Rogue One interview

Nice wee interview with Rogue One over here. Not a full on graff interview but a good read nonetheless.

Interview with ER from this Sundays Newspaper

Vandals or artists? Those who graffiti Scotland's public spaces risk imprisonment and death

THE thrown spray-can arcs through the air, turning end over end, a flash and blur in the Glasgow gloaming.

It is caught at the top of a ladder by Akme, a graffiti writer, who uses it to apply a bold purple outline to his painting. 'Writer' is the word this tribe use to refer to themselves.

Some call them artists, others vandals. To most of us they are just names on a wall. Akme. Estum. Ejek. Vues. These tags, which together have a liturgical air, are a sort of murmured incantation, part of the ambient noise of city life.

Graffiti is everywhere in Glasgow – on rooftops and road signs, bridges and tunnels, and by the side of the railway tracks.

There is a graffiti culture in other Scottish cities, notably Dundee, as well as Edinburgh and Aberdeen, but Glasgow is the epicentre. The city is home to the Easy Riderz, Scotland's most prominent and prolific crew.

"To me," says Akme, a 30-year-old who has been on the scene for more than half his life, "graffiti is art in its purest form. It's spontaneous and you are doing it just for yourself."

Estum, who is in his early twenties, nods. "You are doing all this planning and risking jail just for five minutes' work and a photo that pure immortalises it."

Both men have criminal convictions for graffiti. "House raids are the worst," says Akme. "Cops kicking your door in at the crack of dawn. Shit like that makes me think, 'F*** them, I'm not going to stop.'"

The usual charges are vandalism and malicious mischief. From time to time, a graffiti writer is sent to prison. In 2008, a member of the Easy Riderz crew – Gary Shields, known as Daze – was given 28 months, sending shock waves through the graffiti community. He served two months in Barlinnie before the sentence was quashed and replaced by community service and a £4,000 compensation order.

Given the high stakes, graffiti writers do everything they can to avoid being caught. Some even place magnets on the bottoms of their spray-cans, holding the ball-bearings inside in place, so they do not rattle and alert police or security guards.

Naturally, they are suspicious of the media. However, a number of members of the Easy Riderz agreed to talk to Scotland On Sunday on the understanding their tags, rather than real names, would be used in print. "Anyway," says Akme, "that really is who I am. Graffiti is my life. It consumes you."

That's an interesting point. The Easy Riderz have a range of occupations – student, barman, graphic designer, tattoo artist, shop assistant, call centre worker – but those tend not to define who they are. Graffiti gives them an identity and a purpose.

Engagement with the press is, therefore, a risk they are willing to take in order to communicate to the mainstream their feelings about graffiti – their passion for it, and their belief that it is misunderstood.

To be taken into their confidence is to be shown an underground world, sometimes literally so, a hidden Glasgow beneath street level. It is to be shown The Tunnels.

The headquarters of Glasgow's graffiti scene is a network of tunnels in the south-west of the city. The Easy Riderz call The Tunnels a "hall of fame". Beneath a motorway flyover and a couple of bridges is a large area of wilderness, popular with deer, foxes, bats and young men wearing baseball caps and respirators.

Squeeze through a gap in the diamond-mesh fence, pick your way carefully down a steep slope choked with brambles and nettles, and you're there. You can't see it properly from the road; few if any of the thousands of motorists driving overhead each day realise their cars are passing over what amounts to a gigantic art gallery.

Putting aside the rights and wrongs of graffiti, this place is astonishing. Every concrete surface, each pock-marked pillar is a riot of colour.

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of different tags, each painted in a distinctive style, originality being highly prized in graffiti culture. More striking, though, are the huge wall paintings and how these blend in with the environment down here. Bush babies stare out from behind barbed wire. Estum's weirdly luminous organic abstracts appear to have sprouted from the marshy ground.

Within one flooded tunnel, in which lurk the rusting hulks of half-submerged shopping trolleys, there is a 50-foot-long painting of a skull, a chimp and Benedict XVI, the Pope's profile reflected in the fetid water. The meaning of the piece is unclear, but it could not be more different from the scrawled FTPs and FTQs that dominate much of the graffiti seen above ground in Glasgow.

Unlike other Scottish cities and elsewhere in Europe, there is nowhere in Glasgow in which it is legal to paint in public space. Glasgow Community and Safety Services spends £1 million removing graffiti each year.

"The majority of the citizens don't like graffiti," says Darren Lambie of Glasgow Community and Safety Services.

"It is a signal crime. It brings areas down. It's a culture that we need to break down. We can't allow people to run about, putting stuff on other people's property. The same people who are doing some nice stuff with their peers are then going out, with the hood up, and doing damage."

Given the zero-tolerance approach of the city authorities, writers wishing to create complex, time-consuming work must seek out desolate spots such as The Tunnels.

They like it down there, but would rather their work was seen by large numbers of people. Rogue-One, who has painted an enormous photorealist portrait of a shaven-headed child with his hands balled into fists, says: "It's very sad for me that I have to remain underground and my work is hidden. The public walking around up there have no idea that this exists, but I am sure they would love it."

On an overcast Monday in late June, Akme, Estum and Vues have assembled at The Tunnels to paint a 'production', their term for a large colour piece, on to a triangular section of wall by the side of a bridge.


The painting consists of the tag Easy Riderz, a dragon and a woman in a short purple dress. It is slow going as they only have one ladder between them. They begin at about 3pm, first emulsioning over the graffiti that was there, and are still painting as midnight approaches, working by the lights of the motorway. The air smells of marijuana and the equally heady chemical stink of the paint.

Between hip hop tracks, it is possible to make out the hiss of the spray and the discussions between the three regarding how the picture should develop.

They work in near silence with great intensity, painting with confident flicks and flourishes of the cans. Watching them work is like listening to a jazz trio – each man filling space with improvised lines and motifs.

