Keith Carter
THE GRIFTERS INTERVIEW
The full version of the first and only interview The Grifters gave. A must-read for everyone who want to get a closer look whats going on behind The Grifters Lifesteal.
ENJOY
What is Grifters and who stands behind it?
Teh Grifters™ is the frontend of a project which has been in the making for many years, and has involved the studies and synergy of many different subjects, including behavioral, social and reverse psychology, NLP, fine arts, design science, colour theory, geometry and harmonic concepts, marketing, persuasion and sales, behavioural finance and calculus, martial arts, as well as many others. Put simply, though, it is the best thing that ever happened to internet graffiti media: an original photoblog, showing the lifestyle of graffiti writers around our social circle. The focus is on everything that we do before and after the final product - the graffiti piece - is created. Initially it was a representation of our crews that we put into the world, because we were not satisfied with the published pictures in magazines and other internet sites. We have always had a different vision and outlook on our material, which was in a substantial part formed by the unique environment around us; so naturally, no one else was doing it like us and we had to pave our own way through an internet platform.
We came to the conclusion that every day we get bombarded with the same pictures of the very same artists, doing all the same pieces, photographed under the same angle, photoshopping away the same mistakes, until people transform this perfection into this mysterious worship of some unknown underground hero. We meant to create something different, much more human and to humorously and intriguingly show all the neat stuff that usually gets left behind, all the pictures around the actions, all the flicks without focus. To take the mask off and show how we live, eat, drink, fuck, puke, what we are like and how we spend our free time.
We made it to this point using only cheap and crappy film cameras and we managed to prove and remind, in our opinion, to all the wannabe photographers, that it is not important to have the last model digital camera and the most expensive lens to take a good picture. Instead, it is the flavor, harmony, moment and presence of the flick, which make it unique and emotionally stimulating. Our charisma is not the best and most robotically executed style piece, it is the attitude, fun and energy which we bring to your party. This essentially is, what graffiti means for us, because once the fun is gone, graffiti is just as gone, mechanical, boring and dead.
In the beginning the people behind this project were solely from our crews and the concept was to show only our own pictures – where we go, the people we meet and the things we do together. However, over time some of us moved around the globe and the concept started to change. Today, you might catch us around some of our (temporary) headquarters in cities like Paris, Berlin, New York and of course, the biggest and greatest of them all: the glorious city of Sofia, Bulgaria [/sarc]. Since we moved further and further away from East Europe the rules changed a bit, as Vandal Squads and the long arm of the law have tried to make our life harder – but preparation and anticipation beat it all. Nevertheless we hide behind the mask of journalists, following the acts of others (who do bad, bad, BAD things which we would never support). We create exciting heroes and we have the power to kill them with one click, if we so desire.
As we know so very well, there are trendsetters and trendfollowers in life, and, well, [*cough, cough*] we managed to open the door for many other people, to show their more vulnerable side and expand on their avatar. We now see many writers with their own blogs with film cameras and the same type of shots, but it’s all good: We are happy to see that. We are also happy that some of the people who were hiding from our cameras in the past, are now approaching us with the request to take pictures of them; it is funny, how life runs in circles.
What is the mission?
Being famous in graffiti circles is one of the most useless efforts that you can waste your life on. It neither helps you get rich (and thus financially and emotionally free), nor does it help you with your health or to get laid – in fact, quite the opposite. But if you cannot attract a beautiful woman into your life, you are, by definition, sterile. Instead, by the time you are in your thirties you get admired by a bunch of teenagers, while you get the added benefit of your wasted life. So what is it all about?
For us it has always been about pushing the limits of what is humanly possible; about the path of unlimited growth and expansion; about tapping into your potential (and we truly believe it is unlimited); about fearing the unknown and staying focused and disciplined enough to take the upper hand of the situation; about the power of goal-setting and -achievement; about the dedicated and obsessive motivation, which drives all great and exceptional people; about judging perceived probabilities and making them work in your favor; about expressing your creative and masculine energies; about being competitive and always doing stuff better; about being present in the moment and observing the world through the foggy lens of constant risk taking, while simultaneously having the fun of your life. It is all mental, after all, and to have an extraordinary life you have to have an extraordinary psychology. Sounds simple?
