EXCLUSIVE "DIME ONE" INTERVIEW

UB. State your name?
dime one

UB. Where are you from?, and what crews do you rep?

colwyn bay - north wales, u.k. and i rep cream soda crew (est89), and im part of the urbn fabrik writer team and monster colors writer team.

UB. How did you get into Graffiti?

i saw graff with all the breakdancing came over in the early eighties. tried doing breaking - but was hopeless!
and i always had a passion for art - so i started drawing my name all over my school books. i moved a few miles up the road to colwyn bay - and hooked up with a guy who was tagging and piecing,he used the name NEWS (and now
is know as mr.O, out in hamburg) He had a copy of spraycan art. plus we had a couple of local
uk oldskool graff legends system & stormie mills, who helped point me in the right direction as regards style and standard. it just went from there

UB. so you started out more piecing or strictly bombin'?

mostly piecing - the illeagal stuff was really lousy looking back. i was more into creating a piece of art, and using characters.

UB Where did the name DIME come from?

i went through all the usual tags...style, craze, etc...and was chopping and changing all the time.
at one point here - about87, there were a lot of kids with tags. which is really quite crazy for a very small town.
i was playing about with the tag "meane" - as in meanie, and my
sister was using the tag dime - which she'd got of the name of a chocolate bar!
i was painting a tee shirt for her or something like that - and realized that it was quite a cool tag name - one that could stick, and people would know who you were. i'd also seen some very rough
flicks of dero's work on the ny trains - and realized that you could rock a real nice letter "d". that was it ..so we swapped tags - & it stuck!
although - i did start of as dime 309, we had a phase of wanting block numbers after our tags like the ny guys, although its not often that you would have a house number into the hundreds
round here. i lived at 39 - so i just stuck a zero in!
ha-ha - its sad really! eventually it was easier just to stick with a 1 or just plain dime.



UB. what is the most memorable spot you ever hit?

theres a local spot in an old quarry which has had paint on its walls for over 20 years. its had a few generations of writers go throughit, but recently has had the buff go through and take out some of the oldest work that was around here.
we used to walk about 3 miles along the coast to get there. i remember going there as a kid and just loving it.

UB. what do u think of New York graffiti?

love it!
its the style and funk that got me into graff. i think it still shows the influence in my work.
theres been alot of different things come and go but you cant beat good strong lettering styles and you have to do that before the wild style. ive seen some real tallented guys who can pull off wicked wildstyles -but get them to do clean funky letters and it just doesnt happen. i think if it looks good to the eye then thats what makes the piece good. and this is where personal tastes and preference affect our views of what we think graffiti should be.
for me - you can beat dondi, skeme, case2, seen, doc arab, - ny started it all off! respect due!



UB. Do you think Europeans took Graffiti to the next level?

i think of that comment in spray can art where it was like a model aeroplane kit that had come here already built.i think uk put its own twist onto the scene. we were working in smaller spaces so it kind of developed alot of sharp thin lined, detailed pieces. we had mode2 whos characters really appealed to me, and the the europeans really sharpened out some of them skills and techniques - and gave us a better quality of paint over here. we didnt have the quality of rustoleum paint ,we were making good with carplan & dupli color - which was like water! but it taught you discipline with the can!

UB. What do you feel about graff these days?

theres still alot of really good stuff happening. i think you kind of have to focus on your work, be respectful to others, and try your best not to get sucked in by the internet beef. i only went online about 3 years ago - and it opens a massive world of graff to you - but it also tricks kids into thinking that graff is about beefing - and posting pictures of really nasty tag handstyles, and poor quality throws and then calling them pieces. thats not what its about.but theres some really decent - talented artists out there.



UB. What do you think is the future of graffiti?

who knows! i dont think everything has been done. musically - people are playing the same chords over and over - but we still enjoy music - and every now and then you get someone who just plays their music in a slightly different way that makes people stop in their tracks and just be amazed. i think that is true of graff aswell theres still that need to create - and thats what fuels the future of graff personally - theres still a lot for me to learn!



UB. You got any cool chase stories?

ha ha - not necessarily a chase or cool! - my story is more goofy. years ago as a kid - i went out on my own on a very cold and wet november. i set out to paint the back of a small wall near a wood, except it was pitch black. you just couldnt see a thing! - i slipt down
an embankment, got scratched and muddied up. and i thought - "this isnt going to stop me!" - so i carried on to the top of the embankment. when i got there i got out my paint and struggled to see what i was doing i started painting and thought id get some light back when the silver was on the wall. except it wasnt showing up! id got the colour lids/caps on the wrong cans. ..(doh!) then a guy was walking his dog came by and had a really powerfull flash lamp, so i froze, and decided it was best to get out of there. but i still wanted to get up. i walked through the village, and down to the sea front where there was a small tunnel which i ended up just dropping a load of throws - i did notice across the
motorway i could see a house with a side light on and i wondered if i could be seen there. I decided to call it quits. i was quite dissapointed that i hadnt really been successfull.
The following day i'd popped out and on my way home i noticed a car out side my house with
a big bloke in the front driver side. when i walked past - he had a white shirt with black lapels.
and there was a police officers hat in the passenger seat. he watched me walk by. when i got in i asked my mum - "have you seen the car outside? - I think its an un-marked police car with a copper in it" "yes"-she said - "thats strange -its been there for about 25 minutes!" at this point - i think i needed to change my trousers.. needless to say - i went up stairs and peeked out of the window for the next 10 minutes whilst he sat there with the engine running. that was a very long 10 minutes.... but nothing happened - perhaps this was teaching me a lesson! but it did make me think about putting more effort into finding legal spots to paint better quality pieces.



UB. Any Beef with other crews or writers?

hmmm - im not into the beefing thing. there was enough of it when i was a kid. and unfortunatley - the internet allows everyone the chance to voice their opinion sometimes too freely. sad to say i came across a number of younger guys a couple of years back that sadly have no respect, they dissed my work, and ruined one legal spot that has now been removed.nand that was really depressing - because i even gave them wall space, paint and time! but they wanted to play internet gangsters - and i havnt got the time or energy for that. so i try to focus on my work and paint with people who are more like minded.


UB. Any last words or shout-outs?

yes please:
love to my family - alf, baby dime & star, mr japh & mr O, my photography buddie -emz - warpig, system & stormie, mr vets, mr brady, toxic, darrell, mef, kem & diva. toez & spar, all the urbnfabrik and monster teams, and not forgetting - sweetoof and cyclops!





Dime One
Interview by: Sueworks