THEMISHE Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 Oclock interview was most fresh. I love this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THEMISHE Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 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 . OClock might be my new hero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest me IS cool Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 Originally posted by IMFINETHANKYOU What do you think of the writers who thinks that doing pieces is cool but tagging sucks? they can go fuck themselves!................................................... OClock might be my new hero. way to kill the mood... :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest focus Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 all stolen from www.seenworld.com http://www.freephoto-i.net/users/rerunvanpelt/seenjsongravyard.jpg'> Interview: SeenOne UA (nyc) Interview by: GuerillaOne.com Q- What do you write? SEEN Q- What crew(s) do you represent? UA -But since I am the only original active member I don't put it up anymore. Q- When did you start painting? Do you still paint? In 1973, I crept into the #6 Train Yard to paint my first piece. Graffiti is my life! I have been very fortunate to make a living of Graffiti one way or another. I plan to go to the grave with a can in my hand! Q- Why did you start? My Mom used to say I started bombing as a child. But in the summer of 1973, I went into the #6 Train yard and painted my first SEEN piece. Why I started painting is always a hard question to answer. Everyone starts painting for different reasons, I guess it is important to point out that age 12; I was doing custom airbrushing work on cars at my uncle's auto body shop. It just so happens that my uncle’s shop was right next to #6 train yard. So I guess watching the graffiti art movement beginning to emerge, along with my skills as an airbrush artist it was natural to go out and paint a train. I guess it was my destiny! Q- What was you favorite writing experience? The story of the "Retaking of Pelham 1-2-3." "After the buff of the early eighties. We went right back to killing the line. We were blasting the line so hard that it got very hot again. Our mission was to take over the line and we did just that. So to let everyone know, I wanted to paint a "Retaking of Pelham 123" whole car. But every time I went to paint this car I got raided. This one night in particular, me, PJAY and MAD decided to try and pull off the car on the ZEREGA Lay Ups. The cops knew we were yard painters and we calculated that they would be staking out the yard that night. It was 3:00 in the morning on a Saturday. We got there and went right to work, we threw up the outline and started filling in the piece. We added a "Top to Bottom" Howard the Duck character on one end. There was a bunch off toys hanging out watching us, we didn't mind because if there were a raid their inexperience in that situation would get them caught as we took flight. We must of have been half way through the piece when suddenly the skies opened up and it started to downpour. PJAY and I jumped back up on the platform to get out of the rain, we figured it if it stopped we would continue but if it didn't we would come back the next day and try and finish. So as we waited on the platform for the next train or the rain to stop, my brother, MAD kept painting. Suddenly, through the trains I could see COPS coming up the stairs on the other side, when I looked at the stairs on our side I could see the tops of Uniform Police coming. PJAY and I immediately took off and headed for the tracks to escape. We jumped onto the catwalk in the pouring rain and started running toward the next station. You could hear the cops yelling "FREEZE" but we never looked backed and just kept running. The toys up on the station are usually the first ones to get caught and we knew that would slow the cops down but when we looked down on the street you could see cop car lights flashing and racing to the next station to catch us there. We were in full sprint and we could hear the sounds of heavy boots right on our tails. As we approached the station we could hear the noise of police scrambling up the stairs to catch us so we kept going on the tracks to the next station. At this point we were on the tracks leading into the #6 train yard, I was thinking about running into it but PJAY was right behind me pushing me forward. The cops were back in their cars racing to the next station and someone was still right behind us. As we approached the next station we knew we had to keep going because the cops were going to beat us there. At this point we had been running at top speed for close to a mile now in the rain. The third person behind us turned out to be MAD in his MC boots. As we ran across the station we knew the cops were down below trying to figure out what we were going to do. We decided to keep going to the next station. About halfway there, we come to a power station that is supported by an extra "L" beam. With the cops racing past below us to beat us to the next station we knew this is where we had to make our move. We climbed out to the "L" beam and slid down to the street. We could see the cops jumping out of the car and heading up the stairs of the station to apprehend us. As we came down the beam there was a woman who was walking her dog watching us. PJAY gestured to her to remain silent. I could tell she was scared shit. We crept into the night but left an unfinished piece up on the lay-up. But the story doesn't end there. At this point it was a matter of principle of pulling off this "Retaking of Pelham" car. But the #6 was so hot that I decided to go to the 5's and 2's and pull the car off there. We went to Esplanade stick out Lay Ups. These Lay Ups are much different then the #6 because they are on the ground as opposed to being on elevated tracks. There was a spot near a trestle where we would climb up and walk to the Lay Ups. PJAY and I caught the lay ups and painted uninterrupted. We had finally pulled off the car. I was finishing up, adding the highlights as PJAY laid down to relax over the third rail. When out of nowhere PJAY yells out my name and scrambles to his feet. Without thinking, I drop the can and take off right behind PJAY. This cop had crept up on us and was now breathing down my neck, as we were all running along the trains. PJAY and I were used to this routine and just kept going without slowing down. I could hear the cop stop running and go to his walkie-talkie. We ran to the spot where we climbed up, but this time we didn't even think about climbing we just jumped -Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid Style. We hit the ground pretty hard, and PJAY came up limping but his car was two blocks away and we couldn't stop now. As we jumped into his car, PJAY's hands were shaking so much he couldn't get the key into the ignition. I pulled the keys out of his hand jammed the key into the ignition and yelled get me the Fuck out of here! And again we escaped another close call. In total we attempted that car 4 times before we were able to finally pull it off. Although, a couple months later I caught one of the unfinished cars on the #6 and threw an outline on it". Q-What was your craziest/worse experience? Being followed around by the Vandal Squad and having to stay one step ahead of them. Q- How was LA for you and did you paint anywhere else when you were out here in 86'? In 1984 "BLADE 1" and I went to Hollywood, California on a mission to make our mark. We bombed from Venice Beach to the Sunset Strip. We even decided to throw Hollywood a bonus and tag the Hollywood Star Tour Buses run by the famous Mann1s Chinese Theater. When I saw one of the buses drive past one day, I turned to BLADE and said, "those Rustoleum National Blue Buses need some color", he agreed and we planned to pay a visit to the bus yard. With KRYLON White spray paint and a 6 inch Fat Cap, we tagged the buses with full sided tags which read "SEEN and BLADE From DA BRONX" complete with a cloud. We hit every side on every bus in the yard that night. We would fight for fronts of each bus -but that was only natural being writers and wanting the better spots. Q- Has Graff changed in your eyes? As we know nothing stays the same, Graffiti like everything else has evolved. What we started here in NY has gone to places unimaginable at the time. Today nothing surprises me. But people forget a big part of the essence of Graff was the element of racking paint, sneaking into the yard, painting your piece looking over your shoulder because of cops or knuckleheads, painting at odd hours of the night and working quickly. Today folks are out there getting permission walls and going out and buying their paint. They’re painting their pieces with a different head. But it’s ALL GOOD. Just as long as we keep GRAFF alive and going. Europeans have taken Graff to incredible levels; they even have a spray company "MONTANA" creating paint exclusively for writers; that alone says a lot! Great Paint! Wish I had stuff like that back in the day. Q- How do you compare the old school era of NY to the new generation of NY writers? There is a lot of history that these new Jacks have missed. There are a few hot new painters out there, but what happens here in NY is we get a lot of the top European writers who make the pilgrimage to NY and they get a permission wall and blow shit up. I'm more impressed with what goes on across the world then what actually happens here in NY. Q- Do you like the new styles out there? I'm open-minded and I can appreciate what's being done. Very appealing to the eye. I like to see people exploring GRAFF. Especially being so active through out the course of the movement experiencing (and being part of Graff's evolution). Q-I know this question gets debated a lot (at least with old schoolers) but who(m) do you think had the most impact in the NY scene? There are a lot of folks out that deserve credit, but c'mon what I did and the way I did it and the amount that I did is a standard in which writers around the world still measure their accomplishments to. I was dropping TOP to BOTTOM whole cars at a pace that was unheard of. I was dropping pieces nightly one week then going into a bombing frenzy the next week. I was painting pieces with all the top writers, I was dropping wild styles one piece then a tight block letter with characters the next. There are a number of writers who made style impact, others who made a getting up impact but I did both! I guess that is why people call me the "Godfather of Graffiti"! Q- What writer/crew deserves more credit in your eyes for the Graff scene in NY? BILLY 167 SLICK Inc. This dude was dropping outlines on everyone, his styles would be tearing shit up today. This dude had vision and style but you rarely do you hear his name mentioned. PROPS to BILLY 167! Q- The Internet is becoming a new medium for Graff artists to expose their work. How do feel about this whole web thing and is it really part of getting up?I think it's great! People are doing pieces in Brazil or Australia and a couple of days later people are getting a chance to see it all over the world. Graff is about style, about heart and about people seeing your shit. So it is definitely a form of getting up but for us old school folks you just remember the good old days of sitting on the platform as a train pulled up, and your boys shouting and giving you props and seeing it roll away heading to another part of the city. But again it's all good! GRAFF IS ALIVE AND ALL YOU HEADS OUT THERE ARE AS MUCH A PART OF THE HISTORY AS US OLD SCHOOLERS. Q-- What does the future have in store for graffiti? GRAFF will be recognized by the world as a part of our history. It becomes a natural part of culture. Scary enough, I could see some art teacher somewhere trying to give a lesson on piecing. Q- Will you be a supporter? or a hater? Always a supporter! That is why one of my goals in life is to be instrumental in creating the first ever GRAFFITI Museum strictly dedicated to showing GRAFF. I promise you this will happen in my lifetime and I want to be there to cut the ribbon. I'll keep you posted with my progress. Q- Anything else to add? GRAFFITI is my life, always has been and always will be! So all you writers out there, keep going strong! GRAFF is as much about heart as it is about style. Keep passing the knowledge on to the next brother and one day you'll open up your kids text book and see a section on GRAFF in there. PEACE, SEEN End Interview- http://www.freephoto-i.net/users/rerunvanpelt/trailerdd.