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We publish the lifestyle as it is - pure and harsh, provocative and, in part, disgusting. We hint at all the little techniques, tips and tricks (as absurd and funny as they may seem) that we use to reach our goals and targets – all the weapons that we use to get the job done. Though an ordinary person may not necessarily understand or like our material, we want him to, at least, see and feel the ambience in our lives, no matter how good, bad or ugly. We show the story behind the street spam that people encounter every day; surely, we do not want to glorify it, though. But we want to transform the avatar of the average trash-life graffiti writer, who smokes weed and drinks beer all day, works 8 hours a day at McDonalds, saves his money and spends it for a crappy interrail, meeting likeminded confused and trapped souls. Instead, it might quite well be a charismatic, always analyzing, always tolerant gentleman, which you never heard of, but would love to meet. A freedom fighter, who may indeed be a hedge fund manager with a shady background and no fear of facing the consequences of his actions. A loyal to the game and his tribe persona, who has no fear to show and get what he wants and say what he wants to say. To make fun of all the rules and laws that someone created and expects us to follow; even in the scene, people are still building and obeying laws. People are sheep, which like to follow others for the social validation. Sourcing the fear of the unknown, this herding process helps them cope with the uncertainty of life, and allows them to stay in their comfort zone. After all, if others are doing it, it must be right - the madness (or stupidity) of crowds in action. People just need something to identify with to feel significant, without the need for any real reason or explanation. In fact, they want and will believe in any crap you set up for them and you can make them essentially believe anything. Even everything in this interview [*wink wink*].
Anecdotally, a fellow in a southern country recently demonstrated some of this, while putting on his mask in a totally bombed train yard with no cameras. While one of us was doing a portrait of him, he turned around and said “Do not worry, you don’t need a mask, I just wear it for the style!” Touché.
How does your average Grifters day look like?
Wake up, coffee, take a shit, go for a run. Shower. Couple of hours posting stuff on the web, answering emails, a couple of discussions. Reading a book on evolutionary psychology. Lunch, shopping: phone is ringing - “Hello, I am Mr. Blabla, a friend of a friend of a friend, I am in the town, can we meet for a beer” [*translation: can you help me paint the metro*]; Couple of meetings, more shopping, checking a place where my new “friend” can “drink a beer”; Another call from another guy - "There is a party with 300 people in the catacombs tonight, want to come?” - “Yeah, sure”. Again, “shopping” food and some drinks for the party. Short conversation with the security guy at the store, caused by my memory loss regarding paying at the cashier desk. Maybe paying and promising that it would be the last time (again). Going to the gym, dinner. Meeting the tourist for quick recap. Go to a bar to get the people drunk; playing psychiatrist for a while. Avoiding the ugly girl, trying to get into our pants. Instead, approaching the lovely blonde girl. Fight. Go to the catacombs, party. Get out of the catacombs, wet, wasted and dirty. Drive to “drink a beer at the tracks”. Drink a beer and speak international graffiti gossip until traffic starts: take the pictures. Home, expected blow-job. Sleep. Everything in between: take pictures and video.
How do you choose the photos and topics for your blog?
People seem to be left with the impression that the blog is some sort of web-stream, submitting our life in real-time. However, none of the pictures you see everyday in the blog are a reflection of the last months or even season. It would be unreasonable to let other people know where we are at the moment, what we have done last night or what we are up to in the near future; everything is posted once the emotions around it have faded away. The material might be from the first quarter of the year or from a very, very old hard-disk - the one you forgot at our HQ in 2002 – we won’t tell.
Regarding the order of the pictures, it is all an expression and result of our everyday life, a game of associations, if you will. If we remember a friend or a place, or a moment - we post the picture. There is no order or schedule. The topics are mostly quotes from books, which have shaped and influenced our lives and personalities. Sometimes we look for a photo to fit the quote, or sometimes we have the photo and look for a fitting quote. In any case, we think that it adds another layer into the personality, which is always evolving and adapting.
How it is to be a stranger in Paris and what is the difference compared to living in Sofia?
We are never strangers because we have the ability to adapt fast and infiltrate, wherever we go. Whether in an underground bar, a five star restaurant, in a train yard, striptease club, poolparty or Starbucks, we try to take on life from all sides. We might be the mysteriously smiling gentleman next to you on the next table, or you might catch us in a riot with Molotov cocktails – you never know. However, in a big city life is much easier and this holds especially true for melting pots like Paris or New York, where the nationalities, cultures, lifestyles, and languages are mixed, you can find your way easier and choose what you want to be like. We try to integrate and learn from the best sides of a place and the people we meet, while dropping the bad. Additionally, such metropolises are full of opportunities and exciting new things that you can do. In fact, since the start of this interview we have missed a couple of Aperos (short for Aperitifs), a party, an exhibition opening and countless places that you can paint or chill at, meeting interesting people from all walks of life. Most likely you would have to visit both of these cities to get the full picture: Paris is a cliché and much has been written about it. On the other hand Sofia is our dirty hometown, where we can always have plenty of fun. But spending so many years in Bulgaria is enough to understand that there is no culture and no future. There is little hope and you can literally feel the despair in the air or see it in people’s eyes – Accordingly, you have to block it all away and form your very own social circle in order to build life the way you want it.
