World Bench: How’d you get into writing?
Phoner WTC: I started doing graffiti around the millennium, when graffiti had become very popular in middle europe, especially germany. The first influences where magazines and tapes from germany, france and eastern europe. Vienna until that day never had a big scene, neither in graffiti or hiphop in general, so the community was kind of self contained and hard to access. It was in the year 2006 when the guys from the WTC asked me to join the crew, which definitely made the biggest part of my progress as an graffiti artist possible.

Although i try to develop independent styles, i can’t neglect my first influences, those would be the whole Los Angeles-Scene and the Rhein-Main-Area in Germany. Today, i really like what’s going on in Australia, the scene over there really got to a high level.

World Bench: Any shout outs?
Phoner WTC: Last, love to my crew, ENSR, SECONE, JEWEL, LENONE, BUSTER, SOME, KOER. peace

click for the gallery

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]]> http://war42.org/spotlight-phoner/feed/ 0 http://war42.org/showcas-malt/ http://war42.org/showcas-malt/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:44:51 +0000 World Bench http://war42.org/?p=2524 Here’s a showcase on Detroit’s Artist Malt TST

click here for his gallery

click here for malts site

click here to download

click here for the gallery

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World Bench: What do you write? Where do you represent? And What Crews?
Omsk167: Omsk167, CSF and Burning Saxony, East Germany, Saxony.

World Bench: Introduce yourself
Omsk167: Well, not much to introduce. I´m a graffiti writer, doing this for some years. No regrets

World Bench: Whats your favorite medium to paint?
Omsk167: Not a favorite, but I love to paint trains, but i don’t do that regulary anymore. That stage is the main stage if you ask me. But painting on walls is nice too, nothing better about a nice day with friends putting together a production with beer and bbq.

World Bench: What countries have you painted in, which were your favorite and where would you like to paint?
Omsk167: Many countries, been all over europe and did a few things in Australia and the States too. Doing graffiti in Russia is always nice even i cant make it often there. Moscow is amazing.

World Bench: What differences do you see in each country you’ve painted?
Omsk167: Not much difference at all. Sometimes you can feel the tolerance here and there, Germany or Austria got more tolerance than Sweden or the UK, that’s what i feel. But if you got busted, you got busted. No difference at all. Maybe UK is a bit different about that. And of course Asia, that’s a different planet. Look what happend recently in Singapore. Painting trains is no joke, nowhere.

World Bench: Whats behind the name?
Omsk167: Omsk is a city in Russia, but it hasn’t that much to do with it. I been there in the late eighties, and its a nice letter combo, so i decided to go with that name. Since 1993.

World Bench: Do you have any beef with anyone?
Omsk167: Of course, if you roll with the same name for 17 years, shit happens, sometimes. But beef is just a four letter word and you learn to take haters in a easy way. no serious worries about it..

World Bench: Now do you keep your persona hidden or you just let everyone know you’re omsk?
Omsk167: No, my identity is hidden and this will never change. Some know, some better dont know, some should know but will never know. I dont care, its about graffiti, the person behind dont count.

World Bench: How’d you get started in graffiti, and who and what inspired you?
Omsk167: I got started in the school, some of my friends introduced me to some books and movies, my neighboorhood was very clean in that time so we decided to change that. Amazing time! Well, inspiration, basically not. Maybe, only one name to mention: Razor. He inspired my by doing what he
does for years. Clean and fresh styles on trains.

World Bench: Who inspires you now?
Omsk167: As i said, no one. Maybe the one i have mentioned before, but inspiration is basically a bigger thing than just looking up to somebodys style. Its your own whole life what need to inspire you..everything around should affect what you do, if not, something is wrong. Style or Lettering, is not unique, everything you do someone does before, except some of the pioneers.

World Bench: I see you have some photography photos, is that a hobby or a hidden proffesion?
Omsk167 : Just a hobby, no proffession

World Bench: Now you also released 3 films and did the music for them, how’d you get into this? Any crazy stories while filming? and what do you have
planned for the future?
Omsk167: I quit with that, i don’t shoot and edit this hardcore train writing movies anymore. That’s something others could do better. I’m more focused on documentaries, about graffiti and different other kinds of interesting things. There is one graffiti film to come up one day, we work on it. Crazy stories? Look at the movies, painting subways and trains is one big crazy story.

