if you don't know this guy, look his shit up...





jeloe, US, SRT, CF, VX interview


anomie1: What do you write, how long have you, and what, if any crews do you put up?
jeloe: I write Jeloe. I started writing graffiti half assed about 16 years ago. It wasn’t until about 9 or 10 years ago that I started getting serious about it, and its been the last 6 years that I have "dropped out" of the real world and dedicated my life solely to graffiti. I haven’t really ever been a crew guy for most of my career until recently. I have recently been pushing US and SRT here in San Francisco. US has a real history and I’m honored to continue its legacy. SRT is a dope crew that consists of friends only. It’s a tight knit crew and hopefully it will stay that way. I write for CF and VX crews that are also tight knit crews in Paris.

anomie1: Speaking of Paris I have seen quite a few clean trains you have done in Europe, how did you get into that scene?

jeloe: Well, I came up paying attention to the tail end of the NYC subway graff era. I also saw how that translated to SF bushoppers focusing on the bus system here in SF. I can’t exactly say why it is but there has always been an attraction to anything transit, especially passenger trains. It just seems to fit, its “the� natural environment for graffiti to exist in.

anomie1: Would you say its easier or harder, in general, to do passenger trains in Europe compared to the US?



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jeloe: You know, I would love to be able to answer that question with some authority, but most of my experience with transit has been in other countries. The stakes are high for transit here in the US as far as the consequences go. I’m not really ever worried about getting caught in the act of doing one, but I am always worried about the investigations that occur afterwards as they always try their best to do the homework needed to bag you. I’m trying to make my career as a writer outlive theirs as detectives. So for me it seems better to take the "smash and grab" approach while traveling and then leave the kitchen when the heat gets too hot.

anomie1: You have come up in the bay right? Who have been some of your biggest influences and teachers?

jeloe: There have been so many here. I’d say my earliest teacher was a guy who wrote Cener in the suburb I grew up in. After that I'd say another big influence/teacher in my career has been Grey PVC. He taught me a lot about the fundamentals of making a style work as well as seeing graffiti as a lifestyle rather than just as a hobby. As far as influences go there were/are so many. Since you asked about the bay ill keep it local.. Amaze, Twist, THR, Dug, Orfn, Byped, Tie, Grey, KR, Benet, Log, Rem etc etc.. More recently it has been my crews that keeps me motivated to get better and to keep going out. I thank them, and everyone for that matter, for the influences and help over the years.

anomie1: What, in the last few years, to you, have been some of the most negative aspects of graffiti in general and in the bay?

jeloe: This is an easy one. Its the lack of respect amongst writers that is fuckin it up for everyone. I mean there have always been bullies and thugs in graff and I love that there still is. However, in the past there was still a sense of unity, or "honor amongst thieves" that unified writers as a whole. That respect has seemed to erode away and now we are left with the traditionalists like myself which seem to be few and then a lot of the newer kids that think the quick way to fame is to go over people if only to get a rep. Lame. If you have legit beef then handle it. If not then leave shit alone. You don’t get respect in this game unless you earn it. Plain and simple.

anomie1: ok lets get away from graff talk, what are your top 5 albums right now?

jeloe: Well, in no particular order it would have to be: 1. Cut Copy - Bright Like Neon 2. Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap 3. The Modern Lovers - The Original Modern Lovers 4. Dre Dog - New Jim Jones 5. Spoonie G - Love Rap

anomie1: Do you have any future projects or shows that you are going to have or are working on?

jeloe: I have plans to work on a book soon based on my last trip to Europe. I had a lot of crazy shit happen to me on that trip and I somehow was able to document it all from getting arrested and charged as a terrorist in Amsterdam to being locked to a bench in a jail cell while the police kicked the shit out of a guy and beat him with his own shoe while in Paris. Want to know the rest? Get the book.. Hah.

anomie1: What do you think of graffiti and the internet?