"I love the motion of spray-painting," says Akme. "When I've got paint going on to a wall or a train, it's a rush. It's instant satisfaction."
Vues, the oldest of the three, is in his mid-thirties. He is wearing a blue Nike T-shirt with 'Vandal' written on the front.

"If somebody was to call me a vandal I wouldn't take offence," he says. "Vandalism is part and parcel of it. It's how you start out – tagging, trying to get a bit of style and flow, until you are good enough to start doing pieces like this."


The graffiti writers are at ease in The Tunnels. It is unlikely the police will bother them here. But as Vues suggests, there is another practice within the culture – the so-called tagging or bombing, painting your name in a highly visible spot.

Three huge Akme tags on buildings in Tradeston – including one down the middle of a fire-escape, four-storeys high – are unmissable from trains pulling into Glasgow Central. "It's nice being high up above the city, away from people, in your own space," he muses. "You're like Spider-Man. You see the city in a different way from everyone else."

The more prominent the tag, and the more risk incurred by the writer in putting it there, the more respect – 'props' – he will receive from his peers. There are ethics – "No churches, no cars, no houses, no historic buildings," says Akme – but in general the idea is to paint your name where it will be seen by as many people as possible.

That is why graffiti on trains or at the side of railway tracks is so crucial. Writers risk life and liberty to paint them, usually in the middle of the night. It is rife. Between Muirend in the south of the city and Central Station, a journey that takes a quarter of an hour, there are around 300 separate pieces of trackside graffiti. The writers also break into depots in order to paint the carriages.

"These freight trains go up and down the country, and the guys love painting them," says Gary MacKay, known as GazMac, who at 42 is a sort of elder statesman of the scene, though not involved in illegal work; he undertakes private commissions and gives workshops in graffiti. "The boys are cutting through barbed-wire fences three-fold to get to these holding yards."

Estum gets a dreamy look in his eye when he talks about the trains. "There's a great atmosphere on the track at night," he says.

"It's so quiet and no one else is there. It's about wall-spots that people will see the next day and know you've gone to the effort to get there."

Akme nods. "Graffiti started in New York on the trains. So it's an ongoing tradition. It's a battle to keep that going. You don't want the big boys to win. We want to stay on top. And why not? It looks fresh, it looks good, it's our way of communicating. We're not going to just shut down."

The big boys in question are Network Rail and the British Transport Police. Network Rail in Scotland spends at least £330,000 each year on cleaning graffiti from its property. The BTP uses sophisticated methods in its attempts to catch and prosecute graffiti writers. It seeks DNA and fingerprint evidence from crime scenes, stakes out train depots and employs a graphologist to identify whether different pieces of graffiti were created by the same person using different tags.

Constable Stephen Hughes, a field intelligence officer with the British Transport Police in Scotland, maintains a database of tens of thousands of photographs of tags amassed over the five years he has been responsible for investigating graffiti crime. An amiable 42-year-old, he has studied the work so closely he is now able to make aesthetic judgments.

"I have two Banksy prints on my living-room wall," he says. "I think, personally, graffiti is good but has to be channelled in the right direction. A lot of the kids are very bright and articulate. They are not wee neds.

"You see some getting better, some dropping out of the scene, and others as young as 13, 14 coming through. This is not going to go away. We'll have the Commonwealth Games here in three years, and the eyes of the world will be upon us. Do we really want them to see a city strewn with graffiti vandalism? Ultimately, what we want is a reduction in crime, and we don't want anyone getting killed on the railway."

For Hughes, the way forward is engagement with the writers. The BTP is supporting a scheme by Mark Henderson, community safety manager at Network Rail in Scotland, which would see members of the Easy Riderz crew invited to create a mural on the side of the Cotterell Light Centre, off Scotland Street.

It faces on to the railway line and has become a graffiti hot spot as a result of its proximity to the Shields depot. The writers will also be allowed to use two adjacent walls belonging to Network Rail.

"We're hoping they will take this olive branch," says Henderson. It is a diversionary tactic. The railway authority hopes to see a marked reduction in tagging within Shields depot. If so, the plan is to roll the scheme out across Scotland, providing authorised trackside walls around Dundee, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and in the environs of Glasgow Central.

The graffiti writers seem willing to give this a go, though some have concerns that they are being asked to create pre-agreed content and will not be allowed to write their tags. More problematic is the fact that illegal tagging is an article of faith within graffiti orthodoxy.

The idea of being an urban outlaw runs deep. "I feel that I can't really identify myself as a graffiti artist if I don't paint illegally," says Estum.

While he, Akme and Vues are painting, a couple of young women walk through The Tunnels – one blonde, one dark haired.

They are 17-year-old shopgirls finished work for the day, effortlessly negotiating the marshy, uneven ground in high-heeled boots. "We're the only two female writers in Glasgow," says the petite and brassy blonde, who calls herself Wasp. "It's male-dominated, so I thought I'd prove that we can do it too."

Wasp and her friend Know have been on the scene for 18 months. "We paint in heels," she says. "It's a good way of not getting caught. If you've just done a spot and are walking through the town in trainers and a dirty tracky then there's more chance of the polis knowing what you've been doing."

What about the risk of getting hit by a train? Does that not frighten her? Wasp shrugs. "You just do it, don't you? The adrenalin overbeats the fear."

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of The Tunnels is its longevity. This has been the place to come for more than a decade. Each wall is thick with layer upon layer of designs. It is Glasgow's Lascaux. The graffiti scene in Glasgow dates back to around 1983, emerging from the breakdancing scene which was itself inspired by the hip hop music and movies coming over from America.

