Sunday night. OPTIK's kitchen. We bust out the black books, the markers a tape recorder and we start talking. At first it's just me and DRANE, but soon enough, OPTIK comes in. A little later, DEVIOUS. I'm just putting up half of this right now, but the second half will be up soon... I hope you enjoy it!
DAN: Why graffiti?
DRANE: Why at first?
DAN: yeah, why did you start doing it?
DRANE: I would have to remember the first time I ever went and wrote graffiti
on anything was when I was like in 6th grade, or something. And it was
complete rebellious youth type of action, you know what I mean? I fully
wrecked shop in one night, went out and did my whole neighborhood, I just
went all out. We killed mad shit, dude. We were writing "Splat". Basically
we just went around and caught tags. I was catching tags that were 5 ft.
tall; I did a whole garage door with stick letter tags.
DAN: where did you get the idea from, how did you know?
DRANE: I had never experienced graffiti before, when I thought of that...
DAN: so you never saw "Breakin'" or "Beat Street"?
DRANE: you know what? I had seen those movies, but when I saw them, the
graffiti that was on the walls and shit didn't really filter through to me,
I was into the break dancing and shit when I was peepinā that shit out.
DAN: that's wired, 'cuz the first time I thought of graffiti was watching
"Beat Street"...
DRANE: I think that spawned a lot of writers.
DAN: when I first moved to Cincinnati (in 1992) the walls were bare. But the
first writer I saw up was you... when you first started doing it, who were you
hanging out with?
DRANE: when I started writing I was always solo missions, every time. I would
go on mad solo missions. Every time I come to Cincinnati, there is people
that wanna mob up and go out... I used to mob up and go out with SEAR and
JASER and WATER... those kids are dope. Everybody used to get down back in the
day. Me and SEAR used to roll around and bust mad roof tops.
(OPTIK comes into the kitchen)
OPTIK: all over Clifton?
DRANE: all over shit, that shit was fun. We used to bust highways...
DAN: and that was like what? 92 or 93?
DRANE: 92, I guess...
DAN: why did it take so long for graffiti to get rolling here? Itās a big
enough city...
DRANE: I donāt know. Well, itās been going on here for a while, but it never
really picked up. There would be a couple of people that were busting a
couple of little things and kinda lagging. But there were kids were doing
shit back in the day, back as far as I can remember.
OPTIK: the first shit that I remember was that TRACE and FEVER water tower.
DRANE: that's not the first shit I noticed. I would see pictures before I
would even see pieces . I remember FROST shit and ESSER tags.
DAN: do you ever feel remorse about private property getting fucked up?
DRANE: I've thought about that dozens of times and I've come to the conclusion
that no, I don't.
OPTIK: I'm gonna be a future property owner some day, so how would I feel if I
just painted my house and someone tagged it. I would understand, but... I like
neutral spots like newspaper boxes and electrical boxes...
DRANE: that is one thing I'll definitely say, when I look for spots I look for
abandoned buildings, or crazy spots like that. If I can find a dope roof
top, even if it's on a building I don't give a fuck. That's just a big
brick, blank, ugly looking wall...
DAN: it's the same thing with trains. Let's talk about trains...
DRANE: trains are the shit. It speaks for itself .
OPTIK: yeah! Trains! are it goes back to hobo stuff, you know? Original train
graffiti. I think the freight movement was hit off by the subways, that hit
graffiti off in NY and it started that whole movement... I don't know, trains
are special.
DRANE: trains are very special.
DAN: do you think that the attraction to trains has to with fame? How
important is fame to you guys?
OPTIK: to an extend, for me primarily is fame for other people I know.
DAN: I'm not talking about fame like being in the 10 o'clock news or anything.
OPTIK: I like slipping my ups in where people don't notice them.
DAN: what about with trains? Do you do trains so that people in Pittsburgh
can see your shit?
OPTIK: (laughing) Pittsburgh...
DAN: or Philadelphia...
DRANE: well, it's fun to hear when people report to you about them. I think
that's real fun to hear and it's also fun to see stuff come in, you know
what I mean? From other places... I think that's fully the thing with
freights. Instead of going to the wall and painting the wall that only you
are gonna see, you know? like we did today...
OPTIK: you can send a message to your friends across the country...
DRANE: yeah, yeah, exactly. There is a full on communication vibe going
whenever you paint trains. When you go to a lay up at night, you can get on
a train that somebody else painted, you know what I mean? And then that
trains goes back and they go: 'oh, that dude got on this train, too? Hell yeah!'
OPTIK: like KEES' train...
DRANE: what KEES train?
OPTIK: I guess KEES did a train, he did some high ride throw-ups on it and
then it came back to town with pieces underneath it, like pieced up
underneath the throw-ups.
DRANE: that's what I'm talking about right there.
DAN: back to the fame thing, do you think grandma's out there are like: (in
a really sad attempt to imitate an old lady) 'hmmm, I wonder who this guy DRANE is?'
DRANE: as far as fame goes, I think I got all the fame I need. It's all about
feeling now.
OPTIK: you got too much fame, DRANE.
DRANE: I don't really care anymore. It's stupid.
OPTIK: I just paint for the action of painting.
DAN: you're not at all concerned with fame then?
DRANE: it's funny. Fame is funny
OPTIK: I like seeing other people up, I mean itās cool to see graffiti...
DRANE: I love seeing who's doing stuff.
OPTIK: like it was fun to be downtown and see that MERZ stuff and be like:
'man, whoa!'
DAN: but that's a type of fame
DRANE: yeah, that's a type of fame, but thatās the fun side of fame, not the
egotistical side of fame.
DAN: let's talk about toys. Who is a toy? What makes a toy a toy?
DRANE: let's talk about toys!
OPTIK: toys suck. Everybody is a toy, thogh. Everybody is a toy.
DAN: you mean everyone was a toy? Or is there people who have been painting
for years who are still toys? Or what about someone who just started
painting whoās not a toy?
OPTIK: nah, everybody is a toy.
DRANE: everybody is a toy.
OPTIK: if you're learning to write then you are a toy when you start. But if
you are learning to write, then you are not a toy for long. Sounds weird to
say 'toy' so much...(16 times in the last 8 lines, plus 12 more I edited out.)
DAN: I guess the word 'toy' is like 'fame'. The word gets thrown around so
much, that it starts to mean different thing to different people. For me
it's like back in the metal days, when we would call each other posers. You
know? someone who wasn't into it for the feeling, but for fad, cuz it was
the cool thing to do. To me, that's what a toy is. It does not necessarily
have anything to do with ability, but how you feel about what you are doing
and why you do it, you know? Some people may be out there just to get fake
fame and have people be impressed and 'oh, I know who you are!'. Well, if
you want people to know who you are, write your real name and a your phone
number so everyone can call you and congratulate you, you know?
OPTIK: the thing that sucks about toys is that they are always there. You
can't escape them. They are everywhere. Unless you choose your spots with care.
DAN: yeah, if you get up on a roof top...
DRANE: then you donāt have to deal with the toys.
OPTIK: it just depends on the quality of the spot. I'm really coming to it
from a stylistic point of view, that's why I said everybody is a toy. I
mean, I myself; I'm not acknowledging to be any sort of king of style; but
I'll definitely say that I was a toy... I guess I'm still a toy, you know? I
mean it's all relative, too. Compared to other people...
DAN: like who? Name some writers you look up to..
OPTIK: I like stuff that just looks
different. I like GIANT
PART 2