INTERVIEWSWITH

SMALMEOWBASXAND

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ARTISTSPECIAL

PANICZINe1

PUBLISHER

EDITOR

PHOTOGRAPHER

ADVISER

FONTS

Thomas Witte

Sarah Spichal,Daniel Mueller

Pinoy Pirat, Meow, Smal, Basx, Mosaik, Amek

Peter Schlosser

DejaVu Sans Mono, Source Sans Pro,Vim SM

© 2013/Thomas Witte

THE PANICS CREW///////////01SMAL//////////////////////03MEOW//////////////////////05PIRAT/////////////////////07AOB///////////////////////09BASX//////////////////////11AMEK//////////////////////13SPECIAL///////////////////16WORLD WIDE WEB////////////19

INDEX

PANICZINe1

1/2

Yeah! You’re holding the first issue of this mag in your hands. How does it feel? Don’t panic! Take a deep breath and enjoy. But first I’d like to introduce you to PNC gang which consists out of almost 34 members. I forgot the exact number. They all came together in this form in 2009. Each of them grew up in another city, another region and so in another environment with different influences. That’s the essence of their work. Many different styles, characters and ideas and the time has come to collect their work to share with you. This is the first period of their craft and also just a little extract. This issue fea-tures nowhere near all of the artists but give an good insight plus we are happy to introduce you a guest artist.

So, lean back and don’t panic!

This is the first and hopefully not the last one of the Paniczine. This magazine is from, with and for the PNC Crew which formed in 2009 in Hildesheim/Germany.

3/4

♦ How often do you paint a month? ✖ It de-pends...at some times daily. If the weather is nice, so in the summer I try up to three times a month to get my ass out. What is your in-spiration? Graffiti, Design, my environment...but rather i try to make my own stuff. ♦ Do you do full colored sketches as well or just rough ones? ✖ Nope. Actually I’m doin sketches with a pencil or ballpen. Detailed and colored drawing are an exception. ♦ Is there a writer who inspired you since your beginnings? ✖ Fred, Atom, Dare (R.I.P., editors note). ♦ At this point, what are your beginnings in graffiti? ✖ Some day I started interesting me for this shit. I think I was 13 or14 years old when i did my first sketches. Since than I’m sometimes more, sometimes less into it. ♦ How would you describe your style? ✖ I think differently.That’s the most important thing for me. In doing so I wasn’t happy at any time with the results but it evolved in the right way. ♦ A question by the way: What is your favorite animal? ✖ A tap. ♦ And another important question: What’s your favorite brand of beer? ✖ The one which is actually there. ♦ Tell me and the the read-ers which music you listening while painting? ✖ Rap, Funk, Drum’n’Bass, Electro... as the

whim takes me.♦ How much time does it take to finish a piece? ✖ It depends...sometimes two to three hours, sometimes the whole day. Depends on what I’ve planned. ♦ You‘re studying De-sign in Hildesheim. Do you see a connection between this fact and graffiti? ✖ I came from graf-fiti to design. So yes! And I would say it influences me in a sense in some parts to this day. ♦ What are your top ten musi-cians right now? ✖ Currently? ...hum...Little People, Gang Starr, Blockhead, High Con-trast, Walkin Large, Masters of Illusion,...there’re definiti-fly to much to limit it up to ten. ♦ Do you have a favorite brand of cans? ✖ Molotow.

MEOW

5/6

♦ How accrued your writer name? ✖ I grew up with cats. Then I started making stencils with cats and cause I was despite of streetart also interested in graffiti it resulted in “miau” (German). Later I got bored of the letters and I started using the english word for it...”meow”. ♦ Please describe yourself in 5 words. ✖ I’m a no pot smoking, longboarding, artistic gifted but yet decent and an adorable music-fetishist. ♦ How long do you use the can as your medium? How do you got into graffiti in general? ✖ I’m into the game since I’m 13 years old. Back then my classmate did sketchin’ some styles. What a bad guy. He pretty smudged my white sheet of paper. ♦ What’s about streetart? ✖ I did it once a time. Cat-Stencils. ♦ Okay! Now describe your style, please! ✖ Amorphous, organic, solid. ♦ Which is your favorite color? ✖ Red. ♦ Do you have a color-combination you like most? ✖ Blue-brown. ♦ Your Inspiration? ✖ Everything that surrounds me. ♦ Do you devote one’s time for your sketches like your pieces on the wall? ✖ I just make sketches with a pencil. That is cumbersome enough. ♦ Do you painting characters as well? ✖ Yeah, I do. ♦ Which graffiti artist inspired you mostly? ✖ Peeta. ♦ Your favorite food? ✖ Ribbon noodles with salmon cream sauce.

