Riser - Oldschool's Writer from Hague - Interview (2013)

Riser - also known under such aliases: ODESSA, GREYONE, ZASTO is an old-school Dutch writer, former break dancer who, took his first steps with writting in 1986. He comes from the city of half a million people - The Hague. There he was very active since the 90s for the next two decades. In his achievements he has works done in various European countries, including Poland. He still creates, but not as much as in the years of his youth, he already has his own family. However, with spray paints he does not part, because he deals with their sale on a daily basis.

Bundzol: Tell us what, who inspired you to enter the world of writting?

Riser: My biggest inspiration for starting graffiti came from a couple of factors. First I started to notice writings on the walls more often and I felt attracted to it, but not so much to start doing it right away, I was still young.. 11 years old. Second factor was the appearance (in 1986) of graffitidrawings (see attached image) in a dutch comic magazine called Eppo wordt vervolgd.. (Eppo to be continued), this led me to start drawing a little bit. Soon after these developments came the biggest influences that led me to write graffiti all the way. Their names were SENO FSA and ULTA SFM CCB. SENO took me out bombing (in the daytime) and ULTA took me under his wing when it came to drawing. Up until this day I would still consider them the biggest influence on my writing and drawing style.

Bundzol: How do you recall the 1980s? What was the climate like then?

Riser: The 80´s were nice, but these were much simpler times, in the city there was a lot of decay which was a great breeding ground for good graffiti. As far as subcultures go, there was some hip hop and breakdance (electro boogie), graffiti was there and the first skateboards were available at the end of the 80´s. You could also find translated american comics, which were nice to read. The 90´s were in the beginning still ok, the 80's were still echoing, but around ´93 it started to change much faster. Being 18 is also an age that things start to go a little faster and become a little crazier. From ´95 on there was a lot more decadence in Holland, people were spending money like water. I didn´t like it, especially not with a terrible war going on in the Balkans. The contrast was just too much for me. Mostly I was working and doing a lot of bombing just to forget about the things I was seeing. The 90´s went by pretty fast. Hip Hop had changed from a soulfull thing to a much more commercial bullshit thing. Still underground stayed underground, but a lot less for sure.

Bundzol: What was the situation with writting in the city in the 80s and 90s for you? Was there any great explosion of this phenomenon? If so, which years were the best?

Riser: Graffiti in my city was in the 80´s very magical, there was a lot of spirit, but being very young and seeing it all and experiencing some of it myself it was a great thing to have seen and done. The 90´s were a lot more harder and wilder, especially after ´95. We had a golden age in The Hague from ´93 till ´96. A lot of newcomers going all out, old schoolers that were already going strong were pumping out even more, there´s was a whole division of straight up bombers, they did nothing but bomb, bomb, bomb. There was also a lot more piecing.. color and silvers, more trains being painted, more crazy actions, mostly things went fine, the city did not know what to do with us.. there was too many too keep it under control. The city was ours to play with throughout most of the 90´s. It was nice being part of it.

Bundzol: One of the largest cities in the Netherlands is Utrecht...Any very well known writers from this city?

Riser: RENZL from Utrecht was to me a very famous writer, I saw him a lot.. he left a big impression.

Bundzol: Could you name the writting pioneers from your city?

Riser: Real pioneers in my city were JIM TSF and SENSE NNN, but also SEA, FRESH was a burner rocker  I think way before anyone else.. He worked mostly with THE TRIANGLE MAN.. there was also the ACB CREW who did a lot of street and track piecing. Then you had bombers like DISONE and TOMONE from a city near ours. They were of big influence. I think JIM was already doing pieces in ´79, but which crew was the first I don´t really know.

Bundzol: Do you know what happened to these people afterwards? What are they doing nowadays? Are they still associated with writting?

Riser: I know JIM is still an active painter, he´s an old rocker.. mostly commissioned work, but occasionally he still bombs. DES from ACBcrew has become active recently, he´s doing nice legals at the moment.. it was a big surprise seeing someone from the old days piecing again. SENSE is also a painter by trade and does commissioned work as well. He doesn´t paint that much pieces anymore though. Would be nice to see something more by his hand.

Bundzol: Have you been associated with hip hop culture? Did you have friends who represented hip hop?

Riser: Yeah. I was in a hiphopcrew for a while, it was called 3IS2MUCH, we had a rapper and DJ, I was a dancer, we did some performances and contests. I did dance a lot of swingbeat, this was early 90´s period.

Bundzol: Now I'm going to ask you about queuing. Do you remember your first panel? Any wholecars, wholetrains you have on your account too? In general, in your case, were the "systems" easy to figure out?

Riser: Yes.. I remember my first panel, it was a IVY panel that I did for my girlfriend.. I did this action with VOE and MYSL I never did a whole car, nevermind a wholetrain. In this area I was not that big.. I did a lot of pieces though, I was more of allround type a writer.The situation for painting trains was pretty good, painting in general went pretty well.. not that many problems.

Bundzol: Have you painted in other countries?

Riser: I did visited other countries. My first interrail was early ´98 with VOE and MEISL. They had decided to go on interrail and at the last minute I decided to go with them.. if it wasn´t for them,  don´t know if I would´ve gone on interrail. We visited Czech Republic, then Poland, Vienna, Kroatia, Italy and France. Later I went by myself again the same tour and the years after that I revisited Italy with NOBL and MEISL and Czech Republic with NOBL again. I also painted in Germany and for a period of 3 and half months I was on my own in Ireland bombing a lot in Dublin. I also did a painting visit to Paris with NEAL CVS.Most of my trips were great, but also some bad stuff happens along the way.. I think my first interrail with VOE and MEISL still remains the best. Going crazy in Prague with NOBL is also a very memorable trip. I have met incredibly nice people along the way.. BLOET, JOOST, LAFOR in Prague, KRIZM in Warsaw, LUNAR and crew in Zagreb, THE ZTK CREW JON ONE GOR PIM GAST and the rest of The ROME ZOO posse!! SDK INXS HONET and SNIR, PUTE 1K and CAINE 1K all in Paris. FUEL EYED and FED in Dublin. Almost too many too name them all.. Great guys all of them!

Bundzol: So you were in Poland. Nice. How did you see Warsaw in your eyes?

Riser: I liked Warsaw, it was not what I could´ve imagined. There was a lot of grey though.. not all that many happy people, A lot of poverty.. this wasn´t always nice to see.. Still all in all It was a great experience. I like Poland a lot.

Bundzol: Did you like the Polish writting scene? How do you rate the level of work on walls and trains?

Riser: For me seeing the pieces in Poland and Warsaw in particular were a breath of fresh air.. seeing onorthodox styles by BLE and PI, PIZA, KRIZM, CHACE and DESM were a fresh new sight to behold. Also the many big CHROME CREW PIECES along the tracks and in the streets was great to see. The trains blew our minds..  pieces rolling in and pieces rolling out. It was not like Holland, that´s for sure.

Bundzol: How many panels have you made in Poland? Tell us something about that.

Riser: I did only three panels on the orange trains, two I did with MEIZL and VOE and one I did by myself later in the year when I returned on my own. The actions with MEIZL and VOE went pretty smooth, going for a late night and awfully tasting black coffee before entering the yard and seeing the panels right away the next morning is an experience that every writer likes. The action I did on my own took me 4 nights The situation had changed radically around october 1998, or at least it did seem so to me. I tried three nights in a row after midnight had already passed, but there were no trains and instead one out of these three attemps costed me a lot of sweat and pounding heartbeats. The third night I tried guards came running and I had to run and hide for half an hour. After I had decided to check out and emerged in the street I saw a large group of cops hanging around the crossroads, so I went to the tankstation and bought a lot of chips and drinks and other stuff and stuffed it on top of my spraycans.. I then started to walk towards the Zachodnia hotel and had to pass through this large group of cops who I think were looking for me, but I´m not to sure.. however I walked right through their midst and not a single on  seemed to be suspicious of me.. after this I waited 3 days befor going back my last night at 20:00 in the evening and guess what.. tthe yard was full of trains!!! I painted my hard earned panel and went to Prague the next morning.. I never saw that train again until I saw it recently passing by in a Polish video!! That was my happy moment, 10 years later!!

Bundzol: Let's go back to your country. Spray paints, in the 1980s were generally available?

Riser: I don´t know of any exoteric spraycan shops in the 80´s.. we could buy or steal our cans in wholesale shops our big warehouses, or smaller paintshops.

Bundzol: OK. Do you happen to know when the first broadcast of a hip hop program on Dutch television took place?

Riser: The first HIP HOP SHOW on TV in Holland was probably YO MTV RAPS.. and this was GREAT!! I watched it everyday for as long as it lasted. Dr.DRE and ED LOVER were the best!! .. and HIP HOP was still OK.

Bundzol: When did the fashion, writting activity fall in your city?

Riser: Graffiti in my city never broke up, it´s still there... it has changed and the real go up and down, but it´s still there. It´s never been real popular, but this is not something we cared for. The big events and commercial assignments our popular as well as the Halls of Fame, but the illegal and most real side of graffiti has never been fully appreciated. Fuck it! Like SKEME said in STYLE WARS, it´s for us, for the other writers, for our world.

Autor: Bundzol