"The MCs were talking about ghettos, and we associated with that," says Gary MacKay. "We were living in housing schemes that were shitholes. You could relate to the idea of kids putting their name up because they wanted to be more than a number. You were either getting into something good, like graffiti, or into something naughty. Six or seven of my mates from school became junkies."

This is, perhaps, the key point about the most prominent Glaswegian writers – they see what they are doing as a force for good, both in their own lives, and with regard to how it makes Glasgow look and feel. In their view, graffiti is anti-authoritarian and utopian, an expression of individual creativity which stands against the creeping commodification and homogenisation of society.

Just listen to Gary Shields. As Daze, he was found guilty of causing £12,000 worth of damage to railway property. Now 24 and working as a draughtsman with an engineering firm, he regrets the pain his actions and imprisonment caused his family, and is glad he was caught because it has meant he is no longer addicted to going out a breaking the law. But he does not believe what he did was morally wrong.

"No," he says. "If you didn't have graffiti, the whole city would just be covered in advertising. The people should have a say in the way our environment looks. In cities like Barcelona, graffiti is embraced and it adds a lot of colour and culture.

"Graffiti," he adds, "gives Glasgow a voice.

Radio Scotland - Kelburn Castle

Found this kicking about on one of my old pc's. Its a piece from a show hosted by Gerard Kelly on Radio Scotland from a few years back. The chat is around the project at Kelburn Castle. Includes all the usual references to Banksy etc from the host(s) but some good balance and nice points raised by "Alex and David" makes this well worth a listen. Apologies for the dodgy cracklin and poppin quality - soundcard was playing up at the time.

As One interview

As One is a old school Scottish writer who is now living over in Australia. He has a new website up and running which includes a whole load of tasty flicks. Do yourself a favour, go check it out over at www.styledepth.com. I asked him if he would be up for answering some questions and he kindly obliged. Enjoy!


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

i write As One or sometimes spelt Az one, previously I was in fck along with Mak, Sqan, Tuez, Dice, Dose, Aztek, Insa, Stik, Sumo, Epos and a whole bunch of other European guys. I have been "crewless" by choice since the days of FCK but am now writing with ASH Crew from Sydney Australia (A Shocking Hobby - with Yoke and Stryke). Been writing for 19 years.

What was it that made you get into graffiti and made you feel "I need to do that"?

i used to have this French pal from Paris who came to stay at with us during his school holidays in the late 80s early 90s, one summer he came he was really into hip hop, like I was at the time, but I was just really into rap like Public Enemy and hadn't been exposed to anything else. He showed me how to tag - it went from there really. After I'd been to Paris and seen the tracksides I was hooked. I loved the idea of big pieces but I started off being really into tagging, I probably had about 10 different tags I used to write - I just liked the style of the tags and the reason I had 10 was cos I wanted to smash where I lived in tags. My mate also wrote a bunch of different things and it got to the stage that everywhere you went in my town you'd see tags if you were looking for them, this was all pre me moving to Glasgow.



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

This is a hard one, when I first started i was into stuff in the Spraycan Art book, then I liked writers like Shok 1, when I started doing 3D stuff Daim was an influence as well as Mak and Tuez who I was painting with. Nowadays my influences come from everywhere - Daim remains an influence, MSK crew, the Ironlak team in Australia, Saturno and Okuda from Spain spring to mind. I think I'm more influenced by graphic design and illustration though, I love digital art, and especially abstract digital art - I constantly trawl the art and design blogs looking for inspiration that i can mix with graffiti. I'm also influenced by organic matter and chemical reactions

Is there any distinct differences in the scene since you started painting?

Yeah, tons. First of all the paint: When I first started it was all done in Car Plan and Halfords own brand shitty auto paint, there were no special caps, it dribbled everywhere and you couldn't get pinks and purples - then hycote came along and it was like it was sent by God, we had to mix colours by putting one in the freezer and cutting a special mixing straw from the inside of a biro pen. Secondly was access to graf: There were hardly any graf mags, it was about 4 or 5 years before the Internet revolution and there weren't many writers. A "tag" was something that had a price on it attached to an item of clothing. Nowadays everything is handed to us on a silver plate with a smiling stewardess going "would you like a range of caps with your different shades of purple sir?" Which is cool cos it means the materials are better and you can go further with your art, but also means things become more "throwaway" if you know what I mean

The amount of people into it now is a lot more, which means more development and unique styles comin through. Also though it means there are toys everywhere and they're all bitching and scoring each other like babies in a sandpit kicking over each others sand castles



Your website states that you "specialize in Interior design, exteriors, graphic design, graffiti, illustration and identity and branding". Have these different aspects made a direct impact on your style and how you approach a piece?

Yeah totally. I've become anal as fuck about my graf! But I think in a good way. Everything has to be tight, and everything has to be better than the last one I did. I guess since being self employed over the last 6 years it's made me more competitive and always wanting to push the envelope - as I am now in the mind set of it's how I'm going to pay my rent and put food on my table. This spills into all my personal graf, which is making me grow not just with art but as a person. Also like I said before the influences of the graphic design world and digital illustration are really making an impression on how I paint, the can techniques I use and what I end up painting. I am even planning a few abstract walls, something I'd never have considered before I got into doing this as a job

Talking of the internet, it wasnt really around when you first started painting. How do you feel it has impacted on the graff scene?

lol this makes me feel really old, being pre internet, kinda like a beta video recorder, but yeah I kinda touched on this before - it's made everything easy. Style, supplies, hook ups, learning, even places to paint. I think it's a good thing and i think it has definitely made more people get into painting, it's all about evolution I guess - it's opening doors like never before. An example is when I was in Scotland before i went traveling: I hooked up with these Colombian writers on myspace, and when I went over there it was just a case of a few emails and I was standing in the capital city of Bogota painting with them. How amazing is that?



Your living over in Australia now, whats the graff scene like there in comparison to what you left behind in Scotland?