♦ Your favorite animal? ✖ Meow. ♦ What kind of music you like while sketchin’ or if you’re on the wall? ✖ Fat Jon, Jon Kennedy. ♦ What are your steps while painting? Do you have a spe-cial procedure? ✖ I start with the background, then I sketch out, retrace it, place the drop shadows and last I do the fill ins. ♦ You’re a Industrial Design student. Is there a link to your work? Do you think your interest in that arose through graffiti or the other way aound? ✖ Nope, I don’t think that I started one cause of the other but you’re starting to design your styles. ♦ Another fervent question. Are you playing an music instrument? ✖ Beatbox, if that is acceptable for you.

PIRAT

♦ Why do you choose Pirat as your synonym? ✖ First I started with my nickname “Elo”. But af-ter a while most of the people just met me with my nickname Elo, so I had to change my writername. Then I started do-ing a Characterline which is called “Pinoy Pirat”. Pinoy is the term for a male Philippino. I’m half Philippino so that explains why Pinoy. I liked the combination of the two terms “Pinoy Pirat”. And now I just call myself Pirat. Which I am! Describe yourself in less than ten words! Probably the most wasted kid in town. ♦ Remem-ber you back in the days. What are your beginnings in case of graffiti? ✖ I started sketch-ing Hip-Hop touched charac-ters when I was about fifteen or sixteen I think. I really loved the flavor of the graffiti style. When I was eighteen we had a class trip to Amsterdam 7/8

and I saw a pretty amazing store with a bunch of graffiti, clothes and stuff and I bought my first tag marker. It was a “On the Run – Hard to Buff” marker, which I still got. Since that day I became addicted and started tagging my whole school from bottom to top and my whole neigh-borhood. In that period I started with my first “Throw-Ups” and a just a few “Bombings”. In year 2010 I met the guys from the PNC Crew, cause I moved from Bremen to Hildesheim and painted my first legal wall. ♦ What or who inspires you? ✖ I like vector graphics and characters. But I also admire the style of Herakut and the Ma-Claim Crew. My big inspiration I would say are the guys from the MSK Crew. Sickest collective of different styles! ♦ How often do you paint a month? When spring comes up, I usually try to write every week or two. ♦ Your favorite color? ✖ Montana Black NC Mermaid (6150). ♦ What is the quintessence of your work? ✖ Vector-Pinup-inspired character flavor. ♦ How much time you need for a charry? ✖ Three to six hours. Depends on the complexity of the character. ♦ Your favourite color-combination is? ✖ That’s a hard one, cause it depends on what kind of style/character you want to paint. I would say purple, orange, dark red and black. ♦ What do you think about streetart? ✖ Hmm..I like some stuff and I’m not the person who says that graf-fiti is the real deal on the street. Of course there are a bunch of toys who are just stencil some walls and think they are revolutionary. That’s wack bullshit cause they are just not into the matter. ♦ Whats about “anti-style”? You know what I mean? ✖ Some say it’s anti-style but that’s just toy crap. But I like the style from the VCU Crew. I would say that’s anti-style but they are authentic I guess. ♦ You’re a Graphic Design major. Is there a link to your work? ✖ Vectorstyle inspires me. And I would say that I try to look over the edge on what’s possible. First Graffiti and Design had nothing in common for me, but after a while it combines and inspires.

AMEK

MEOW

BASX

9/10

AMEK

BASX

MOSAIK

11/12

♦ What means PNC? Panic! ✖ The Panics...wicked styles which spreads panic...:) ♦ How accrued your name? Is there a deeper meaning behind or is it more the combination of letters? ✖ My name stands back in the days mainly for the basics of graffiti. Now he is just there and varies. ♦ Since when you‘re spraypainting? How did you started? ✖ Since 2003. I started and celebrated graffitit excessively with SmalONE. ♦ How often do you depict a piece? ✖ Once a week a sketch and up to three times in a month I do a wall. ♦ Describe your style! ✖ Wildstyle with a dis-tinct touch. ♦ Your favorite color? ✖ I don‘t have one. ♦ Is there a special combination of colors you prefer? ✖ Nope, not a special one. I like it tonal. ♦ Describe yourself in five words! ✖ Clean, enthusiastic , vigorous, I like exploring new stuff, snoopy. ♦ What is your inspiration in many ways? ✖ I get it from the things that are in my head, the internet, my buddies and from the college. ♦ Are you color-ing your sketches like your pieces or they‘re just pencil-sketches? ✖ No. I‘ve no time for detailed sketches. And the possibilities are not the same like working with a spraycan. ♦ Which graffiti artist inspires you most? ✖ Fred one, Stereo, Ojey (Chosen Few Crew), Beet

