NYorkers // Steve Powers from NYorkers on Vimeo.

1. Tell us who you are, how you came about your name, what crews you rep and how long you have been writing?

I write lead. I started writing in 1991 but have been writing lead since 1993. I am in the crews DNA AOK IMOK/DF and VLOK. I’m in a few others but those are the main ones I push consistently.  The first word I wrote, I did a lot of damage with, in a little suburban town where I grew up. In no time I got pinched for it. Luckily much of the damage was made with the son of a cop so the casework was conveniently never processed. After that I used to have a word for the street and a word to write around my school, I was always considered a leader and just always did what I wanted too so it stuck.

2. Who were your biggest influences when coming up?

The highway graffiti in providence Rhode island and on the cross Bronx expressway in NYC played a major roll. If it were not seeing the highways destroyed while driving to skateboard competitions up and down the North East US, in the early 90s I would not have started practicing graffiti writing. As far as individuals, I would have to say Emit, Gaze, Cycle and the whole IMOK crew. My first partner Ased who started DNA with me and pushed me to get better. Also, local Rhode Island bombers like Crick, Bester, and Emyt ups.

3. Favorite 5 pieces of all time and why ?

1. Anything by JA but this specific action. Not because its over saber, he is a real cool cat, but because of the message it sends. No matter who you are or how big or what you do it is NOT permanent.

NYorkers // Guess from NYorkers on Vimeo.

1. Tell us who you are, how you came about your name, what crews you rep and how long you have been writing.

I write Twigs. I was given the name Twigs by one of my closest friends, Dio 420. I don’t remember the exact reason why I was given this name, but at the time I was very skinny and the name Twigs seemed to fit me well.

I rep TGE – “The Great Escape.” TGE crew was started by Curve and Esteme in Philidelphia.

I rep SBS – “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.” SBS is a crew that consists of close childhood friends from my small hometown in the Pacific Northwest.

I was also just put down in YME by Ichabod this last week. Really excited to push YME.

I picked up the spray can in 1999 and have not stopped since.

2. Who was your biggest influence when coming up?

In a sense I owe a lot of my influence to Chino BYI. If it wasn’t for the Graf flix section in The Source magazine, I most likely would not have found graffiti. I attribute my motivation to continue writing graffiti over the years to some of the photos that were in that magazine. Since my early teenage years I have wanted to paint at the skill level of some of those old New York productions. One day I will reach this goal.

Soon after, I met my longtime painting partner (Other) in our high school art class. He was a year younger then I was but he ran with some older guys who had shown him the ropes a little bit. I can vividly remember the first day I met Other. He had his blackbook with him. At that time I had just been tagging and drawing naked women on my desk so when he showed me his blackbook I was blown away. This kid had page after page of full-color burners with characters and everything. I had finally found someone to paint with. Soon we were making trips to the local hardware store to steal paint and tips. As luck would have it, our small town had these two huge train tunnels with lots of space. We started to paint there every weekend. At the time we really had no clue what we were doing, but I think that was what made it so fun and interesting. During those first years of piecing Other was much better then I was. He had decent letters, good can control and natural artistic talent. Every time we rolled a wall out I was just trying to keep up. That was my initial motivation to get better. He influenced me a lot along with a list of other close friends. Dio 420/Main, Fist (RIP) and Dysko. Some of the people who came through and painted memorable pieces in the tunnels over the years were Awe 2, Heat, Myth, Remio, Sneke, Diar, Saer, Puzle, Nerves, Slim, Slope Floe crew, Vapor, Sasquatch, Cern, Besea and Neros.

In our area there were many great writers and crews that either lived there or passed through from time to time to paint. The writers who stood out to me early on were Amps, Menes, Next (RIP), Whirl, Plus One (RIP), Jugs, Koso/Cosoe, Slaer 4DC, Jessie 4DC, Oursin, Buz, Riner, Organs, Rain, Som OFA, Jaber and Jasper. In my opinion, the crews that stood out to me and influenced the area I lived in were 4DC/LFC, DTC/KYT, DVS, TITS Crew, TNK and GPK.