The scene here is really good. It's thriving, you'll see tags, dubs and big productions everywhere. I recently went up the coast on the train to Queensland and there wasn't one stretch of track that didn't have something on it. Way out in the country between cities if there was a wall it had something on it grafwise. There are stacks of really talented writers over here, and some Aussies knock the scene but I think it's really good. Part of that is because of the sunshine, it just means you can paint a lot more - but it's also the culture - normal people like productions so it's easier to get walls. Sometimes it's just a case of approaching a house that's got tags on it and showing the owners some photos and they'll let you paint if they like the stuff.

Compared to Scotland, well first of all the weather is an obvious factor, secondly though there's less "pigeon holing" amongst the youth. There's tons of wee guys in Scotland who go "aw that graffiti's aw that fuckin pure mosher shite". They don't know what they're talking about and in most other countries those same people would probably be writing graf. Also graffiti for some reason has never really taken off in Scotland like it has in other parts of the world, even compared to just south of the border in England. I used to live in Sheffield and it was way smaller than Glasgow but probably had 10 times more graffiti to look at, why is that? On the positive side though, cos Scotland has a small scene it means everybody knows each other which is good for organizing jams etc. Also I' think Scottish writers have to fight harder for spots, painting conditions etc so it probably increases their dedication. I also see a lot of style variation in Scotland compared to somewhere like Sydney, which is mainly New York influenced, and there are some really styling writers in the homeland.

Every writers style and pieces evolve over the years. Whats your own personal favourite piece that you have done and why?

I think my recent stuff is my best work cos it's a constant logical progression for me. Flat stuff, I did one in Sydney recently with the letter 'A' 3D, red and all disintegrating off to the left, and 3D wise the last 3D thing I did which I think might be first on my website.

What are your goals for 2011 (onwards) graffiti wise?

Graf wise I want to continue growing, I want to not just continue 3D but also I want to do as much flat stuff and abstract stuff. I want to perfect my current style, then might completely change it, I dunno. I have T shirts and all kinds of shit planned. On a bigger scale I want to go to the Americas again, I want to go to NY and LA and do some design and painting, then want to head back to Latin America. I really want to paint Brazil. I was there in 2008 but never painted - this time I want to make connections. I've been planning all this for ages, it's going to piss my girlfriend off something rotten but it's something that I have to do lol. I also am coming back to Scotland for a bit and want to get some big productions organized, be amazing to see everybody again

Like me you're no spring chicken. Do you still see yourself painting in ten years time?

Definitely. I've made this my life, maybe I won't paint as regularly as I do now cos I hope to be running a design studio somewhere, but I'll still paint. I was born to do this and was given the ability to paint so would never do anything else.

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

Myself, Mak and Sqan went to New York and painted with Ces, Yes 2 and Cap on a Bronx trackside and I had to go over a big Seen thing which is all memorable enough considering the names, but the next day was a belter - we went down to get pics of the work and it was during the day and we ran onto the tracks in the morning to get photos. Anyway, it was an overground subway and interstate line and we saw this subway car coming along the line. Can't remember where Mak went but me and Sqan weren't fast enough to get off the tracks and so had to hide behind this trackside bush. There was two lines, one on a bank behind and above us and one down below in front of us - we were sitting there hiding waiting for the train to go below us, and the fucking thing must've changed tracks at the last minute and it was quiet, then all we heard from a meter behind us was this hissing noise, and it rolled past us slowly, packed with New York commuters ALL staring at us, especially since we had our fucking backs turned, crouching, and never realized they were there until they were actually going past us! I felt like a total fanny lol and I'm sure Sqan did too, it was like something out of a comedy film.

Any last words?

Want to give a shout out to Estum, Mak, Akme and all the rest of the ER, Gazmac, Elph and writers in all cities in Scotland. Also shouts to Yoke and Stryke from Sydney. Worldwide peace and fuck the NWO!

Roule Interview

Another audio interview by Sync this time with Roule. Again this was carried out at last years Jam at the DPM. Discussions around style, CCTV, the short term life of graff and a whole lot more. A good listen.

Rask interview part 2

part 2 of the Rask interview that i was meant to post months back. Part 1 here

Its all about the letters!!!

During this years summer jam at the DPM, Sync took the opportunity to grab a some writers and carry out a few interviews. Here is Part 1 of his interview with Irelands finest, Rask (part 2 of the interview to follow).
Rask is no stranger to the Scottish scene having hooked up with Eez wayback, taken part in some of his old school jams. A top writer and an equally top bloke.
Have a listen and remember - Its all about the letters!!!

Rask DPM 2009

interviews...

Couple of interviews with two certain Scottish writers over at canned goods
Rouge One
Lyken Love
Both are an excellent read - go check them out.

DLA1 interview

Hosted over at Canned Goods

Eez - interview

Some of the newer writers may not know the name Eez but if you know a little bit about the history of graffiti in Scotland then you will know about the Livi Jam 1994. Eez was the driving force behind that, and other jams. The fact that he was able to fund and organise an event on that scale prior to internet hook ups etc says far more about the man than i ever could. But dont be fooled, there was far more to the man the jams. His graff style, IMO, was miles ahead of its time, people are just beginning to catch up now (take a look around and you will see what i mean). Also, be sure check out this as an example of some of the music created by the man.
Eez has stated that he is willing to answer any further questions via the blog, so be sure to leave a comment or two.
Introduction by Eez.

I wanted this interview put up cos there were a few 'misunderstandings' about myself that needed sorted out. Firstly, I've never been in jail – never been in court for anything I've done either. Was living in Ireland for a good few years having a great time of it all. Seems like the jail stories got started and spread by those who would have liked that to have been the case. Whatever, their ineptitude is something that they will have to resolve.