Quite recently, one of our guys did get inspired by this and expressed it through a couple of pieces: One near the central station, saying “EMIGRATE” and one in the suburbs, saying “EXIT THROUGH TERMINAL TWO” – that says it all. None of us guys are patriots or nationalists and we couldn’t care less about politics. In fact, Europe as an organization is like Disneyland for adults, but who are we to judge. We believe that freedom and incentives are most important, and you can safely disregard your background and your mental limitations – the past does not equal the future. And no one owes you anything, so act accordingly. We are free citizens of the world and borders do not exist in our mindset.
Analog or digital?
A good photographer has a specific vision and catches the right moment, which might be gone forever a millisecond after he pulls the trigger. Any such person should be able to repeat this process via digital photography or an analog camera, or maybe with his cellphone (Welcome to the 21st century) – it doesn’t matter, as it depends mostly on the skillset. Also, people should not limit themselves to one type of photography, one type of media or one set of publishing. When you go through your archives you realize that most of your best pictures do not even have the perfect exposure or good focus, but that is exactly what makes them so special, as it is a function of the stress of the situation.
When we were still young, poor and stupid teenagers in an East European country, we used to save up (relatively) big amounts of money and proudly buy a crappy digital cam. We even went to lengths to use pawnshops for temporary liquidity to buy cans so that we could execute our wholecar plans that were scheduled for the week. But then we came across the different colors of filmtape photography. And as it just happened, one of our guys had an old professional film camera left from his father, so we started using it; and boy we were enjoying it. Later on, we somehow got into shoplifting, so things started changing slowly; today we have the luxury of choice and we use both. Nevertheless, we still have the love for analog photography - one respects the process of shooting more. With digital cameras most people shoot and shoot and shoot until one of the pictures looks acceptable. However, if you only have a limited amount of shots in your film, you have to know better and be picky about them – they become special and unique because you have to perform in the moment, while its still there. Furthermore, nothing can compare with the anxiety of going to pick up your film tape flicks from your studio of choice, curious whether there are good shots and, quite often, discovering new flicks, because you were so wasted you forgot you took them (truth to be told, it happens quite often).
To pay or not to pay ?
An alpha male never pays for a woman’s drink: If you do, it demonstrates that you run after her – it automatically makes her sexual circuitry feel less attracted and interested in you. In fact, she should be paying your drinks for the privilege of sticking around. Sorry, ladies, try again.
But throwing in something else for all the young rackstars – Stealing 3 euro cans in a shop, where with the same effort you can get electronics for 500 euro is quite stupid – use simple mathematics and common sense, aight?
Metro or no metro?
It all depends on the motivation and ironically, it is quite often visible to the observing eye. Painting the metro has to have a reason. These days some of the East Europeans have transformed the act of painting any metro into some sort of pseudo-cult (as if any additional “painted system” would grow your dick by an additional two inches… go figure). But anyone, who has been in the States can easily see that the subway system runs all over the city and is, therefore, visible everywhere. Nowadays, thanks to zero tolerance policy in most places, people paint subways in layups and nobody sees your pieces, except a driver, security guard and a couple of very excited cleaning ladies. You might even not get a proper picture for yourself – it is really a weird dynamic. As if this weren’t enough, most of the guys play the hypercriminal and even keep those foggy, tunnel-under-a-crazy-angle-in-total-darkness-semi-pictures for themselves, never sending them anywhere, but always bragging about the numbers they have done (and naturally you have to trust their counting). Some people see some graffiti movie and turn this into their next sport; others travel by Interrail and search for the layups with themost tags, or even search for the very same places from specific movies.
Most guys would actually never try something by themselves, so they call the locals and ask them out. They might even never have had a subway in their own city, but do it for the perceived social validation and apparent ego boost. Our belief has always been that this type of character never lead to anything good. Such guys do not even know why they are doing it. For them – “NO, METRO, NO POSSIB”.
On the other hand there are people who are strictly dedicated to metro painting and have plenty of experience in this. They never stop travelling and exploring new, weird places, countries and horizons with, apparently, one idea only – to get the system. However, some of the more dedicated guys we met over the years stood out with their love and desire to absorb the local flavor and party properly, when the time is right. The difference with the former is the underlying motivation and clarity about the purpose. For them – “YES, METRO, POSSIB”.
Northface or Southpole?
Canada Goose on the South and North pole – there are actually trips to the Southpole via Cape Horn, Chile – It’s in the to-do-list. We don’t like Northface, Southpole or Airmax, for that matter. Wearing the same nonsense that every I-am-a-writer in the world has and thinks is very masculine or ghetto is just ridiculous. Thinking outside the box is key and if you think that the Vandal Squad does not know how a regular wannabe writer looks like, you have to think again.
