Jems KFD

In the intro to my interview with Cycle, I mention texting a friend about the interview who said he thought Cycle would be the best candidate for this project. That friend was Jems KFD, a Long Island skater and writer, who, himself, is a really good candidate for this project. 

What did you get into first: skating or graffiti?

Skateboarding, when I was in fifth grade. When I was like 10.

 

Young Jems, about to catch air.

 

How did you get into skating? 

I remember seeing Police Academy 4 with the Bones Brigade, and then I got a shitty board like a Nash or something. Then I convinced my grandmother to get me a Christian Hosoi Hammerhead. That was my first legit board. Then I met a friend in elementary school, Beau, he skated, too. And it went from there, like this is what I want to do. 

How did you get into graffiti?

Around 9th grade I started noticing and thinking, "that's cool." I started seeing Semer and the HTE and ABK guys starting to get up a lot. By tenth grade I had found the ABK pit and had done one or two really toy pieces down there. Also did some tags along the Long Island Railroad in my town (Garden City). Nothing serious, but that was when I first started. 

LIRR tracks circa '98

How did you get your tag?

I don't know how exactly I got the tag Jems. It was just a combination of liking this letter and liking that letter.  

 

What skaters were psyched on in your early days of skating?

All the World guys. Guy Mariano was probably my favorite. That trick he does in the credits of Mouse - switch frontside shuvit switch crooked grind on a handrail - is still insane! Mike Carroll, and of course Gino, the local hero. I was recently watching Dill's part in Snuff. I had the VHS of Snuff and really liked his part. Koston and Rick Howard - any guy who had a really good style I liked. Rudy Johnson was also a favorite, especially during the Video Days time. 

 

Jems jumps down the 9 stair at the Banks.

 

What writers stood out to you in your early days of graffiti?

Semer HTE was probably the biggest standout. He was a guy you saw up in the city, not just Long Island. I remember going to Sohozat to get fat caps and Semer had a fill-in on West Broadway. Hark and Bug'n had really good pieces in the Pit. AE One was up. Demco - I still look at his throw up from back then, it's still sick. Being more north shore LI, those were the guys I was exposed to. Then I moved out to Suffolk (1994), there wasn't anyone really up out there. Phat (now Phetus) had a wall in Huntington that was dope, it was a handball court at the top of a hill that went down to the village. And Foe, of course, was a favorite, too.

Tell me about your crew, KFD.

I guess it was me not taking myself seriously. The original meaning is King for a Day. I'd always say, "it would be cool to be king for a day." My aspirations weren't very big. It was just a joke between friends. It was really just friends, but I guess technically it is a crew. Everyone had three-letter crews, and I wasn't down with any at the time, so you make up your own and that's what we pushed. Then Slam threw me down with ABK. 

In Bobby Puleo's Epicly Later'd, Leo Fitzpatrick and Tim O'Connor talk about how the NJ skaters weren't really accepted by the city skaters in the 90's. And I remember Long Island skaters, who were clearly better than the city skaters, saying the same thing. Do you think there's a correlation with writing: suburban writers not being taken seriously by city writers?

Yeah, definitely.  Especially if you only stick to Long Island, which is understandable. Not everyone has it in them to go all-city or become a graffiti legend. At the same time, if you feel like you deserve respect from city writers, then you have to get up in the city. And they might have to work a little harder to overcome that suburban-writer stereotype that you're not as real or whatever. But there have been a handful of guys from Long Island - and a lot of people don't even realize they're from Long Island, but they are - and they've done interviews and for whatever reason they don't say where they're from, but I know for a fact they're Long Islanders. But they crushed it. And the proof is in the pudding. So, you know, if you're crushing it at graffiti or you're a sick skater and someone is looking down their nose at you, then they're just jealous and being a hater. 

 

Jems at the Banks, circa mid 90s. Photo: Bobshirt

 

Back in the 80's and 90's, skating and graffiti weren't accepted by the mainstream. Nowadays they are a lot more so. How do you think this warm welcome from the masses has changed these subcultures?

