Five questions for five flicks 

Featured artist - WIRE

WIRE is a graffiti writer from Sydney. He's been painting since the 90's and done a bit everything from dope walls to panels locally and abroad. His pieces are public with a nice flow and always with fresh colour schemes. We caught up to find out a bit more about him and asked for his favourite five flicks.

1. What got you into graffiti?

The sight of tags on school backpacks. Having to travel to the city each day back in the early 90’s required having to fit in to resist the ‘infared’ rolling crews. A piece on your backpack either got you home in one piece or elicited a great chase story. The better the burner the less altercations. Additionally, having the Godfather of hip hop (Blaze) at your school also helped.

2. How would you describe your style?

Versatile. I try everything I can to push letters in different ways. My style is probably closer to public style than anything else. My old graff buddy Saph (RIP) and Raise/Oceans always schooled me to go big, simple and most importantly readable, so that even non-graffers could read your letters when passing at fast speeds. I’m also happy to make mistakes and learn from them rather than bite or conform to the audience tastes at the time. I also love occasionally trying a wild style and always leave spray effects till last, probably as I still struggle with keeping up with the modern technologies and cap adapters.

3. Do you have a good chase story?

Many good ones and some which ended not so funny where I ended up breaking a leg and taken to hospital with a police escort. A crew that was handed down to us was RLM- Run Like Mad! We definitely lived up to the phrase when being chased out of a yard south of Sydney.

It began when one of us didn’t do his rounds of checking and a few massive Tongans' decided to shut the gates on us and slowly surround us. After not finding a safe exit, I hid under a ridgy and eventually climbed up the side of it and made the leap of faith over a spiked fence. From there I looked up and saw a lanky ostrich (Spen) running at lighting speed across the lines. On pursuit, I followed and dodged a few blue heelers until we reached the car. On the way back to Sydney, somehow, we all made it out, although a few badly scared we played the track, Nas is like, on repeat watching all the flashing lights heading in the opposite direction.

4. Looks like you have done a lot of travelling, what is your favourite city to visit and why?

I left for my first solo Euro mission in 2000. Passing trains done by BCF motivated me to get amongst it. Italy, a place I have lived on a few occasions, is a special for me for many reasons. Doing trains with WCA and FIA showed me a whole new game, which always ended in great food and wine rewards. Berlin is also a fun city, though being roughened up in their slammers for a winter weekend felt as though I was reliving the days of the holocaust! London, also is a great place where Ebzke founded a crew (TMP’s), which united many aussies abroad. Much Respect.

5. What motivates you to keep painting?

I paint very sporadically. Trying to keep the spark of my best ol’ mate Saph/Mono ignited keeps me motivated. Also helping a good mate Rebo put together his ‘free’ zine of incredible unsung Sydney heroes has shown me that it’s now time we oldies give back something to this prodigious subculture. Much respect to all the young guys going so hard at the moment and doing much more than what has been done in the past and making possible the things that always seemed impossible.