Solo One - Graffiti Artist Interview

October 2007

Interview with London's sticker king and graffiti artist Solo One of the infamous VOP Stars Crew.

Solo One

How old are you?

Old school!

How long have you been painting / writing?

Been painting for about 20 years on and off.

Which crew / crews do you write with or have you written with in your time?

Write with VOP.

What names do you write under?

Solo One.

You are probably best known as "The Sticker King of London", how did you come up with the idea of the special delivery sticker?

I wanted to take a functional item and use it as a vehicle to write my name and place it in as many locations as possible and see how popular it became, also trying something different that hadn't been done in this country before. I got some fame from it but it eventually became a pain in the arse.

Did it turn into a real mission leaving stickers wherever you went?

Not really. I didn't mission but I used to go out clubbing a lot, was out 7 nights a week so they went where I went and to whoevers house I stayed at. Got it into a book by Jeff Farrell called "Culture and Criminolgy Unleashed", fuckin' result I'd say. Check my myspace.

Were you the creator of the "Hello, my name is" sticker?

No, thats American. Lame as fuck.

Solo One in Barcelona (2007)

Solo One in Los Angeles

Solo One in Salt River, Cape Town (2007)

Have you ever 'felt the long arm of the law' because of your art?

Yeah.

What is your preferred medium for making marks with?

Acrylic.

What are your feelings on the UK graf scene at the moment?

Love the UK at the moment, some really good painters out there.

Have you done many collaborations with artists overseas or have you ever travelled overseas to paint?

Yes, painted all over the place… did Azerbajan last year. Really interesting to travel and paint, that's what life should be about.

Where is the most exciting or interesting place you have painted?

Cape Town, South Africa.

Where did you paint your first piece?

A bandstand in a park… lasted one night.

Can you remember where your first sticker went up?

No.

What do you think of the way graffiti is just as likely to be found in a gallery as on the streets these days?

Galleries are ok, the streets are where it's at!

Galleries are ok, the streets are where it's at!
Solo One

Have you ever had your work displayed in a gallery and if so is there any one exhibition that stands out from all the rest?

Never been excited by shows I've done. Never done a solo show because that's not what I'm aiming for, love painting walls so every wall I do I get pleasure from.

Have you done much commercial work and if so what would you class as your most famous piece?

I don't know. Done a few commercial jobs. My most famous piece, well, anywhere people walk by and see my work. My stuff's not all over the papers or in a cool hip-hop video, it exists on the street and you have to google it and put it together.

VOP Stars have a graffiti colouring book out, "The Street Art Colouring Book", how did that come to be?

Dane came up with the concept, we did the drawings and its selling nicely.

There sometimes seems to be a very fine line between those who view graffiti as a talented art-form and those who view graffiti as vandalism, what are your views on this?

I don't worry what people think on this subject anymore but I try to make my work look good and crisp so you judge my work on it's complexity and depth. It's hard to try different things and break out of the graffiti mould.