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kracker boy Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 nice selection keep it going Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMajicMarkker Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 Wow. I have read this like ten times in two days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idonotlikeu Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 this was the shit. bumper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bestburners Posted March 18, 2002 Share Posted March 18, 2002 http://www.sons.nl/images/movingobjects/tmdogs2wcars-1.jpg'> TM Dogs CREW TM TROOPERS, DOG POUND RULES B: give us a brief history on the crew? TM: the crew was founded in January 1993 and was put together by writers who by coincidence ran into each other. We're all coming from different crews; at the time we've met some of us already tasted the flavor of yellow steel. After a too long period of nothing but making plans, the time came to kick the ill freakin' style, TM Dogs in da house. B: so what's the crew's philosophy? TM: our main target is fuckin' up the N.S. (the Dutch railroad company) by taking our self’s to the LIL level. The crew is important but we make sure our individual names are numbs one. B: do the actions only take place after the entire crew's teamed up, or are you out there on your own too? TM: we're on our own when the urge to paint takes control but we prefer to come as a crew and come off hard. The advantages of the crew are just having a nice time drinkin', smokin', eatin', and be able to do something big. The disadvantages are the guarantee that you have to fight for the best places on the train plus you keep borrowing cans from each other. B: if you wanna be on top and rock the yard night after night, what's left of you're regular every day lifestyle? TM: you can get as hard as you wanna come. A real dedicated Bomber can't live a normal life. To be in full affect demands payment. If you take too much of it, it can work against you instead of for you. B: how long have you guys been bombing trains and what's the difference between now and then? TM: then; crews like WOW and DSK kicked shit, then, at ten o'clock in the evening it was able to be at the yards, ripping shit up go home fast and fuck you girl. Now you can spend your whole evening fuckin your girl cause there isn’t a party starting' before midnight. Now its just war. What used to be some sort of hip-hop graf turned out to be an underground movement, and it comes along with the gloves and the ski masks. B: what's the role of the OV card ? (* every student gets a card which allows him to travel for free by all means of public transportation). TM: we're positive it expands you're bombing area as large as Holland itself. It's the best present of the N.S. till so far, a sort of suicide. B: what's you're opinion on the Vandal Squad? TM: we think highly of them, after we've pulled up some shit they're always there. They take their task very serious. B: when I say spraycans ..... TM: we say we use them all, everything we can lay our hands on we'll use. You can get some fresh couleur locale, which you can use in combination with some fucked up paint and still make shit look fresh. If you can do a good piece with fucked up cans you're the man, not to be fucked with. B: often TM dogproductions are running' on the same line what's up with that? TM: the N.S. strategy is to let the shit run in the south of Holland in order to piss off the people in the north. B: what's your opinion on traders? TM: you know what you can get yourself in the sport shops .... Never let these suckers get away with shit like that. I rather get charged for beating down a punk, and pay his doctor's bill than getting fucked big time by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen. Never get a confrontation out of the way. B: do you guys have any tips to save your ass when you've get raided? TM: if you've been drinking heavily before or can pretend you did you can claim you've been under influence of alcohol and didn't know what you've been doing so they can't build a strong case against you. B: be honest, how hard is it to do trains? TM: often you'll hear that it's pretty rough but at a certain moment you got to say fuck it .... From that moment on you keep getting fucked up every time you're out there. But you're running the situation better when you go more often. B: but what if it's to confidential, isn't that dangerous? TM: well no and then you will get chased. The positive thing about getting chased is that it brings you back to reality. So if you wanna stay sharp stay clean, when you did your stuff get the hell out that leaves enough time to act tough. B: what's the TM styling? TM: TM styling is experimental, you collect everything you see in your daily life, drugs combined with classic arts, everything that impresses you, you'll take with you. B: I've noticed some cartoons? TM: cartoons will and have to get back. It makes your piece different from other pieces. It's to complete cause it touches people faster than just letters. B: what's your goal? TM: to be the best in whatever we do. The world doesn't end after graffiti. How long can we keep up with this; living like this. But I still feel as if I'll never quit painting the trains, and that's deep…… Source : Bombers Issue 6, volume 5, jan/feb 1994 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElPresidente Posted March 18, 2002 Share Posted March 18, 2002 http://www.tarestyles.com/images/rime63.jpg'> http://www.tarestyles.com/images/rime23.jpg'> -Blaze(tag/name): RIME -Crews: KCW -City: Various. -Country: Rich republican's America -Email: Fuck you. -Webpage: http://www.tarestyles.com/xrime.htm -How long have you been painting? 10+ years. -What kind of music do you like sketching/painting to? Any and every... different types of music set moods as well as a pace to get busy on. I really HATE new school rap, and American country music. (they do not strike a chord for me) -What are your three favorite movies of all time? 1)Wizard Of Oz 2)Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein 3)The Toy, with Richard Pryor -Apart from writing, what are your other interests/hobbies in life? Thinking, hating, & living around you. -When and why did you get into graffiti? For no reason other than to impress a bunch of older kids in my neighborhood writing at the time. The way graffiti is, the art, the destruction, the lifestyle, it fits me like a glove, and I practically put everything else on halt in my life to devote more time to this THING. I was so hooked on this shit I lost almost all of my social skills (with people outside of graffiti), nothing else was of interest to me. My game with ladies slowly got more petty and more desperate. I could not act like I was interested in what any girls had to say. At this point chicks seemed shallow and were just as good as a hole for your disposal. The ladies weren't feelin' my blunt uninterested behavior, so I lost it for a while. I hate graffit for all of myself that I lost to it. To me my "Graffiti" has my soul trapped inside of it. That's why (at least in my opinion my shit is a bit interesting). Now I am starting to grow past this and recognize the many times I've fucked things up. I am slowly getting my life back..... I have a girl now and I think I'm a lot calmer than I used to be! Before I wanted to blow up the world due to sexual frustration, now I just don't give a fuck. -What influences your style the most? (Definition of your style...?) Sometimes I'll take a flick of a piece of graffiti and stare at it for hours. I look and look and break down each and every possibility that the subject may have... Sometimes when I sit alone or while outdoors by myself I stare into space with a blank expression (like I'm on medication) and I swear I can see molecules. I'm a bit nuts :) I think -discovery is finding the obvious- that is frequently overlooked, repeating and adding until you are done and ready for someone else to pick up------> I'm motivated by anger, hate, doubt, & you! I love graffiti! I hate graffiti! I love to hate graffiti! I've had enough graffiti talk! -What is your motivation in painting? What will the future hold for graffiti? I've analized lettering placement , flow, and structure for some time now and can have an eight hour conversation with anyone about this. I believe in self motivation which promotes innovative ideas...There is always an outside reference, but it's up to you "buddy" to STAND OUT from the 75 other guys jumping on the flavor of the month.... make it wack if u have to, as long as it stands out! GRAFFITI IS GETTING BLAND! I TRY NOT TO BELIEVE MY OWN HYPE!!! That is hard when this is all you give out. I am unemployed... -Your prefer... Doing illegal shit. -Who are you down with and which writers do you paint with? Any and every. -In your opinion, what are the true important elements to remember in graffiti? (What "mental" or "spiritual" standards do you set for yourself? if any...) Do not let others intimidate you. You will get only as good as you allow yourself to be. Do the opposite of what everyone says... The most important thing in life is balance. -Any special shoutouts or hellos? Hello to the air that I take for granted every day, peace to the many "animals" that we rule. Too bad that we cannot contrlol ourselves. Well, I guess that's what makes it fun! OH, and fuck you :) -Any additional comments on my website, style, or approach to graffiti? Every holiday has another fictional character moving in on its parade; that's foul... Santa Claus, Jesus, The Easter Bunny... http://www.tarestyles.com/images/rime60.jpg'> http://www.tarestyles.com/images/rime52.jpg'> http://www.tarestyles.com/images/rime4.