Also, bizarrely, there was also someone pretending to be me on an internet forum. They probably found it amusing that a few people believed their waffle, and again Chinese Whispers began. I feel sorry for all involved. Being jealous of my talents won't give you them? Confucius says, Better to work on your sparkles rather than look for another's drips )

If there is anything that any reader wants clarified about the following just post a comment and I will come back and answer.

Introduce yourself, how long you have been painting, what crews have you been part of?

EEZ aka EASE-A, EEZ-A, EEZ BAK, E, EB, BEEM, BE, BIZ - never anything else in graffland. There have been plenty of misspelling overs the years, EZE springs to mind? - Maybe the 'style' was too 'wild'

First painting with spray paint, 1983 (ish). I used to write my name in a calligraphy style for years before that (my older sister was a very good artist and forced me into drawing 'battles' with her) - but 3D with sparkles on the bubbles, 6ft high, was a new one to master from 83. I remember a guy called 'Smiffy' in my class at school showing me some of his graff drawings on the front of his maths jotter and then the same day goin home to find my wee brother doin fuckin handspins! That was cool n funky, with xtra cool n funky sprinkled on top ) Have to take the opportunity to give the bro a big mention here as he was always around when everything was goin on. Amongst numerous other things, he was the one who sat up and constructed the event pass that most people still have from the Under Pressure session (more on that later).

Yeah, so around 1983 was my first actual piece and EEZ is my main alter ego.. Earliest crew was a breakin one, Livi Supreme Breakin Team aka Nike Warriors. Now THAT'S xtra cool n funky too haha. Most of the time I just painted solo cos it was easier to get things done - I didn't have crew ties so I could deal with others with less friction (which came in useful for future events organisation). In later years I got invited into the TTK - Third Teem Kingz (although there are numerous spelling variations). That's a legendary crew btw so I was honoured. EEZ TTK is what I'm happy to be remembered as.

BIZ was one of my first names/vibes in graffland. I vaguely remember seeing a piece by, or sayin, Bizerk in the Blues N Soul magazine (Tim Westwood had a page in it that covered Hip Hop, including the results of breakin battles). I liked the sound of it - Doin the biz, Takin care of business and so on. Also my housing scheme was bit crazy at that time and Bizerk was how some people were running around. Anyways, I digress.. Moved onto EASE-A. Just liked the sound of it. Take it easy. Easy does it. The 'E' was good to draw and so was the 'A'. The 'S' linked them together. I changed this to EEZ-A as some people were pronouncing it EASY-A and I wanted to redefine the sound. I dropped the 'A' eventually because EEZ had a good look to it and Extacy (along with a general drugs culture) was in fashion. I didn't write EEZ or E because I was taking them, I just tuned in to what was goin on around me. Because painting on a large scale at a high standard is so physically demanding it is better to be as clear headed and as agile as possible. Ladders and scaffolding are not to be tackled while mashed up ) I've tried and it's nowhere near 'cool n funky' )

Quickish word on the other nom de plumes. EEZ BAK and EB came from a line in an Ice-T track and just summed up how I was feeling at the time. Which was pressured with all the publicity that was goin on (paintings on the front page of the Guardian, front page of the Herald, double page in The Face, Live radio interviews, TV interviews gettin fucked up in the edit, peoples reaction to all that, phew the list goes on) Yeah so EEZ BAK, time to get my breath back, biatchs. And the E and B letters blended nicely into each other too )

BEEM was because of my initials - I'd sometimes been misrepresented as I wasn't a 'hardcore' letterist (although if you 'read between the lines' there plenty to see. Wild Style anyone?) I drew it so that all the letters consisted of the same shape, imagine how you would line draw a bird in the sky, that was the core letter - I just tilted the B to the left kept the two E's in the middle upright and tilted the the M to the right. And BE was just for the same reason as EB, also it sounded cool. You can be want you want to be, I think therefore I be.. Or something like that )

In summary - the style of the letters, the vibe of the name and it's context within the environment - that's what mattered to me.

• You mentioned that you had a lot of exposure and that there were reactions that came from that. How did you first deal with the media side of things and then the reactions of people that came from that exposure (i assume that you mean negative reactions from other writers)

Not necessary from other writers and not necessary negative. There were a few things over the years - an interview here; a higher profile commission there. That taught me a few things about the media and how other people reacted to seeing myself within that portrayal. When the events kicked off it all just got combined and intensified. Hence a reason for calling the eventual main event, Under Pressure.

Journalists can be sneaky bastards, asking you ten questions, be all pally and then twist something to suit the theme they have attached to whatever is going on. Because I was one of the first to get a consistent national profile I had to tread carefully through the questions especially considering the illegality of the artworks reputation. The publicity itself was no big deal. I was more concerned about the painting looking cool n funky within the article that seeing myself look back out amongst the adverts and other stories on the go.

On reflection it was all a beneficial learning experience. Let's just say I would employ a professional publicist for any future endeavours.

• Who were your early influences?
  

In graff, the main ones were DOSE and LEE. Dose because of the B-Boy characters on the sleeves of the Rock Steady Crew records they put out and Lee because of his interview and artwork in the book Getting Up. Later on when I was heavily flick trading there were loads of styles I liked. Too many to recall really. Everyone invited to the events had an influence on my artwork actually. My style of painting was recognisable as my own so that's what's important at the end of the day. I was more inspired by meeting people than by viewing their art eventually.

• What are your memories of the early days and what are the main differences now to when you first started?
  

Early memories are fantastic ones. I loved the smell of the paint, which was Carplan and Duplicolor (got some Buntlac sourced along the way too). The grandiose and scale of the artwork. The bubbles. The 3D. The sparkles and highlights. The arrows. Everything was just FRESH.