(PBS). ♦ Are you interested in other forms of art? ✖ Yeah! Streetart, Fine Arts, Design Toys. ♦ Do you do stickers, stencils or something similar? ✖ Sticker for my Jellys and the Jelly‘s itself. So design toys. ♦ What do you think about the current trend i would name it „anti-style“? ✖ Beat it! No quality in using the can and a weak interpretation of typography. ♦ What‘s your favorite animal? ✖ The jellyfish. ♦ Tell me your favorite brand of beer? ✖ Beer. ♦ Which kind of music you like while sketchin‘ or painting on the wall? ✖ DnB, Electro, Funk and Swing. ♦ What are your steps when you‘re doing a piece on the wall? ✖ First the paint, sketch out, background, the style ( fillings first then outlines , at least the 3D blocks). ♦ How much time do you need for a piece? ✖ Now it tooks not more than three hours. ♦ You are studying design. In which way affect it your thinking and acting in case of graffiti for sure? Was graffiti first or vice versa? ✖ I see a lot of cool stuff at the university which I absorb. I was doing graffiti first before getting into design. ♦ Are you playing an instrument? ✖ No...humm...wait! Yes, of course. Lotus flute. ♦ Which is your favorite spraipaint brand? ✖ Molotow Belton. ♦ Last but not least. Are you an active member of another crew? ✖ Not really. There is just the WR crew which consists of SmalONE and me.

13/14

♦ How accrued your name? Is there a deeper meaning behind or is it more the combination of letters? ✖ First of all it is the sound and than the combination of the characters, al-though I had sometimes a lot of struggle with one or two letters. There is no deeper meaning behind it. It was a long way till I decided I’m now an Amek and there was a time I was think-ing about choosing another one but today I see it as a challenge to create something new and different out of the same. ♦ How long you’re in the game? Tell me about your beginnings? ✖ I’m active since 2005. Before that time I lived and grew up in a small town and I started listening to rap music and my best friend and I started celebrating the whole hip hop move-ment excessively and one day it was clear that we don’t wanna be just consumers. So we were startin our first sketches and right after that we bought our first cans and went out…that was when we were 13 or 14 years old. ♦ How often do you go out to paint a wall? ✖ I cannot really answer this question. It varies from time to time. Last summer I painted once three pieces in three days. Now, cause I’m beyond the sea I didn’t saw a can since three months so I just paint some canvases. But in the next time I will do some projects for sure.

♦ Is there a special combination of colors you prefer? ✖ There was a time I especially used pastel shades. Now I like really much evil greens with red I think. ♦ What inspires you? ✖ Uh…yeah I got my inspiration in many different ways. From the internet, exhibitions, hangin’ around with friends, party, music and last but not least grandmother nature. ♦ Which graffiti artist inspired you most? ✖ The first writer who inspired me was definitifly Can2 with his clear style. Today it is particularly Dare (RIP), Smash137, MadC and Nero… ♦ Are you interested in other art forms as well? ✖ Definitively. I like the Expressionism with its great way of using color, the Bauhaus movement with its paradigm of functionality, the Swiss typogra-phy etc. ♦ What do you think about streetart? ✖ I love it. It’s like the lil’ brother of graffiti. You’re waitin on a pedestrian light to cross the street and you can use the time looking at a well done multilayered stencil or sticker which gets me laughing or thinking on something. ♦ Describe your style? ✖ Readable and clean, curvy with a dash of aggressivity. ♦ Your favorite food? ✖ Fingerfood. ♦ And ani-mal? ✖ American Staffordshire Terrier. ♦ Are you playing an instrument? ✖ Sadly I missed it to learn an instrument but today a make up for that is scratching and mixing records. ♦ Are you a member of other crews as well? ✖ I’m also in the Fuzzy Fingaz Crew that consists of Mosaik and me but at the moment we aren’t so productive cause of the distance between us. But from time to time we kick some walls together.

