Cyrus Interview

BombingScience: Thanks a lot for your time. It’s good to get girls interviewed once in a while. Changes the tone a little bit. Let’s get rid of the boring stuff real quick. Who are you, where you from, when d’you start painting? you know the deal..

Cyrus: Aight. Boring but most important, no? My name is Cyrus. I’m from all over so let’s just say the Island of Montreal. I started sketching in ‘98 and started fully bombing and painting in 2001.

 

BombingScience: How did you first get involved into graffiti?

Cyrus: I was living in group homes and lock-ups and a lot of the time kids were running away to either rob houses or do graffiti, so I chose the graffiti route. I come from an artistic background so it just naturally intrigued me. As soon as I did my first tag, I was hooked. I started sketching while living in those places but was too shook to paint cuz I’d end up in lock-up so I used to paint snow banks and other ridiculous shit until I got out of there.

BombingScience: How was it growing up in lock-up?

Cyrus: I don’t regret living in group homes and lock-ups. Yah for sure it sucked to move over 20 times, get all your shit stolen and constantly get into fights but if that didn’t happen to me I’d probably be the biggest brat listening to Lady Gaga or some shit. It got me into graffiti and gave me lots of stories. I’m way more of an interesting person this way..

 

BombingScience: Why the name Cyrus?

Cyrus: Well as a graffiti writer yourself you must know you go through quite a few names before you get that one name that sticks. I started out with “Shorty”, then “Veks”, then “Sire” cuz of my last name which is King. But I wanted 5 letters in my name so I added an “S” and it slowly evolved into “Cyrus”. The Warriors is one of my favourite movies, so it made even more sense. I also chose a name that wouldn’t reflect that I was female cuz I didn’t want to be looked at that way. I wanted to make a name for myself without people knowing I was a girl. Unfortunately that idea didn’t last since there’s mad talk in this game.

 

BombingScience: You used to do shitloads of tags. What’s your science on the subject? Tags or pieces were more important to you?

Cyrus: Yah I was definitely a tag bomber. I was really into the quantity over quality. I just wanted to paint the city in Cyrus. My goal was that I wanted to hit up the Plateau so hard that you wouldn’t be able to take two steps without seeing my name somewhere, and I achieved that. Don’t get me wrong, I fucking LOVE pieces. I started out doing wild styles and I sketched every day, all day and brought my black book everywhere I went. I slept with it under my pillow, no lie. But nothing beats that adrenaline from bombing. Pieces turned into a weekend, once in a while thing. Have a couple beers under the sun and chill.

BombingScience: What about people who are really good at piecing, but cannot do a proper handstyle?

Cyrus: That’s rare, no? Usually if you’re good at piecing you know how to use a can. You know what? Fuck it, each to their own. Everyone has their own area they love within this game. Some people love trains, some peeps love big elaborate prods, tags, roof-tops, metros, tags, throw-ups, read-ables, ground-ups. So if someone is good at one thing but not the other, I say who the fuck cares. It’s your shit, do what you love.

BombingScience: You clearly don’t paint as much as you used to? Do you sometimes feel like you should get out more? Or is it more like a old passion you decide to re-spark here and there?

Cyrus: Man, sometimes I’m afraid when I’m out with the graff heads that I’ll get my hands on a can cuz once I start I won’t stop. It’s a drug, an addiction. Yah, I miss it like crazy but I can’t bomb and get arrested, I got shit to do in my life. Already I’m lucky as hell that I don’t have a criminal record. The mindstate I’m in right now is that I’m super down to do pieces on train tracks, abandoned warehouses, TA wall, etc. I’m still down to go bomb too if the situation arose but I’m not gonna bomb the way I used to, obviously. It’s not an old passion, graffiti will stay with me ‘til I die.

 

BombingScience: Girls and graffiti is a subject on its own. It’s definitly a male game, the percentage of women doing it is very small.

Cyrus: Aight, I knew this was coming. Like I said before, I chose my name to not immediately show people I was a girl. I wanted to pay my dues like everyone else. But cuz of the way some girls are, you gotta work even harder to gain respect in this game and prove yourself if you’re a female. In Montreal, there’s only a handful of respectable girl graffiti writers. I don’t know why that is. Maybe because a lot of girls don’t wanna climb buildings, fuck up their clothes, get into fights, get arrested or break their nails..There’s a lot of fame when it comes to graffiti and it’s hard to differentiate who’s in it for real cuz they love it, or who is just a groupie. Shout out to the females of this city, past and present whom I do have the utmost respect for when it comes to graffiti… Her, Thes, Osea, Area.

BombingScience: My boy Soma once called you a bitch and said you broke up HYH. What do you have to say about that?

Cyrus: Woah woah woah! First of all, the context in which “bitch” was said is way different in English than in French. To say “Elle etait bitch avec moi” was more like saying I was rude, right? Cuz I didn’t say hi or some shit. Sorry bout that. Yah I have a front to people I don’t know well, I keep my distance. But to people who know me, I’m the nicest person on Earth. Just don’t fuck with me.. ha! No seriously. Ok HYH.. Rumors and shit talking in this game, eh!? I guess that was what some ppl were saying. Yes, I dated Sake and 5 years later I dated Shok (no I don’t go for that shit, it just happened over the many years I was in the game but honestly who the fuck gives a shit) but that’s not what broke up HYH.. The crew just slowly drifted apart but it started when Sake had some beef with NME and there was a fight that broke out between ‘em at Foufs, and Shok, being friends with both sides tried to mediate it. Sake being the small-minded being he is, took that as the ultimate back-stabbing and decided he was going to be forever bitter about him not taking only his side. There’s more to it, but seriously who cares..Drama. We’re not high-school girls.