It's always a double-edged sword. One of the things that made skateboarding "cool" was the exclusivity of it. It was like a small club.You were dedicated to something that wasn't popular; we were doing it for the love of it. But it's good that it blew up and people can now make money off of it, but then you get a lot of fly-by-night people in it, which is really happening in graffiti, I can't say that about skateboarding because I don't keep up with it as much. But you know, it's like anything else - it's got good things, and it's got bad things. In skating, it used to seem like everyone knew each other, or at least knew of each other, but now it just seems like so many kids are doing it. Which is cool, because they're doing something that's creative and fun. But with that you'll always get the culture vultures that just try to take and not offer anything, which is the bad part of it. There's been a handful of artists who have made it in the gallery world who started out writing graffiti in the streets. Yeah, what they did kind of looked like graffiti but it's not graffiti in the traditional sense. Then they do some self promotion and eventually abandon graffiti and just go for the money in the gallery world. So I don't think they were actually into graffiti in the first place, they were just using it as a vehicle to promote really bad art. 

Jems' board for Wriders' "Graffics" Show

 

In skating, filming at skateparks is frowned upon; in writing, painting legal walls is frowned upon. What are your thoughts on these "rules"? 

I can see the similarities. When we were younger, we were dying for skateparks. Now there are so many. It's kind of crazy.  Skating and graffiti both have that do-it-yourself mentality, like you're making something out of nothing. Like, here's a set of stairs and it has a rail coming off of it, and a skater thinks, "I can jump onto that with my skateboard, ride down it, land and roll away." Whereas in a skatepark, it's all mimicking that vision someone had and realized back in the day. And legal walls - everyone gets the itch. If you're a graffiti writer, you get that itch to paint, while the graffiti world or the streets will respect an illegal piece more than a legal one, if you want to scratch that itch, don't misrepresent what you're doing.

When I interviewed Rebel, I came across a picture of a truck you painted. Do you remember that night?

Barely. When I was in college, I was living in south Park Slope and I was lucky enough to have a truck yard across the street from my apartment. The yard was behind this Muslim school, and I would get wasted and come home from partying and if I felt like painting I'd just hop the fence and paint. So that photo is a result of me drunkenly going over someone who was much more up than I was. I only went over half of it, and a couple months later I ended up doing a second fill-in over it, feeling like I was covering my tracks somehow. Then I almost ended up getting the shit beaten out of me for it, but that's the game I signed up for. 

Jems' trouble truck. Photo of a photo Rebel shot

What would you say are the differences between writing on Long Island versus writing in the city?

Unfortunately, I didn't have anybody that could show me the ropes. It was all trial and error. A lot of it in the beginning was by myself. My freshman year, I was painting in one of those cutty alleys off Broadway in Soho. It was probably the first fill-in I had ever done in the city. I got greedy and started doing another one, and then a cop pulled up at the end of the alley and shined a light on me. I ended up running with them driving down the wrong way on Broadway chasing me. I tried to hide under a car, but they caught me and stole my bag and let me go. It was a couple of years of slow going, by myself. But then I annoyed a couple of my friends enough to go out with me, and they ended up catching the bug. Then during the summer of sophomore year I started painting the LIRR quite a bit with my boy Send, which helped me get more comfortable with going on actual bombing missions. Also, my boy Kleps lived a few blocks down from me in Brooklyn, and we'd go to the city, meet up with a bunch of friends and drink, and catch tags. Then egg each other on to do some crazy shit. Other times I'd paint a spot by myself, usually with alcohol. Again, if you don't have someone who's been there and done that, it's a lot of trial and error. Like a crawl-walk-run kind of thing. 

 

Jems gettin' live in '25

 

Any new skaters that you're psyched on?

This is totally non-controversial, but Tyshawn Jones is sick. I like Nakel, too, he's sick. But there are a lot of skaters out there who are amazing, but they just don't do it for me. 

Any new writers catching your eye?

