Tags And Throws – Interview

You have 35.000 followers on Instagram and your videos are spread world wide. Could you imagine to get this huge of a response when you started Tagsandthrows?
I didn’t expect this when I started TagsAndThrows 15 months ago. I did it just cause I love bombing and wanted to share my pictures with the rest of the world. I get around 1000 new followers every week and around 20 000 likes on my pictures every day. That’s crazy to me. It’s not crazy that that many people feel the same way about bombing as me, but it’s crazy that I’m the one putting these pictures up. It’s crazy that I might soon be working full time documenting graffiti bombing. It’s like I’m on my way to be living my dream. Probably every graff writers dream – travelling the world to meet up with bombers, take pictures, drink beer and put up tags.

You choose to only focus on bombing, why is that?
Because it’s my favourite part of graffiti. To be honest, I’m not even that interested in pieces. I rather look at other kinds of art than graffiti. There’s some stuff out there that I like, but I much rather see a tag or a throw-up than a burner. Also, I noticed that there were tons of sites and Instagram feeds with focus on burners and trains, but not really anyone documenting tags and throw-ups. I saw my chance to stick out.

We really like your short documentaries, can we expect more of those in the future?
Yup! I’ve released three short docs on bombing so far. One about legendary Stockholm bomber HNR. One about American bomber Guns. And one filmed one night in Copenhagen featuring Ozone, Vanity and Bravo. The next one will be released September 30th and it’s about one of the most active bombers in Stockholm right now – Alone. It’s by far my best movie. It’s a little bit longer than the other ones. It’s narrated by Swedish rapper Eboi, with theme music produced by the extremely talented producer Smutskatt, graphics by my man Pete Porch and audio perfected by Leon Sadeghi Hallén. It’s definitely bringing my movies to the next level working with such talented people. Alone is also one of the most dedicated and fun graffiti bombers I’ve ever met. I think that people that are actually against bombing could appreciate both his tags and his personality. My next film will be shot in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I will be there for three weeks from October 7th to film some of the biggest bombers in the city. All whom I’ve connected with through my Instagram feed. I’ve got no money at all when leaving, so I guess I will starve and sleep on the street. I’ll be ok though. Anything for the art right?

There is a lot of active writers now in Stockholm It seems like the bombing scene has increased this last year – do you agree?
I agree. The bombing scene in Stockholm is more alive than in years. Fresh new styles are seen on a daily basis and the old cats keep bombing or be calling it a comeback. A few of my favourites at the moment are: Triss, Honie & Gimp, Spacey, Hound, Slim, Mogul1, HNR, Serio, Osten, Slack, Ümer, Death, Tenk, Kear and of course Alone. It’s also nice to see one of my all time favs – Kegr, from Copenhagen, going hard on our Stockholm streets. I hope this up-swing will continue and I hope that it’ll be a part of getting rid of the hard attitude against graffiti and bombing. I know that the generation turing 25-35 now appreciate graffiti – we just have to give people another perspective.

You been traveling quite much lately, were have you found the best bombing?
I like bombing in general, so it’s hard to tell you where my favourite bombing is located. Milano is super bombed by hundreds of bombers, but when I went there I only took pictures of maybe 15 different tags. Even though I enjoy bombing period, I only document my favourites. New York is great for bombing, Berlin is great for bombing, Barcelona is great for bombing, Copenhagen is great for bombing. I kinda like it all, but I’m most def looking forward to walk around Sao Paulo to take pictures. I think that shit’ll be totally awesome. And I think I’ll experience styles I haven’t seen yet.

We understand that you have been quite active yourself in the past – how did the Stockholm bombing scene look like in the nineties?
When I was still doing illegal stuff I focused on burners. That might be why I’m not really into that type of graffiti anymore. I was the K-Line type of graffiti writer who spent hours painting a long the train tracks and in fames. We bombed a lot when drunk, out partying, but the crew as a whole had an agenda more focused on pieces than tags. I’m a lot more interested in bombing now, then when I was writing myself. Also, my memories from those days are kinda blurry. I think there was a lot more bombing, but since we’ve had zero tolerance for so long in Stockholm, I can’t even imagine how it was back then really… even though I was a part of it all.

Bombing Alone will be out September 30th, but the release party and first screening of the movie will take place Saturday, September 28th at Highlights Söder, Tjärhovsgatan 1 in Stockholm, Sweden.
The event starts at 18.00 with the screening of the movie, an art exhibition with Alone, drinks, music and good people. At 20.00 the party moves to Marie Laveau with live music from Eboi and Dennis Alexander and music from DJs Rebecca Leon and Sheit. Cheap beer in the bar!

More info about the event can be found on Facebook
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