 

BombingScience: Compare graffiti and your opinion on it, from when you were very active to present.

Cyrus: Wow, graffiti in Montreal is definitely not the same as when I started. I don’t think it ever will be again. The writers who dominated the city have now grown up and evolved the game into something different. Huge murals, and amazing productions. Which is great! But I miss seeing crazy spots and how much bombing there used to be. I used to walk the streets and observe all the new tags and throw-ups from the night before and being like, “Oh shit, Scan and Atwo did some good bombing last night!” And seeing insane rollers that NME did that were obviously elaborately planned out. I heard at the time they used walkie-talkies to pull their shit off..I don’t know if that’s true but still.. Talking about this makes me miss those days… What an era. I feel lucky to be a part of it actually. Do kids still steal their paint to bomb? Cuz in my time that was a necessity in the game…

BombingScience: People order Diamond Packs nowadays! What positive/negative thing has graff brought into your life?

Cyrus: Positive? Well, gaining a passion is always a positive thing. Most of all though, the stories, the experiences and all my friends I got out of it. I wouldn’t trade that shit for anything. Negative? I feel like I’ve lost years and years of my life. I didn’t do shit all but graffiti during those years and go out drinking every night. Nothing productive for my future at all… But that’s ok, you gotta live by your own standards in life. Do what you love.

 

BombingScience: Who does proper graffiti to your standards, and why?

Cyrus: “Proper graffiti” what an oxymoron. Um I don’t know, a lot of people? Do your thing, I’ll respect anyone who respects the game and has a good attitude and does it for the love of it. Hmmm.. I guess if I had to pick one writer it’d be Nesar. What an OG.

BombingScience: Think of some writers/crews you used to have huge respect for. How do you see these same writers/crews now?

Cyrus: No writer in particular but crews. I loved seeing shit from NME, HYH and KOPS. Fuck, they put so much hard work into doing shit and getting up and it was such a pleasure to see it everywhere. They put Montreal on the graffiti map. I guess the writers I have the utmost respect for are Zek, Scan, Shok and Stare. So fresh and so clean, clean.

BombingScience: Any stories to share?

Cyrus: I have quite a reputation for throwing punches and starting fights. I have a temper, it’s true. Maybe it’s my background, and alcohol doesn’t help.. but isn’t that part of the graffiti game too? Steal your paint, bomb, get into fights? We’re so mature us graffiti writers.. My biggest thing is respect. I can be the most innocent angel but disrespect me, or especially fuck with one of my friends and Satan comes out. The adrenaline takes over. I’ve cleaned blood off of my boys too many times too. So many stories, chilling at Scan’s house alone after a night of mayhem and everyone is missing, in jail, in the hospital, I don’t know, and suddenly Atwo walks in, face full of blood and when I asked him what happened, he tells me, “Oh we were driving and we thought we saw one of the guys from NRK (there was that big war at that time between DA and NRK) so we got out and beat him up” He wasn’t even sure if it was actually the right guy.Typical. Another time, we were all chilling at a club on St.Laurent and I look out the window and there’s mad cops and ambulances and I see K*** so I run outside to try and save him. He got into a fight with the bouncer and was so drunk he couldn’t tell the cops his name and good for that cuz he was on probation and he just got outta jail. So I come rushing in saying I was his girlfriend and I grabbed him out of there and didn’t look back. His face was covered in blood and at the time I had lost my cell phone and was using one of the boys’ phones to get in contact with the person who found my phone. So here I was, a little girl dragging around this drunk, bloody guy around everywhere trying to retrieve my phone. Talk about multi-tasking..After cleaning him up in the Belle Province bathroom, I put him in a cab and I’m pretty sure he ended up going to the hospital for stitches. I was bombing with Scan one time in the Plateau and we took a piss in the parking lot right next to the parking booth. All of a sudden I hear a window break and Scan comes around the corner with a bloody hand and some tools. So happy he goes, “Yooooo. Check qu’est-ce que j’ai trouve”. I go, “You found a screwdriver?? You broke a window with your bare hand for a screwdriver?” He ended up throwing it on top of a roof or through a loft window on St.Laurent minutes after and we ended up going to a Tim Hortons bathroom to clean his bloody hand while he ranted on to me to make sure I got all the silver paint out of his wounds. On our way out he leaned over the Tim Hortons counter with that hand and grabbed a full cake and walked out. Like it was free cake day! Hahhahahaha. I love these guys.

BombingScience: What are you up too now?

Cyrus: What am I up to now.. I’m a film and TV actress. That’s actually something I did since I was a kid but I had to stop after being put in group homes and when I moved out on my own, I was hooked on graffiti.. So now that’s the path I’m doing. I’m also in science honours in university going for a marine biology degree and I’m in the process of doing a marketing degree which is taking me forever to finish cuz it’s boring as fuck. So let’s just say I’m an actor. I’ll always be a graffiti writer though, it’s just I had to spread my wings a bit and do things that won’t put me in jail 😉

S/O to Thes for some of the pictures.
Peace out.