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bestburners Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 http://www.artcrimes.com/bando/ban74.jpg'> My father lived in New York, so I first got into graffiti when I was a kid. I'd go visit him during vacations. From early on I was seeing graffiti everywhere and I dug the style! At that time, around 1983, I met a guy who wrote BEAR 167. He was president of the TDS, and it was with him that I started to bomb. He was already doing graffs, even though he didn't tag a whole lot. I told myself I was going to drop the bomb and I did. Later I met T-KID and other people I started hanging out with. Now I live in New York. I think I was the first person in Europe to graff. I'm not really sure, because maybe SHOE began at the same time I did. If I was first, it was only four or five months before him. We didn't know each other yet back then. We met later on. What year was it when you really painted for the first time in Paris? Around 1982 or '83. At first I was drawing all the time and I mostly did tags. At the end of '83-early '84, I started getting serious and doing lots of graffs. SAHO (ASH) began around that time. The BBC were there since the start, but they were the only other ones around then. I went to London around '85. There were pieces everywhere. I really bombed. MODE was there and I was able to find him. Then he came to Paris, where I was hanging with COLT, and we went wild. I think it was just a few days after meeting COLT we were painting a white train together (must have been on line 13 -- that was the main non-permission piece place in Paris then). Suddenly we were being chased really nasty and one of the guys with us got caught. I hide in a car and I had to sleep there because the cops wouldn't go away. The train didn't leave the yards the next morning. At that time I would often go to Zulu parties with PHIL ONE rather than take a chance and paint trains for no good reason. With COLT, I'd rather put up chrome and black all over. I'd still achieve my main aim, having everybody see my work. When did BOXER COME? Wasn't he one of your partners in unauthorized actions? He came much later. I met him around 1988. We hung out together. At first all he was interested in was lifting cans! He was always down to "lift" some paint, and he'd give it to me because he didn't know what the fuck to do with it! Then he started to tag, and after that, to graff. But what he really liked to do was steal cans. What makes you write? It's an ego thing. I don't give a damn if somebody who doesn't graph themselves likes what I do. But if other graffers like it, I really get off on that. I do it for other graffers. For me, tags and throw-ups are a bigger thing than painting. When you do a super-cool wall, if you're not also bombing all over the place, I mean not just where it's safe, then even if you're walls are dope you're a toy. The important thing is not to bomb everywhere and all the time, but you've got to do at least some non-permission pieces. I hear a lot of people who don't graff say, ;quot;Anybody can bomb all over the city!. But to really bomb a town like COPE did, or people like MQUE, that's not something just anybody can do. I find that doing sharp, well-drawn pieces is a lot easier and takes a lot less sweat than going out to bomb every night... COPE killed New York. Bombing a town like that isn't something everybody can do. The proof is that everybody doesn't do it. You see a lot of tags all over, but what matters is the names you see all day long. At that time, with SIGN, we just kept bombing Paris. We did that for a long time, until they started their scrub campaigns. Were they all members of the CTK (CRIME TIME KINGZ)? There was SING, COLT, BOXER, MODE 2 and me. I started the group early on, bringing together these five guys who were the main active writers in Paris at that point. What's the most important thing in graffiti? It's no use painting all sorts of complicated things on trains. I do more tags and throw-ups. I want to do my real "burners" on the walls. Anyway, what I like best are chromes. For me, the only thing that matters in graffiti is the style. I don't give a fuck about characters and colours! You should be able to do a dope piece without any characters or colours, just in chrome and black. If the results are still dope, then that's a really good graph. For example, the characters MODE 2 and other people do, if you look at them in black and white they're just as powerful. Too many writers can do really fine colours but without that colour their letters are too weak. They have no style. Some people have the technical skill to paint exactly what they want to paint but they don't know how to style letters. Take FUTURA 2000. He's tremendous at letters. People don't even realize how good his letters are. When you see his gold and black graffs, it just knocks you out! His style is very futurist and very weird but really incredible. When you learn French boxing, you don't start learning turn-around reverse kicks until you have the basics down. In graffiti, you can't do wild style until you get good at doing simple letters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bestburners Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 http://www.artcrimes.com/mode2/mm34.jpg'> An interview with graffiti artist Mode2 Some time has passed between the last jam I was taking part in, so it was great to see a lot of friends and faces again at the Frankfurt Jam, 20.5.94. Everybody was there like from America (Futura 2000 etc.) and all over Europe, - so it wasn't possible to see everything. One floor was just music and dance, another one was full of graffiti art/artists and that was my interest this time. By seeing a lot of drawings and pieces by Mode2 (in magazines, books, blackbooks and finally walls), I was fascinated of his style, characters and especially his way of portraying girls'n women (which isn't representing a typical hip hop/spray issue). I wanted to know more about Mode2 who came from Paris to meet people and present his latest T-shirt ... Ina: What is 'payback' for you ... in your work, I mean I know that song from Eric B. and Rakim ... Mode2: Uh, it's a lot of things, King T had a payback track back in 88/89 and also it was like a James Brown song - back in the days, it's like changing the situation around me, it's time for the people who've been taking to pay for what they have done. It's just changing the situation, reversing it, ya know, our history brought us to a strange situation, we young people must face all the problems like education, it's not guaranteed that you have a good secure job and a good secure life. You have to deal with nuclear power, we use a stupid method for making electricity - we use more and more everyday but most of it is generated by nuclear power, we don't know what to do with what's left over, so it's killing nature. Before when they made the atom bomb it was like only available to the Americans and now since the explosion, many small countries of the ancient USSR have nuclear weapons and since the researches, like scientists and nuclear physicians get paid better money elsewhere. We are really living in a shitty, shitty world that's only going to get worse, it's not going to get much better. If we think someone else is going to try to solve everything out for us - we are wrong; we must take things into our own hands. That's my kind of a 'payback' and I hope to encourage other people to take their future into their own hands too, because we shouldn't just wait for the government to send a local politician to do things for us because they only gonna do things for themselves or for their politics that they support and everyone must do for him or herself. Ina: We in Germany have sometimes a problem to translate things from culture to culture, - you've lived in England/France the question is like these European kids do breaking, graffiti, rap. Do they feel kind of same thing a .... Mode2: I don't think anyone feels the same thing because then everything would be kind of o.k. Everyone feels something in his or her different way, but we must be passionated in what we do to be able to share what we do with other people. Anyone who's doing any kind of cultural form, whether it's hip hop or arts or music or anything, anyone who is doing it for real - like putting a lot of time, energy ... putting their life into it. When they do that, they are bringing things from their very own culture. You embrace something new that you've seen coming from elsewhere but you see it in a different way than the people in N.Y. or the people in Kingston or somewhere. I think everyone must bring elements of their own culture into what they have discovered which means that it's not like a fashion, like you start to like something you get into it and you... I don't know, you're passionate about something; it comes from the heart, it's not from the mind trying to take it and manipulate it for your self. It's something that's always like you need more and more ... - nobody must be scared of hiding what they are. But the problem nowadays is when you have media like MTV about hip hop or ragga etc... There is a certain kind of atmosphere that is portrayed and people think: oh, to be able to be in with this kind of people I must act in a certain way or be in a certain way or dressed in a certain way, and that's the traps that you are putting on yourself. I think everyone can bring something new all the time. It's only by your self to be original and bring something new. Ina: Do you think hip hop is coming out of a feeling of oppression, also in Europe? Mode2: I think America is a very strange country because it's a very young country still - that is just about survival from the beginning on. It was just land that's been stolen from people who thought that they belonged to the land and not the land belong to them - like the American Indians, the Caribs or people from South America/Africa or whoever respect the land and feel that they belong to it. America's power has been built by slave labour and it's always a kind of wild west attitude even now. People have the right to carry guns - not outside but they do. So it's a society of survival of many extremes of good and bad ... and I think it's a bit normal that in a society with so much friction between many different parts of society that creative things come out. Like if you are not living on the edge, if you are not in a very difficult situation you are not going to test what you know. But I feel that the fight is the same everywhere except that in America there are a bit more extremes than in Europe. If every culture looked at all its bad and good side rather than concentrating on its good side we are able to go somewhere. America sees itself still as No. 1 country in the world because the economy of the world is run there and money runs the world. Ya know there is no other way around that even communism has been bought by capitalism. Out of a feeling of rescue after the 2nd World War every culture from America has been brought to Europe whether it's Rock'n Roll, Rhythm'n Blues, Jazz etc. All this music is born out of a very bad social situation where people are surviving and explaining how hard live is, trying to deal with really