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Interview:
Siner LTS
Interview by: Eklips, Mystic 1/00
Q- What do you write?
Siner, Last to Survive.
Q- How long you been writing
for?
I've been writing since about, say about 85'. So what's that about 15
years.
Q- How did you get into
graffiti?
I got into graffiti through the influence of my brothers that were older,
they were into breakin' and the next step after that was just graffiti.
My oldest brother was doing graffiti in high school and, and he influenced
me. That's pretty much how I got into it.
Q- What did he write?
My brother writes Sane.
Q- How did LTS come about?
LTS came about, well first of all there was a crew called RTA, Rapid Transit
Artists., and we met up with Mark 7, which was sort of in the neighborhood
and we formed LTS combined with his crew and our crew. I forgot what his
crew was called though, but LTS came about from Sane and Mark 7 hooking
up. They pretty much made the crew up.
Q-What year was that?
That was about 87', early 87' or maybe late 86'.
Q- You guys had your own
yard on Jefferson, can you tell us a little about that?
Yeah, that was like the playground for a lot of that was in the neighborhood,
it was off of Jefferson and like Hauser. So pretty much everyday after
school that's where we would be at, painting and just hanging out or whatever.
It was a cool yard, a lot of development came about there.
Q- Can you tell us a little
bit about the mid 80's (in L.A.) for the younger generation that doesn't
know?
Right, right. As when I was coming up saby about 86, 87', 88' which was
like a strong point in that time, there was a lot of people doing graffiti,
I was pretty young I would say about 12, 13 so I was seeing a lot of people
doing some dope shit just growing up. K2S, West Coast, SMD, the DTK's,
there was some dope mother fucka's out there, so there was a lot of competition,
everybody wanted to keep on doing better than the next person. There was
a lot of good people back then.
Q-I would have to say that
you are one of the few surviving writers from then and now that is still
active and that have seen all of the transitions of graffiti. How do you
feel about graffiti then and graffiti now? Just how underground it was
and hidden, and now its so open and about with magazines and clothing,
stores all over the place selling graffiti paraphernalia and items relating
to graffiti?
I wouldn't have visualized it man, but I guess it was only in one direction
that it was gonna go. It was so hype that I couldn't really see an end
to it, there was always like younger people that was gonna keep it alive
and keep it going. And I feel a lot of people are getting influenced by
the whole Hip-Hip scene, that is just gonna be a part of everybody it
seems like; people are really starting to at least trying to capture it
and just understand it. Back then it was more like, a rebellious thing
where it was like, it was all just outlaw type shit; now its being more
accepted with like the main population type thing, I don't know.
Q- How do you feel about
art shows and graffiti in art shows?
I think its a good thing, we shouldn't limit it to like putting our shit
in the streets and alley ways and stuff. We should pretty much look up
to the highest point where we can get it, just like the main....I think
the future of art is graffiti. Its gonna be what the new generation wants
to see, all the old masters are just going to have to hand it down to
the new type shit, and that's the new shit, graffiti is gonna take over
pretty much the whole art scene I believe.
Q-What's your favorite thing
to paint now, walls, canvases, trains, freeways...? What's your preference?
I guess it depends on how you feeling; sometimes you just wanna
hang out and paint a canvas at home. But when the pressure is built up
and your stressed out over just everyday living, having to go to work
and shit, you really feel like taking that aggression out on a train and
shit, releasing some tension going and painting a train, and just going
and painting a spot. If you really want to get creative and just have
whole day of, like a whole field trip you might want to do a legal spot,
do a nice wild style burner; try and develop some new techniques; I don't
know just try and take it beyond just the regular piece.
Q- To my understanding you
went to New York to do an art show, how was that experience?
It was a beautiful thing man to go out there and represent for L.A.; in
some ways I guess represent for L.A.. It was good, went down there with
real good writers, real cool people; to get to paint out there was just
a good feeling; and people accepted us pretty good, so it was cool.
