PYRO
Pyro
Introduce yourself to our audience.
I write Pyro. (In the early days I spelled it PIRO, but that’s another story. I’m from West Coast Artists (WCA), The Seventh Letter (7th) and AllCaps (based in Budapest, Hungary)
Is there a story behind your name?
The story behind my name is this…I loved burning things. I was that kid who grabbed packs of matches from restaurants or nabbed the lighter that was left unattended. I always had something that ignited on me. When I was real young, I loved to set up my army men in the back yard (dirt patch but yeah) I’d arrange them in a way as if there was a battle going on. I’d dig holes and bury firecrackers. I’d get lighter fluid and make rockets with some matches (wrap just the match head super tight in tin foil and expose to heat) and I’d set the battlefield ablaze with explosions and rockets galore! Hahaha. My mom hated it because she paid for the army men. So anyways, my love of fire from a young age was still around when I started writing graffiti. I tried other names but they just didn’t hit (lighter and match being a couple) till one night I was up in Wattles Park frying my ass off and I had a cheap lighter in my hand and as I look down at the lighter it was as if a spotlight was shining on it…and there it was “Pyro” brand lighters. A bulb went off in my head and that was immediately it. (((Boom))). The birth of Pyro.
Back then, what drew you to graff?
It was the colors and style of NY style graff that first caught my eye. I had already been writing on walls. I was always into anti-establishment/punk type graffiti, i.e.: Anarchy symbols, don’t trust the Government type stuff as well as like so many of us from Cali, we were involved with neighborhood graffiti. So, writing on walls wasn’t new, the colors and letterforms were. I initially caught the bug in 1981 when I went to NYC with my parents. I remember stepping into a whole car at the station. No idea who did it, I just remember being in complete amazement that this rolling wall with a huge, colorful painting on it opened up and we walked in. Then the insides had me as well. The pure destruction, I mean, the entire insides of this car was just bombed with fat dripping black tags that I couldn’t read but I fucking loved it. That day walking onto that car just woke up something inside of me. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was about because I was used to neighborhood hits, so being that it was a moving train it wasn’t someone’s hood, but the fact that it was large and in charge…colorful and attention grabbing and plain old illegal destructive vandalism all in one was like a drug to me. One that I needed to find out more about.
With the placasos, I always tried to one-up homies in hand styles and block letter sizes etc. Now this, this was perfect. It wasn’t gang backed but it was destructive and creative…my two favorite things. Almost immediately after that trip I immersed myself into learning and doing more…more bombing.
When you got back from NY was there anyone that was already killing shit out in L.A.?
The first time I got back from NY was I believe 81. As I started paying attention, the main people up were gang hoods. As for NY style graff there was only a handful of people writing in the early 80s. In my hood, the Mid-City area, Soon and Legit were crushing. Miner, Rival and PJay were starting to get up a lot. In the East side there was Shandu, RickOne, Prime and Make. Germ started going in. As the years progressed say till 84/85 Triax was crazy up. Gin One and Duce were up early mid 80s. Blinky got up with fresh characters.
From 82-85 is when graffiti really blossomed here in LA. So many styles were being created. So many new things being invented. So many directions, but still only a small number of real heads that lived it. We all knew of each other but didn’t necessarily know one another. It wasn’t until 86 that everyone started to meet each other.
That was all off the top of my head. Some dates may be a little off. I’d have to look at pics to verify dates. That’s one thing I’m great at. I can look at an old LA graff flick and know the location and year instantly. If you lived it, each year changed and there were noticeable differences and yards.
Dope. So, what would you say your biggest influence was? NY or all the madness here in L.A.? Anyone in particular?
My partner Rival was my biggest influence. We were inseparable. Racking, partying, school, double dates etc. we always hung. He was way ahead of his time doing shit in 84-85 that still holds its weight today.Miss that fool so much. RIP Rival
I was also definitely influenced by both NY, LA and more. I was already doing hood blocks but that new crazy lettering from back East tugged at me. I have always been interested in all styles of lettering. From a little kid I was into comic lettering, vintage signs, illustrations, posters etc. Back then and still to this day I not only enjoy making up my own letters and fonts but I also try to replicate classic fonts by hand, but when I first started writing I took more to the NY flow for the one reason of keeping the neighborhood and bombing separate. Los has its own style and rules. When I started writing I’d have to travel through different hoods to rack and to bomb as well, so keeping a more ‘tagger’ style helped navigate LA and all the various hoods. At first, I wrote Piro (with an I) and got crossed out by various crip sets because they misread my tag as Piru. Haha. The hood old days.
WCA is a legendary crew. Want to give a lil history behind the crew?
A little history behind the crew huh? Well one thing that most people don’t know is that WCA was called ISM before 85. The 3 guys who started WCA used to write ism after their names in the early 80s. They wrote their real names mostly with this suffix (ie: Daveism was Miner, Péism was PJay and Rival was Nateism) the ism besides being a suffix like ski, rock or er (Besk-er, Size-rock etc) also stood for International Style Masters. This was 83-84, when suede Addidas with fat laces were in and Run DMC was about to do their first tour. Hip Hop was just starting to get noticed on the West Coast so although it may seem kinda strange nowadays, back then the whole writing a suffix after your name was the thing to do. The one that everyone started doing was writing One with their name, hell, people still write One with their names to this day. So before WCA was “officially” WCA, it was International Style Masters.