hard issues of life or just trying to put out something happy of their hardship... Ina: We in Europe live a much more easy situation. We are not concerned with survival but we must work double hard because we have the time and we are not going to get shot on the street - so I think. Mode2: We can fight some more in other circles than the Americans can. The Americans tend to be ghetto, they have a ghetto society that everyone is into one corner whether it's race or religion, economy: everyone is just in their own little category - so we have advantages that we should use. Just be yourself... (...) We have extremist tendencies too (Basque seperatists, Corsican independentists, the Kurds, the IRA). We should apply that extremism in normal everyday life, culturally. Does that answer your question? Ina: What it means 'to be real' to you? Mode2: Being real for me is being yourself and not being scared of saying what you feel deep down. But hip hop is big now (...) so you have to be careful of who you talk to. Just relax and step back - look at your life objectively... Ina: But I think Hip Hop is created out of mass media culture.... Mode2: But I think everyone has looked at mass media and still in a very personal way... That's what must be brought forward, that a lot of us have listened a bit to the same kind of music, to the same this'n that but I think we were born in different families (etc...). We must look at our selves and how we have lived our lifes and draw images from that and that's the only way you can be yourself. Like I can't draw something that belongs to someone else because I wouldn't do it as good as the other person... Ina: But conversions are a big element of hip hop... Mode2: O.k., a lot of people like to make references to the things they've lived once in a while. When 'hanging out' came out they try to bring an atmosphere of a time that used to be like this or that (...) but you've your own souveniers in mind that have nothing to do with the other people (...). You can listen to something, draw all the informations out of it, but you can also listen to it and just feel something... I listen to music in that kind of way. (...) Ina: You are really famous like people can find you in 'i-D', 'Vibe', 'the Source' and international graffiti art books. I've got the impression that you define yourself underground but you also told me that you've had gallery shows, how do you think about the 'underground'... Mode2: As far as gallery shows go, we did just one in Dec. 85 in London. It was like a beginning but this was the only gallery thing I did, one time I was about doing a performance for a Jam (on a wall 9 m long) but they didn't get the stuff for me so I had to do two canvases instead; that was how it turned out... I do paintings for some private people, who come and ask me - I like this direct contact with people. The gallery scene doesn't interest me at all because that side of the art world has always been reserved to a social, intellectual or cultural elite and I don't think they care about what people are really into ... all they really care about is placing their money into someone and then they get some good articles about how good he is - cause then what they bought of mine is going to bring more money. I prefer trying to work in public places were people of all kinds must cross each other... Like I also like to do T-shirts and people look at it wherever you go (...) I'm not interested in a gallery public, I think we must widen the public that's interested art or graffiti. I want to continue to work in public places where anybody walks along, - not a certain group of people who drink white wine, eat small bits of cheese ... talk and talk about your work but perhaps they don't even care about it... Ina: Do you make a living out of spraying? Mode2: I survive out of spraying (..). Ina: That amazes me cause you got lots of fame and I know some sprayer much worser than you who really got crazy cash from commercials they are doing... Mode2: Perhaps they have a better business sense than me, like I've problems in commercial things like I wouldn't do something for a product that I don't use - that's hypocrisy! You shouldn't use the art you love to sell something to someone that you don't use yourself. May be someone is very passionate about what you do and you are using this contact you have with them to sell them something, I have a very deep problem with that, I refuse a lot of work because of that... Ina: You told me before that you are not really down with the art scene but are you interested in some artists from the art scene? Mode2: Anything, everything I like pre-raphaelites like Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and also J.W. Waterhouse, Lord Leighton of Stretton and Alma Tadema, a lot of work from the Victorian period out of the end of the last century when it was a kind of neoclassicism - fighting against the industrial revolution - I like the work from that time ... I've liked the Dutch painters like van Dyke... I hardly know the names also Rembrand I look at as much work as I can, but I don't have time ... cause I look at a lot of imagery like comics and stuff too ... cause that's what is people touching now... Ina: Comics, who do you like? Mode2: Jeffrey Jones, Liberatore, Art Suydam, Mike Mahon ... now I'm looking at some things and say shit, it's something that I read and saw when I was 9/10 yeahrs old but it's coming out of subconsious now... Sometimes you get pretentious because you think you invented something but I don't think we invented anything, - we just innovate, we take something that we've seen somewhere that we've assimilated somewhere but we bring it out in a different way... we never invent or create anything, ya know... I like Rick Griffin, Alphonse Mucha who was painting posters at the beginning of the century, the art nouveau scene, I like Patric Woodroffe - all the record cover artists from the beginning of the 70's like Roger Dean, Rodney Mathews, all these kind of artists because they brought that kind of fine art accessible to ordinary people through records... Ina: You are also doing a lot of drawings...how is the relationship between drawing and spraying? Mode2: You can't be spraying all the time perhaps you haven't enough paint or walls, sometimes I'm scribbling, sometimes I'm writing ideas down, or drawing - like I spend many hours on drawing...(...) Ina: I always imagined that graffiti sprayers like the adventure, like stealing cans, or feeling of frightened when working in an illegal place ... running from police ... Mode2: I don't like running from police, I'm not a very good thief. I wish I grew up knowing how to steal in the stores instead of putting my hand in my mothers purse and stuff like that. I don't want to get chased by police like it happened once or twice and I don't like it!! It's a good rush when you get away, so it's exiting in that - a lot of people like dangerous living but I'm a very self-preservation type of person, like I try to take the minimum risk... Ina: So it's not important that you work illegal? Mode2: It is because like a strange paradox, like I try to do less risk as possible but sometimes you know that you must go and taste this risk if you want to advance because when there is this excitement you are not thinking anymore, you are just acting, you forget about the risk you are just painting picking up a colour, do it, do it, do it ... and you don't have much time for thinking or bullshitting and you need also that kind of pressure on you ya know ... - that helps you to go forward and that helps you to create without too much thinking, just action! Ina: So you are also down with crossing other peoples writing? Mode2: I only cross people over if I really have a problem with them and then, they also know where they have to find me ... if I have to go and cross people over like either they are painting somewhere where me and some friends like to paint because it's kind of our spot - everyone has kind of their own spot, kind of their own neighbourhood ... but I really like more to work on a clean wall than on someone else’s pieces... Fights are a waste of time when we are fighting each other we can't fight the people who like to see us going very far with self destruction. I don't want to die stupidly - no way! It's only when you fighting people who have too much influence that it's worth it. Ina: You are now for ten years in the hip hop scene what holds you for quite a long time? Mode2: Nothing holds me... I'm just doing things for myself and if that helps hip hop cool. I think it's my individual way helping me to go forward (...) you can inspire helping other people... I like to meet people. And you must put what you know to the face of reality, put it to as much people as possible... Too many people are scared of communication, they are living a kind of paranoia. Ina: Is that the quality of jams? Mode2: Yeah, (...) the only thing I depend on jams is like doing my T-shirts 'n stuff, painting and drawing. Ina: A lot of girls like how you draw them... Mode2: I don't know because I mostly get a lot of guys come up to me and say yeah this is nice ... but I'm scared sometimes that they would think, that I'm promoting some kind of, what we called truckdriver mentality. I'm scared that they just say ooh yeah nice girls bla, bla - you know - but I tend to spend time on drawing them, or the quicker ones come out of an inspiration (like that girl I saw last time in the subway) that comes... Oh my good I was having things to say like: If a girl would walk naked down the road, I wouldn't jump on her. - I mean it's not up to any guy jump on a girl whether she's dressed or not. Ina: What you don't like on truckdriver mentality, is it also in between hip hop? Mode2: No, I mean I saw guys doing portraits of girls with trains coming out of their pussies, or riding naked on cans, and that's a completely teenage wank fantasy ... and I can't see the point either you have a flesh to flesh contact with a girl rather than stick something in her... I think there are very very few girls getting turned on by trains or cans... So I did one piece in 1981 that was a girl liking a can but that is about as far as that one. So I didn't develop that kind of idea much further because in retrospective it seems a bit cheap... Ina: How do you think guys talk about girls in hip hop? Mode2: It's a general thing with guys'n especially young guys. It's hard to be modest ... not modest but nobody wants to tell about sexual hang ups and things like that, everyone is gonna try to make themselves look better in the public. They want to look strong and whatever so everybody is making... O.k. I know some friends would misinterpret if I talk about girls to them - that truckdriver mentality, you know, and some not so I don't talk to everyone about that.. My close friends know how I'm like as far as womankind goes - some jokes might be cracked about this 'n that but I don't put down someone badly - unless they made themselves look stupid ya know and that goes for men as well as for women in hip hop. Ina: Yeah, men as well as women ... but just for an example I read 'the Source' in the train, and they made bad critics about the attitude of 