Main difference would be paint access now I suppose. You can walk into numerous shops or go online and buy everything. It's pretty fuckin amazing actually. Also viewing other people work is a big change. There were a few graff-zines in black n white photocopy doing the rounds but now you can just turn on your pc and be swamped by it all in alphabetical order. Also Hip Hop was like a remote control after a gatecrashed party! YouTube is class for catchin new and old vids now though. In a word, the difference is, Internet.

• Back in the day there was no quick hook ups over the net and the only real way to get in contact with other writers was through a sort of pen-pal system. You were doing some real serious networking back in the early days. Is this where the initial idea for the Livingston Jam came from? What set the ball rolling?

There were 3 main events in total. The third being the most complete. I'd been to a few and had a good time so I thought lets do it it in sunny Scotland too. Although as one balls up turned out, windy as fuck Scotland! The first two were held at the skatepark, the third indoors at the community centre.

In terms of having contacts to bring it all together, I had published a graff mag for about 5 issues then put out a freebie A4 both sides newsletter over a couple of years. There were numerous homebrew concoctions at the time also so we all used to trade flix n keep the scene on the go.

• How did you go about organising the event? How did you attract the funding? There must have been so much going on and I assume that you didn’t have any previous experience of organising anything on such a scale.
  

With great fuckin difficulty. Let me tell you. Without going into too much of the paperwork side of things, basically I had accumulated funding proposals for workshops I had been employed to do and reworded these to suit the occasion. The Under Pressure event that you are referring too was a follow on from other events I'd organised; so I already had experience from those (and from the windswept hairdo) which enabled me to bring it all together like a jigsaw – only the jigsaw pieces happened to be in different countries.

• Is it true that all these writers and bboys crashed in your house for the duration of the jam? What was that like, where there any ego’s? Most importantly, who ate more than their fair share of the chocolate biscuits?
  

Different people stayed in different locations. At one point I think they were all in my house chattin and chillin. No ego's from what I remember. Phase 2 and Vulcan were around, how you gonna brass your case there? Haha. I could/should have spent some of the money on hotel rooms right enough but that would have meant less people taking part. Catch 22.
And, I ate all the biscuits beforehand. Do you think I'm daft?

• The Tramways jam in Glasgow featuring a whole host of Scottish writers was another big jam that you organised – How did that come about?
  

Less said the better really. I wasn't solely responsible for it all coming together. Take from that what you will. On a plus side, that was one BIG fuckin white wall I sorted out. All you grumbling cunts needed to cheer up there. Need me to wipe your arse as well ?

• Why was there no Livingston Jam part 2 - Son of Livi, Tramways part 2 – Return of the whatever? Had you become disillusioned with things?
  

Put simply my own inspired events were stopped because of the lack of funding opportunities. Nothing else. Plane tickets aren't free. That's about it. I wasn't disillusioned at all. The biggest, the best. The first and the finest. Nothing to be disillusioned by there. Wee grumbling fandans come and go. Been around the block you know, did a lot before the events got my profile higher. Dealt with a lot of people from a lot of places. An example would be to just have a look at the people from the events – Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, France, Germany, Spain, Holland, USA and so on. That takes a quality rep. I'm built to last.

• I think its safe to say that you didn’t really go out there with a traditional approach to graff. Not many people at that time where out there doing photo realistic paintings or abstract type work (which appears to be the norm nowadays). In fact, I think its safe to say that that particular style was actually looked down on by many. Why did you take that approach rather than focussing on a more traditional lettering style?
  

Letters were easy. That's about it. I was pushing the capabilities of what was possible with spray paint. Most of my work was done with Carplan, same nozzle. That still fucks with peoples heads to this day.
I looked on other artists with more of a sideways glance. If they thought they were looking down on me from afar then that's cool. When I met with people it was always a different story. Those who saw my piecebook then knew what I was capable of.
I love letters. I had to point them out within my pieces as they were embedded within it more often than not. Wildstyle.
One other thing, because I was networking a lot I saw a lot of different styles. Although abstracts and realistic pieces weren't the norm amongst the train painters and dub bombers that was the main emerging style that was developing throughout the uk.

• What are your views on the current scene, Scottish or otherwise?
  

I was always supportive of other artists. Some didn't keep in touch and missed out on future invites. Nothing personal. I dished out paint, cash and opportunites to many, many people. Do I think it was worthwhile? Yeah, the current scene is healthier, mainly because of internet access. Same goes for worldwide developments. There's more commercial interest now too. Was checking some Adidas Graff trainers in Footlocker the other day. That's an interesting development.

• I always remember having some really interesting conversations with you and you telling me some incredible stories. Whats your favourite graff related story?
  

Most graff stories are best kept to when the photo albums are out and the company is selected. But I will tell you this, when the Under Pressure event was on and there were loads of heads goin to an fro from my house, some fucker left the gas cooker on, unlit. By chance, I headed back up to sort some stuff out and was met by a waft of some serious build up. I didn't even turn the key in the back door incase there was a spark. Had to push the window open, slow as fuck (while holding my breath) to let the fumes out. That put the whole shenanigans into perspective. Half the street would have been decorated in body parts if I hadn't clocked it. Oh yeah, another one - Shagged a wee burd in the toilets during an event in Ireland while Keen and Mode 2 were outside waitin to get in haha

• Any plans in the pipeline for a few new pieces?
  

Yeah, and maybe an event too. Prob next Summer for the event and this Summer for a couple of pieces. Watch this space.

• If you could do it all again would you change anything?
  

Yeah, prob wouldn't have told you the shaggin story.

PS Thanks to everyone involved with the events and assisting me along the way. You know who you are and you know what contribution you made. There's too many to mention and I would be doin a disservice to those I missed out if I attempted to do so. Lastly, no one is perfect and we improve because of the errors we make or by witnessing the errors of others. Time is the teller. Not you and not me.

