ESTM - interview

• Give me your name, crew(s), and how long have you been painting?

ESTM. ER and AS crews.. I've been painting for nearly seven years now.


• What was it that made you get into graffiti, what was it that made you go, fuck I want to do that?

One day we were taking the piss out of some guy when i was about 13 and we decided it would be funny to spray paint his name everywhere. That progressed into tag names and running around the streets at night, tagging up, climbing scaffolding and smoking joints with my mates. It wasn't too long before I caught the graffiti 'bug' and couldn't get enough of it.

• Who were your early influences and who/what influences you now?

I used to stay near the hall of fame at kelvinbridge, so seeing the productions there day in day out blew me away. Seeing ER crew all around Glasgow was definitely inspiring too. Being able to read whole streets of tag names was fascinating. The idea of a graf writer was probably the coolest thing possible I could think about at that age.

These days I get influences from everything, all kinds of art, my friends graf, nature, travelling, aphex twin, dubstep, abstract thinking, illegal parties, surrealism, shroom and lsd experiences. All the mental shit in life really that frustrates me, from the depriving structures of societies, the illuminati, organised religion, organisations and institutions that try and kill any individual thinking, any kind of 'establishment'. Makes me realise that music and art are the way forward on to higher platforms of living.

• Estm, how did the name come about?

To be honest at first I was just messing about with what letters I liked style wise, and I did an estm piece and it totally worked. Since then though it's progressed into my own word. I feel it's kinda unique and hard to understand, like my style. I was reading a lot of mental stuff about language, and words, and how we won't progress until our language does, so I guess this is just me making a start with my own. I've flirted with writing estym for a while, dunno if I could be arsed with 5 letters though.

• You have a quite unusual style which is sometime referred to as “ghost” in appearance. Was this the result of some mind altering painting session or something that you were out there trying achieve?

Nah it was a bit of an accident. We were at the newcastle graf jam in 2006 and I was going to do a solid 3d piece but I only had soft caps, and it had a mental effect on the black background. So I just rolled with it, and now it's added another dimension to my painting I guess. I'm just waiting on another one of those pay off fuck ups. These days though I do the ghost pieces with normal caps, I've sort of schooled myself on that style.

• Bombing or a production? What’s your preferred choice and why?

Hah, emm I don't really think you can have one without the other. If you're doing one or the other really hard, I think you gotta pay visit to the opposite to maintain your balance with graf art. I mean what got me into graf was it was illegal and looked dope as fuck, and those are the main things on either side of bombing and productions. I love the unlimited ideas you can get on productions, but I'm gonna push myself for more bombing, more travelling, more POW POW haha.

• Whats your favourite painting and what is it about that piece that you like so much?

Probably the one I done in that Newcastle jam. Bit of an accident, and totally changed the direction I was painting in. I like the organic greens in it, makes me think of murky woods and folk with pointed ears smoking batons. I think if that piece had a soundtrack, it would be something from warp records haha.

ESTM - Newcastle Jam 2006

• Do you see yourself still painting in 10 years time?

Without a doubt. Still trying to push things forward hopefully. It's mad how much you can progress in a year, nevermind ten, so I'm pretty intregued to see what I'll be painting by that stage, what kinds of flix I'll have built up, what kinds of stories to tell. I won't even be that old to be honest.

• Every writer has a story that they like to tell whether it’s the time they met and painted with someone, some beef or a chase story. What’s yours?

Erm well due to the nature of the Scottish scene you can never really chat about specifics on the net. A lot of mad chase stories and what not. I guess just seeing random pedestrians who stumble upon illegal graff getting done and you can tell it's just fucking their head up, and when you can tell they're down with it and feeding off the buzz it's even better. We need more people like that. Also one time I had to take a dump in a train yard, haha.

• Getting wasted or Graff?

Graff definitely. I've developed some kind of rep in the scottish scene as a bit of a waster but that's due to all you guys hosting your jams early on saturdays. Most of the time I can't ignore the party on the previous friday night, so in order not to sleep in I gotta stay up. That's dedication, and when you pull off a sweet piece too on no sleep, it feels good. I'm gonna give the partying a bit of a kick though, fuel more energy into graf.