That guy Anso is up everywhere. I lived in Oakland for a couple of years, and he was up all over there. That seems to be the thing now - guys painting all over the world. That dude Goog; I like his throw ups and tags. False can do it all and he's been bombing like crazy.

Will you hit my book?

Yeah!

 

 

 

Poet x Poets

A pro skater from Brooklyn is rumored to have said that the only good thing about Long Island is that it's attached to Brooklyn. What this curmudgeon didn't mention is that the island also connects with Queens (so we LI'ers have that going for us, too, which is nice). In celebration of this connection, Wriders brings you Poet for Poets: a collaboration with legendary Queens writer, Poet CWK, and everyone's favorite skater's favorite skater, Long Island's Gino Iannucci (Poets).

When did you start skating?

Gino: The first thing that comes to mind is a young girl in my grade school that used to skateboard to school. This was probably around 1986. That's the first time I saw a legit skateboard. I was used to the Toys R' Us plastic boards, and she was riding a Town & Country wooden skateboard. I remember being intrigued.

When did you start writing?

Poet: Grade school, around '84 or '85, I was in class with a girl who wrote Boney D. I was intrigued. She knew a lot of people from the neighborhood, and that's how it all started. 

 

Available at Poets Brand

 

Where did Poets come from?

Gino: Poets Corner is a neighborhood in Westbury, Long Island, where I grew up. So I named the brand after the neighborhood.

Where did Poet come from?

Poet: There was a Poet from my neighborhood who stopped writing years earlier, so I went with the name.

Available at Poets Brand

In skating, filming at skateparks is frowned upon; in writing, painting legal walls is frowned upon. What are your thoughts on these "rules"?

Gino: I've filmed at skateparks as I've gotten older, and I think that's because I've gotten less and less interested in being in the streets. And less and less capable of the physical demand of skating through the streets from spot to spot. So parks became easier. If I was younger, I probably would have frowned upon park footage. I don't necessarily enjoy watching footage at parks as much as street footage, of course. So I don't frown upon it, that much, because I do it, but probably back in the day I would have.

Poet: Legal walls is street art. I have done them, and I will still do them. But not on a regular basis. Graffiti is illegal, and that's how it was and how it will always be.

Back in the day, skating and graffiti weren't as accepted by the mainstream as they are now. How do you think this warm welcome from the masses has affected the cultures?

Gino: Acceptance always seems to make things watered down and cheesy. That's my generation's way/my 50-year-old self's way of looking at it. To put it simply, there are pluses and minuses.

Poet: It's a 50/50 split. You have your pros, and you definitely have your cons. The cons are that they take something that was created by children and exploit it for their own needs while making millions of dollars with something that was created by kids; something that's frowned upon and they tell you that you can't do, you shouldn't do, yet corporate America has basically hijacked it. There are a few people that are getting paid off of it, yes, a few. Few and far between. There are countless others that ain't getting shit. And they're using their graphics and styles in commercials and clothing brands, so basically corporate America is robbing the poor. 

 

Last question goes to Poet: will you hit my book?

Poet: Yes. 

 

 

 

Renos HTK

Renos is the second West Coast skater/writer to be interviewed here. He's also the second subject to be connected with us by Rebel (thanks, Tommy). We spoke about his connections to/early inspirations from NYC, how he got his big pop, what skate companies he's done graphics for, and much more.

 

What did you get into first, skateboarding or graffiti? 

I started skating first as a youngster, riding a plastic board at age five and riding outside of the house. Initially it was just another toy in the garage, but by age 10 I got a real setup and was hyped. It was a Sims New Wave with Indys and Alva Rock wheels. That was the start of the addiction. 

I really started to get interested in writing around age seven or so. Just being intrigued by writing on anything around the neighborhood, all by kids writing all the AC/DC and Led Zep stoner graff, and gangster writing, and eventually breakdancing nicknames. Being as my dad was from Queens, I was also always intrigued by anything having to do with New York. I do recall riding from the La Guardia Airport and seeing graff along the freeway and thinking this is too cool. During that trip I absorbed all of the neighborhood graff, and was determined to learn,and wanted to know more about it. I was fascinated and I think it altered my brain chemistry and set me on the path. This was around 1980 or so. I remember riding the 7 line and staring out the window and watching the graff roll by. Those moments implanted the virus.