'Hoes with an attitute' as well as about their music, and the way 'the Source' talked abuot that never happened to for exp 'Too live Crew'. I would say as a dj, I like people talk in a kind of sexual stupidness as one element of hip hop - guys come with their big dick talk all the time, you do it as a girl and people just overreact. I can see that also in personal experiences... Mode2: It feels for me like a masculine way to show femininity o.k. Not many girls talk about their sexual power as much as guys do, but like on 'Black Sheep's record... Ina: Yeah the music is very melow but the lyrics are sometimes really hard too. Mode2: Some guys feel they have a big dick and have to talk about it - like Mr. Lawnge from 'Black Sheep': "I have a dick that I brag about, I put it in quick then I drag it out..." You know like they have things they can't show girls when they are dancing they have to write it down and tell them, and yeah like if you want to know you can come and get some...whatever.. I did a logo for 'Black Sheep'..I did four different versions I hope one get excepted. Ina: Don't you think you got a little bit of that style in your art too, like your new T-shirt? Mode2: No, no these images are completly seperated (describing the T-shirt, 'The Payback Theory') like for me it's like good and bad. Now in France you can get 5 years for graffiti ya know. Ina: Why? Mode2: (started also discribing the T shirt) Because they changed the law since the first of March you can get less prison for beating someone up - so take your choice - you prefer I go spray a wall/train or do you prefer getting beaten the shit out of by someone? And that's a choice for society to take - they can get it with a can or with a bat ya know. Like kids have a destructive urge like they don't know and it's an extreme we are trying to touch two things at one time and when I'm working on a wall perhaps I'm a bit more sensual than sexual... I don't know people make up their own minds ... but I would like that people would not see it like someone trying to put woman out like objects I try to be really smooth about it and not vulgar - it's hard you know... So here is my book... we look at his blackbook: Mode2: There are some things I keep in my blackbook that I would not put in public places (...). This here for example I would never put on a wall because a lot of people would just see gross sexism in it, a girl offering herself in that way and that sodomy thing is like taboo... Ina: But that's what I try to point out when I spoke about 'Hoes With Attitudes' that girls have sometimes fun or reasons to do it - bitching... - Guys always turn silent when girls do that because they have no space to appear stronger than the girl - and that is what I in between hip hop don't understand because hip hop is full of that attitude... Mode2: But what you like in private is different from what you do in public... Ina: In between sex, may be... Mode2: Cause if you talk too much it's no mystery anymore... Ina: Do you think so? So after sex happened there is no mystery? I don't think so ... - then it just starts to get mystical again and again ... But may be it's that kind of rule between guys 'n girls after sex you just started to fuck, you fuck, so what you want more - but I don't feel this way and I don't understand that you as a good girl should not getting too famous for fucking. Like everybody likes you doing the bitch privately but not in public... Mode2: But me as a guy I'm also trying to keep that private.. Ina: So it's me the truckdriver? Mode2: I don't know, no, no... Ina: Uh I cut that picture with the 'firepussy' too, it's out of 'The Face'... Mode2: Yeah I just eat a lot of pictures with my eyes... Ina: You always put out a very beautiful, idealized image of girls ... I like that... Mode2: I like also a photographer called Jan Sandek who does photos of 'normal' women ... but like to draw a fat woman I would need a live model because it's hard to imagine were the flesh goes, it's more difficult for me to draw fat girls... Ina: That's why you need idealising? Mode2: Yeah it's easier to draw a skinny girl because than you have the skeleton but when you start to put more and more flesh on it what do you do with it?? It's very hard to imagine were it goes... (...) Ina: Yeah, this side looked completly designed... Mode2: But the pages come together piece by piece there are lots of old scetches under this then I put pictures on and color it... Ina: Really it looked so perfect... Mode2: But it's a long period of things coming together, finding something to put here or to put there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abracadabra Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 Originally posted by IMFINETHANKYOU OClock might be my new hero. he's been my favorite writer for a while now. he's one badass mothercrusher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest --OhToo-- Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 GESO ---Anyone have that shit?----F-it, I'll go find it...One of my favorites. Back in a sec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idonotlikeu Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 i can wait for that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest --OhToo-- Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 Re: GESO Originally posted by --OhToo-- ---Anyone have that shit?----F-it, I'll go find it...One of my favorites. Back in a sec. Cant Find it...I know it was in LifeSucksDie....Oh well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frontophile Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 For the record, what do you write, what crews are you down with and how long have you been writing? Theory: got into graff in 95 i think or begining of 96........just tagging, going allcity........i forget when i hit my first freights..i think in 97..??..i got up in the jasper yard with a bunch of old toss ups..almost got crushed by a freight there too......its not a good idea to crawl under the wheels in an active yard......."no shit". as far as crews....tga.tko.pjf and the freight molesting freightophile gang,,.... Rove: i write rove, i'm down with fr8ophiles, tko, pjf, and tga, ftc which is just me, theory and boner... Roughly how much of your work is done of freights? Theory: pretty much everything i do is on freights.....once in awhile i venture onto a wall but not to often...so i would say sbout 99% freights.. Rove: 99.9%...it's pointless painting walls in saskatoon....but we're stoked off huge roller shit.. Being in the middle of the country, how do you feel you fit into the freight scene as a whole? do you feel isolated or is that a thought that doesnt enter your mind? Theory: its alright being in the middle of it all but lower costal spots get way more freights that i would like to get up on.......we rarely get american freights..once in awhile bnsf rolls in..gvsr's have rolled in{very rarely}....blah blah blah..... Rove: i think for the most part we're well received in the freight community.. I love it.....out here it's just me and theory..no one to bother us... i don't feel isoloated because you go to the yards and it's like being among friends... freights get our stuff out... it's our way out.. although i would like one or two more people here to paint with just for variety and end to ends... oh well.. Being in a very rural province, and a young scene, do you see alot of anger towards graff from the general public? I hear you were havingtroubles with workers dissing graff at some yards. Theory: the public for the most part doesnt notice the freight graff that much,,,..as for walls..i think alot of people disaprove and that is to be expected but there is alot of people who really like it as well...rover and i even got called into a school to teach the kids how to write there names "graffiti style".... the workers crossing stuff out is stupid...makes the freights look really sloppy,,but they did that to dicourage kids going into the yards to paint or flick graff..... Rove: Fuck yeah!...yesterday i went to that yards and saw a freight i did, lined out.... this is not the first one... and the general public isn't seeing our freights so all they can judge graff by is all the disgusting tags in this fucking city...i find i walk down the streets here and think....i fucking hate graffiti.... there's a new breed of toys this year... You two seem to be on the same page as far as painting goes, is that somthing that developed as a result of painting together alot, or was that the reason you started painting together? Theory: we both love are freights.............freights fregihts and more freights....... Rove: We started bombing together many moons ago... it was all thanks to crum, nave and the rest of tau... i'm not sure how or why we started... but we just clicked.. Numbers or quality? how do you go about striking a balance between them? Theory: numbers and quality depend on different things such as the surroundings the freight is being done in as well as time..and whatever else might come into play... i think the freights i do are fairly simple..so i guess i'm kinda in the middle of producing a half decent freight,,and getting the numbers up..although in the new year{once it's warmer}..i want to work more on some theme freights and just put more time in overall......ect..ect... Rove: This year is all about a nice balance... it's cold right now so quality is gonna suffer a little...but once it's warmer, shits gonna get baraka! Theory, Your starting to do alot of streak characters. Do you get more satisfaction out of those than streaking your name? Where has your inspiration for these come from? is it an deeply personal thing or can you explain a little? i can thank kwiz for inspiring the streak characters..but other writers have inspired my streaking...thesis puts out some really awesome streaks,and of course other was a great inspiration.....also everyday life is the greatest inspiration..just interacting with people...... .i started doing streak characters during my last trip to vancouver..and have enjoyed them ever since....often if i write a qoute it was something from that day or from something going on in my life...i think these characters are a bit of a comic relief as well........ i have gotten bit of critisism from doing these charcters...lots of people saying i bit other and so forth...blah blah blah....think what you want i guess.......... What is your favorite type of car to hit? Theory: i like rare cars that we dont get to often up here...rover and i hit up an iatr smoothie,,,both sides...that was a treat.... i am sick of hoppers..i see to many....a nice flat car is always a treat Rove: RBOX... those things fly Are you sick to death of hitting wheaties or do you just accept it as a part of where you are? Theory: yeah...wheaties are everywhere...i love hoppers for rolling though...especially the soo lines....... Rove: We hardly hit wheaties anymore...we streak them, but as far as pieces go we've been getting a healthy stock of boxcars..white soo, hs, atw, flat green cp, iatr, shit that never use to come through.. I hear you guys like to hop freights. Any experiences or stories you wanna share about that? warnings? Theory: hopping freights is super fun.....you meet al kinds of people.......... my advice is to research what your doing..know the lines....... dont heat it out for other hoppers by sitting in a too visible of a spot,,ect. Rove: yeah..don't do it.. Any good chase stories? Rove: yeah Theory: one time when i was painting with rover and another fellow,,the cops pulled in along the first freight that was being painted..that dude jumped under the freight,,the cops pulled ahead to me and hit there brakes..i ran directly at them then cut away on an angle..then they drove to the car rover was painting and he also ran away on an angle,,,,...i ran down the backside of a building and hid in a ditch.