Here, he interviews KAWS at the age of 21

KAWS – STRAIGHT OUTTA JERSEY

KAWS HAS FOR A FEW YEARS NOW BEEN A PERSONAL FRIEND, AND AN EFFECTIVE PARTNER.  BUT THAT’S NOT THE REASON WHY I WANTED TO DO A FEATURE ON HIM.  I FEEL THAT HE HAS IN A SHORT TIME DEVELOPED A VERY INFLUENTIAL STYLE, AND HAS BECOME A VERY WELL RECOGNIZED WRITER.  WHAT FOLLOWS IS AND INTERVIEW KAWS GAVE UNDER COVER ON FEBRUARY 25, 1995.

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
Jersey City, New Jersey

WHAT’S THE SCENE LIKE THERE?
It’s very slow.  There’s mostly just a bunch of kids that bomb.  Not really doing that much as far as piecing. There’s not that many kids doing walls period. There’s a few kids here and there, but they come out like once a year.  Besides the kids I paint with, that’s about it.
Jersey City is definitely a cool place to live. It’s kinda out of the spotlight, and rent’s cheap. (laughs)
J.C. is about 20 minutes away from Manhattan by train, and with no traffic a 5 minute car ride, and that’s pretty much where the scene is at.  Most kids I paint with are there.

HOW, AND WHEN DID YOU GET STARTED?

As far as bombing, and getting up around my 3 block radius that I thought I was king of, I’ve been doing that since like 7th, and 8th grade.
There use to be a bunch of kids in grammar school that were writing, and I was like “Let me check this out” . I dabbled in it.  Nothing serious.  Just recently, these past couple years I started coming out.

WHAT YEAR WAS THAT AROUND?
(After about a 5 minute debate we decided it was probably around mid 1991.)
SINCE THEN HOW MANY PIECES HAVE YOU DONE?
I don’t know exactly.  I know it’s over 100, because I did my 100th piece about a month ago.  Not all of them being huge productions, but their there.

WHAT FIRST INTERESTED YOU IN GRAFF?
I was always into drawing, and I was always a smart ass kid when I was young, so I guess it was just a fun thing to incorporate my art into.  Just the thought of getting up everywhere was my original goal.

WHO, OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU THEN?
Being from J.C. you really don’t have access to seeing flicks, and mags, and all the other stuff, so when I was coming out it was mostly kids that bombed.  The kids that were up the most. I would say at that time WHAT 4 was doing major damage in J.C.  Besides him, I guess T. DEE was definitely doing his share of destroying J.C. properly. (Laughs)
There was a fame wall around here called Newport Hall of Fame.  When I first started going there the kids that were doing the nicest stuff were like T. DEE, FORCE, DEUS, that’s about it.  Kids would come from here and there.  Different parts of of Jersey.  Not really many other kids traveled out to that spot.

WHO, OR WHAT INSPIRES YOU NOW?
Seeing my teacher getting paid off of illustration! (laughs)
I’m more into illustration, and I still like doing walls, so I try to incorporate the things that I would put into regular paintings into the walls. Ya know, try to make it significant compared to the number of painting’s that are done.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU PAINT?
I don’t know.  It all depends on the season, if school is out, or not.  I paint a lot.  There definitely isn’t a month that goes by without me painting, let alone even a week.

THERE HAS BEEN A BIG INCREASE IN THE PAST FEW YEARS IN THE FREIGHT MOVEMENT, OF WHICH YOU’RE VERY WELL CONNECTED TO. WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ON THE WHOLE MOVEMENT?
Not talking about the kids that have been doing freights since the 80’s, which there are kids that always did freights.  Even when the subways were still running.  As far as for now, I guess there’s a lot of kids that came out that didn’t have the feel for the big elaborate things that people are doing.
Being illegal, it’s kinda more fun.  You worry less about the technical aspect of it. Also the idea of freights traveling all over the country is pretty dope.  Kids seeing your things in person where they would never unless they came to N.Y., or J.C.