 

Renos, grabbing Indy in '89.

Who were you psyched on in your early days of skating? 

Initially I would see skating in the early surfing magazines - mainly just ads for the plastic boards and always thought the dudes in the pics looked real cool, carving all styled out. I had a step brother who surfed and skated and I would scour his mags. He rode a Big Red back then. He stopped skating when he bailed skitching and road rashed half of his shoulder off. He was an early influence. He was the cool older bro! Once I got a bit older and learned more about the scene I got into whoever was in Thrasher. I remember the first time I was taken to a vert ramp - it was a long skate from the skateshop and a local older kid let me tag along. We wound up at some random house and in the backyard and there is this huge vert ramp. Jeff Hedges was there; he was ripping and my mind was blown. He was the first in-person vert skater I had ever seen. Years later, I got to skate street with him. That was rad. I was too young and unskilled to skate vert and we were just into bombing big hills and just kind of cruising around the block. When we learned ollie to axel stalls, that changed the game for us neighborhood kids. Then the jump ramp era kicked in, and ramp to wall rides; we now had a type of skating we could better relate to.

 

Renos gets blunted in '88.

 We had a local skate shop, Go Skate, and they had a big crew of local rippers: Chad, Jay, Mike Alcantar, Scott Oster, Eric Ryder, Fletcher Hill, Craig Barnett. They were the older dudes who ripped and we all looked up to. Then later some other folks inspired me to try and skate better and faster: Kenny Fauty, Carl Fleck, Zoomer, David Smyrak, Kjhel Ossness, Toby Wolf, Pat Walsh, Kevin Price, Gabe Mckillop, Brian Carlsen the ollie master, Brian Backus RIP, Tom Cleary, Metal Man Ed, Tim Diet, Johnny Reverse RIP. When street skating started to get coverage it was Natas and Gonz and Tommy G. - they were mind melters.

 

Early '90s.

 

Who were you psyched on in your early days of graffiti?

Style Wars help set it off for us. We were already into graff and breaking, but once we got to watch that film over and over, that became our mentorship program. And my racked Subway Art book was my tracing guide. We also had a local scene with folks like: OZ, Quickdraw, 2fast, Rock198, Sway from Boston rolled by, OOZE, and all of the early SF writers: Dug, Deen, Bisaro, Dream RIP, Spie, UB40, Saint /Noid, J love A, RWD, LAZ, ARM crew, ROT, Smokey25th, and SO MANY MORE. Mainly I just tried to bite anything in Style Wars and Subway Art and from the up older dudes in SF and Oakland.

 

 

How did you get your tag? 

I’ve had a ton over the years. Started early as Mad, then Mace, then Merc 1, Cosmic Kid was my breaking name. I went on a heavy tour as Merc and ran into some legal issues which should have made me retire!  I chilled for a bit, then eased back into it with a new name to throw them off the trail. I took the first letter of my gov't name, added a “oner” which was in fashion at the time for “Soner”. Thinking I was clever and to try and camouflage it even more I reversed that.

 

 

What does HTK stand for?

Hill Top Kids is the original meaning, since the original members are all from a certain neighborhood. 

What would you say are the differences between California graff verses NYC graff? 

I think we just tried to do our own version of what we initially saw happening in New York. Some of it worked and some of it just got lost in translation. Everywhere had regional styles back then, before there was easy access to the game. Each local scene produced their own fonts and styles that evolved locally and organically. I think the differences were far more pronounced than they are today, which is good and bad. The learning curve is way shorter which may also help style evolve in a rapid rate which is interesting to watch. The good part of NY is that your work seems to last longer than out here in Cali.

 

When the West is in the house: Renos up in Brooklyn

You have some serious pop! Big ollies! Is that something you had to work on, or did it come naturally? 