We were also able to acquire a few graffiti magazines early on from a local music store. The first one we got was the Urban Autograph Issue 8. It had lots of flicks from California. That really got us juiced and gave us new directions on what graffiti was supposed to look like. Other also some how acquired a VHS copy of VideoGraf Issue 9 with Cost and Set and Doms. That really dropped some knowledge on us at that time.

A year or two into painting my crew and I ventured out of our city and into the country and found the freights. This brought a lot of new influences for us. There was freights coming in from all over the country. We saw lots of A2M freights, Worms, Lewis, etc. Tyboe from Lords Crew always had pieces in our yard. Meter, Depths and Bruiser had tags on almost every car in the yard. And various other pieces from all over the country.

3.Favorite 5 pieces of all time and why?

This Wall was painted by Menes in 1995 in my hometown.  Everything about this is fresh.

loved this whole page. But look at the “Welcome to the Jungle” Handball court wall.  I love the color choices and placement of all the pieces.

This whole page mixed with my boredom and frustration growing up in a small town sparked my interest in graffiti big time.  These productions have it all perfect colors schemes letters, and themes.

This wall is just fresh

I love this wall. The letters, tags and characters are all great. Rip King Dream

4.Favorite city and why?

I really enjoy Philadelphia. Some of the coolest and most talented people I know are either from that city or lived there. I love the no-nonsense attitude people seem to have there. I like how gritty and raw Philly is. It has a real ‘90s hip-hop feel to it. Cheesesteaks are worth the visit at the least.

5. Favorite food/drink?

Carnitas tacos with jalapenos and carrots and a glass bottle of coke or some spicy Tom kha soup with a glass of ice water.

6. Biggest vice?

I don’t drink or smoke weed but occasionally I like to do whip-its and listen to Tommy Wright III.

7. Biggest Gripe?

This is a tough one, simply because I have so many gripes. But I’m going to have to say junkies, and the damage junkies have done to the rights of public restroom users everywhere.

8. Favorite shoe?

Canvas authentic Vans black and white, or Nike Air Vortex for when I’m out on the town looking like a comfortable dad.

9. Favorite 5 tracks ?

1. Tommy Wright III – “187 in Progress” or “No Fear ‘98″ (both great Gangster rap songs to do whip-its to)

2. Kilo Ali – “Cocaine Remix 1992 (America Has a Problem)”

3. Marvin Sease – “Candy Licker Girl”

4. RX Lord –”Money Makers”

5. Too $hort – “Just another day”

10. Favorite tool of the trade and why?

Any nice can of black with a NY Fat on it.

11. Favorite hand style ?

SP One, Doms KOC, JA One, Dream TDK (RIP), Twist, Amaze, Whirl, Sober, Renos, Pastime, Jase, Del Phresh, Oiler (RIP), Vault, Slope, Owler, Learn YME, Seyce, Jurne and Curve… And the list could go on.

12. Three people you would love to have a Coke with and why?

Robert Crumb – He is one of my favorite artists. He is really inspiring to me. His ideas are great. His drawing skills are top notch, and he’s just an all around weirdo. I would like to talk to him about our mutual interests in women with big butts and also hopefully soak up some of his creativity.

Bill Clinton – I feel like Bill’s got some great stories to tell.

Larry David – That dude cracks me up. I’m sure he would be extremely awkward to hang out with.

13. Any writer who you think doesn’t get enough shine?

Osker HCM A4Y – If you moved to Oakland from 2002 to 2007 then he most likely was the first writer you met or you got put in touch with him by someone else and he put you on and introduced you to people. The guy might as well have just charged to give graffiti tours. When I moved to Oakland he had the place on lock with throw-ups, tags and pieces. Plus he’s just an all-around good dude.

Dement – He’s got really interesting style and he can paint just about anything. Not to mention that he’s one of the nicest guys out there doing his thing.

Jedi 5 TGE- The Karate master. This guy’s been doing his thing for years. Pieces, hand styles, throw-ups, freestyles off the dome. He can do it all and at a really cheap price.

I also think that the SWS dudes in Denver don’t get enough shine either. Hand styles, pieces, throw-ups, blackbooks, they kill it.

If anyone reading this has not seen all of the productions that TDK crew from Oakland has done over the years, hop on flickr and get your shine on.