Just because you don't see the sun shining it doesn't mean that it's not there.

Mak 1 interview

Sem by Mak 1

Brought to you by a certain graff rag, from their August/September 2000 edition. Uploaded to ZShare as the files are too large to host on these pages. You will need winace or similar to extract the files. Enjoy!

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ZIP file for the trendy mac users (hopefully this works)

THEME ONE

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

theme aj brc dos

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

seeing vote/zeps getting up arond my town slapping tags/throws everywhere then i later
found out a few guys fae school were into it too, we created the crew SSA, heavy toy styles
at the time, then we all kinda drifted away from it, tho i kept the wee flame in ma heart
burning and took up the can again a few years later, it wasnt long after that til i met the
aj boys, and the rest as we say, is history...

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

dice/dose/enos/eska stuff on the tracks and seein aj/se about town and an old dutch graff
mag were what i looked to back in the day, especially cece, opak and deltas styles fuck
knows what it is now, too many things influence me these days, manga/anime/japanese
culture,simple cartoon styles,spanish graff,alot of the funky brazilian shit on fotolog from
the fleshbeck crew, too much to mention...

You have a very distinctive style - describe it?

i never really like to do the same piece twice like most folk in schotland seem to be into
these days, always got to keep it fresh and funky, and with the other brc boys we like to
play off each others styles and get something cool and cartoony goin, with da funk of
course...

From a personal point of view how important is it to be part of a crew?

always important, otherwise id be doin the characters and mulsioning the background maself..... but aye always good to have people on the same wave length...

Bombing, piecing or a production? What's your preferred choice and why?

used to love bombing, but ive gotten lazy in my old age, got to be piecing in the sun,
gettin a proper wall done

What's your opinion on the current Scottish Graff scene?

its ok i guess.... some of the stuff coming out of edinburghs pretty fresh, tho that seems
to be mostly foreigners....

Whats your favourite piece and why?

probably this one from 06 (below), a bit dated but still my favourite, we done this production when omer returned to scotland after being exiled to kent a year earlier, good day, good wall, and all the pieces were burning

What are your goals for 2008 graffiti wise?

try and get a bit more done, last year was a bit of a washout wi the usual scottish
pishness weve come to expect now and i didnt bother with any of the jams, hopefully it'll be a bit more like 06, gettin around piecing alot in different cities and meeting new folk

Will you still be painting in ten years time?

hopefully aye, probably by then i'll be able to afford more than one paint order a year....

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

theres been too many trackside/street chase stories to pick out one, tho i remember when
tribe bought a can of juice out the kebab shop with a skeleton keyring, good times....

Any last words?

keep it beefy.

Interview - Krime

Krime, NWSK, ESTM Madrid 2007

• Give me your name, crew(s), and how long have you been painting?
KRIME, MDMA, VK and the MAS, been writing for 5 years this winter.

• What was it that made you get into graffiti, what was it that made you go, fuck I want to do that?
in a nutshell it was my boy ANTE who introduced me to graff in 2002 but i have always noticed it. i remember the old factory in dundee on the perth road (now the DCA) which was filled wee graff and i loved the atmosphere that the pieces created. what was wierd was i never thought of doing it myself. as i got older i hung around the old hawkhill factory which was loaded with pieces and it still never dawned on me to take it up but the respect was there for the people behind the artwork. i have always been keen on drawing and design and studied it at the skale. once i left i had nowhere really to channel my artistic abillities untill ANTE (a school chum) chapped my door a few yers later and said hed been doin graff and thought i may be intrested in it. still to this day he has never been more right hahaha. the MDMA was formed......... with just the 2 of us.

• Who were your early influences and who/what influences you now?
Hailing from dundee and the time we started we were quite deprived of any up to date resorces so our early suff was just what we interpreted graff to be. other than the memories from the old school graff haunts in dundee we were noticing tags and dubz from the likes of EYED and ARSE (DBS) which had a real nice style. i think most of the inspiration came from ROULE (ER) who at the time was producing some of the best pieces dundee has seen. BIG SHOUTS BY THE WAY. painting with ROULE opened up a lot of doors for me and educated me into the origins of graff. it was a mad time i like to call it creative overload. other influences include subay art and spray can art. what can i say. i love the old school flavour. my main influences at the moment are the people who i paint with, you ken wha ya are.


• Whilst people out there are chasing after the realistic 3D type of style, your style has a real old school New York style feel to it. Is this just a coincidence or was it a deliberate move?
its a deliberate move defo. i have an idea in my head of what graff should look like based on the way a piece looks and the atmoshere it creates. i try to stick to this rule whilst pushing myself further with every sketch i do. i do like the 3D stuff tho but i dont think its for me. i would like to give it a go but my heart is set on the old school and probably always will be. i think that the old school new york era certainly gives me influence i need to produce stuff i like to see.

• Bombing or a production? What's your preferred choice and why?
i like both of them for very simple reasons. boming provides a rush that you cant get anywhere else especially when you smack some steel. i love the zone you get in when out bombing. as soon as the paint hits the surface its pure instant euphoria. i have tried to pursue this plearure in many forms and none come close. productions are probably my favourite as it uses more of an artistic skill and im always challenging myself to do better. when doing productions its more relaxed than bombing and you can work to a pace that gives you the chance to have a blether with other writers face to face. prods also give you a chance to meet new people and be inspired in different ways.



• There is an attitude within graffiti that if someone is not taking the risks going out bombin etc then they are not really doing graffiti. What's your thoughts on this?
i think graff is a gift to a select minority who stick to it and these internal squabbles should be put to the side and forgot about. i like doin both but put most of my energy into piecing. some people have responsibilities that dont faciliitate the life of a bomber but allow them to go and do a piece. in my opinion they are still doing graff even if it doesnt involve all the aspects. i love gettin pished and goin bombing tho. dutch courage. ha

• What's your opinion on the current Scottish Graff scene?
fuckin brilliant. shouts to everyone who i have met. there is no hate between cities. everyone who i have painted with from glasgow and edinburgh have provided a great days painting and happy vibes as well as some real tasty work.