One of the first things everyone used to ask was “How high can you ollie?” That was the "are you cool or a poseur" test. So I always wanted to make sure I could pass. We skated with this cat Brian Carlsen and he was the king of pop. He was ollieing tennis court nets on Roskopp face decks. He ripped!!! Jump ramp king, too. He could ollie up the stage at EMB first try... and this was in '86 or so. That was the skating I liked to do and it just felt rad to be able to pop around. The ollie was the staple back then and I just kept at it. And to this day I am content to just roll around and ollie. Sometimes I forget to flip my board or do anything else.

 

Renos ollieing high in 1997.

 

Have you done any graphics for skate brands? 

Luckily yes!! I was lucky enough to design a few decks for a brand called Co-Op. It was a small brand, and pretty short lived. We did a video too. I did four deck graphics and some ad lettering etc. I used a NY subway template drawing and did a “conspiracy” piece on it. It was a great experience. I was lucky enough to do an OJ Wheel graphic, and an Independent trucks  t-shirt. Also a few graphics for some skateshops: Bills Wheels, Long Beach Skate, Terrace skateshop and Slappys!! 

 

 

 

What is it about these two subcultures (skating and graffiti) that they attract a lot of the same people?

I think back in the day we were all wild childs. Latch key kids, feral creatures who were all looking for something. Skating was easy access, didn’t require parental involvement, and a rebellious activity that offered a ton of freedom. Just grab your setup and barge out into the world and wander looking for adventure. It often attracted some of the more fringe, outcast types who banded together like a pack of wolves. Similar to many of those who gravitated to graff. It offers adventure, little $ investment, a secret world with its own hierarchies, rules, politics, and chaos!! And for me, both were on the streets and I always enjoyed wandering. 

 

 

In skating it's not cool to film at skateparks. In graffiti it's not cool to paint legal walls. So are legal walls the graff equivalent of skatepark footage and vice versa? What are your thoughts on these two "rules"?  

I’ve always liked to break rules. Sure when you’re a youngster coming up you should be out in the wild getting up, catching wreck, skating street spots and painting street spots! That is where the real action lays and the test of your level in the game. Once you get a bit older and the risk vs. reward stakes change, just do your thing and fuck any rules. Be stoked to still be painting or skating wherever and whenever you can. Real life kicks in quickly and the return on investment changes. Do your thing and enjoy it. Be appreciative that these insane skateparks exist and that you can afford to buy the paint to doodle your name. 

 

 

Any skaters or companies you're psyched on right now?

Yes! I am psyched to see skating progress so quickly and looking forward to the future! It is dope to see Tony Hawk Playstation skating be real life!!!  Stoked on: Independent Trucks, Bronson Bearings, Mob Grip, OJ Wheels Double Durometers and Santa Cruz VX decks.

 

What writers are you seeing up that you like?

I like it all. Hyped on the toys in my neighborhood - there is a new wave of vandals en route. Stoked to see it. I like seeing the folks who are working on their tags and out there getting up!

 

Any shout outs? 

KTB, MD. HTK crew. Rebel SC. Thanks to you for reaching out and asking these questions! And to anyone who took the time to read my rant, thanks. Stay Up.

Joust GSA NSA GND

A few weeks ago, I met up Keon to give him some decks for a project we're working on. While we were chatting, his old friend Joust's name came up. Next thing I knew, Keon had Joust on speaker phone and he was introducing us. Joust and I exchanged numbers, I sent him some questions, and the following interview unfolded. 

How did you first get into skating and graffiti?

My first memory of seeing skateboards was walking with my family after a dinner in Chinatown... 2 black kids came thundering down the sidewalk, one in a crouch holding a broomstick out at arms length. My first skateboard was a fiberglass Hobie with a waffle texture on top and clay wheels with loose ball bearings bought from the Rockaway Beach Surf Shop. I skated for a while on my own. I would practice riding down the hill of my grandfather's driveway, taking the turn onto the sidewalk and just going up and down my block. 

Joust and his brother at Paved Wave skatepark in Oakhurst, N.J.