{as the cops circled up... rover and the other dude ended up in the same ditch shortly after..the cops pulled along the ditch..put there spot light on and then after a bit they drove away....... we hid for a bit..then left the area...we had to go back to get some hid paint..i put a final on my piece, then went to grab the paint.....we ended up being chased outta the neigborhood by some guy with a big vest on....but we got away........i went back to flick the freight the next day but it had already left.... Final comments, shout outs? Theory: hello to my fellow freight fiend brothers. you know who you are....... Rove: um.. graffiti isn't cool...it's a life threatening addiction...don't do it.....A definate shout out to the crews, fr8ophiles,tko,pjf,tga,.... Visual Orgasm,Tic Tac,Haver,Sebo(for giving us so much eye candy at an impressionable age), TAU-you've done more for us than you'll ever know, RATPACK, DJ LIFE, and AFTERLIFE RECORDZ....... fuck a cop..killa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frontophile Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 http://nothingbutfr8s.tripod.com/pics/rove4.jpg'> http://nothingbutfr8s.tripod.com/pics/theory13.jpg'> interview and both old pics from NBF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack tripper Posted March 20, 2002 Share Posted March 20, 2002 ENVY137 - DOTCOM Courtesy of lay-lo. http://www.lay-lo.com/other_pictures/orangewoman.jpg'> 1. L-L: What crews do you paint for and what are the underlying meanings of the acronym(s)? ENVY137: .com 2. L-L: How long have you been active? ENVY137: steady painting since 98. knaw for real. 3. L-L: Who influenced you coming up? ENVY137: mostly friends. peer pressures a bitch ain't it? 4. L-L: What is your preferred brand of paint? ENVY137: whatever gets the job done. 5. L-L: What is your favorite surface to paint? ENVY137: steelz wit wheelz. slabs of concrete. women. 6. L-L: Do you wear a mask? ENVY137: most of the time, lately anyway. paint boogers, another bitch! 7. L-L: Is graff a hobby, habit, or lifestyle to you? ENVY137: hobbies are for little ol' ladies. habits are hard to break. lifestyles of the rich and famous? i'm not rich or famous, but i have been known to put on a lifestyles. 8. L-L: Any particular person or people you love painting with? ENVY137: i like to getting down wit people that gotz their head straight, aren't bothered by politics, fun not fame fellas. i could give a shit if i'm known, do you? if people notice then they notice. 9. L-L: What do you think about the documentation of graffiti on the web? ENVY137: keeps ya in tune with stuff being done world wide. enables catz to talk shit. gets you to buy shit that don't fit. shows porn bitches that aren't fit. and it probable won't quit. 10. L-L: What area of the game is your strongest? ENVY137: conceptualizing. look it up in the dictionary. 11. L-L: Do you think using brushes/markers/rollers/wheat paste takes away from the original concept of graffiti? ENVY137: see the answer for question numero dos. 12. L-L: What is your current occupation? ENVY137: deuce bigalo 13. L-L: Where do you see yourself in 10 years? ENVY137: you never really know. 14. L-L: Favorite color or color scheme? ENVY137: orange women. 15: L-L: Have you ever been outside the US to paint? If so where? ENVY137: knaw for that i'm deprived, i'd like to though. 16. L-L: What is your view on the current NOVA/DC scene? ENVY137: do we have one? i'm just trying to keep myself busy round here. 17. L-L: Have you ever had any run-ins with the law over graff? ENVY137: once in dc, twice in nova, once in florida with one of my boyz for having topless cans in the back seat, cop asked if we where making bombs. never convicted though, knock on wood. 18. L-L: Do you think the attacks on September 11th have impacted the graff scene? ENVY137: if that hasn't impacted you, Osama's your mama. 19. L-L: If there was one spot you could hit without getting bagged, where would it be and why? ENVY137: a woman's ass without getting bagged with her purse. 20. L-L: Hottest female alive? ENVY137: one that i can't get most likely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bestburners Posted March 21, 2002 Share Posted March 21, 2002 http://www.iol.ie/~bestburners/cubacastrointerview.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bestburners Posted March 21, 2002 Share Posted March 21, 2002 http://www.iol.ie/~bestburners/pjayinterviewjuly1992.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaMVCali2 Posted March 30, 2002 Share Posted March 30, 2002 BUMP FOR PJ- and everyone else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HOST18 DYM Posted April 28, 2002 Share Posted April 28, 2002 This is a pretty good thread wish i looked at it sooner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogface Posted April 29, 2002 Share Posted April 29, 2002 any1 know where to find that GKAE talk show interview? they used to have it on artcrimes seattle, but now i can't find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pekrock Posted May 15, 2002 Share Posted May 15, 2002 drats, the nace interview dosent work. if some one could possibly tell me... fuck it. ill do it myself i hate askin 4 help anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RING OF FIRE Posted June 4, 2002 Share Posted June 4, 2002 The gkae talk show interview was on Gabrielle which got cancelled years ago cause anybody from the 90210 cast is just hopeless. Basically he just posed as a personality the media expected him to be which was great cause the joke was on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted June 4, 2002 Share Posted June 4, 2002 Dope interviews! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CONDOMAN Posted July 4, 2002 Share Posted July 4, 2002 that nigga looks like a nigga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SE4_2002 Posted July 4, 2002 Share Posted July 4, 2002 Shok1 Who am I? I'm Shok1 and i started writing when I was 14 back in '84. I started out in East Anglia out in the sticks, but was in london as often as possible so that was my major influence back then. Moved to the Midlands in 1989 but have painted all over the UK since then. Not interested in representing an area! Just myself and our crew SINstars (SIN = Strength In Numbers) - me, Kilo, Skore, Skire and Kato and others. We don't get to paint together as often as we would like because we are so far apart but when we do we have a really good rapport with each other and I like how we can work together like a proper team.. 7 Deadly Sins 1997 When I was at school, I was banned from art classes before O'level standard in 1983. I was a pretty wild kid back then and I fucked up the art classes constantly because I thought that the textbook exercises we had to paint were boring basically because they were about technique and not being creative. But I didn't let that stop me. "real?" Coventry 1995 Right now i make a living from my illustration work, journalism and painting skills, and also doing workshops to teach kids about art. I refused to do any art for money for about the first 7 years- I was really into street bombing up until maybe 89-90. Before that me and my friends were into hanging about getting into shit, smashing things up.. We used to nick supermarket trollies and chuck them off carparks and throw bangers at each other. That was the level that we were on so the illegal shit was instantly appealing to me. I always racked and still do although i don't need to much these days. Don't just rack to make a point because that would be pretentious, playing the role. I think you rack as a means to an end, to get it if theres no other way. I've been arrested for graff about 5 times, but always got out of it. Worse I ever got was a conditional discarge in 87. Flyer Art I've written quite a bit for this spot. Everything I wrote is my opinion only. I'm not trying to define this culture of ours because its too big for one person or attitude to define. I'm just telling you how I see it. If you don't agree with what I say then hopefully it will reinforce your own opinions.. http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/7.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/reality.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SE4_2002 Posted July 4, 2002 Share Posted July 4, 2002 Shok1 part2 BITING I have a slightly different definition of biting to many writers. Me and Dreph made up a crew called Hard to The Core in 1992. The symbol is an apple with a bite out of it and a cross to signify "No!" Some writers contested this, saying that biting is the means to learn graff and for style to proliferate. So here is my explanation. "Mo'Bounce" Wolverhampton 1998 Wolverhampton 1995 Biting for me is not when somebody uses a style or is influenced by another writer. There is a fine line between influence and biting, and to me the turning point depends on the taker's attitude to the other writer and to the style. Biting to me is taking and then denying the writer the credit for that which was taken. I think it also depends on the the relationship between the writers. I look at it like this. You've got an album in your house, precious to you. Its the difference between a stranger walking in and stealing it, then denying he did it, or a mate who borrows it and says thanks.... Wolverhampton 1997 One thing you get from spending time in New York is a sense of the importance of knowing who did what and where things came from (I've spent a total of about 3-4 months out there). Nobody could claim to know the whole story of writing; much of it is folk lore and subject to personal opinion and bias. But it is important to always question and push the boundaries of your knowledge... I try to constantly re-evlauate my opinions and ideologies. I will say what I like and think is important in our culture, but I would only say something is wrong if its fucking with what other people are doing. At the end of the day, I might think a style is shit, but thats just my opinion. Hear No Evil (SIN crew) 1998 Manifestin' HipHop Skills 1998 AUGUST 1999 ISSUE FIVE CHARACTERS I guess people probably know me for my characters if anything at all. In 1985, i had a nice Al Capone-type character that I found in the local paper. I was getting ready to put up this character, but my mum saw it and her attitude was that it was shit to copy someone elses drawing. At the time, being a moody teenager, I thought that I knew better. But the more I thought about it the more I thought that she was right. It seems strange to me that many writers