie its a pleasure to be here thank you for having me I feel so so in love derp that was it  thanks for doing this I’ve drank 6 Coors I have to pee so I had to pee so bad by the way that I had to undo my pants how to make it through without breaking you did you did great thanks for having me on the show Brie that's sounds so disingenuous just do the original it was cooler just organic just go with that. fuck fuck fuck  Thank you. And go fuck yourself that's going in that's right that's going to be my outro for every show thank you brie and go fuck yourself k bye.