15/16

17/18

♦ What does FF stands for? ✖ Fuzzy Fingaz, a crew I founded with my friend Amek in 2007. We thought about a new crew name, something with finger and which fits, so FuzzyFingaz was born. ♦ Since when you‘re active with the spraycan? ✖ Since 2006, by painting my school folders with graff I’ve seen in my city. ♦ How often do you kick a style? ✖ It is quite irregular, the last year I painted only a few times, then there are peroids I write quite often in a few weeks, in summer when it’s fun to go out, take a grill and hang out painting. I’d like to paint more often, but then other activities surround me and I forget about it till it catches me again. ♦ Do you have a favorite color? ✖ I like all colors, maybe some more, but the combination is what mat-ters, as the sound makes the melody. I Iike green, blue,

turquoise, black backgrounds, sand and lilac. ♦ Is there a special combination of colores you like most? If yes, which one? ✖ Not a specific combination, it has to be interesting, chal-lenging and funky and still contain harmony. Minimalistic colour concepts are also very nice from time to time, you don’t get too distracted from the piece itself and the other parts be-come more important. I don’t think that color itself is very important, but it is good when the piece and the colors reflect something, like the surrounding, the atmosphere or your mood. ♦ Describe yourself in a few words! ✖ Fun-loving, chilled, thinking, honest, pursuing my path. ♦ How accrued your writer synonym? Is there a special story behind it? ✖ When I started writ-ing I searched for a name and Mosaik appealed to me, it appeared in different rap tracks. I

tried other names but I didn’t find a convincing yet. ♦ Which graffiti artist was a big inspira-tion for you? ✖ My first inspiration came from to this time most active crew in my hometown OBK/ÖHB and painters like Skor, Sivm, Möbius, 25 Crew and later from Berlin and New York old school flavor. ♦ Furthermore what is your daily inspiration in many ways as well? ✖ I think for Graffiti many inspirations still derivate from the graff world, but I implement what comes in my mind and to get the ideas it is just good to be with people, travel, go to nature, hear music, just everything that makes happy in the right moment. ♦ Do you pay the same attention to your sketches how do you do it with your pieces or is a pencil sketch enough? ✖ I like full coloured burner blackbooks which are like your graff history but for preparing to paint on the wall I usually do quick ink scetches and maybe improve one to get idea simple and fast on the paper. When I took full coloured scetches to get them onto the wall I was annoyed by copying and the few space to paint freely. Maybe the result could look more enhanced but I don’t like the process and that is for me what is most important. ♦ Are you interested in other forms of art? ✖ Yeah, I like all arts, painting, sculpture, design, architecture, old films, music and literature. Like what is lyri-cal and poetic, and there are many artists beyond what is not considered as art and the other way around. My special interest is in Architecture ;) ♦ What makes your style out? ✖ Readable letters that merge into each other while containing hopefully their identity and some fx around.

19/20

SmalOne

♦ streetfiles.org // a lot of graff♦ designtagebuch.de // design news♦ fontblog.de // more design news♦ nerdcore.de // from time to time funny again

Meow

♦ wetter.com / I want to know when the sun is shining again at last♦ peeta.net / What did he do new - ass.♦ gmx.de / Get rid of the spam...♦ facebook.com / Actually I hate it but I’m there every day yet♦ youtube.com / What could i type in next?

Pirat

♦ ojaeblog.com / great photographer♦ fucknfilthy.com / graff, photography and shit♦ keegangibbs.com / Favorite graffiti photographer♦ hypebeast.com / Swag and Culture♦ facebook.com / Nuff said!

Basx

♦ jellyfam.de / own website♦ thepanics.tumblr.com / PNC blog!!!♦ chosenfewcrew.de / cause of them I’m in to graffiti♦ flying-fortress.blogspot.com / awesome guy♦ buffmonster.com / another awesome guy

Mosaik

♦ streetfiles, youtube, butdoesitfloat.com / Interesting♦ mondayjazz.com / Start the week with good music♦ chillcommunication.blogspot.com / 20 well-selected mixtapes...

Amek

♦ hhv.de / Great record selection and a nice blog with news around music♦ ebay.de / The hottest deals on records and other stuff I need or don’t need♦ abt.de / Tees!! Nice concept with a great community of awesome illustrators♦ vimeo.com / HD-eyegasm ♦ soundcloud.com / A lot of fresh music and also well designed

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