Graffwars: Hello Crunchy Pickle! So we'll start off for those that dont know you just tell us briefly about yourself. I write Pikl for AWC and 3M. I was 15 back in the early 80s and back then, buses in my hometown of Boston were pretty well trashed, it was fun to spend afternoons out of school just ripping up seats and breaking whatever could be broke... 1985 and i saw this book Subway Art at the Harvard “Coop” and stopped that afternoon at the Porter Square Sears, picked up some cans and walked along the train tracks... and tested positive for krylon in the blood. After taking a few years off I discovered the internet and the game was afoot.
GW: So where did the name Crunchy Pickle stem from?I used to imitate Grouch Marx as the voice of the stork on that pickle commercial (“Now that's a crunchy pickle”) and the name just stuck...
GW: You’ve taken thousands of flicks, showing a flair for photography. What camera do you use and what influences you photographically?took hardly any graff pics before I got an Olympus digital camera in 2001. On my third Olympus now and I like the 10x optical zoom for those faraway rooftop spots. With digital you don't have to worry about some do-gooder at Walgreens wondering why you have action flix in front of a wall... with rechargeable batteries, digitals work out to free fotos... and the preview screen is invaluable when trying to catch window scribes.
GW: What drives you to record virtually any act of damage you find? No matter how insignificant, you’ll take a picture of it!It's the down and dirty stuff that's got some of the best feeling. Broken windows, trashed bus and train insides, abandoned buildings... vandalism like that comes from the heart. Graff is “environmental” art, that depends on its surroundings for context; I always try to get a feel for the area in a foto whether it's of a tag or piece. Sometimes that's difficult without giving away a spot!
GW: Do you think you’d still be out there getting the flicks even if you weren’t doing damage of your own? For sure. I go through spells where I lay low on writing, but graff is like a drug... once you're hooked, everytime you see it, it all comes back. And out comes the camera.
GW: You seem to like your damage. But what’s your attitude to the legal/piecing side of the scene?There's a legal wall downtown where folks paint, and I'll do it occasionally and always have a blast. I'm blown away by some of the pieces, the talent that's out there. Legal walls, though, are a play printed on paper; graffiti is that play acted out on the stage that is the City.
GW: Do you think it’s fair to pigeonhole writers as a certain type of individual? Are you the exception that proves the rule or are there a whole load of budding pickles out there?Could the world handle two pikls? All seriousness aside, there are some folks who mostly do stickers, some that do scribes, or buses, or take photos, some that only like freights. Everyone has their own co-ordinate plotted in the N-dimensional space of... oh, um, yeah, flashback to a book I tried to read once on Quantum Mechanics.
GW: What does the graff ‘scene’ mean to you, and is it something you associate with or distance yourself from?The 'scene' is what both pushes graff forward and holds it back. Until a few years ago I hardly knew anyone except thru the Net... now I've got hundreds of people up in my blackbooks. Most everyone i've met is pretty cool, i've no regrets, i've learned a lot... like never do things because other people think you should... always do it for yourself... not for what others think.
GW: What are the main differences you find between the scene at home and in the UK?Pub nights, I miss them back home. You have to be 21 to drink beer in the US, and that changes the social setup in terms of who you get to meet or hang out with. Having a drinking age is stupid – at 18 you can sign a legal document, vote, die for your country, smoke, and drive – but you're not mature enough to drink? Gimme a break! Oh, and nobody cares much about noise in freight yards here, but Complete Quiet is highly recommended around your trains.......
him: “(aaagh) Shhhhh!” me: “Ooops, sorry!”
GW: And as an outsider, are there any differences that strike you between the UK and European scenes?Germany seems a more secretive place, but it's a different culture – where else can you drink beer at breakfast in a sidewalk cafe? And then we spot a guy with a hoody and a backpack clanking marbles but “No I don't know, but ve don't speek to him, ja.” It's a different social setup all over again.
GW: Is there anything you’d hold back from damaging if you had the opportunity, or is anything in the streets or on the tracks fair game to you?Churches, people's cars, those are off limits... couple kids here did a church, more or less by mistake, which is not only bad karma but it gets you onto the news as being the cops' number one enemy for awhile. Museum trains are mostly bad karma too but some of them are just a little too irresistible aren't they? Still, it's active transit that's the biggest draw, i'm afraid, and let me apologize in advance to the city whose first lightrails are arriving this year.
GW: Do you yearn for the good old days or enjoy the added challenges of CCTV, anti-scratch windows and three pronged fences?Things never were as easy as some folks think... in a way, today we fight Technology, whereas before it was People... it's a lot easier to fool a camera than a guard! Anti-scratch windows? Don't make me laugh (peeling back the film)... damn i love new trains!
GW: Do you have any great goals as a writer or are you just happy to take the damage opportunities that each new day presents?A German cleantrain was a longtime goal, thanks to V. for making that a reality... had some smashing times (literally) in abandoned buildings in San Francisco and Kent, thanks to Defer and Ree... so now I can concentrate on learning how to draw! (laughs)
GW: Is graff art? Should it be?Well, looking at both sides -- vandalism is somehow related to our innate urges for malice and sex... just look at the language we use (“that train is killed, it's f***ed!”)... while art, like music, is related to our desire for beauty and harmony... the combination of these two opposites is what makes graff so impossibly exquisite. If you take the mix of sex and malice out of graff, you're taking the spice out of curry... bleah.
GW: What three improvements could the UK make to accommodate the visiting US vandal?First off, bring back the slamdoors! Then bring bowler hats and overcoats back into style so everyone looks the same on CCTV. Third, so what was the problem with having two dozen cans of montana in my baggage?
GW: Do you think other writers are a bad influence on you or would you still be out there causing chaos on your own?I was artistically destroying for years before i knew other writers... true, getting to know the local scene has made me smash it stronger, ...is that a good thing or a bad one? Like they say, “Quitting is easy, why I've done it three times today already!”