attitude to biting stops at the boundaries of what they call our art. Like that debate in Subway Art with Kid Panama and Seen about who used the eyeball characters first? That seemed like a strange debate to me. It was neither of theirs to start off with... "Orgy" 1996 "Big Head" 1997 "Rackin" Bristol 98 Once I started checking the London scene regularly in '85, the pieces in Westbourne and crews like TCA and NonStop reinforced my idea of trying to make my own images and not take from elsewhere. There is another popular debate about whether or not characters are an important part of graff which raises some interesting points. Firstly, I wouldn't be happy only being able to do characters, not because I would be concerned about other writers thinking i'm not "real" (which means exactly what?) but because my gameplan has always been to try my best to shine in all aspects... Letters, colours, backgrounds, characters. Which is hard because you are spreading your creative energies and time much more thinly. I don't think its hard to find individual personality in one aspect if you put some time and dedication into it and avoid being brainwashed by all the "style gestapo" out there (it must be this, it must be that... shut it!).Like most writers, I've never been one for authority, so why would I listen to a bunch of writers telling me what I should be doing? Fuck off, I choose my own rules, mate! Another thing that occurred to me is how "character writers" letter styles are viewed. Like Mode. I think that some of his letters are nice and have more personality than a lot of writers who only have letters. But many slag off his letterstyle. Maybe this attitude comes from the fact that hiphop people and especially writers always look at everything in terms of confrontation. What actually happens is that people make the person's characters battle their letters and the letters get made to look bad in comparison.. Another point is to ask why the charcters are even there in the first place. One thing I notice looking at a lot of the stuff that I see is that many people have good technical ability to paint the characters and handle stuff like lighting, shading and all that. But when you strip away all the fancy technical stuff, what you have is a drawing without much individuality or meaning... Why is it there? As a demonstration of technique? I think they are the human aspect of writing, the face behind the abstraction. Sure, mainstream people like them more than letters which makes the natural rebellion in the hearts of most writers dislike them (I mean, oursiders like them? Fuck 'em then!) I just think if they're going to take up space then they should convey something more. For me they are a way of expressing emotion. I get told that mine look like me- I think they pull faces like I do and come off in ways that I do.. Thats a subconscious thing though- its not like I look at myself in the mirror while I draw.. Almost everything I put up is out of my head- I've never been very good at preparation. I sketch quite a bit but that is more a process sorting shit out in my head than making a blueprint to work from. SIN Crew Germany 1998 Sticker Design for Westwood Some people seem to think that b-boy characters are out of fashion or something? I am a b-boy at heart. Thats where I've come from and spent all my adult years immersed in. I'm 29 and i got into hiphop in 84. So thats 15 years out of 29 in the culture. And to be honest, all you are concerned about before that age is usually stuff that doesn't follow into your adult life. So thats basically all of my life... I understand that some people see that as something from their youth and maybe get caught up in trivialising something very deep and powerful because the commercialism in the 80's made it look so toy. Apart from that, one way of looking at it is that it almost doesn't matter what kind of person you are representing. The point being, does anyone look at the Rennaissance artists and say, yeah, nice style but all they did was nudes and landscapes? They painted what they saw around them, but above that painting those objects was a means to demonstrate technique, finesse use of colour- all the same attributes that make up a good piece. Its just a testing ground to demonstrate your skills, same way as it is with letters. In fact, its probably harder to do something different with something thats been done so many times by so many people. Like T-Kid was saying that the challenge for him was to keep doing something different with the same 4 letters after all the years.. 5 x 5ft Canvas "S" 1999 The flipside is that its also good to represent other shit too. To me, one of the most underrated artists for this is No.6 from Paris. When I look at Toast's characters (which I rate for their sickness and ugliness) it looks a lot like 6's style and technique (maybe coincidence?). But then again, the first person I ever saw doing that dark-to-light, cutting back method (which is basically an oil painting technique) was Slick from Hawaii who many seem to have forgotten in favour of Hex (Slick was nicer in my opinion but I suppose he did less). I tried to do it in the early 80's looking at comic book stuff by people like Frank Franzetta and Simon Bisley. Couldn't make it work back then because we were using Japlacs and stuff (this is a brand that, like original Rustoleums, reacts with most other brands and can't be gone over. It also oversprays like fuck unless you run most of the pressure out of the can). I brought the technique back into my own shit after we went to Germany and painted with the CNS boys (Seak, Neck etc)- they are all into that technique. "They're Here" poltergeist piece in Nottingham 1999 Letters can convey emotion- Dreph used to say he would get vibes from different styles. Like Skore's stuff looks really evil and disturbing (like Skore!).. Petro has that kind of happy Old school party bounce.. Characters should support that. They are also the means to put ideas and actions across that you might have problems with using only letters. Images proceeded letters in the vocabulary of mankind- they're more direct in some respects, avoiding barriers such as language. As we head towards the millennium, I find myself thinking that maybe we should be striving for something more than just self-promotion which is what the name is basically about. AUGUST 1999 ISSUE FIVE A GREATER MEANING OR MESSAGE A common criticism applied to graff from outsiders is that it should "mean" more. It often gets compared to the music side of the culture. They feel it should be more "political". I think people associate art and especially lettering in public spaces with either advertising or politics and anger. Because writing on walls has this political history they expect to see some form of political content. There is nothing wrong with style for its own sake. Who said art has to "mean" something? Thats generally an attitude of people who consider theirselves to be one step above the average bloke on the street. What really fucks me off is when some joe public is like "Thats quite good". What qualifies you to judge a writers work? Say you like or you don't, thats fine. But don't give me your pretentious attitude. "Ain't nuttin' to it but to do it!" Birmingham 1997 INFLUENCES I'm not really into telling people my influences too much- I've always found it a bit disappointing when you find out how people came to create something that you thought was bad. Like you saw it and couldn't even see where the fuck it had come from.. but what i will say is that apart from looking at graff itself and pop culture, if you can get to the right mindset then almost anything you see can become a style, and explain what I mean by that. Theres a quote about our art from Phase2 i always liked- he said it should be "Seen done and not done seen" (I think!) That sums it up well. It looks best when there is that air of mystery about it, like it just appeared out of nowhere.. I see most peoples career in graff as almost following a blueprint. At the beginning they spend some amount of time doing stuff thats either obviously derivative or just not very nice to look at, then find their own style and pretty much do that style and develop it only a little bit from there... Maybe have a "mid career" crisis and start doing something different halfway through. Why is it like this? Well, I suppose that having quite a restricted definition of your style makes it easy to recognise, and one a writer gets known for a style they are reluctant to move away from it in case people don't recognise it or like it as much as the old one. Or maybe some people just run out of creative steam? "Props the hard way" 1993 Bus, Wolverhampton 1998 For me, the fun has always been that point where you've got something new to try, but yours shitting it a bit because it might come out toy. Its the biggest buzz for me when it comes off. If I try something new, I try to put some elements from my older stuff in it too to give people a connection so that hopefully it still looks like I did it. The best thing I could hope for would be to make a new style that doesn't look like my previous styles but doesn't look like anybody elses either. Thats creative! Whether I've ever done that or not, I don't feel I'm in a position to judge. Drax (with that New York state of mind once again) summed this up well when we were in Ireland. I had run those black and yellow hazard stripes for a while. He said that he liked it but that some obscure writer had probably done it in a panel piece back in '70- something. Thats New York depth of thinking. Thinking about origins.. Who did what first. Somethings will be invented and re-invented. I try to do really weird ideas that nobody would think of. Look at whats out there and then do something I haven't seen. That doesn't mean I've necessarily broken new ground, because some many writers have done so many pieces that probably something similar has been done somewhere. But if I've made it up in my head and I've never seen it before then even if someone else did it first, i've still made something new for me.. Thats whats important to me- to keep trying to test my creativity and imagination. "Street SINphony" Dunkerque France 1998. Raw/Skore/Kilohw/Skire For me, a lot of graff, although it is wicked, lacks imagination. the pieces that often stand out for me are the ones where you can see some fucked-up line of thinking. Don't get be wrong, I've got loads of respect for nice clean pieces with good colours, flow, etc. But so many people are so nice with that now that maybe something more is needed to stand out... I have a few styles that I'm working on now. AUGUST 1999 ISSUE FIVE STYLES Negative space style. I got this idea seeing a woman on kids TV making one of those things where you fold the paper and cut it to make a chain of people or whatever. The first idea I had was a piece where one letter was a paper shape, and the next one was cut out of a square of paper, and some scissors with it. It got more minimal and abstract and now its the bits that are missing from alternate letters that describe the shapes. It occurred to me the other day that it would be a good style for bombing (at least clean