• Whats your favourite piece and why?
this one at the vapour trail jam dundee 07. i used a different technique with this one which i enjoy doing. cutting back your outlines and 3D with the fill, it creates a good effect.. i like this one because i love using greens, the overall shape of the piece and the sence of depth between layers. it is not as flat as some of my other stuff. plus i wasnt wasted so my lines are not as wonky.

KRIME - Vapour Trails jam Dundee 2007

• 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?
i dont know, i have had a lot of chases and close encounters but i think the best one which was quite comical was during a bombing mission. i was in a tunnel with a few folk and it was quite risky, near a main road. we heard noises from above and decided to chill back for a while till the noises stoped. it sounded like footsteps on the bridge. we sat in some bushes for about an hour telling jokes. fuckin freezin tae. anyways the paiting continued and i was on lookout a car come past and i shouted get down and it was a false alarm. then suddenly a motor on the bridge above was fucking booting it and we smelt the rubber from the tyres in the tunnel. this car come ripping past us so we hit the deck to hide. what followed the car was a whole squad of different police vehicles sirens and lights too. we fuckin shit ourselves coz there was a high chance that one of they cunts saw us. however all was well and we can laugh about how shady it was. i dont think i have shat myself since.

• Getting wasted or Graff
graff for sure but i always end up cunted at jams.

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.

Interview - Lyken

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

Hello, my name is Lyken Love and I rep the crew Voigt kampff, (VK for short) - original Dundee stylistic renegades. Im also down with Dundee Super Crew, MAS. I've been painting since 1987, I was particularly active in the 90's, slept on graff for a bit in the early naughties. Been back on the scene for the last couple of years kicking proverbial bottom.

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

My mum reminded me of this the other day but I was actually into murals & customisation before graff.
I had a couple of american airbrush magazies in 1982 or so that showed customised vans, bedrooms etc, whole walls as surfing scenes or as galaxies. My folks let me paint an E.T. mural on my wall and an incredible hulk on my door, in emulsion & poster paint.
When hip hop appeared and 1984 it seemed like the same thing but with spray paint.

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

Locally Raiz and TC (synk). Both up with full colour illegals.
You guys were a couple of years older & your stuff seemed really advanced
Internationally, Kase2/futura/shoe/bando/non stop crew/3d/skeme/justice/skam/krayone/reaevyn. Its weird, these days there is so much graff out there that I find it difficult to focus, I get Cartoon "ba-doing" eyes when looking thru mags, its amazing but it can be visual overload. At the moment dirty, drippy handstyles & tags are floating my boat.
I can't get enough of original New York 1970's writing, just before the tags became full pieces , trains covered in scrawls...amazing.

• Describe your style?

Kind of mechanical, symetrical, sometimes organic.
Im not a fluid writer, I have to squeeze my letters out like a particularly painfull jobbies.
They brings tears to my eyes.

• You, like me, started painting in the mid Eighties. What are the main differences now from when you first started out?

Well originally you could spend ages in the city centre writing without getting caught, the streets were dead after 11pm and there was no cctv. Now its a different ball game, graff is such a harder sport, the penalties are insnane! The paint is much better, caps are briliant.
As a writer in this day and age, the world is your lobster!

• Whats your opinion on how the internet has impacted on the world of graffiti?

Its great to have access to all the graff you can eat. I think there's a bit too much loose talk on public forums though, kids organising sessions online for all to see!
Plus the beef & armchair criticising that goes on is pretty lame. Its the equivalent of acting hard upstairs on a bus as it pulls away and takes you to safety. I think the net rules but its only a matter of time before the first IP killer strikes! Know what I mean? Talk shit online and run the risk of being tracked to your home & the hamster getting it!
The interweb has made it so easy to hook up with heads & to travel & paint and to be honest I can't imagine how we managed before!

• What inspired you to produce the mag and then open the shop?

I had stated the mag and once I began trading my mag for other mags, i realised I pretty much had stock to sell so I began thinking about a website. The website and shop were really started on the back of the mag. The catalyst for the shop was getting fired from my real job which made me get the finger out to start the shop as I had no desire to work for someone else again! Its the harest Ive ever worked but its well worth it, maybe not financially but spiritually!

• How have you found juggling the business side of things with the serious side of getting out there and painting?

Its quite difficult as even a small business like skinnycap takes up a lot of time & involves a lot of paperwork. Sometimes I can be painting every day for a week but its all commissions but I try and make sure I get out there to do a proper piece once a week. Im traveling a wee bit more again now which is always good.

• 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. Whats yours?

Painting at Graffiti Land in the mid 80's, hearing music coming towards me then Mr Synk appearing with his mate, "Tour De France" by Kraftwerk blasting out a ghetto (I shit you not!) Nothing like doing things on the sneak tip!
Me & Synk getting chased, one of synk's trainers falling of as he wore them without laces, him doubling back to get it as they were adidas run dmc's & he loved em!

• Iz said in Style Wars that he couldn’t imagine that he would continue to paint once he was “livin the life” and had commitments, etc. Will you ever stop painting?

I think Im maybe getting worse as I get older, apparently being 30 (odd) is the new 20!
I cant imagine stopping as my days are pretty much saturated with graff in one way or another because it my business also, quitting would mean having to get a real job again and Im not particularly keen to do that any time soon. I think once you start graff your pretty much fucked for life. I think retired writers are like recovering alcaholics, one sip and before you know it your hurting yourself on fences crawling around in the dirt.