World Bench: Your pretty famous in Europe, ever have any hastles with the police or stories?
Omsk167: Of course i had some hastles in the past, thats one of the reasons why my partner in crime from Hamburg and me stopped 9 years ago. For a little while it makes you thinking about the whole thing, why you do this and all that shit. We had a pretty good time, been active for a few years, smashed some really nice trains. But at the end of the day, you got busted. This game will never release a true winner. But after having some hastles through the years its still nice to do it. More safe, not that active compared to the Nineties, but still a big part of my life.

“i don’t want to be called a pretty famous writer, since graffiti fame is a big fail.”

But let me say something about that “pretty famous”. Im not that big famous and i don’t want to be called a pretty famous writer, since graffiti fame is a big fail. Of course everyone are allowed to enjoy his fame but he should know where this is come from. You have to know, Europe is a crazy large graffiti scene, it doesnt mean anything if someone from somewhere knows you or seen what and how much yourself write on walls or trains. It dont count if you paint next to someone people know well or whatever. The better, the active, the famous, thats how it should be right? No, it´s that world wide web who makes you famous, the interent supports a handful of writers by circulating photos at flickr, 12oz, streetfiles, ilg, blogs or whatever. Yes, maybe im a part of it, but it doesnt mean anything. Its just entertainment, media on something what is much bigger. Some writers use it for their own, it´s effective to anonymous upload photos regulary. But it simply shows a little piece of the big cake, not more, not less. Boring if you ask me. Yes, its easy to say: this writer or that crew is most active. But hey, it´s all based on questionable and fake facts. I dont care about quantity or quality, Respect is gone anyways. That word had a meaning, but its gone now and forever. Maybe it is because the graffiti scene is split into too much pieces, every single piece dont want to have anything to do with the other piece. Look, what happen if you are new, and start painting trains regulary, hit some danger spots and receive some attention? Well, it means you have to hate and step in the arena. Hate the writers just painting legals. Doesnt matter if the ones who writes on a legal base already have lived their life in the yards and streets. Recently someone dissed Hamburg based graff legend Daim for doing what he is doing, but he dissed Daim with no background. He just send some hate, cause he dont know what Daim does in the past of his graff career. And believe me, Daim got a big story to tell, he just keep it for himself. Hate is getting so much bigger, Hate is the main thing people talk about, when it comes to discuss Graffiti. Thats a strange fact and a todays main law of these so called scene. Thats why no one should care about being famous, cause its worth a piece of shit. I dont want to be famous in a scene full of idiots and strange kids. Im just happy to write and paint. Don´t care about fame after so many years of doing it. It´s a wonderful hobby and nice to share with a few good old friends, ok lets rock the next Question…

World Bench: What do you think about american graffiti? Any favorite artists or crews?
Omsk167: I had the honour to meet up with a few american graff writers, i can feel what Toomer does in the past and what he live for.  He is dope and got my respect for living and representing his life and a true opinion about the whole thing. The founder of something that made LA Graffiti very famous over here. I dont want to drop too much names because i never been for long in the states. Let me mention the MSK and AWR, their output is amazing. No one can fight that crews activity. I believe there is so much more good graffiti over there but this is what we recognize most. Apart from the stuff we have seen from SF, San Diego, NYC, Chicago or Boston. But as i said, no one knows until you pay a visit, look and check it out, without log into flickr or whatever web you follow.Anything else you want to say?

World Bench: Any shout outs?
Omsk167: Well, i think this is not that important but ok, thumbs up to my crewmates Kino, Serk, Harz, Phiesta, Niswe, Say “Pariz” Aha, Puma and all the other CSF boys´n girls and Sezir, Slide, Caparso, Andy K, MadC, Soten, Tiws and the copenhagen crew, the UFS boys from Moscow, Daor, Loomit, Faith47, my man Break, Take2, Asie, Twik, Trota, Serm, Erps, Poet and so many others i have met through the years. You rock!

