Back in like ‘96 I hunted this magazine down just so I can read the NACE interview.  I finally found it in Philly.  I remember it was $5 and that was all I had on me.  It was either get this magazine or a cheese steak. I got the magazine, and I starved for the rest of the night, but it was wort it.  On August 12, 2001 NACE passed away after being hit by a drunk driver in Cincinnati Ohio while attending Scribble Jam.  I though it fitting to post this up.  Hope everyone enjoys.

How long have you been painting freights?

I’ve been bombing/painting since ‘91 or’92, but didn’t get serious until ‘93.

How did you get started?

Well it was around ‘88 or ‘89. I started going up to N.Y.C to see hardcore shows on the L.E.S and that when I really started to take interest in writing. Just seeing dope pieces on subways was enought to spark my interest on this artform, So that is when I started messin with handstyles and drawing pieces.

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It’s amazing what you can do when you remember your password. I’m starting 2011 with all kinds of goodwill and wishes and exercising and eating better and vows to post regularly and to actually enact my harebrained scheme for world domination. So expect another post or two, and then for me to drift back into obscurity and the waiting arms of complacency. Eh…no point in being negative, but still stating the grim reality of so many resolutions and best intentions.

So I’m offering up “Todor & Petru”. (Maybe that should be italicized rather than within quotes, but I’m probably the only one who has a rat’s ass to give around here for that sort of thing. Please note that I probably will not spellcheck this post before publishing. Conundrums rule everything around me.)

So yeah, I’m following up my New Year’s reality check with a bit of unreality in the form of a short film from Wizz. I love the combination of motion graphics and still photography injecting some living colour into what by comparison is a much bleaker world. If only these cartoon creations started to live and breathe in the physical realm, we might need them to stave of the clone armies our military must certainly be working on. Or am I only suggesting that because Cartoon Network had the gall to introduce what looks like Darth Maul 2.0 in a Star Wars: Clone Wars episode, but start it a half hour earlier, and I’ve been denied getting my geek on for the evening.

Bastards.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Surfing on the Street and Scary Ideas for finding this clip. And yeah I’ll be looking for Thunderclaps track, “Judgement Day” that’s featured in the video. Happy New Year.

Let’s start off with where you’re from, where you’ve been, and where you’re at now?

I was born in Atlantic City, NJ, lived in Manahawkin, NJ (really amazing place) until I was 19, then I moved to Arizona for about 9 years. I met my wife in NJ, so I packed up and left Arizona for NJ again. So what got you interested in tattooing? Well besides being a total fuck-up when I was a kid, I used to do stick and pokes (tattoos done with a sewing needle) on my buddies, but I never really thought much of it. When I got into my 20’s I stopped being a fuck-up for the most part and and got interested in doing artwork again. I got my fi rst professional tattoo when I was 21 and that was it – I was hooked.

Outside of the tattoo scene, what have been some of your biggest artistic influences?

14th and 15th century painters, that stuff is amazing. I never made it to college so I don’t know anything about art history, but any museum I go to, that’s all I look at. Like most things from the past, people had so much more passion and time, we live in chaos. But i guess that helps sometimes. What is your all-time favorite album cover? Iron Maiden, Number of the Beast. Actually, I love all the Maiden album cover because the dude that painted them is sick. I forget his name, but I forget EVERYONES name.

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Photo by: Joe Dantone

Interview by: Justin Rossi

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What is DJ Nappy up to these days? Coming back hard I assume.

I’m just catching up with what’s been brewing during the past 3+ years in dubstep and sorting out which tracks I’m going to refix. Working some rough mixes and seeing what sounds appealing. Also linking with producers, emcees, singers, and dj’s for collaborations. I need others to properly operate, and the input is way more important than the output. Movement is slow but precise. Been watching old episodes of ‘The Wire’ and Jersey Shore. That Snooki…. she’s so crazy!

Haha the Wire is pretty dope. I actually just started watching it a couple of weeks back. I still have a bunch of seasons to view. I could see you kicking it with snooki… that would be a hilarious tv show! Speaking of jersey, where did you grow up?

A little town called West Windsor, but I spent most of my time in Princeton as a teenager and young adult. It’s the next town over and there was a lot more trouble to get into in Princeton.

” Thugstep works best in clubs in my opinion. I have some r&b and underground hiphop cats on Dubstep beats, and it doesn’t feel right to me. I’d prefer to hear Snoop than Murs with this type of production. The ignorant rap over complex bass and drums and synths seems like the perfect blend, and you can take a shitty Soulja Boy song and make it fun with a dubstep track behind it.”

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THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN IN THE ART OF STORYTELLING MAGAZINE ISSUE #1

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So where did your interest in Bigfoot come from and why did you decide to startpainting Bigfoot characters?

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It’s been about 14 years now since I decided to start writing Bigfoot. I realized the symbolism of Bigfoot was the culmination of all things I was into portraying, nature, magic and an opposition to the modern human world.

“If I stayed in Jersey I would definitely be making art but wouldn’t have started writing Bigfoot and would’ve ended up doing hard time for like 2 grams of weed.”