Q-
Looking at these freights, what's your motive and crew's motives for painting
freights?
As far as mine man, its like freestyle really on freights you know what
I mean? Its like something you don't do, you might not ever see it again
unless you take a picture of it; you're like kissing it good-bye on its
journey. And hopefully someone else will see it like riding by and just
make them flip the fuck out.LTS
definitely has a very distinctive style, and it stands out. Where do you
think that style came from? It kind of evolved from I would say from the
beginning of the crew. But then after homeboy Ink5 passed it was just
me and Jimer until I met Retna, which was Moses back in the day. I met
Retna and Verse, which was actually the second Verse from the crew, and
they were younger, and we just started doing shit again just bringin the
crew back. And Moses really recruited a lot of people, met up with Brail,
and it was just like things started to happen you know, shit started to
build. I guess through everybody's mind, everybody's complex mind, just
something formed where everything got mixed together, and formed some
kind of style.
Q- Ayer?
Ayer...man, was just an entity of his own. He was like limitless, just...it
was one of the saddest things to see him go. There was definitely potential
for a great master, which he had already became. Through us, I feel like
sometimes as we paint his spirit is still living there; we are inspired
by that to paint. I feel a lot of people in the crew feel him when they're
painting. Same for Ink 5, some of the newer cats didn't know him but they
show him respect cause they either heard about him or just seen his shit
and knew where he was going with it.
Q- Who do you think is the
graffiti writer of the millennium?
I don't know man, I don't think they're is one there is so many people,
so much different shit out there.
Q- If there was no Hip-Hop
would there still be graffiti?
I think so, I think so; even without hip-hop music and all that, there
is still going to be some people that gonna wanna express there art out
there. Either being letters or whatever, people wanna put their message
out; and people that are just born with that artistic expression, you
wanna get it out there regardless if you're shit is going to be in a magazine
or whatever, just wanna push it out there.
Q-So if there was never
no hip-hop there would still be graffiti?
For sure, I think there has always been graffiti since the beginning of
time. Its just we seem to label it as like a hip-hop culture; but I think
its gone beyond that now, there might be writers out there that don't
even listen to hip hop, and still burnin' shit. Sometimes I feel like
I don't wanna be part of none of that so called hip-hop scene; but at
that same time I can't say that cause the hip-hop culture is a whole different
thing...hip-hop culture, music is just one element of it. Let me back
up, there is always going to be graffiti regardless.
Q-Have you traveled to any
other cities and painted besides New York?
Besides New York, just like Frisco...I've been to Frisco a couple of times.
TJ I got to paint.
Q- What do you think about
European Graffiti?
I think they're shit is tight; I think a lot of the stuff is good. They
definitely doin' a lot of shit; I like to see all that shit on trains
you know. I really wish I was seein' my own shit on there, on the trains...or
go out there and burn shit. But uh, its good, its good for the whole fuckin'
scene. It seems like its more accepted out there for some reason.
Q- Do you have anything
that you would like to let the world know?
Yeah I wanna say you know its good to still be here. I feel stick around
with a lot of the people we see constantly...I wanna look forward to like
seein' people get old and still doing graffiti. I wanna say much respect
to the people that influenced me a lot within all the years that have
passed, which I feel like my style has developed through them just everything
I've seen. I wanna say a couple shout outs to a couple of cats like Delo,
Mark 7, my brother Sane, Riot, Sphere, Mek and Ser, Dream from SMD, Sky,
Green, Soon all those cats. Then also wanna say to all the new kids from
the crew, which maybe I shouldn't call them kids now cause a lot of them
are grown. But a lot of the peers now from the crew now you know were
gonna keep doin' it man, keep doin' shit, keep blowin' peoples head's
out, and that's it keep it Last to Survive, Last to Surrender never die;
and that's pretty much it.
End Interview-
siner@guerillaone.com
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