The first graffiti I noticed were the tags around Newkirk Plaza, a couple of blocks from my house. I began to try to do a name I came up with on all my notebooks, but never actually on a public wall. This early skateboarding and graffiti writing was done on my own. They were just a tiny part of my kid life, while I was going to school, playing sports, being a cub scout, dreaming about girls, listening to the radio, having 45 rpm records by the Beach Boys and The Isley Brothers, watching the Brady Bunch and the Partridge Family on T.V., riding bikes, throwing tops and yoyos, flipping baseball cards and having little electric race cars. 

Joust tag in the background.

How did you get your tag?

The name Joust was given to me by a guy who wrote Pawn 1, who also went to Murrow H.S. He really never got up, but he had written with Shadow & Deal early in their careers. His style was incredible. Not only did he give me the name, but he would draft amazing styles to spark my imagination. I didn't even know what the word meant till I looked it up. He was also a skateboarder and was there for the first time skating the big bowl. Which was a monumental day, though I got a serious ear infection from cutting through the swampy stagnant slime in the deeper end. He rode an aluminum KONA board. Thinking of him reminds me of something else we used to do called a "catamaran." Two guys would each sit on their own board facing each other with their feet on the other guys' board and your hands on the other guys' shoulders. There was a steep hill entering some kind of parking area at Brooklyn College, which is where we used to do this. It almost always ended in a wipeout, and that Kona board with its metal edges was deadly. There were so many good times. 

JD throw (aka Joust)

When I went to high school is when they (skating and graffiti) started to play a bigger part in my life. First writing went to the next level. I was being educated by a handful of kids who knew more and had better style than me from different neighborhoods. There was a click I became a member of. I started to carry a marker and was motion tagging everyday to and from school. By the end of 9th grade it came to a quick end when a friend and I were caught by the police and brought downtown. My mother was so disappointed in me that it made me quit writing. 

I started to ride my skateboard to school and met a few kids with boards. I started to learn tricks. Around this time is when I met Charlie (Keon). We met at the Flatbush Frolicks Festival on skateboards. We became fast friends and soon found we both had interest in graffiti as well (though I had quit). While hanging out Charlie and I would often do crazy pieces in chalk on my street. A small pack of guys would meet up after school or on weekends usually in front of our house and would practice tricks and try to show off to passerbys. I was constantly looking for interesting places to ride in the neighborhood. I found two buildings with drained fountains (the Big and Little Bowls). I found a maze of huge smooth brick inclined walls on the campus of Brooklyn College (the Flower Pots). 

 

 

Joust's quiver.

 

One evening my Dad, my brother and I went to the Baskin and Robbins on Flatbush Ave. The guy working there had a longboard with a WAR tag on it, and he had long hair. He told us about Manhattan skaters that met by the Alice in Wonderland statue near the Central Park boat pond on Saturday mornings. We went the next weekend and maybe a few more times. Skaters started showing up near the statue doing tricks. A kid named Andy Kessler (with a KESS tag on his board) determined the events of the day whether it be ride the "Highway Hill", skate uptown to Scandinavian Ski Shop or ride downtown to Paragon Sporting Goods. The city skaters would be grabbing onto bus and truck bumpers flying to the destination while the rest of us huffed and puffed... blocks behind. We did bring skaters from N Y.C. to our spots like Jaime Affoumado (RUST). I remember on the little bowl, there were some carving lines and also we would go up, hit the coping and do a kick turn. Jaime hit that coping so hard, he came down with a huge chunk of it, wedged under his board. At a Brooklyn Heights street fair I won a slalom contest by pumping my way through the cones and took home a case of soda. 

Keon and Joust up on the Prospect Expressway w/ Bishop Ford H.S. in the background

One guy I met who was both a real skater and a graffiti writer who got up was SIE1. We met on the Staten Island ferry heading out to New York's first skateboard park. There was a bus from the ferry that went right there. It was indoors in a warehouse, made entirely of plywood. I heard "We Will Rock You" for the first time in that place. After that, there were some ramps and half pipes, but eventually I returned to my street skating. Keon and I would just skate our old streets like veterans holding nose wheelies for entire blocks and hitting our old skate spots. 

