O'CLOCK 156

Peds · May 5, 2002

Hey every one post all your O'CLOCK fliks......

- Thread edited and cleaned 4-11-2003

AllHopesDie. · May 6, 2002

heres some old shit.

mental invalid · May 6, 2002

its about time......nice

this comes from mr. abc in the interview thread:

interview taken from http://itw.aero.fr/oclock.html and photos from http://www.ksurf.net/~armvr

translated from french to english by my lovely wife isabelle

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When did you start your “job”?

I started in 1989 with tags and by doing a few pieces here and there, but nothing really serious .At the time I still lived in the south east suburb of “Panam” (Paris), where the RER (train) line was fully killed, I was just observing. I also used to hang out with GURU and NOCTUS but I never thought I would be able to do something like that, but the idea of doing it seriously started to take root at this time. In 1995 I knew what direction to take and I came out with the name O’CLOCK and I had decided , then , to become well known. Keep this in mind! O’CLOCK! I’m here to stay!

Any particular reason why you chose that name?

I needed a name that really meant something to me, not just a word. Believe it or not, for years I’ve been waking up , sweating, in the middle of the night because I was horrified of the fact that I would eventually die someday too! The countdown had started and I couldn’t get used to the idea. I wanted for the people to remember me after my death and this name would be my way of controlling everything when the time comes.( and, like you saw, this doesn’t mean that I arrive in time for interviews!)

Yes we saw! But then, why choosing Graffiti? Were you sure that this was the best way for you to come out of the crowd?

It is very attractive because it is illegal, who knows what I’ll be doing in 3 years? Right now Graffiti is my way to escape so I graff! I was making my stats in relation to my stocks of CORIO and with one marker you can do 50 Tags so I do 100-200 tags in my best days and that is when I’m satisfied, when I get home and that my markers are empty .Even the useless tags are worth it because they are the ones that stay the longest, writing might be dirty and polluting, but it gives me the strength to live and it gives the workers of “the COMATEC” the opportunity to make sure that their cleaning products are still efficient!...And the best is that I work for them, I’m a Chemist in their laboratory and we are not going to get caught by those fucking plastic suits!

What do you think of the writers who thinks that doing pieces is cool but tagging sucks?

they can go fuck themselves! There is many stages in Graff and tags are the first one. The real taggers like: CLICK,COLORZ,OENO,HAVOC are the ones that impressed me the most .Tagging made me famous in Paris amongst taggers but also amongst normal people .That was my aim, and now that I got to it, I’m doing many different things but tagging stays my best thrill, by vandalising, that’s how I get off! Not by staying there ,3 hours trying to do something clean! But I’m not doing tags just to release tension, I’m drawing a lot before hand, looking for styles and trying to do something new…..I can put 20 tags side by side on a wall if it looks good! A tag is not only a signature, it’s something alive and every time I make one, I’m trying to make a tag that fit to it’s support .

Are you just a tagger?

Of course not! I’ve always done pieces . But the people have only noticed the mass of tags…..at the moment I’m trying to do more complicated , I’m touching more at colors and try to work with the typography of my paintings. I’m doing walls and trains but as I said before I never seriously made pieces before 1995.I didn’t dare before because I was not sure of what Styles I was able to come up with. The typical French style of the start the 90’s is the base of my graffiti culture, but I also wanted to be opened and try to new directions

So what’s your favourite style?

I love them all when they are well done! From crazy PME to clean styles like CES’s ones. With clever curves and logical connections , things like that.

I also love TWIST, REVS and also the styles of NASCIO, I even love DAIM’s pieces! I’m very impressed by his technical capacities. In each style I can find something interesting, but on the other hand I hate this “simple graff! Style tendency which is so ugly (this being in purpose) What’s the use to do a piece in 1999 imitating the style of a NYC piece from the 70’s? I cannot comprehend this need to go back in the passed. What I mean is that, fair enough it can bee cool once in a while just to shock, but to abuse and do it all the time , that’s just too easy.

Do you like to paint the walls?

Walls are great to better yourself and do whatever gets in your head. Now , when it comes to the point that you have been passing again and again on the same hall of fame, then it’s not my thing I like to explore new territories and paint in new places every time .I don’t have enough time to do walls at the moment. But maybe when I’ll be older and that I will have been busted too many times I’ll think about it! But for now I thrive in the streets and in the train yards.

But right now , trains are what you’re really into right?

I started not long ago. I started with long distance trains and cargos, now I have realised that what it feels like to have people looking at your pieces “rolling”! So since then I did a lot of pieces on trains on TGV’s and also others, but I’m only a starter, I need to do more to get better, doing trains is not simple but anyway, we are in 1999 and we can still kill them here!

Do you think it’s more risky to paint in the streets?

I think that once you found your “own way” to paint a train, it becomes easier.

The streets , it’s more complicated because there is so many sudden and unplanned things that might happen. A pig dressed civil, taxis working for the pigs, and even a total idiot might want to play superman and try to fuck around with you. You never know, and sometimes it’s hard to get out of the net. But I also have my own methods to bomb in the streets, most of the time I work alone and also observation is key!

When I started I had a map to prepare my attacks block by block. Those last months I came out more to do pieces than to tag, but I’m still a tagger, I got tones of ink CORIO and JET at home so don’t you worry I’ll be back soon!

Did you try the Paris Metro ?

When I was a kid I lived in the suburbs so I was more fascinated by the RER (suburban train) than the Metro (Paris city train). I did many because I live in Paris now but the metros that have been painted almost never runs, so I’m not interested to take risks simply if it means getting at the end of the tunnel, do my piece, take my flik and then simply be happy with what I’ve done, it’s not worth it. this does not make the metro a less fascinating target, but since I’m wanted by the RATP (metro company) I prefer to lay low.

what’s the atmosphere like in Paris at the moment?

Too many pigs! I always keep them in mind. I’m not acting like, “yea whatever fuck them!.... and then I get mad!, no, I know perfectly well what could happen to me if I get busted, so I take all my precautions first, in case where something might happen. But there is also a lot of jealousy in the graff scene. I don’t care because I only see the people I know and the ones from my crews: LT27 and 156….but I always have the rage in me , there is a good few guys that I don’t know personally and who don’t like me and who don’t even know why, I already tried to talk to them but it’s no use, there’s nothing that can be done and it’s no use to even talk about it…

what are your goals at the moment?

I want to try a lot of thing in different styles. Testing new 3D’s , bubbles and so on…Without falling in the trap of copying as some do, it’s a current practice nowadays and I find it’s a shame! If I go and a Hall of fame and that afterwards I see some pieces which are from far away, sometimes I can see the difference between the original and the reproduction. My aim in graff is NOT to buy a magazine so that I can recycle It’s ideas and then have the bollocks to go and put it up a wall! I want for people to like my pieces and on the other hand I want to keep laughing inside when I hear them complaining about my tags on the walls.

Your whole life seems to be devoted to Graff?

That’s probably what my problem is, I paint too much and don’t spend enough time looking for new ideas and trying to be more creative , and that pisses me off. I don’t feel like I evolved at all. I would like to be able to stop for a little while and think about the meaning of everything I’m doing. But now that I’ve started I can’t stop!

It’s like a bobsleigh I run into walls , the walls are jealous writers, pigs and all who wants to fuck with me, the reality being : all the different existing targets are simply waiting for their turns to be taken in hostage! I just want to leave a trace.

A little while ago , I stopped painting for a few months…but after a while I came back to the source, I cannot forget what is the most important in my eyes: BOMBING!