Kid30 interview
- Tell us a few words about yourself. When and how did you discover graffiti? Did you paint letters before starting your character project. I write kid30 and am based in Nottingham UK , I also produce commercial work (graphic design, mural work) under the name smallkid. I remember as a kid always buying copies of Graphotism and Big daddy magazine and reading them over and over trying to work out how the fuck the pieces were painted. I used to paint banners for the free parties and Β raves in the 90s but mainly used paint and brushes as it was quite hard to get hold of spray paint where I lived. It wasnβt until later on I started painting with a can properly when I moved to Nottingham around 1998 / 1999 that I Β really got into it, Notts had a really strong scene at the time and had a Β new paint shop that had opened (coverage), also the street art movement was just exploding at the time that massively interested me. I started producing flyers for a lot of the raves in the city at the time and often used to use graffiti based images for these which got me connected with different writers as I would use bits of their work or go out with them when they painted. I then started running paint walls at the parties which went on to running bigger paint jams in the city.
I do paint the occasional letters but its not something I get on with in the same way as characters. I have always been more focused and interested in characters, even as a kid with subway art and spray can art copying all the characters in it more than the letters.
- The sources for your characters are various : cartoons, US Comics, Franco-Belgian comics. Are you a big comic book reader ? What are your favorite comics ? I grew up with out a TV so didnβt get to watch many programs and the bits I did see I couldnβt remember which were from which or only got to watch bits If I went to friends houses , so yer I did read a lot of comics. I was mainly into Tintin and Asterix as a kid Which I think are still my favourites along with anything by Matt Groening. This is one of the reasons for cutting characters Β now as I was always a bit unsure as to which cartoon characters were which and what cartoons they were from, often finding myself pretending I had watched shows when I actually had no idea what they were.
- Are you thinking about using characters from other universes like mangas or video games ? Iβm currently back drawing a load more of my own characters again but have also started watching and researching other styles so will see what happens I try not to have to much of Β plan so it doesnβt restrict what the end goal is. I keep thinking its run its course painting these mash up / Frankenstein characters but they are quick and easy to paint and Iβm still having fun with them, I started painting them when I had a kid and still wanted to paint but was restricted to how much time I could go painting for and this style allowed me to do this.
- According to your website you took part in two collectives: ShrunkenHeads, OxygenThieves. Can you tell us a bit about them ? Oxygen thieves is a crew I joined in about 2000 , Β with artists : Deam, Kaption One, Dregs, Mobs and myself We used to paint all the time , but all of us have had kids now and some of us have moved away So we donβt all get to paint together that often , I still work with Kaption One on the commercial work and we do all meet up Β for curries and the occasional paint. I was really lucky to have been invited into this crew as it pushed me as a writer and had some amazing experiences that will stay with me forever.
Shrunken heads was a collective born out of studio we took over for a a few years ago above a carpet shop called Switch studios It is Ging, Boaster and myself, it was a mix of illustration work, canvas work and graffiti. We build a bar in the studio Β and ran speak easy events in it for a few years Where we hosted a lot of local and international street art shows.
- Are there any other graffiti writers or artist from Nottingham you could recommend us to check the work ? Nottingham although quite a small city does have a rich culture for graffiti Some names worth checking out are Kapt, Mobs, Ging, Boaster, Sorry, ILC crew , TMS crew , Dilk, Cruel, RTN, Creak, WFC, Idle, Daes, Kage, Form, Enks, Ego Warrior, Carrot boy, Silly, Timo sure Iβve missed load more working checking but there are a few.
- And to conclude is there a track that you have listened to repeatedly last weeks ? Rudeboy Lovesong (feat. Sweetie Irie and Cara Delevingne) (Voltage Remix)
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Discover more from Kid30 on his website and on Instagram.