14. Can you give us a brief rundown on TGE and what you guys are about?

TGE is a crew filled with various styles of writers. And what brings us all together as a crew are our senses of humor, outlooks on life and graffiti and, of course, our love of letters. I am constantly inspired by the writers in my crew. When I get flicks from the other members I get inspired to do a better piece of my own to send back. We all critique and get critiqued openly without insult. We all strive to better ourselves as individual artists while promoting and supporting each other along the way. We don’t compromise our integrity or who we are for cheap fame. We earn respect through the hard work we put out there, and the respect that we show to others. I would say that TGE is a family of creative people.

15. Last time you were caught doing something?

Not wearing a seat belt.

16. Five things that are within arms reach of where you are right now?

A jar of pencils. Bottle of Ibuprofen, camera, a Bio TATS crew rap-pack trading card, computer.

Boxes of family photos and a few paintings that I own.

3. Get eaten by a shark

I’m very interested in ‘60s and ‘70s comic books. Collecting old trinkets and collectables. One of my favorite things to do is to just walk around and people-watch; I enjoy talking to street people. I also enjoy working on various projects from home remodeling to big-building construction.

Spray on Sprayers

 

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Check out more Husk Mit Navn HERE.

 

Please introduce yourself….

I write Kaput (VTS, NR, IBD) and I’m from Vancouver in Beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Can you tell us a bit about when you started out?

Skateboarding with schoolmates in the mid nineties is how I got into writing. The dude who influenced me wrote Kover, he had a real fresh hand. I would marker tag things and put up stickers inside buses just like a green horn should.

You have a very unique style can you tell us about what influences you?

I don’t think my style is all that unique but thanks. You can see that I am influenced by traditional New York graffiti first and foremost.

You paint real colorful graphic pieces with bold outlines, what is your take on the current technique > style trends?

Graffiti is always changing as is life and I’ve always stuck with a bold semi traditional style. I have a lot of respect and dig all the new techniques out there in the world. As long as I’m having fun that’s all that matters. I’ll stick to my caveman style though

We saw in your video from Chile you sketched up your piece to suit the area you were painting on, Do you ever use a sketch and if so how often do you actually sit down with the intention to do a sketch?

I try to use sketches as much as I can but sometimes you have to piece in a confined space or an awkward zone. I made multiple sketches for my trip to Chile and only ended up using a couple. I find it a lot of fun and a nice challenge painting letters on the spot.

Which writers do you like style wise?

Stak, Sento, Cavs, Sien5, Sabe, Swet, Dmote, Yes2, Jurne, Pubes…..

Favorite handstyle? Veefer…

Often when I see a piece by you music starts playing in my mind, what type of music are you into and would you be able to link a specific song to a specific piece you’ve done?

I like lots of different music, you can’t listen to the same genre or it can get stale fast. 70’s Funk or Psychedelic rock would seem to work with the fills and colours that I use. Freddie’s Dead by Curtis Mayfield or Psychedelic Trip by The Chocolate Watchband are good examples… haha!

We have relatively no freight scene here in Ireland due to a very small rail network, can you describe a typical night painting freights? As in do you just paint one piece and bounce or is it an all nighter with pieces, straight letters, throws etc?

I’m a quality over quantity dude, so I take my time on one piece. I’ve done multiple panels in one night but very rarely. When I use to hit cars with my old partner Cameo, I would do one and he rocked two usually. I’m always the last to finish and it’s always a good laugh.

Can you give us a brief rundown on VTS and what you guys are about?

Remio and I started VTS in 2002 and it’s got a lot of dudes from around the globe as of now. Most of us enjoy all the components that make up graffiti but vandalism is priority numero uno!

Can you recommend a good recipe, something canadian perhaps?

The Caesar (Canada’s #1 cocktail)

1 oz vodka

2 dashes hot sauce

4 dashes Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp of horseradish

4 oz Clamato juice

1 celery stick

1 lime wedge

Celery salt

Preparation:

Rim a glass with lime and then celery salt. Fill the glass with all the ingredients and mix thoroughly (add ice). Throw in celery stalk and squeeze in the lime wedge.

Peace, love and happy-sprayz…

Check out Kaput in Chile HERE.

Our boy Niche VTS NR did a real nice interview with Acclaim Magazine, check it out HERE.