surfaces) because you only paint half the letters. "Raw" Notts 1999 "Raw" West Ham 1999 Mainframe style. I called it that because the outline of the letters is a frame instead of just a line, and it looks like a computer style. It lets me do things you couldn't normally do like arrows going into the letters and loops in the outline. Organic style. Like I say, I tried to do this stuff around 91-92, but my paint control and the paint we had at the time wouldn't allow it. i brought it back out for the Fresh98 jam- a piece that is splitting open with all that twisted mutated shit coming out to attack the person who got too close thinking it was a normal piece! I got that idea from that film "The Thing" where they don't know who the alien is and they have to test each other? The horror film thing is an ongoing theme I'm running right now, something i grew up on that I haven't seen many people use. "Shok One" Wolverhampton 1998 "Bizar Grafitti Sex" Shok & Kar Amsterdam 1995 BOMBERS VS ARTISTS I'm not going over this tired debate except to say that I think that this debate doesn't even really exist. Somebody somewhere has concluded that because "Bombers don't like artists" (which out of all the bombers in the world is probably not that many), that writers that do daytimes spots don't like bombers. Bollocks! And fuck the idiot who put my pieces next to that opinion in a certain toy extreme sports mag (I never even knew they were being used). This is crap! I can only think of a handful of artists who have never bombed, and to me they lack that "edge" that makes a writer in my opinion. Almost every writer I know has done heavy racking, night time action. To me this whole fucking issue is media sensationalism- stirring shit up. I have a particular problem with Graphotism which has contained a lot of comments that support this attitude in my interpretation. This mag proclaims itself to "Support the UK scene" (which is a lofty claim and which it certainly doesn't achieve. Represent the parts of it that we like would be a more honest and acceptible claim- thats all any mag could hope to do and is fine). i just feel that the whole subtext of the editorial is constantly criticizing and belittling whats going on over here and often, it seems to me, from the point of ignorance. I think that this kind of thing has to be done as Kilo did it before he lost the job- you've got to be actually out there dealing with people, different opinions, different styles, different people. The culture is too diverse for one persons opinion to cover it. Dunkerque 1998 "Raw" Derby 1999 THE FUTURE I think that we are just looking at the beginnings of what our culture can become. If people can open their eyes and also try to educate the new kids coming up, then..... Thanks to Dan for this spot, and respect to all my friends! You can contact Shok by email at shok1@bboy.zzn.com. Background image part of promotional artwork for Noma Productions BAD event http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/bounce.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/rev.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma/shok/neg.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/hear.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/fresh.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/cans.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/bighead.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/rackin.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/shok/sin.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted July 4, 2002 Share Posted July 4, 2002 Reso - Klan123 How long have you been writing RESO? why, how and when? I started writing in the late 80s (around 88-89). for 27 years now I´ve been going to New York every year, to visit my family. I was in New York, when pieces were still running on subway cars. this is where I got my inspiration from and this is how I got to Graffiti. At that time there was no Graffiti in the city I come from. New York was definitely the main influence. RESO is the name I´ve been writing for at least 11 years now. There has been other names, but they don´t realy mater to me. Sometimes I need a change and this is when I write other names. On your website you promote the name "cyne" also, that does´nt mean anything to you then? There are different names I write. Most of the people just know I´m writing RESO and that´s good. I don´t realy want to get deep on that. You prefer walls or trains? I love trains, the atmosphere and all that. But I think walls or freights are interesting aswell. Trains is where it all came from, but only because of that I wouldn´t say that this is the only "real" graffiti. It´s all about letters, no mater if it´s on a train, on a wall on the tracks or on a hall of fame or on a bus...it´s all cool as long it has style When I think of RESO, I think of DARE and the other way around. Have you guys always been writing together? Dare and I are close friends. We enjoy hanging out together. We´ve done quite a few productions in the last years, so that´s probably why people think of us as a team. But there are other friends that we team up with. ECB, KETSAR and CESM (KIM Crew), SCIEN & KLOR (123k), KESY (S2R), SWET, DREAM, just to name a few. We met about 6 years ago at a jam in France. Here´s the story: SCIEN had organized a jam in Dunkerque / France. Among others (CES (FX), DARCO ( FBI), ECB, 3HC CREW, SHOK (SIN)...DARE and I were invited for the Graffiti-part. Everything was perfect, a nice hotel, the food was ok, enough paint and one week to hang out with other writers. Day one: Nothing special...no painting that day because everyone was tired from the trip. All we did was to go out for dinner in a small nice restaurant. After that we got back to the hotel to look at fotos, sketches... Day two: We had breakfast and after that, we wanted to go to the local hall of fame to paint. DARE joined me to get to the wall. As we were driving, he asked me to make a short stop at a supermarket to get a little snack and something to drink. So we got out of the car and got in that supermarket for about five minutes. When we got back to the car, we were surprised that the doors were not locked anymore. All of a sudden we realised (it must have been at the same time), that we got robbed. All our bags were gone! No more cameras and the worst thing was that DARE´s plain tickets for his trip home got also stolen. So no painting for us at the moment...we had to stay at the police station the whole afternoon. After 3 hours we got to the wall and were finaly able to start painting. This is how we got to know each other. I know lots of people are thinking ? "real graff“ when speaking of you and DARE. How do you feel about that? It´s hard to say, what "real graff“ is. I think it´s a personal view on it, in some way a mater of taste. As long as your happy with it, it´s always real. Any favorite writers or idols? I´m inspired by many things. At the beginning it was definitely the writers in New York. Right now I try to get my inspiration of the environment. Very often I´m nfluenced by friends of mine If you had to pick out one writer ? That´s a real hard question. There are so many styles I like. ECB is very talented, DARE, SWET, CES, BATES they all got dope styles. How do you feel about the German graff scene? Eventhough I know a lot of people I´m not too much involved in the german graff scene. I hate the atmosphere of jams. It´s not like years ago. Today most of the people have nothing to do with graffiti. They only look at mags and think they are able to understand what´s going on in the heart of a writer. I´m sorry to tell it that way, but I think that there are a lot of idiots involved in the graff-business. Ingnorent and arrogant idiots, who think they invented the whole thing. But don´t generalize this statement, there are some realy nice people too (most of the activ writers are). How do you feal about internet graff vs. magazine graff? It´s hard to say...the internet is one thing and mags are another. It´s interesting to look at graff-sites. Updates can be made quickly and on regular bases, but it still can´t replace magazines. This doesn´t mean that all mags are good and interesting, not at all. Most of the mags even scare me! It seems like these guys have no idea of what writing is all about. Sometimes you need a magnifying glass to look at burner productions! Or pieces on trains are cut out and all you can see is the style itself. What about the environment? this is what makes a piece alive! To me these mags are a waste of money!!! The best thing about graffiti? I love letters and letters are graffiti. I enjoy having a nice time with friends and go out to paint with them The worst thing about graffiti? There are very strange people in the graff-business. I hate the attitude of some writers. Some of them seem to forget that there are other things in life. Favorite letter? E Favorite color? Dark red Favorite paint? I don´t care about the brand Favorite magazine? It´s hard to say...there are so many. Favorite website? same as magazines The first three words that comes to your mind when I say Denmark? Quick, Swet, S-trains Any projects of you for the future? Right now I was working on a magazine project. DARE and I were both publishers of magazines. He was the one behind AEROSOUL and I was the publisher of ADRENALIN. because of a few copyright problems because of the name, we gathered and are now bringing out a magazine called ADRENOSOUL. thats a mix of the two names. I was working on the magazine for about 3 months. It was a whole lot of work to do! The concept behind the magazine is to show nice pieces or trains that are worth being published in magazines. We didn´t want to show an objectiv view over the international scene. All we did was to show the pieces we realy liked personaly. There are many interesting interviews with CMPSPIN, SHOW (TWS), and exclusive burners from all over the place. There will be a lot of text combined with fotos, like little statements or special reports: something like some writer who got chased by wild dogs in Zagreb or train action in Cuba. Anyway it´s too long to mention everything. Then I´m working on canvases and Graphics for an expo I´m planing to do this year. I would like to travel again this summer. maybe to Italy, and I´ll probably go to NY end of this year. Being 27- when do you quit? I don´t know. Not yet that´s for sure. There are maybe periods of time in which I´m not too active. I don´t have the time to paint every day! There are other things in life that can be more interesting or also can be more important. Sometimes you got to take care of people that mean a lot to you. If these people need me I´m there and then graffiti becomes the less important thing in life! But also projects like the magazine take a lot of time, time I can´t spend on graffiti. I think that you simply got to do what you enjoy and this is what I´m doing. http://www.organized.dk/reso/flix/canvas.jpg'> http://www.organized.dk/reso/flix/france_1.jpg'> http://www.organized.dk/reso/flix/france_2.jpg'> http://www.organized.dk/reso/flix/graphic_1.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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