WHERE ARE SOME PLACES YOUR TRAINS HAVE BEEN SPOTTED?
I don’t know.  Nobody ever talks to me.  No seriously, Chicago… I know ones we did in Jersey were found in L.A., and Atlanta.  Another one fromL.A., was in El Paso, Texas.
It’s kinda hard to really say.  I know their getting around, but I’m not exactly keeping track of them.

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER THINGS YOU’RE INVOLVED IN?
Right now just school.  I’m an illustration student.  I still have a little time before I hit the real world.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE OVER-ALL SCENE?
As far as like around here, and N.Y., this past year was definitely kinda dope.  A lot of kids came out, a lot of old writers came out to show and prove once again.  Kid are doing productions all around N.Y., and still slammin’ out the freights.  People painting clean trains.  I really don’t think there’s a place in the world that could compare to N.Y. on the graff tip.

WHAT DO YOU DISLIKE ABOUT THE SCENE?
I guess besides all the politics, or some of the politics, all the gossip that goes around.  Another thing thats annoying is kids not giving respect to what’s been done.  To take the time to look at what’s already been done, and not go ahead and say “Ah, those kids are sloppy”, ya know?  Like not appreciating things in their time, and element.  Kids are coming out who are good, but they just don’t have the respect that you need to give to people who have done it before.

WHAT DO YOU SEE FOR THE FUTURE OF GRAFF?
We’re all going to die and go to hell!! I don’t know.  Hopefully it will stay on a real tip, and not go too commercial.

DO YOU THINK IT IS TOO COMMERCIAL?
It kinda is, but then again… It just depends on the circles your running in.

ANY LAST WORDS OR GREETINGS?
Just to the crews DF, FC, TC5, and Nasa

While you’re here, check out some more Interviews from the Past

I can credit Roger Gastman for first introducing me to Shepard Fairey.  His magazine While You Were Sleeping was ahead of its time in all aspects of culture and taste (or lack thereof).  I dug through my old stacks recently and decided to reproduce this great interview with Shepard Fairey from the 4th issue of WYWS.  Long before Museum Retrospectives and Obama posters, Fairey was paying his dues just like every other artist.

Enjoy.

From: While You Were Sleeping, Issue 4, 1998

Why Andre The Giant?

I saw his picture in the newspaper and saw it as something that I could show my friend how to cut a stencil. I was just amused by it and we decided to make it our inside joke, that it was going to be the new cool skate posse. It makes fun of the popular culture, but it is a popular  culture phenomenon. It makes fun of consumerism but then I encourage people to buy a t-shirt because it funds me making more stickers. It was just a really funny memorable picture. He is an oddity. This was around 1989. We put the stickers around town. I thought it would just be a joke that lasted a few weeks. I made the original sticker with a ball point pen and a photo copy machine. For some reason people kept asking where that sticker came from. They wanted to know if it was a band, a cult or what? I was even in the line at the super market and heard people talking about. That’s when the plan started to unfold. The more you put out there, the more people are going to think it means something important. It was just something funny to do. The local indie paper had a contest that anyone who writes in and says what the Andre the Giant sticker campaign was really about would win tickets to a show. This was going on in Providence, Rhode Island. I had a few friends who were doing it for me in their cities.

You don’t have a sick fascination with giants?

Not at all. It’s just the power of propaganda.

Did Andre know about this when he was alive?

I don’t know if he did. He lived in Seattle and North Carolina. It wasn’t at the level it’s at now when he died.

Have you ever talked to anyone in the wrestling community about the stickers?

I get a lot of funny e-mails to my site because it’s www.andrethegiant.com. They think that it is going to be some kind of memorial to Andre placing him on some pedestal. Then they see it’s my thing and they think it’s making fun of him. They say, “This site is disgraceful. You should be honoring the man. He was an incredible athlete.” Andre was actually a very feeble athlete and his physical condition was so bad that he had a heart attack when he was 46 years old. He had a disease that gives you a disproportionate amount of growth hormones to certain parts of your body and not to others. So his heart was not strong enough for his body. He also drank way too much. I hear stories from people that say he was in bars putting five pitchers away like you would put away five mugs of beer.

Did you ever get in trouble for putting stickers up?