 

As my teen years were running out I had come out of my graffiti retirement... Charlie and I had thrown a couple of pieces around the neighborhood, and we had also done a bunch of nice tag spots in Greenwich Village. I rode the train by myself down to the Sheepshead Bay station in the middle of the night with a shopping bag full of silver and red cans. I walked off the platform and caught throws on every sleeping train car. I kept up for over 2 years, always tagging everywhere I went, and piecing trains, highways and walls every weekend. I wasn't an all city king, but I now could quit and be satisfied. 

 

 

Trike posted this photo and story - do you remember that night?

I love this picture. I don't remember this roll-up gate, but we did so many in so many neighborhoods. I remember walking, bombing and laughing. Trike and I hit different train lines, and when we partnered up, there was a buzz. The streets were our coup de grâce. 

Do you still keep up with skating and graffiti?

In graffiti, I will take note if someone has a nice tag or throw. In skating, I'm very excited about some of the new wheel technology. The bearings, the urethane, the cores in the wheels. I've become way more of a crafter of boards. I still hit the skatepark, but mostly, I ride trails and streets. 

I would say what drew me to both skateboarding and writing were that they were purely invented by kids and required skills and creativity. They also gave you a certain credibility on the street. They were not part of main stream society. Now 40+ years later, I still love skating and doing graffiti pieces on paper. It's in my blood. 

Keso ICS GSB TVT MP

 

Today, Wriders travels to the New England section of the States to bring you our first chat with a Massachusetts-area skater & writer: Keso. From riding for his favorite skate company, to completing several hundred full-color panel pieces in under a year, Keso is unquestionably accomplished on the board and with the paint. And despite sustaining a serious injury, Keso is determined to maintain his presence in both cultures. We have no doubt that he will.      

 

What did you get into first, skating or graffiti?

Skateboarding. I have an elephant memory (long term) and I remember the first time seeing both skating and graffiti - it was at the same time . There was an old, abandoned gas station in the town I’m from. Skaters would skate the pump island curb and the building had graffiti all over it. Apparently looking outside the car window at a red light had enough impact on me to change the course of my life because since that day, those two things have been my entire life. 

I started skating in '92/'93; I was very young when I started. I started painting graffiti around maybe '98. I had zero knowledge, so I was just doing toy things/toy letters. Before social media and internet being accessible, I had zero reference. I consider my real start to be 2003. That’s when I did my first piece on a freight. I still walk by it in yards here and there it’s super cool to come across that. It has dicks toyed over it. 

 

Keso's first piece on a freight.

Who were you psyched on in your early days of skating?

Boston scene, for sure. Robbie Gangemi, Mike Graham, Vanik Hacobian. A lot of New York skaters, Zoo York Mixtape had a big impact. Trilogy, obviously. Lavar, Creager, Gino, etc.

Who were you psyched on in your early days of graffiti?

I grew up in close proximity to Boston and Providence. As far as Boston, at the time Flush, Aroe77, Rjay, among others, had the city smashed. They were all skaters, as well, so I was always looking up to them. Providence back then had a small but really good scene with writers like Lead, Seaz, Hence, User, Juner etc., crushing shit. Both cities had more writers than I mentioned getting after it but those stood out and had big impacts on me. 

What would you say are the differences between Boston/MA graffiti verses NYC graffiti?

Up until maybe 15 years ago, there were regional style differences. Boston is just a lot smaller, and they take it seriously. It’s a felony and they will charge you. A few writers have gotten caught in other states and they send them right to Boston. Some writers have done up to a few years for graffiti. 

 

How did you get your tag?

I wrote Seak as a toy. Caught a juvenile case that I beat, but I didn’t want to write the same name, so I wrote it backwards and dropped the A. Originally I wrote Kes, then just added the 'O' as a lot of writers will do.

 

How did you get on Western Edition?