Graffiti artists have the luxury of hiding behind their artwork. I have met tons of graffiti artists and there are a lot of dorks, social idiots and loners in the graffiti game myself included. But they have a unique talent, graffiti is illegal, above the law, the act of graffiti has street credibility, so for a lot of people it serves as an alter ego. Is this the case for you as well?

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THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN IN THE ART OF STORYTELLING MAGAZINE ISSUE #1.

So where in Jersey did you grow up?
Monmouth County, Eatontown.

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How did you get involved in the hardcore scene?
Like a lot of kids who get into hardcore, especially kids from down the Jersey Shore at that time, I found music through skating. Prior to high school, I mainly learned about hardcore from skate magazines. I’d read the “Notes” section of Thrasher, which gave the run down on bands. I hung out with this kid George and he’d give me his old Thrashers. I bought or copied tapes when I could. Some years later I got into high school and some of the kids from the adjacent towns were part of the school. That’s where I met Josh Grabelle who later started Trustkill Records. Josh was the one who knew everyone in the area. Through him I met a lot of people who were into hardcore and about upcoming shows. I also met a fellow named Rich Flanagan, who I went to my first show with freshman year. A year later I met Carl Severson who later started Ferret Records. Carl was basically an Army kid from Fort Monmouth and I met him the first day of sophomore year of high school. I was wearing a Gorilla Biscuits shirt and he leaned over and was like ”DUDE! The Gorilla Biscuits.” And that was how it all started.

“Back then I just wanted to absorb everything skateboarding related. In that Dogtown documentary, Henry Rollins explained how he did the same thing. He waited for Skateboarder Magazine every month. You would get to see those pictures and you got snapshots of what was going on.”

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Most of you already know that in the first issue of our magazine we did an article on CLOWN the founder of  T.I.T.S crew.  When we put the issue together, we had a lot of east coast content and we wanted to do something on a west coast writer. CLOWN immediately came to mind.  Everyone here at the mag referenced him as a major inspiration, especially since most of the staff was heavy into graff during the time period where CLOWN was out there pushing TITS crew really hard.  I recently contacted CLOWN again to see if I could do an interview with him about the clothing line.  It was at that point that I found out the real story behind the brand.  TITS (the original graffiti crew) sent over this article and asked if I could post it up, so here you go.

Those Tits are Fake!

1995 was the year.  The graffiti writer known as “Clown” was looking to draw some attention to his name.  In a joking manner, the four letter word “Tits” was brought up.  Bang! A light bulb popped into the heads of a few other fellow graffiti writers of the time and after a few months, “Tits Crew” was born.  It took only a short time to form the crew which originally consisted of 10 members.  Soon after, Tits Crew was a smooth running graffiti organization.  At the time there weren’t many other groups who had four letter monikers to represent their crew, let alone four letters that even spelled out real words.  This excited the new group of graffiti artists because they all had a common goal, destroy and this new name for their crew was going to grab attention.  Original meanings for the acronym of the crew were brainstormed quickly.  “Time is too short”, “Terror in the streets”, “Thunder in the sky” and “Clown’s original, “Two in the shirt”.  It was genius.

“In other words, he stole the name of the crew and started to profit from it .  Marek never had any contact, any arrangements or any approval from Clown or any other member of Tits Crew.”

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THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN IN THE ART OF STORYTELLING MAGAZINE ISSUE #1.

I found a video of you doing a live set with Morcheeba from England. That bugged me out. It got me so amped up because I would never have expected seeing that combo. A lot of times artists stick to what they know and are too scared to do collaborations with artists outside their genre. To see a rapper from Newark, NJ doing a collaboration with a lounge band from England was refreshing to see. You seem to link up with a lot of unexpected people.

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You know what I’m into Big Joe? I’m pursuing entertainment. PERIOD. So any big entertainment figure I see, I introduce myself, I introduce Green and from that comes a lot of, “What you doin? Why don’t you rap on something?” In the case of Morcheeba, they actually sought me out because of the Fugees album. They said they liked the Fugees album and they are kind of like the Fugees over there. So they contacted my manager in England and we did it. I did a whole UK tour with them. We did Italy, Portugal, the whole thing.

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If I could go back in time I would try not to have met Eminem. I wouldn’t have met him and been his friend……Not this time, just straight business.

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You, Animal BMX, and Skavanger BMX also seem to have some strong ties. You rock their gear in your videos and they use a lot of your tracks and Mr. Green’s tracks in their videos. How did that come about?

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THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN IN THE ART OF STORYTELLING MAGAZINE ISSUE #1.

AEST’s graffiti interest started in a somewhat generic, funny way as he explains with a southern drawl, “Mang, I remember when I was a kid, I used to get my haircut at this barber shop and there was this hip hop, skyline, b-boy character thing they had going on. I never knew who did it, but that was some of the first graffiti I ever saw in person, (laughs) typical skyline hip-hop thing. Other than that, Thrasher magazine. You would always catch graffiti in the background of the skate photos.”

