THE VAULT - Lama Interview (GraffZoo Magazine #3 - 2006)
Interview & translation: Federico Chiozzi, Luca Savoldelli
Editing: Corrado Piazza
It’s April 2006 in Milan, and the city is already heating up. With spring in full swing and Ancelotti's Milan about to win the Derby thanks to Kaladze's stunning bicycle kick, the excitement is palpable. Some of you weren't even born yet, while others had already taken a path where the warm season meant one thing only: more pieces and more panels.
That month, GraffZoo #3 dropped, featuring a sick window-down by Pane (TRV, former ETC) on the cover. Among those who might have had that issue in hand, there were probably some panicking about their upcoming high school finals, others feeling underpaid at one of their first jobs as young adults, and maybe even a few who were about to take their final university exams before their thesis defense. Just like the protagonist of the interview we’ve picked from our precious archives.
Check a young Lama’s words!
Ok, introduce yourself at the Graff Zoo readers who maybe don’t know you yet…
L: I’ve started when I was 14. It was ’92, ’93. I was attending the Artistic high-school where I had the first contacts: Woze, 2Cake, TGF crew, Ders, Trep, people from the school. I didn’t match with them but I’ve started to see the first things I liked. It was the right zone, the Anfiteatro, the TKA wall… At the beginning I was painting in my zone until I didn’t start the Accademia, it was ’97-’98, and I met there LK crew, Santo for example; there was an immediate great feeling with them.
I still remember the bombing nights and the first tag tours from that period. It was a great period, now I see them less. Since 2002 I’ve started to go out with the guys who made the YEA crew: Rapido, Deco and Fanbo. It was the breakthrough, I’ve started to going straight with them, thinking about how to use spray paints, working on letter’s structure and… everything connected, all the love that was born the moment I started to know this subject deeper.
A short time ago we began a talk about the meaning of crew; we intended to go deeper into the subject for this interview…
L: The crew is all about friendship and we live it in this way. I don’t paint with Tom because he’s cool or with Dick because he paints a lot of trains. I’ve always painted with people that I know and that I stay with irrespective of writing. They are friends and people that you feel you can trust at all. We trust ourselves, it’s a team game.
You told me you are glad to be published on Graff Zoo because Rax and Sky were hosted on these pages. What could you tell us about them? Do you know them?
L: This is one of the classic questions that everyone already knows the answer to (at least those who see things as I see). Sky and Rae are two of the bearing columns of Milan, both yesterday and today. When I was a kid they were part of that writers’ list of names that I used to pronounce with voice down because of the respect for them; I wasn’t inside the “graff clique” so I hadn’t the chance to meet them. I was just figuring them. A few years ago I got in contact with them and, together with Sky, I did a couple of walls. To meet them just increased the respect for them. They are both great writers and great persons. Now I stop, otherwise this flummery could become boring: I’d like just to add that I think it’s natural and correct that those two writers have influenced and still influence the scene, some things should by recognised be everyone. To see them still active is a great thing both for my heart and for my eyes!
In your words there is a great passion for the Milan Old School.
L: Yes, definitely. But I’ve got a double life with priorities and important things that are irrelevant for everyone else. For example, Askone from CKC: I still haven’t any idea of who is behind this name. I met Bang a month ago and I was shocked for a week long, thinking about I went there with my book… you know? But I had to do that. Someone should say:”Who’s Bang?” but for me it’s more important than the President of the Republic. Lots of things are reappraised with the time, I’m talking about passions that were born when I was fourteen.
In the second part of the ‘90s the graffiti scene in Milan was hard fractured, how did you live that?
L: I’ve followed it from the outside because in that period I wasn’t painting a lot. The same things I was used to see from a certain point of view disappeared… everything changed. But it’s all right, it was a natural thing. People turned and it was fine. I’ve started to paint in that moment of “turning” keeping the old things that I was enjoying. Because of my own taste I was more down with the old school stuff than with CKC, TKA, ….
I think that’s visible in the way you paint, too.
L: I’m glad about that, but I’m not sure it’s so visible.
Someone who knows both ways doesn’t have to spend too much time in placing you talking about style. Considering your strokes and techniques you still draw in a “fine” way but you have painted mostly in the last period (less “fine”) but keeping the first period “values”.
L: That’s right but consider that Chob changed a lot my way of painting: when I met him I changed, mostly about manual skill than style. I’ve learned to do things with more fun. So, lines began to turn. Chob has got impressive manual skills, I’ve never seen anything from him that doesn’t work. With him I’ve started to see Grey and Amaze pieces. I really love them. They have got a funky way of doing letters, inspired by the old school. Another writer I love is Cazter, he’s my idol; when I saw his stuff I was shocked in the same way I was after seeing the CKC stuff.
Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome. Is there anything else in Italy, in your opinion?
L: I’ve never travelled a lot because I don’t know anyone outside Milan. Then I’m shy. Shyness is bad, but you can’t do anything. You’ve got it. In the last period I went to Rome where I had never been before. It’s totally different from Milan, the subway seems the NYC subway. I went to Veneto. In Veneto some years ago there was a good scene. Honestly I can’t remember anything else.
In my opinion Bari has got a great scene.
L: Sure, they rock! This summer I was in Puglia and I met them. They are really “old”, they have been painting for a while even if they have lived inside their space for a long time. In the past it was like that: Milan had its school, Florence its own, Padova, Vicenza, Bologna… All that is changing. Basically because of internet.
Internet fault?
L: Fault, worth, at the beginning I’ve uploaded lots of my stuff, nobody had seen them before, then people saw them… that’s the reason I’m here now.
You are debasing yourself!
L: At the moment I know 200% more people, that’s the reason why I’m saying it’s helpful. Even if I’m down with that now. I got excited, I was posting photos, then people watched them, you know… it was too easy. There’s not any study on it, and it’s the base. You have to eat thousands of paper sheets, not thousands of magazines.
What do you think about street art?
L: At a certain point I think it became just a trend. It depends on how you live it. If you are a writer and you don’t live it. I don’t like when they cross pieces, you can’t do that. Or if you want to do that, just do it. But piss off. But if I see some of those stuff and I want to paint over, I do. If it’s the answer you were waiting for…
No, but it’s ok anyway! Let’s talk about your future, besides graffiti. What do you do in your life?
L: I’m finishing the University, then, several years late in the “job world” I’ll think what to do. It’s bad to say but I’m realising that a lot of things that I’ve neglected in these years now are waking up all together. First of all you have to find something to do before thinking about what you’d like to do.
In twenty years your son will be a writer, how do you see that?
L: What can I say? I still have to solve my own problem connected with my age. How could I tell him? What can you tell to your son?