Since they started, Western has always been my favorite company. Loved Ian’s artwork, the whole jazz vibe etc. Many years later I ended up in SF staying with Jabari (Pendleton), who introduced me to everyone at FTC. I became friends with all those guys and I guess maybe Ian asked me (to ride for WE). It was natural and although it doesn’t seem like a big deal as an adult, when I think of it, having a board on my all time favorite company is pretty awesome. I’m grateful, and thankful that Ian, Ando, and Kent allowed me that opportunity. 

 

 

Keso with a 5-0

What happened to your eye?

It’s a legal matter so I don’t want to say much, but I had an over-pressurized can of Rusto that was jammed. Shaking it did nothing. So I was tapping it against a railroad tie and the bottom blew out, which created a rocket that went into my eye. Basically obliterated my eye. They did emergency surgery but it was a wrap. The cone of the can was flattened by skull. It’s the same old story: Rustoleum quality has drastically gotten worse; they cut corners to make more profit. That all-American Greed. It was the worst couple months up until surgery - really can’t explain but excruciating. Mentally gnarly because as accepting of things I can’t change as I am, it’s gnarly looking into the mirror and there’s a hole in your face. I have a fake eye now. I had a great surgeon. I adapt. Took a bit with painting, being a depth perception issue, but I figured it out. Ended up being my most productive year painting - I was just on a marathon of mayhem. I painted just shy of 500 full-color panels in a year while losing an eye. I don’t go down easy. Skating is next to get back on. This year I want to focus more on that. I miss it a lot.  

Photo by Bobshirt

What is it about these two cultures that they attract a lot of the same people?

It’s different now, but years back they both  seemed to attract the type of people that were kind of anti-norms, or outcasts in a way. Just maybe people that thought outside of the box and thought for themselves. Nowadays... It’s a lot different, everything’s watered down, woke, and pretty corny to be honest. 

 

In skating it's not cool to film at skateparks. In graffiti it's not cool to paint legal walls. So are legal walls the graff equivalent of skatepark footage/what are your thoughts on these two "rules"?

I would never have painted a legal wall up until recently, or walls in general (I do very little). My association with graffiti has to do with my love for trains. For the most part I have zero interest in most of what comes with graffiti other than freights and the act. The gossip, politics, or meeting writers, beef - don’t care for it. The majority of writers are cornballs with insecurity complexes. As I get older though, I can enjoy a wall, legal or not, and relax for once without looking over your shoulder. Plus, I still paint illegally on a daily basis, so street cred can’t be questioned. If you only paint legal walls, do you. I think it’s corny, personally, but who cares what I thin? Do what makes you happy; it doesn’t bother me.

Any skaters or companies you're psyched on right now?

I pay almost zero attention to current skaters, but I still watch the old classics. I try to stay up on a few of the younger Boston skaters: Will Mazzarri, Ben Tenner, Sway, Brian Reid - all kill it. I try to keep up on Dick Rizzo and Zack May. I don’t pay attention to much currently as far as skating. Too much to keep up with.

 

What writers are you seeing up who you like?

I see a lot of AMFM stuff, all quality writers. Always enjoy seeing any NSF stuff: Dever, Enue, Arek, Pear, Stoe - that whole crew. My Queens boys Dego, Mesk, and the GTK crew crush it for sure. Blasting out end-2-ends. Pier & Grisle, all of the GFR guys put out exceptional graffiti. Gravy has been continuously crushing it for years under multiple different names. Lead & Vism. Anything AOK or RIS is a treat. Always like seeing Altr from Canada. For the most part I pay attention to the real hardcore freight guys that we’re doing it before it was popular. There’s tons of dog shit out there but it just makes the classic styles  stand out more. 

 

 

Any shout outs?

Shout out to anyone that’s ever showed me love, patience, forgiveness, gratitude, appreciativeness, and was genuine to me.  I’ve been very fortunate to have met some really awesome people in my life within my hobbies, and as well as outside them. I’m very grateful for that. Shout out Pope, Ian Johnson, Ando, and all the FTC guys. And my crews ICS, GSB, TVT, MP. Peace.