jeloe: I think it’s a double edge sword. On one side there are the pros of using the internet wherein it helps develop careers and most importantly how it allows for contacts to be made worldwide. I know first hand how convenient it can be for that. I have traveled and painted in over 20 countries as well as numerous US cities and states using the internet as my means to gain contacts and to keep in touch. It also helps spread your shit world wide and gives you access to audiences you wouldn't otherwise have which is really fresh, as long as you DON’T rely on that alone to build a career on. On the other hand though I think the internet is slowly killing graff. I don’t like how accessible it has made graffiti as a lifestyle. It almost provides a blue print to becoming a writer. Its like all you have to do is to log-on and observe. To me, that’s the wrong way to do it. The best way is to take a hands on approach. Go out and paint your ass off while making your way. Another negative thing is that it has also created this whole means whereby people can talk shit while remaining nameless and faceless. That shit is whack. If you have a problem with someone than handle it in the real world as a virtual ass whooping never taught anyone a lesson. Most of it is founded on jealousy anyways which makes it twice as retarded. Whatever.

anomie1: Have you seen those Sony ads popping up? What do you think of those?



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You know a lot of people are super pissed about these. I see it as one more way graffiti has become commodifiable. It is inevitable really and actually ties back to the internet question. While becoming a graffiti writer continually becomes more accessible to the average kid they want to see it more integrated into their lives, which to them, reinforces their place in the graff world as they see it. I assure you this is all being observed by those in the marketplace who are responsible for marketing products aimed at the youth. As a result you get companies acting "edgy" taking chances to up their street credit so you'll use your card credit to get the products. I have seen it happen over and over again in the last 16 years I have been into graff. It is cyclical. Graffiti is hot right now. However, soon it will lose its appeal to those who are in it for the wrong reasons or those who get scared off the first time their houses get raided.

anomie1: What is the scariest or craziest graff related story you have?

jeloe: There are so many crazy experiences and close and not so close calls I have had over the years. There is one that happened recently that I still think was the most crazy thus far. The stakes were very high in this mission and if we got caught we were fucked. Like, really fucked. It was on a mission to do a subway. I was with a few kids who really knew the transit system inside and out. One of the kids was really schooled on the tunnels there and spent a lot of his free time just wandering through them looking for shit to get into. He had every key to every door and knew the deal inside and out. It was dumping snow outside and he told me and 2 other kids to wait on the street for him out in front of a business. Next to this business was a door facing the street disguised to blend into the landscape with no signs or anything else to indicate what was behind it. Anyway he told us to stand there for 20 minutes and he would be back. We waited the 20 minutes and there was no sign of him. We decided to wait another 10 minutes. Sure enough about 5 minutes later we heard a knock on the other side of the door to which we knocked back. The door opened and it was this kid covered in tunnel grime. He hurried us inside and slammed the door. It was fuckin crazy inside there. We had walked into a gigantic warehouse used to hold some of the massive power generators used to power the whole system. It was totally lit up and had cameras watching every inch of the place. We put on ski masks and started to walk towards a dark hallway. On the way there was a security door left open by the last guard on duty. The kids I was with went inside and started raiding the file cabinets getting maps to the tunnels and layups along with schematics to all the trains in use. I was shitting my pants cause this shit was straight up criminal. I could see myself on the security monitor wearing a ski mask. I thought to myself "when the fuck did graff get so serious?" Either way it was dope and I was down to finish what we came to do. They all loaded their finds up into their bags and we bounced back towards the hallway. As we got further down the walls became cave-like and much smaller to the point where we had to hunch down as the lights got dimmer and dimmer. After walking for about 5 minutes we came to a large metal staircase that was behind a metal gate that looked like traditional jail cell doors. I was wondering how we were going to get to it when the one kid pulled out a key ring he jacked from a driver one day as the driver came out of an office in a station. I thought that was so fresh. So we start down the staircase and after about 10 steps we heard a door slam shut and footsteps start. We hauled ass back up the steps trying to be quiet as every noise echoed and we didn’t want whoever it was to know we were there. Soon the footsteps below turned into a whole group of people with flashlights and they were speaking loudly in a language I didn't understand. I thought for sure we were fucked. The guys I was with motioned for me to come into a dark room we came across earlier. We all hid our bags full of paint inside of an old storage locker that was in the room and then hid ourselves in the dark of the room. The guys coming were workers who were working in some part of the tunnel. I figured out that there were tunnels behind the tunnels for people to walk along while doing maintenance on the system. Luckily they walked past us and just kept going. They were only like 15 feet away from us as they passed and I was shitting bricks. After they passed I was ready to break the fuck out but the guys I had come with said we were still going to do it. Honestly I wanted to go but I just shut up and followed them. We got up, got our bags and went back down the stairs. Once down like 5 flights we got to another crazy room that was filled with wires all over the walls with power grids and control panels complete with emergency stop switches and alarms with lights everywhere. We could hear voices down the hall and decided to push forward anyway just trying to be as quiet as possible. We came up on a door that was cracked about half an inch and when we peeked into it the train tunnels were on the other side. The voices we heard were the transit guards complete with guns, batons and attack-trained German Shepherds. We very quietly made our way past the door and down about another 50 feet. At this point there was a dead end in our tunnel with another door to the left. The door had it’s handle broken out. I was told that the handle was the reason we had to wait on the street for a half an hour earlier. The kid who left us earlier went into the tunnels from the station with a set of tools and broke the handle off of the door before the security shift started so we could come out into the tunnel later undetected. These dudes had their shit down. On the other side of the door there was about 5 strings of trains sitting in the tunnel in an underground lay-up. We sat there in dead silence for over an hour just watching the guards 50-60 feet away on the platform. They sat there on their cell phones blabbing away to whoever was on the other end in a language I didn't understand. The guard on our side began to pace with his mini automatic gun slung over his shoulder with its strap and his attack dog that was on a leash. As he turned his back the kid who broke the door opened it slightly and motioned for us all to quickly and quietly exit into the tunnel and hide in-between the strings of trains. We all did with me going last as reluctant as could be. The guard walked the length of the platform and posted on the far side of it from where we were. We quietly picked a panel each and I was told to paint my piece in no more than 10 minutes. I was done in about 7 and then sat waiting while they finished. I was hoping the guard or his dog wouldn't see us. The dog was trained not to jump on the tracks because of the 3rd rail so I thought at least we had that working for us. We all finished and bounced out undetected. We made our way out of the tunnel and back into the maze of tunnels that led to the door on the sidewalk. We booked through there and made our way out back to the street. We then had about 2 hours before the trains started back up again so we could get flicks of it running in the station. I went straight for the nearest liquor store and got some brand of whiskey I had never heard of and chugged the whole half pint in two big gulps. I was so on edge. I needed it. Then we walked about 2 miles to kill time and to get as far away as possible. We came to another station on the same line and decided to go into this one to get pics. The one kid used his keys to get into the station as it was still opening up for the first run. Once we were in the station we just laid on the benches and tried to blend into the bums who spent the night there away from the cold. After about 30 minutes we heard the first train coming, which was ours. We got our cameras ready and when it pulled into the station we flicked it as many times as possible before the driver shut the doors and pulled it out of the station. I remember her glaring at me as if to say "fuck you, you fuckin punks. I KNOW it was you guys!" As soon as the next train came we got onto it and rode it into the next station where there were several special police there with machine guns wearing fatigues looking dead fuckin serious. I was told by the guys I was with they were there to investigate the graff to figure out how it was done. I think they were more interested to figure out how we got in so they could seal it off for terrorist reasons. I was freaking the fuck out. Anyway, to finally end this story we got our pics and nothing happened to us. Even though we got away with it, it was still the craziest graff related experience I have ever been a part of.

anomie1: Thank You for your time. You have any shouts or fuck yous?

jeloe: Shouts? First I would like to thank DM for being there and for putting up with me. SRT and US crews here in the bay, VX and CF crews in Paris, DPM and TPG crews in London. Samo, Grey, Acne, Cecs, Vyels, Necs... Shit man there are too many. So really thanks to everyone who has been there and helped me along the way and who didn't turn their backs on me when I sucked. Thanks. As far as any "fuck yous" I am really not too bitter towards anyone. There's a few of you who have been fucked up towards me over the years but really I aint trippin. I am happy where I am. Oh and thank you for the interview.