Fester Interview

What do you write? Where are you from? What crews do you rep?

I write Fester, Fesor, Fesoe and sometimes I paint an alias Soler. I love playing around with different letters so I often change them up. I rep NWK and NBS crews.

How long have you been doing graffiti?

I started doing graffiti seriously in 1998, but first became interested in it around 1997.

What influenced you to start doing graffiti?

A  friend of mine since childhood initially got me interested in graffiti. I was always getting influenced by him in many different aspects. Before getting into graffiti we skated together for many years. I eventually moved away from Vancouver and we kept in touch by phone. One day he told me he had started tagging and I thought it sounded real fun so I started writing my name in some silly unreadable scribbles on trees and around my school. It wasn’t until I went back to Vancouver for a weekend to stay with him that I truly became infatuated with graffiti and knew that it would be a HUGE part of my life from that time on. Basically my childhood friend who wrote ‘Rek1′ at that time, and now writes ‘Tasq’ as well as other names picked me up with his big Persian homies who wrote Mecca and Theme, they proceeded to take me to the once famous lower Lonsdale wall. Upon seeing that wall for the first time I became utterly speechless considering I had never seen a piece up close and in person before. I just remember looking at the pieces with absolute amazement thinking to myself that I would never be able to do that. Virus, Zlok, Dedos, Efex, and Krews were just a few of the pieces I remember clearly.

How would you describe your style of graffiti?

I have experimented with various different styles but would have to say that I am definitely a fan of wild style graffiti. I like graffiti that packs a punch in terms of the letters,details,colors, and shading. I would describe my style as being somewhat of a font style with sharp edges and a lot of cryptic influence. As far as letters are concerned I always try to keep my letters legible but slightly stylized with a rather aggressive look to them. My goal is to make each letter look good on its own without any dependency on the other letters. I want each letter to look good enough that it could stand alone.

Do you have one particular painting you’ve done that you would consider a favorite?

Not one piece in particular no. I have favorite ‘pieces’ though.

Awhile back you did a painting for the Showtime series “The L Word”. How did you get involved with that? Have you done any other commercial work?

Not really no. That was a little job that was hooked up through a member of my family. I generally don’t like painting for money at all. For myself personally, it takes the all the fun out of it.

You’ve recently moved to Asia. How long have you been there? What’s the graffiti scene like?
How does it differ from Canada’s graffiti scene?

People out here generally put less emphasis on their own self importance. People don’t have egos like they do in the rest of the world. So basically the writers are very humble and disciplined. The scene is very underground and it is quite small considering the size of the population. The scene is also very spread out which makes it hard to hook up and go painting with people. There may be 1 or 2 writers in one part of the city but in the next part there wont be any. A lot of the writers here are usually concentrated to certain areas whereas other areas wont have one single writer at all. Another thing is people out here tend to paint a lot of their pieces at night. Day time painting is still quite rare but is slowly becoming more common. When I first came here they all swore to me it was impossible to paint in the daytime. I went out and found a bunch of my own spots that you could paint in the day so that may have helped pave the way for day time painting for some people. There are no central piecing spots or hall of fame’s at all. All the spots are very spread out which I believe contributes to the lack of writers.

Have you painted with any local writers?

Yes I have painted with many of the local writers. They are all generally very kind and disciplined compared to what I am used to. There is no violence here at all in the graffiti scene which is very nice. All the writers here are generally very peaceful and easy to get a long with. It is really a breath of fresh air. If you ask any other international writers who have come here they would all probably say the same thing.

Did you experience any culture shock from moving to Asia? What do you miss about Canada?

I miss fr8’s very much! I really miss the fr8’s and the beautiful mountains of B.C. I also miss the clean crisp air and the weather as well. Canada is an amazing country! I definitely want to go back at some point. I guess the biggest culture shock I experienced is how men out here treat women. Women don’t have nearly as many rights compared with women from western countries. It’s very sad sometimes. There are ‘women only trains’ out here because there is a HUGE problem with molestation on rush hour trains at night and in the morning. I sometimes go hiking in the mountains and they have signs at the foot of some trails that read ‘Beware of molesters’, literally translated…no joke at all.

Do you plan on coming back to Canada anytime soon?

I don’t have any particular plans to go back right now but I definitely want to go back at some point.

When was the last time you were out painting? What was it you painted?

Hmmmmm. Probably a production I did with Mentos back in 97 that said ‘Phase-n-Polo’…HAHAHAHA…. It was done in some ratty old skate park.

Who’s graffiti have you been feeling lately?

Various different people. Mostly writers from the west coast as well as some people out here and Australia.

Do you have any good chase stories you can share with us?

Hmmmm… Well one sticks out particularly for me. Me and a few friends were painting some freights back in 00-01 and as we were painting a bunch of unmarked cop cars suddenly started pouring into the yard. We ran to the opposite end of the yard and ended up having to bush wack through some forest for like 2 hours or something. One of our friends was extremely hung over so he was in real BAD shape. I mean, we had to run real hard so he was throwing up left right and center and could barely walk. Once we made it out of the bush he kinda collapsed on the street and we ended up having to call an ambulance. It was very hectic! When the ambulance arrived me and my other friend who was ok were so fucken scared that there was some kind of warning to look out for us on the airways. It was very nerve racking. We managed to escape the authorities in the end thankfully.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

Bigger more complex detailed burners with lots of characters and backgrounds. I don’t just go out to paint any ordinary piece anymore. When I go painting I try to out do the last piece I did in terms of skill and general flow. I am always striving to become better which makes graf a challenge for me and keeps me motivated to keep going.

Do you have any last words for the Senses Lost readers?

Never give up! No matter what any hater thinks of you, just keep painting and do it for ‘yourself’. It’s not important what others think and it should have no impact on how you feel about yourself or your abilities. Respect the writers who came before you and respect all painting spots. Work together with other writers instead of fighting with them. Feed off of each others skills with motivation to paint more and more rather than react with jealousy and hate. Because other writers exist we exist. We are all in this together now, and we all fall together in the end.