I’ve been arrested five times, mostly for stenciling or pasting. All art-related crimes other than shooting bottle rockets at my neighbors when I was 12.

So what you do is based on Graffiti?

To me it’s all about getting as much exposure as possible. With the stickers I want high visibility. As far as pasting, I kind of use the same technique that Revs and Cost were using. I’m trying to go higher with everything using extension poles. I want the scale of it to be so impressive that no one thinks that it is just one person doing it. There are always going to be things that only run for a few days, but if its a really prime spot it doesn’t matter. When I go to New York I’ll try to get higher up windows that will run for a long time. There are so many people that you are competing for space with. Because I mass produce my stuff, I can afford to send out a greater volume of stuff, where as in traditional graffiti it’s very discouraging to go out and spend all this time hitting a spot and get cleaned in a few days. I consider the art work preparing the printed piece. Can skills graffiti amazes me, but it’s just not my approach. All I do with spray paint is stencil.

Do you have any proof that Andre actually got some from a women?

He has an illegitimate daughter who lives in Seattle. The mother and the daughter came to a screening of the Andre documentary called “Andre The Giant Has a Posse” demanding money.

What did this lady and her daughter look like?

I didn’t see her. I heard that they were not too attractive.

How many midgets would it take to kick Andre’s ass?

If it was Tattoo with a gun, just one.

If you had four bottles of urine what would you do with them?

Probably pour them on the bums that keep pissing next to my car.

How big do you think Andre’s penis was?

I would assume that he was a little bigger than average, maybe eight inches or so. I doubt his dick got the benefit of the growth hormones.

What’s up with Snoop Doggy Dog? Do you think he is a pussy?

I don’t like him, but I think “The Dogfather” was a clever name for a record. I’m more into Ice Cube.

Do you miss Eazy E?

Pulling that move of eating dinner with president Bush was kind of stupid. I lost respect for him after that.

Have you ever been in a circle jerk?

No, but now I do feel open enough about my sexuality to discuss masturbation. It took years. I can admit it. I think daily is healthy, it relieves stress.

Use any special tools?

I’m a switch hitter. I think that is a skill.

The strangest place you have done it?

The airplane bathroom.

Would you rather kiss a guy with or without a mustache?

If your going to kiss a guy you might as well go all the way. I want a leather vest, I want it all.

Where did you grow up?

Charleston, South Carolina and I lived in Providence for eight years.

I heard there are a lot of sluts in Charleston.

There are a few.

Go out on the beach and have sex and get some sand in your ass crack?

I haven’t actually had sex on the beach.

What do you think of amputees?

I feel bad for them. I have never seen a female amputee. I have only seen dudes with hooks and stuff instead of hands. The first thing I thought was damn they probably don’t get laid and they can’t masturbate.

Would you consider yourself a pimp?

Not at all.

Would you ever punch an alien?

If they treated me like the aliens in “Mars Attacks.”

How do you feel about my favorite subject, pornography?

I’m not into anal sex. I like pornos. It’s visual stimulation, I’m into that.

What’s the strangest place that you have done it?

Probably on one of the screen printing tables at the RISD studio. A security guard walked in and the only thing keeping him from seeing my girlfriend and I was a thin drying rack. One time I was having sex with my girlfriend in the car right outside of an art opening, they were showing the video and my friends came out to tell me and walked up to the car and there was my girlfriend on my lap. I hadn’t seen her in a few days. It was obvious what was going on and the windows were all fogged up.

How about some more stories like that.

This should be about art. That is art (sex). Being creative about that sort of thing is definitely artistic. I’ve done it in the mall garage, in the car during the middle of the day with people walking to their cars left and right.

Want to talk shit about anyone?

People that dis you just because they are jealous of your fame, that’s wack. There is plenty of room on the streets. Get into it for the right reasons. If your a gang banger with a spray can, why don’t you just go out and kill other gang bangers with a gun instead? Do what you should be doing. Don’t become a graffiti artist.

Where can kids get a hold of your stuff?

They can write to me at Black Market. 705 12th avenue. San Diego, California 92101. I’ll send anybody out stickers and a poster catalog. On the web at www.andrethegiant.com