Rap or techno?
Rap had its time and place for us, but today we keep it for the nostalgia on a rainy Sunday afternoon, while petting our dog and watching a reality show on TV. However, we stick to our own thoughts and expressions and do not necessarily need the influence of other people’s hip-hop opinion – and most of it is done for the ego of the artist anyway. Drumandbass and techno keep us awake at night and put us into the fast paced mindset that we need to get the job done. And music is emotion on demand, anyways, so for each moment there is a fitting soundtrack, be it jazz, classical music, rock or an Anthony Robbins audiobook.
Beer or wine?
Beer, of course. In our graffiti lexicon there is no translation of the expression “Let’s meet for a glass of wine” (even the French edition does not have it), so we would not be entirely sure what the purpose of such a meeting would be.
Graffiti or street art?
Both of them can be straight or gay, depending on the underlying motivation and expression. If you just cross other people’s stuff to show how hardcore you are or just make bad streetart copies, then you just show off your stupidity.
We do not necessarily believe there is an actual difference between street art and graffiti, as they are essentially two sides of the same coin. If you are smart enough you can take the effective techniques of both and create something unique. But again, it seems to us that most people like to keep themselves in their predefined boxes, because they can’t really invent something smarter than writing their oh-so-glorious four letter name or three letter crew (or even if they are, they do not have the guts to express it). The same holds true in (street) art circles, where you might find a stencilled Marilyn Monroe, holding an AK47 and some random unrelated message, packed into one. Art by recipe.
Graffiti is gay?
The concept came and stayed with us long before we made the T-Shirt. It all started while we were taking care of the whole tourist writer stream, visiting after Bulgaria joined the EU. In fact, at one point it was so heavy that in one specific summer we had painted with over 80 people in the span of a couple of months. After the initial stages of comfort building, small talk, international gossips, mutual friend finding (which became routine to us) we usually ended up dropping gay jokes (they always work, in any counry). Quite often the conversation ended with a metaphorical “GRAFFITI IS GAY” as a conclusion. Instead of uncertain faces, we quite often saw a surprised smile and the question “Guys, you also think graffiti is gay?” And no, the story does not continue exactly like one would expect…
Later on during the nights, laying under trains, hiding together in the bushes from flashlights or behind an electric box in a tunnel, hugging each other to save space, a single look into each other’s faces validated the earlier conclusion with a smile. We did have girlfriends at that time, but the girls were never there - they were keeping the house warm and biting their fingernails off, while we left their hugs and kisses to spraypaint a specific set of colours onto some metal that we had set as a target. It kind of ended up like an episode of “Where The Girls Aren’t”, and we deliberately chose the sausage party. Quite gay, isn’t it.
(Photo: Phill America)
Standard cap or fat cap?
Whichever one fits the purpose, of course. However, it is again the synergy of the two which creates the most powerful harmonies. In fact, most compositions look only complete and settle in once they have their details brushed off. So, no matter if it is a 5 minute backjump or a 3 hour burner – you want to have a specific variety in your caps to underline the contrast of the fat and standard caps – it just looks much more complete.
Additionally, you do not want to stay somewhere filling in with skinny caps “to save paint” - what a nonsensical cliché. No matter if it is legal or illegal: you should have something better to do with your time, so please, enough of that.
Toys or kings?
We don’t like labels. But if you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.
Internet or magazines?
Internet, magazines and movies. TV ads, Google ads, banners, billboards, radio ads, everything that you can get your hands on to force people to pay attention.
We still think that few people realize the enormous power of the internet and what an amazing breakthrough it is in the world of technology, business, social interaction and marketing. Never, ever in the history of the world have you been able to reach 2 billion people with your message, not to mention with almost no startup costs. So why wouldn’t you take this opportunity?
Of course there is a bad side to it: The amount of media, being published today in an hour in the internet is just staggering - your stuff has to be really tight to reach the surface from all those twitter feeds, diggs, reddits and God knows what. Accordingly, the value of your “exclusive” material is gone the day after you have published it and it just drowns in the history of your page. And though this forces you to be working on new stuff all the time, you want to have some of it on paper to preserve it from being shift-del-ed away and, possibly, show it to your new girlfriend, while chatting in front of the fireplace.
There is no shout-out question in the end, but we always wanted to line-up all the names of all the big heads that we know, so we can look cooler and use some of their authority. What a list of names it would have been, bigger than this whole interview. Aww yeah.
FUCK EVERYTHING AND BECOME A PIRATE
TheGrifters.org
Noah🥰
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