1) Alright so thanks for taking the time out to do this interview; can you give us a brief introduction of how you got to this point? When did you start, what crew do you rep (if any), and what’s the story behind “remski27”?
Yo! At first, I would like to thank you for inviting me to this interview!
Generally speaking, the beginning of my adventure with graffiti started at the turn of 2009 – 2010. When I was about 10 years old, I visited my grandparents very often. The road to their house led through railway traction with plenty of garages. Local writers used to do throw-ups there. I remember it like it was yesterday when I saw one of SHITE’s throw-ups. A green fill with a dark brown outline. Oh yes, it caught my attention.
Since then, I’ve started to explore graffiti on the Internet. One of the first inspirations that I have found on YouTube was SDK (Stompdown Killaz). I have watched tons of videos with NAKS, KEEP SIX, and CRAVER’s paintings. Also, I liked Snak The Ripper’s tracks. I felt that this was the moment and I decided to try. I still remember my first wildstyle sketch. No letters. Only arrows twirling among themselves. Nasty shit haha.
I grew up in a small city called Starachowice in central-eastern Poland. When I started to take an interest in graffiti, I sketched a lot. I mean really, a lot. I slowly learned everything by myself, because at that time there wasn’t a single active writer on the spot. In 2016, I felt confident enough to show up on the wall. It took me years to build up my morale. Then I met HEROD, PSOT, ROLOK, and a while later SHITE and KOMAR. Recently I met ZAXER. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get to know one of the legends of Polish graffiti, which came from my city. A member of BDMSK Crew.
Rest in Peace CAIS.
I’ve been doing a lot of illegal work under a different nickname. Now you know why I have changed it. I did a lot of chrome and tags on new buildings that came up in town.
The origin of the nickname REMS27 is very simple. After one screw-up, I changed my pseudonym to REM, then to RES27. For several years I am known as REMS27 (Resident of City 27). The number is borrowed from my hometown postcode. Not a big story as you can see.
I don’t represent any crew, for the reason mentioned above. At the moment in my town, there is almost no active writer. Time to represent or create the crew will come. Sooner or later 🙂
2) When I flip through your work on Instagram I gotta say I’m blown away by the sheer amount of stuff that you do. You also seem to be constantly trying new things, some of them have characters, other times you are playing with the letter shapes making them more and more abstract. great stuff. Who or what inspires you? Are you inspired by other artists or do you just go for it and let the shapes tell you what they want to be as you paint them?
Honestly, what you can see is still not much of my work. I am fighting to not be overambitious. I know that I am capable of more advanced and professional work. But thank you, it seems to be a good forecast for the future 🙂
I started by trying my hand at wildstyle (as most writers probably do). I rather avoided round shapes and put more focus on hard, straight, and simple precise lines. These lines didn’t always come out straight due to lack of experience. So I tried something else. Because the first throw-ups that I saw live were SHITE’s, they strongly formed my perception of the general structure of letters. He was my leading inspiration which directed me to the right track. I’ve gone into the direction of a more simple, but stylish form of letters. I’m constantly looking for new ways of forming every single letter. I’m trying to incessantly progress! The process of creating a simple, stylish sketch is harder than making a confusing and complex wildstyle work. That’s what I think. “Simple can be harder than complex” Sometimes I can spend two weeks on one sketch. Every single day gives me new inspiration and I can tweak my sketch by implementing new ideas. Each sketch has to fill out, mellow. I never do work in a hurry. But of course, sometimes I draw a total banger in 20 minutes.
The characters that you can see next to my works are mostly done by my good friend KOMAR, with whom I paint from the very beginning. He is a very talented painter and artist, thanks to whom I took graffiti, letters, more seriously. He injected to me the artistic approach to graffiti.
I derive inspiration from various things; it can be nature, illuminated cities. I love contrasting colors. I rather avoid multicolored fillings and whole works. I do not like disco polo in graffiti. For those you may not know the term disco polo, it is a genre of popular dance music, created in Poland in the late 1980s 🙂 Of course, there are several inspirations from other artists. From Poland, CRUZE,ROSBE,THIZO and CRAIM. SIDER, RAWS, DOES from the Netherlands. GANGS, CEKIOS, JEFR, and many others. Thanks to all of them because I would love to reach their level of work someday. I always learn from the best.
As far as my style is concerned, each letter has its character. I could describe every letter as a person in a given activity. For example, R pulls out, and leans on E, looks drunk. It sounds funny, but when I describe a letter to someone in that way, mostly the other person answers that it makes sense haha.
3) What is your favorite documentary or book that covers the history of major players of graffiti and why? Who would you say is your graffiti hero or idol if you had to pick one?
I would choose SULW ALBUM. The book is based on interviews with a dozen of important writers on the Polish graffiti scene. A brief description of the beginning of the graffiti painting in my country. Those actions show me that there is a reason to go on with the road to preserve graffiti as one of the essential elements of HIP HOP.
My idol or hero?
For me, the idol is every player in this game, who despite the time, adversity, continues to paint and ride, develop, risk, and live through our beautiful craft. Fuck those clown hardcore writers who give up after two productions.
4) I see you not only hit a lot of walls but you also have prints, canvas originals, and painted trains available for your followers to purchase. First off how does someone get a hold of your work and second of all do you make your living off of your work?
Currently, I make a lot of legal works on canvas. I sketch a lot and recently, after being motivated by ZAXER’s inks I decided to publish some prints. I like to do something substantial. For example, I like to send a print from the other end of Poland, which will hang at someone’s crib. If someone would like to buy it, just write to me on my Instagram.
Illegally I am still active but lately less because I have gone heavily into the graffiti jam organization. I’m very fond of the FR8th; unfortunately, there is no yard in my town. It is hard to find people that share similar ideas and desires. So it is difficult. You can take it for granted that after my relocation, the activity on freights will increase by 200% 🙂
I currently work like any other man, but I’m recently learning calligraphy. I’d like to hit the tattoo and graffiti at once.
5) With the products available it also looks like you have a YouTube channel you add to as well. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Do you have any kind of overarching plan of working to create a business model around your graffiti? Or are you just doing whatever seems fun?
Haha, I see you’ve done some deep research 🙂
Yeah, I’ve got a channel on YouTube, with one spontaneous video. That’s what it’s all about for now. I’m planning to record some productions from the walls and also from making canvases or prints. This time in a more professional way. Time will tell you how it goes.
Of course, it would be a dream if interest in my prints or canvases would increase in a way that I could sell them regularly. But I think the time for that will come too. I’ll keep grinding.
6) What kind of music do you listen to when you paint? Who is your favorite hip hop artist and why?
I listen to rap, not only during painting but also in my everyday life, rap plays a dominant role. I don’t despise soul, or good blues, either. I’m rather an old-school American head. I love Sean Price, Biggie, Paul Wall, Wu-Tang, Mobb Depp, Nipsey Hussle, and so on. I still love listening to Snak the Ripper, as well as some Polish, Mexican and German rap. Talking about new-school, I accept it but only on hard and raw beats, with a dry rap. Fuck all of that auto-tune bullshit.
7) Did you have any formal training in art? Is there any practice or exercise you learned over the years that you felt would be helpful for beginners who want to get into the graffiti scene but maybe their letters suck right now?
No, I’ve never been to any art school. For a month or two, I have attended something like an art class, but I was coming out with individual drawings, and the teacher was organizing activities with the rest of the group. I never liked it when somebody was imposing something on me.
Draw, draw, draw, draw, and don’t copy someone’s work. Dig in, derive some inspiration, and keep drawing! Look for your style, your letter shape, your arrangement but… heaven forbid 20 arrows! 🙂 That’s my advice for beginners. I’m in several Facebook groups, where beginners upload their sketches. Unfortunately, almost every single one copies letters from writers like GHOST or DOKE from YouTube. There are pros and cons of finding graffiti everywhere today.
I think that you can obtain the greatest satisfaction when you reach a certain level by yourself
I took one guy under my wing. I see the passion in his works. He comes from my town. From day to day I can see his progress. One day he will do quality things. BIG UP Kres!
8) Do you travel a lot? If so what are your favorite places to visit and hit? Any crazy travel stories you can share?
Yeah, I travel a lot. I am doing my best to appear on every graffiti jam I get invited to. But it wasn’t always like this. Sadly, at the age of 16-18, due to the lack of a driver’s license and money during school time I missed some events. For two years now I am regularly visiting most of the events organized in Poland.
Which one is my favorite? Certainly STREET WARS in Jelenia Gora, Poland. When I got an invitation from DUREX, I was in total shock. The leading Polish scene paints there, e.g. RATER, KTOS, TEETOS, TUSE, RIAM, ROZA, and many guys from abroad, e.g. EKTO, SKARE. It was such an honor. STREET WARS is the event at the very best level of organization, in a great city. It is placed in a valley surrounded by mountains. The jam was organized in the city center. We worked on the OSB boards. I really enjoyed it before and after the party between friends from all over the country. Priceless experience.
The second favorite event is definitely a jam in Konin. Cottages, again, people from all over the country and a huge blowout until 4 am. Just 5 hours later we begin painting. Pure hip-hop. Cheers, Damian!
Of course, I can’t forget to mention HARDCOLORZ in Kielce, not far from my city. I stick very close to the guys from Kielce and we often paint together, so the event at their place is a cherry on the cake 🙂
Greets WISK, MORUS, DEWASTO, BRIS, DPS!
Also STAN POD MUREM, an event in the south part of Poland, where I also have many friends. Unfortunately, mostly we see each other at events due to a big distance.
Big Up REAL, SEKER, TOSER!
From bigger jams, I haven’t been to the MEETING OF STYLES yet. The action takes place in Lublin. I hope I will attend there this year or the next one.
I have big travel plans and my main targets are trained but, no details for now 🙂
9) You do a lot of collaborations, do you do festivals? Do you feel like you learn a lot by collaborating with other artists?
I’m organizing graffiti jams in my town for 4 years now. The beginnings were rather based on small paintings combined with the Hip Hop Festival. For 2 years now I have been creating a separate event called MADSTYLES STARACHOWICE. I went very hard on organizing events. This topic for me is, let’s say, one of the smaller dreams in graffiti. I always wanted to create an event that writers from all over Poland, later Europe and maybe the world will want to attend? I am not in a hurry then. It has to develop at its own pace. I try to polish every small aspect from year to year in order to invite more people. I want to make it professional, step by step. My friends helped me a lot in organizing the event, whether it was just a word or support, a specific action, such as getting the sound system (Greetings Gruby), or the desire to play a concert (Big up for DOBRE SOBIE NAGRANIA crew) or setting up the OSB boards (Big up Pchela, Bigson).
You can check out our latest Aftermovie from MadStyles vol. II (2019) here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42VzEsryEv4
I try to make more and more collaborations. Despite my young age, I don’t have too much difficulty to cooperate at the wall with more experienced writers. However, there is a long list of artists with whom I would like to make a specific production.
There are few painters of my age in Poland so naturally, I paint with more experienced writers from whom I take advice. Whether after observing step by step how they approach the painting or after a conversation. It is essential and helpful.
10) Any shout outs you would like to give? Where can people follow you?
At first big thanks to you guys for noticing me and inviting me to an interview.
Big up for SEITO, KOMAR, ROME, ZAXER, PSOT, COURV.R for the people from Kielce, for the JBC crew, for the boys from Silesia Poland, for all the crazy-ass passionate writers! Greets for those who grind on this road and with whom I have had the opportunity to paint and party.
You can find me on Instagramand Facebook.
Thank you once again for a chance to speak to you and all of the readers! I’m honored to be seen at Bombing Science.
Big Up!
R27.
Interview by Wesley Edwards