I started writing in ’88 and I am still going.
Two local dudes were commissioned to paint a rooftop facade of my local pinny parlour in mid 1988. I climbed up on the roof and annoyed them for most of the day, wrangled a scrap can from them and did a one-colour throwup/piece on the opposite side of the facade, which to this day no-one would have ever seen unless you were a roof tiler working on that particular building. I didn’t really know that many other writers at the time so I figured it out myself, with the limited resources/paint available.
Christmas ’88, I moved to Melbourne, lived there briefly until about April/May 89. Went to high school with a dude who wrote Joe ASB/EMB, who schooled me on classic-era Melbourne hand styles and throw-ups which have stuck with me until now. Returning to Canberra in 89, I met Shute, Rudes and a bunch of other legends through a mutual contact. We spent most Saturdays at ‘prohibition nights’ at The Firehouse and Private Bin, buying rounds of red cordial and discussing styles, techniques and planning where we would drink, and bomb afterwards.
I think Acid was my first tag for about 5 minutes, then a batch of unremarkable names until I settled on Dice/Dise. I wrote this until about 94/95, then became MGO.
CreepShow is my crew. I’ve painted with plenty of other top-notch writers from various crews from all around. Collaborators and accomplices shall remain anonymous.
(I am inspired by) way too many to list…initially those in Subway Art/Spraycan Art, as those were the first publications I saw. I reckon Gnome CWK (NYC) in particular, rocked letters like no-one else. My biggest and earliest influence was seeing all the running panels and crazy walls when living in Melbourne late 80’s, it’s definitely stuck with me to this day.
After that, Hype Magazine hit the shelves showcasing various Australian/International writers etc. Can’t forget my Canberra writing mates, they dropped some silly-mad burners back then…