1) Alright dude, thanks for taking the time to chat with us can you tell us how things got started for you and what crew you rep? How did you coin the name Rise One?
I started painting graffiti in ’98, about 25 years ago. I lived across some train tracks so I saw painted trains passing by every day. This caught my eye at an early age and got me interested in doing graffiti myself. I wrote a couple of different names and finally kept Rise one as the letters just seemed to work well for me. This must have been around the time I met up with my crew Aerosol Kings (Aerosol Kids back in the days) somewhere around 2001.
2) What I love about your work is the sheer versatility in what you do, you mix letters with figures like some other guys do but then you also do these awesome one-off skull bomb pieces, or like in one of your latest pieces you incorporate what looks like comic panels. It’s really dope man and I hope you know it’s very inspiring, do you get that a lot? Do a lot of graffiti guys tell you you are an inspiration?
I’ve heard that before a couple of times, but I’ll never get used to it.
My favorite example was this young kid who approached me and said I inspired him and wanted to collaborate with me. I brushed it off telling him to get out there and practice more, hone his skills, and come back at me when he had painted more walls. Which i know is a cocky thing to say and I didn’t expect to hear from him again until a few years later when we met again and now he’s rocking pretty sick characters all drawn freehand. So we painted a wall together and only when he posted his pics and wrote a story I realized it was him and I kind of inspired him to get better by being a dick, lol. That felt pretty good.
3) About the skull bombs how did you get that idea, and why did you only keep it to 5 of these? Was it very laborious to keep doing more of these? You do so many things I wonder how you have time to do as many walls as you do!
The skulls bombs are a little side project. I’ve always wanted to make artworks besides my walls but it’s rare to find the time to do so. I paint a ton of commercial walls that I basically never post online, that’s actually where I’ve spent most of my days in the last few years. So finding the time to do a little edition like the skull bombs is actually quite nice. I’ve only made five of them to keep it limited and that paid off because they sold out really fast.
4) One of my favorite pieces you did was the Hypecourt piece you did recently, can you tell us how that went down? What impresses me about it is it isn’t just an awesome piece but you incorporated some funky video techniques and captures to make the process itself a work of art, do you think this is necessary today to compete as an artist?
The hype court was commissioned by the city of Antwerp and was only a temporary painting. I did multiple sketches and we ended up with the most commercial one (as usual) but it pays the bills so I can’t complain.
I asked a crewmate to come help me out and another buddy who makes pretty awesome video’s to shoot the whole thing. He’s got a good eye for crazy angles and has a nice flow trough his videos. Always fun to collaborate with talented people. It’s necessary these days to have good footage of your work to promote on socials and so on. I hate playing algorithm games that the social platforms demand of their users, but it is what it is.
5) Your skillset that you have is pretty diverse, and I see you have some AKIRA manga sketches in your journal, did you ever consider doing comics or doing something different than graffiti, or has graffiti
always been the main thing for you?
I love Akira, that movie is insane and the manga is even better. As a kid I drew a lot of comics and wanted to become a comic book artist until I discovered graffiti and went all in.
6) With the killer videos you put on your page is this something you do yourself or do you have a crew of other people that are helping you create the videos?
I don’t make my own videos, but often I have an idea of how I’d like the video to look and I usually collaborate with other people who are more skilled in that domain.
7) What’s your go-to hip hop artist to listen to while you’re working? Who would you say is underappreciated in either hip-hop or graffiti that deserves more recognition?
I can’t say I have a go to hip hop artist to listen to while working. In general I love 90’s hip hop but it’s nice to discover some new artists as well. I’m definitely hating on mumble rap, but there’s some really good young rappers out there that still got something new to bring to the table.
8) What’s your favorite documentary or book on graffiti history?
Style wars and subway graffiti, both timeless classics.
9) Whats next for you? Would you ever consider putting together a book of your best work? I love your black book work alone, I think that would be dope to see.
I’d like to find more time to transition into more studio work and gallery shows instead of doing commercial work for a living. Graffiti will always remain a passion, but It’s not a source of income for me. That’s why I’ll always keep those two separate, that’s why I don’t really post my commercial work. I can’t really say to have the same freedom with graffiti as with commercial work. A book would definitely be nice at some point but I’m not planning anything any time soon.
10) Thanks again for taking the time out to chat, Any shoutouts you would like to give? Where can people follow you and purchase your work?
For sure, thanks for keeping me in mind. Always happy to share with a dope platform. I’d like to give shout outs to my crew Aerosol Kings, Skill, Sawer, Gosh, Hoer, Heny and Tuke. People can follow me in insta @Riseone_ak or check out my website at aerosolkings.com
