After negotiating with 2 different sneaker companies, I was finally granted an interview with New York based producer/artist/saxaphonist/renaissance man Gran Central:

M: What kind of gear are you rocking for your live set up?
GC: i run ableton off my craptop g4, with the mpd pads to control it, but
that goes into a small board and i dub it out live with a electrix
mofx, and an akai mfc filter box, the most slept on unit out there,
and my horn, a selmer tenor, i sometimes have the microkorg xl buttery
with me but thats only sometimes. i can control the efx channel that i
run my horn through with a bottom of the barrel damper pedal.

M: You started on alto sax, but later moved to tenor. If you could
flip back to 1987 (or insert special year here) would you have started
on tenor instead?
GC: would have, no love lost on the alto but if i knew how much more
expressive the tenor was i would have jumped off with that. or the
bari, i love that sound. that and i would kept all my GI joes in there
boxes and made cake on ebay.

M: Out of all the whips you've owned, was the Cressida the most
special? If not, please explain
GC: the cressida held it down with class and elegance. it had like a 16
band eq on the radio, and a 10 speaker system. the 84 cressida also
came equipped with the metal button, as well as the largest trunk in
its class. i loved it and it died while me and cru jonez and some
others were returning from a fabsix gig at manhattanville college,
i remember flagging down a car, and they actually had a cellphone
(this was 1997) and i called for a tow, but then i dropped their
cellphone and they were vexxed. the tow truck driver was drunk
(seriously) and i asked him if he liked cooder from Dukes of hazzard,
he was not down.

M: What kind of shoes do you rock to skate in? What kind of shoes do
you rock when you're in da club?
GC: usually skate in vans, floss in nikes, i really like the lakai mike
carrolls though, really good skate shoe. i like mid and high tops,
gotta protect those ankles dunions!

M: You were heavily involved in the skate scene in the 90's (and still
in the 00's). Being from Westchester you got to experience NY
skateboarding beyond just 5 boroughs.
Are there any NY stores/shops/skate spots/video parts you'd like to
mention that you think were very influential to what skating is today?
Doesn't have to be a "definitive list" by any means, just some of your
personal favorites.
GC: i gotta say that the trains molded skating a lot, you would be at the
banks and see cats from allover the tri-state killing it.
-slappy noselides on the low ledge down the banks 9. act like ya know,
that was my shit back in the day.
-skating around, just hitting spots.
the city, these boroughs give us all the environment and inspiration
we need to go and shred.
i could start naming names and say places like Benjy's and like 1
percent of the people would know what im talking about.
A big shout out to 2nd Nature and the crew, really holding it down,
big up bestchester.
2ntr.com holla!

thanks!
Gran Central will be performing at Public Assembly in Brooklyn this Friday: