Hello My Name Is: Twesh

Name: Twesh
Crew: 3A, Heavy Artillery (HA), Upsetters
City/Country: London, England
When did you start writing? 1996

What’s graffiti for you?
Ah difficult one already, I think graffiti writing technically is more discipline, a language.

Influences?
Over the years I had many influences, some coming from outside the graffiti world, but mainly from classic New York golden era in the 80s.

What keeps you still writing?
After quite a long time as a writer i started asking myself this question quite a few times, still no answer.

What first made you interested in graffiti and how did you end up on that track?
I always liked graffiti in my city and I always thought I would never be able to do something like that! The quality for the styles was incredible and for being a small city I rate it as one of the top places in Italy at the time for style writers (mid 90’s). At the time I was 15 yrs old i was dj-ing funk, soul and breakbeats in house parties in my city and that got me in touch with breakers and writers and the hip hop community. Having met them made me decide to give graffiti a proper go (as i was just tagging and doing the toy stuff) and now I am still here, not dj-ing anymore unfortunately.

What trends are you seeing now in the graffiti world that you don’t like?
I’m ok with any trend really. Before the internet there was still people that where trendsetters like SDK, WUFC or TWS or INC Crew from Amsterdam. I miss the fact that the identity and style of a city is now disappearing. What I mean is before the internet people used to influence each other in real life (therefore there would be trends that explode just in one city because that was the only comparison they had), as there wasn’t that many mags either. So you had the London style (with the chunky funky letters), or the LA style (with the calligraphic and cholo influenced style) or the Berlin style (with the craziest stretching of letters). I miss this, now people can more easily access to graffiti worldwide and the Style of a city is unfortunately disappearing. Now if you want to know about a famous writer you just search it on the internet, and that research will place an impact on you, before you had to go to the hall of fame or the train station and the styles you see will place an impact on your future pieces.

What do you do when you’re not painting?
Get on with the normal human life.

How would you describe your style?
Tweshyfied New York Style.

Do you adapt your pieces and tags to the spot/surface?
This is really something I envy from people such Zoer from France and Delta for example. I guess the fact that I mostly have a classical new york structure of the letter makes it more difficult to interact with strange wall shapes. I really have to work more on this side of things as it really amaze me how certain people tackle walls in a very different way based on the shape of it.

What do you think about the new generation of writers in your city?
There is stuff i really like and stuff i like less, like for all things in life. I guess with London sometimes the line between street art and writing gets blurred making strange to identify writers from graphic designer to sign painters or street artist. I like the work of Oust, Inuk and Salem in London because in a way they are maintaining the Classic London letter structure but with a very fresh twist.

What are the best and worst aspects of graffiti?
Unfortunately there are quite few things that i do not like about graffiti, one of those is When the ego mix up with illegal actions this can fuck up with your brain, and you can easily become a narrow minded person. One great thing is that over the years i traveled Europe and world painting and having crazy cool experiences with cool people i met just for a few hours to hit a yard or painting trackside. Graffiti made also my life in London much easier when i moved here as it was quick to meet people/writers which then became my very good friends also.

Who do you paint for?
In the name of GOD! lol

What writers have inspired you?
Too many to mention, but my crews (3A, HA, UPS) are the top people that inspire and push me the most, and then TWS with Dream, Dare and Toast back in the 90s; meeting them and painting Basel trackside with them was a massively inspiring experience for me that made me realise how important graffiti was in my life.

Can you ever feel tired of graffiti?
Hope this will ever happen.

What do you hope people will think and feel when they see your stuff?
I do not want to upset people with my graffiti so i think that everyone likes it. I really see graffiti writing as a language that needs to be decoded and studied for being appreciated, so in general opinions from other writers is what i am more keen to hear; general public will always see my pieces as an abstract painting.

FIVE FAVOURITES
Spray Paint: Anything
City: Basel (Switzerland)
Markers/pens: Anything
Surface: Metal
Cap: NY fat cap

Instagram: @tweshone