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guess who’s hiding in the bushes

#twentyeight/11.2008/X/274/95/armyfile

first row: herakut. ma‘claim. meloko: bad vilbel zonenkinder: wiesbaden second row: rine. mcenroe. hyde: aschaffenburg monkey. hpz: wiesbaden / cru. crue: wiesbaden third row: zitro: wiesbaden lens. kaos75. cor. kent. katch: bad vilbel

first row: anus. ohm: hamburg / putin: stuttgart second row: drugs. monkey. nek: wuerzburg / crips: stuttgart mote. limit: ruhrpott third row: omsk. aenyou. show: dresden fourth row: amit. azet. ezay. ihme: hannover

first row: big bandits: dresden / shur: dresden second row: madc: halle / slide. wok: goerlitz third row: wok. slide: bautzen / blaze: dresden fourth row: wok. merz: dresden / wok. slide: dresden

“On your way to the top, treat everyone with respect, ’cause you’ll meet them again on your way to the bottom …”

As time goes by, trends come and go, crews are born, hit it the hardest and break up again, there are a few constants in graffiti culture. A good axample for this are the TOPDOGS from Sweden.

As a crew since 1997, and even long before that as individuals, they influenced more than one generation of graffiti writers. It seems like they‘ve always been there and it is hard to imagine the Scandinavian graffiti scene without them. For a crew that is representing for so long and on such a high level, change of course is envolved. The crew is growing up, just as it‘s members do. Experiences are made and make you who you are. With every ongoing year time passes by faster and for different reasons people are not as free anymore as they were as teenagers. For most of the crews this is the changing point, when cans start getting dusty in the cellar instead of making the cities‘s walls colourful. The TOPDOGS seem to be a good exception in this. Their love for graffiti, their urge to paint seems to be stronger ...

For the people who don’t know you, please introduce yourself. Who are the TOPDOGS and where are you from?

Dire: KAOS, SKIL, IKAROS, DNE, DIRE, ASSMA, PEN and SEAR. Stockholm, Sweden Skil: SKIL, KAOS, ASSMA, IKAROS, DIRE, DNE, PEN, SEAR (Stockholm) and CESM (Germany).

Ikaros: We are just some guys who meet up sometimes and try to do something together. Mostly we paint with different people from other crews. This crew is more of a friendship gang. That’s what I really like. It’s not super prestige. Most of us are just positive people that like to make sparkling, colorful pieces. We all have different lifestyles. For most of us graffiti is not our priority in life.

Kaos: I write KAOS and I’m from Stockholm. TD is a bunch of friends that sometimes meet up for some nice burners or just hanging out.

When was the crew founded and who were the early TOPDOGS? Skil: TD was founded in 1997 by KAOS, SKIL and ASSMA after some cold beers.

Dire: It was founded in 1997. The early TOPDOGS are basically the same members as now.

Ikaroz: It was in ’97. AZMA called me and asked if I wanted to join. He told me that it was a mix of different good writers from Stockholm. I was flattered and said yes of course. I had and still have my other crew NG together with DNE, but this was somthing else. Some of the guys were and still are my mentors in graffiti.

Azma: I believe that the members of the crew are still the same today as in the beginning in 1997.

Kaos: I think around ’96 we started TD with SKILL, SIN ,IKAROS, SEAR and some more that I probably forgot.

How did you find your names? Especially behind the name IKAROS there must be a story. A very special but also classical name which I think you didn’t get the normal way by looking in a dictionary or putting your favorite letters into one word, right?

Dire: I got my name from a friend of mine who writes CHEZ and who listens to the Dire straits.

Skil: SKIL comes from the tag LIKS. I just put the name backwards and there it was.

Ikaroz: I dunno. It just ended up like that. Sometimes I say that the name just found me. Not the opposite. I wish I had a bether story …

Azma: I first started to write Astma but today I write AZMA because I hate the “t”.

Kaos: I am KAOS!!! That’s the story of my life. Total kaos every day ...

Dne: DNE, from Divine. The only name that could match my almost surreal belief in myself.

What was the motivation to start writing and what is the motivation to still do?

Dire: Other writers.

Skil: It was something new that happened in Sweden in 1984/85, and I wanted to be a part of it. I have always liked to do drawings and stuff, so it fitted me well. Everybody that I knew did it in some form. The motivation has always been to be better and to be creative.

Ikaroz: I started to sketch and do some ugly tags around ’85. At that time everyone did it. All the kids had this graffiti stickers from Denmark that everybody collected.

The gum in the package was horrible but the stickers were just so fresh! It was amazing! At that time I came up whit my first name Magia. I still use it sometimes.

My motivation now is the friendship within graff. Graffiti is my way of keeping away from being old and grumpy.

Azma: I don’t really remember exactly what got me started. I guess I wasn’t interested in playing football. And today it’s more a way for me to relax and the motivation that drives me is to do the perfect piece.

Kaos: Hard to tell, but everyday I wake up with an urge to paint. And it has been like that since the last 20 years.

Dne: It filled a gap and I still haven’t found anything else that can fill it.

Writing from Scandinavia has always played a major role in the history of European graffiti, and you are into it for so long. Did the face of graffiti change during the years?

Dire: Yes, around 2000 the climat got harder. It was more difficult to piece, so people started to bomb instead of doing burners. More fast stuff, more hardcore.

Skil: There have been many faces of graffiti! Both happy and sad ones!

Azma: Yes! Now we got spray cans developed specially for graffiti and the styles are more varied, which I see both positively and negatively.

Kaos: Yes, totally. Like everything else over a long time. Painting nowadays up here is more like a spy movie from the cold war with people everywhere trying to get you 24 hours 7 days a week. Back in the 90s everything was possible.

Dne: Sure, it went from the do-it-yourself rebel movement to a buy-it-all fashion bullshit, but it’s still love.

Isn’t it strange for you to see all those writers now all over the planet having the Scandinavian influence in their pieces? It seems that these days your style has a bigger impact on the outlines than the original NYC style had ...

Dire: I think that graffiti writers around the globe get inspired by each other, Scandinavian style has an influence from the oldschool NY, German, French and Italian style, to name just a few.

Skil: Everything developes in a way that fits the place and the circumstances. Maybe we have a faster and simpler style here up north, but in a way I think everybody got their influences from everywhere in the world. And it all started in NYC so that must be the main influence.

Kaos: Hard to tell. I haven’t looked at it in that way. But it’s fun that it attracts other people.

Ikaroz: I’m not a typical Scandinavian writer.

Azma: I don’t see it, but on the other hand I don’t read that many graffiti magazines.

Dne: NYC is the foundation we all build on. It’s just that right now our house is a lil’ bit nicer.

first row: money. zombie: denmark second row: faith47: birmingham / dems. kies: spain taylor: france / base. meki: new york third row: rae. qid: UK fourth row: bates. yes2. wild. same. chess. king: holland