Thrasher magazine. You would always catch graffiti in the background of the skate photos.

AEST has been busy at graffiti since 1994. He got his start in Richmond, Virginia, a relatively small scene compared to the rest of the country, but definitely a scene that pumps out a ton of talent. Writers like ELK, SIGH, PENIS, LYES, and a slew of others, many of whom are members of DOS “Dirty Ol’ South.” “Richmond’s cool, Mang. It’s a small scene that’s definitely not as crazy as places like Chicago. I think the first piece popped up in Richmond in like ’84 or ’86, and it was pretty dead after that until the early 90’s. It doesn’t have as much history as other scenes, but I love it, because that’s where I came from.”

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AEST is the type of writer whose level of talent allows him not to be married to one particular style; the type of writer who takes his surroundings into account when painting. “If I am painting a train line spot, highway, or a freight, then I am going to do some simple legible stuff, but if it’s a wall somewhere where you can take the time to check it out, then I will flex something more complex.” Like many of his other DOS brethren, AEST isn’t much for words and doesn’t have any poetic reasons for painting graffiti. They do it because they are passionate about it. When asked how he would define his style, he said, “It’s a little bit classical I hope, maybe not too crazy, a touch of flair I hope.” And he burst into laughter as he said the word flair. “Shit, man, I don’t know, I just write graffiti.”

THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN IN THE ART OF STORYTELLING MAGAZINE ISSUE #1.

For the past 25 years Derek Riggs has supplied us with countless images of the most well know monster in heavy metal history, Eddie Maiden. Eddie has transformed Iron Maiden into a merchandising giant. The attraction to Eddie is as strong today as it was with his first appearance in 1979. Riggs is opinionated, upfront, and out to impress no one. We linked up with him to talk about art, religion, politics and of course Eddie. Enjoy.

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Iron Maiden’s management came across a painting of yours that featured a character called Electric Matthew. Electric Matthew would later be transformed into Eddie Maiden. Obviously the original Electric Matthew wasn’t designed specifically for Iron Maiden. What was your initial inspiration for the character you were creating?

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The original picture was inspired by a photo of a dead soldier’s skull that I found in TIME magazine when I was about 15. I used it in a photo-montage, stuck it to the front of a folder and covered it in plastic. Years later I found it and decided to use it for the basis for a picture. It was the late 1970’s and Punk rock was big in England. I thought that maybe some punk band might be able to use it.

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What was the creation process like when doing the Iron Maiden album covers? Did you have free reign on the designs or did most of that come from the band?

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Most of the time almost nothing came from the band. I would get a title or the title and a direction to go in and then I would send a sketch to the manager Rod Smallwood. We would talk over the idea and decide if Rod felt it needed anything. Quite often he would just say go ahead and I would get on with the job. For example, the brief I got for Somewhere in Time was, “We want a city like the one in Blade Runner,” and the rest was left pretty much up to me. The look of Eddie was my invention, as was the content of the city. Steve came to me near the end of the work and asked if I could include some little details, like the names of his previous bands.

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Of all the Iron Maiden covers you created, which one is your favorite?

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Somewhere in Time, because of the detail. I like detail. Clairvoyant and Can I Play with Madness because they are so ape shit, and Stranger in a Strange Land because it looks like Clint Eastwood.

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For the 80’s, some of the album covers were very over the top. The Sanctuary single’s sleeve had a picture of Eddie with a knife in his hand, standing over the dead body of Margaret Thatcher who had just been caught tearing down an Iron Maiden poster. Did you come under attack for that and did you have any issues with doing a cover with that kind of imagery?

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How does military grade nerve gas get out of a secure facility? From that time on my experiences with the medical profession indicated to me that my health has been monitored by someone other than the local doctor.

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Last night we co-sponsored an art show at the Zakka Shop in Brooklyn.  The event was hosted by Mathmatiks and the turnout was great.   It featured works by Nick Kuszyk, Jade Kuei, El Kamino, Chip 7 and Pars Kid.  We gave out over 100 copies of The Art of Storytelling magazine and we also released our first figure called eyeball kid which was a collaboration between The Art of Storytelling, Chip7 and sculptor Danny the Farrow.   All in all it was a great night.  Zakka is now carrying The Art of Storytelling Magazine as well as The Art of Storytelling DVD so if you need copies of either you can pick them up there.

Outside of the event, the shop itself is amazing.  They are stacked with vinyl toys, a ton a rare books and dvd’s, clothing and more. You should definitely stop by to check this place out.  Here are some flicks from the event.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE FROM THE SHOW >

THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN IN THE ART OF STORYTELLING MAGAZINE ISSUE #1.

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Here are some photos from the MAGIC show. We met with a ton of brands and have picked a handfull that we will be adding to our web store, which is due to go live in a couple of weeks. Among some of our favorites were Elm Clothing, Rebel 8, Cardboard Robot and a grip of others. We hit the tradeshow floor with about 100 of copies of The Art of Storytelling Magazine and the response was amazing.

Tester