For More of OMSK167 Click Below
http://ilovegraffiti.de/bsx
http://streetfiles.org/omsk167
http://myspace.com/omsk167

]]> http://war42.org/spotlight-omsk167/feed/ 3 http://war42.org/i-love-graffiti-interviews/ http://war42.org/i-love-graffiti-interviews/#comments Sat, 24 Jul 2010 23:21:03 +0000 World Bench http://war42.org/?p=2458 I Love Graffiti is a site based out of Germany
They’ve got quite a few interviews with many dope writers
Check them out and the site!

Smash137 Interview

Wow123 Interview

CanTwo Interview

Towns Interview

]]> http://war42.org/i-love-graffiti-interviews/feed/ 1 http://war42.org/rattles-the-most/ http://war42.org/rattles-the-most/#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:55:14 +0000 World Bench http://war42.org/?p=2450 Mini Documentary about a Graff Jam Event, May 2010 in Cork Ireland.

World Bench:What do you write and where are you from?
Sweet Uno: Hello everybody. I write sweetuno. Originally I am from Basel, Switzerland But now I live in Heidelberg, Germany for the last 7 years.

World Bench: What crews do you represent?
Sweet Uno: I represent my old crew from Basel called ASS – abstract style surfers and WAF – writer asyl freiburg, a crew based in Freiburg, Germany When I lived in Germany.

World Bench: I used to see your stuff everywhere, on subways, in the subway cars, tracksides, do you still get up like that?
Sweet Uno: It changed a little bit since my out coming, since I show my face and my identity. But I still want to push this name. But on other mediums, especially for gallerys and stuff. But a good trackside is a good trackside.

World Bench: What do you think about your local graffiti scene and how do you contribute to it?
Sweet Uno: The graffiti scene in Heidelberg (Germany) has an old tradition. Many different styles come together here and so there are a lot of discussions. A lot of young talented painters come up and i think it´s hard to find their place in the style world. But I am not able to discuss this to much. I want to give my answers and questions with my paintings. But of course I have good connections and also friendships with painters here.

World Bench: How did it all begin for you?
Sweet Uno: It´s now 20 years ago! It´s wired, because there are enough moments where I feel like a complete toy! It begins with a black and white copy magazine from Zurich with pics from London, Paris and Zurich. I was really flashed by characters. Of course the famous train line in Basel was the step in. I saw all this fantastic pieces from dare, rto, dest, rebel, show, grey, posk, magoo, g204 etc. So I started with my friend measone with sketching and painting. The rest is what I am doing now.

World Bench: You have massive amounts of style, Who has influenced you in the past and now?
Sweet Uno: So many painters influenced me. In the beginning of course all the writers from Basel like above. Time by time I studied stylers who are in magazines like of course bates, phos4, rens, bando etc… But the oldies from New York were finally the kicks for me. I love ghost, reas, aok crew. At the moment the influence is always changing. And sometimes I try to be influenced by old pieces of myself.

World Bench: Where have you traveled to paint? Which was your favorite place and why?
Sweet Uno: I never traveled a lot specially for painting. Because often I got no time because of my work. But India was very special. I painted massive stones, standing in water. This Indian guys come to me and asked me, why I did that and what´s the meaning behind it. And I said them, I don´t know exactly, but I have to do it, it´s like religion symbols and they all were nooding.

World Bench: How do you compare the life of art galleries now to when you were only in the streets?
Sweet Uno: The streets are free, without concepts. A lot of living is around your piece. And I love this communication. This is graffiti. Sometimes your piece is crushed or buffed the next day. But in galleries you have more chances to do a concentration in your style work and handstyle. You need more time for concepts. You have to tell something. There is no living atmosphere, no window over your panel who pushes your work. I like both. But in the last two galleries I paint no graffiti just abstract paintings.

World Bench: Any final words and/or shout outs?
Sweet Uno: Shout outs to all serious graffiti artists, who believe in this art form.

Click Below For His Gallery
(click here)

Click Below For More Sweet Uno
(http://www.sweetuno.de)

http://www.theupmost.com/