That’s a historical fact that very few are aware of, hell, there were very few people writing on walls back then. Another thing that today’s generation might not be aware of is we (WCA) are one of the 2 crews to ever battle against each other. In Belmont Tunnel no less. That’s an honor we share with K2S. Nowadays the city is pretty unified, but back in 84,5,6 it wasn’t like that. Different parts of the city didn’t get along with other parts. That’s how the whole West Side-East Side rivalry came about. But with that legendary battle came a unification between all parts of the city. As for the battle, I think that was the best part, how everyone got along after it, and ever since.
Back in the 80s, you were always thought of either being a West or East Side writer, with the West being perceived as the rich kids and the East being the ghetto kids. Can you shine some light in to that from a West side writer perspective?
That whole line of thought was something born and spread by the east side guys because truth be told, a lot of us that were from the west side were poor and hood as well. Risk was the most known from our crew and he fit that persona perfectly because he was a rich white boy. But myself, PJay, Miner we were not rich. Yeah, we grew up in a house but that’s about it. None of had daddies’ money or cars or any of that shit. We caught the bus and wore hand me downs just like everyone else. In the early 80s there were only a couple white boys in the crew, but everyone thought it was the whole crew of white, blond haired rich surfer type guys. That was the farthest thing from the truth. We had crips, we had bloods we had everything. Prime thought I was a rich white kid then he met me at a fight at J-Market on 3rd St. I was olive skinned, had a Pendleton buttoned all the way up, slicked back black hair and a hairnet. The farthest thing from a rich white boy. So, we never thought of it in class terms. That’s was something the East Side writers created.
You've been painting graff for four decades now, is there anything that you like or dislike that's been happening with graffiti as a whole?
It sounds weird to hear it put like that “four decades”… that’s a long ass time. Graffiti has gone through multiple changes in my time writing. It is so vastly different from how it was when I first started. There’s a lot I like and a lot I don’t like about what is has become, but that’s what happens when the hands of time and progression move forward. The rawness of how it was in the beginning is long gone. That’s what happens to any subculture that becomes mainstream. The sheer number of people that write now, in all corners of the world is amazing. It’s become a very serious art form. What some people can do with spray paint is amazing. We never thought in a million years it would be as popular as it is now. Now people make a living off of it. It’s become a recognized art movement, the most important art movement to happen in centuries. It’s cool to be able to go overseas and be able to meet like-minded people to paint with. But it’s a double-edged sword. Now there’s so many culture vultures, so many fakes and frauds because they see the money that can be made. People now are getting paid big money to paint walls that we were chased from years ago. So many names have been lost to time and the history is being re-written to support a small few. There are so many names that deserve acknowledgment for the work they did but have been forgotten because in the beginning very little was documented. Although I’m glad for what’s possible I am sad about what was lost and given up in order for graffiti to get where it is today.
Is there any new writer whose style you appreciate?
Are there any new writers whose style I appreciate? Hmm, that’s a weird question for me cause technically almost everyone is a new writer to me. Haha. This old man has seen em all start as toys the grow and expand. It’s pretty cool to witness, but back to the question…well yes, there’s a few, for various reasons… I like “2Much” with those crispy clean roller blocks. Those letters are perfect with cut corners as well…and done with an extension pole at full tilt, middle of the night in some tricky spots. Props right there. There’s also “Hopes” for his sheer quantity of rollers, everywhere. A couple more heads would be “Merch”. This dude stays active, bombs regularly and paints pieces in a multitude of styles. I’ve seen everything from tags, throws, simple letters and bubbles to wild complex styles. None done legally either. Big points in my book. Also, my crewmate “N238”. Clean wild styles and even cleaner simples. He has an old school mixed with new school vibe with his style that work well, plus, and this is bonus points to me, dude has no social profiles at all. No Insta, FaceCrook, Twitter, no anything. I love that about him. There’s a few more but can’t remember at this moment.
We all have that one graff story we like to tell, what’s yours?
Ok. I’ll go with an Oooolllldddd school story. I mean way old, before most cats were born old. Like, only 100 people (at most) that wrote graffiti in all of Los Angeles old. Before the east side-west side rivalry old. A story so old its almost eligible for a senior discount…nah but for reals, it definitely has some years behind it. So it’s 1985, not many people wrote graffiti…let me rephrase that: not many people wrote New York type of graffiti. There was gang graffiti everywhere, and I mean everywhere. The city was bombed with block letters and roll calls, but that’s another story. So it’s ‘85 and not many people even know about graff. I’m on Venice and Arlington by myself. There used to be a dirt lot on the northwest corner and the first building going west on Venice just after the dirt lot on the corner was a candle making shop (that shows you how old this story is). Somewhere along the line I got it in my head to paint there, the lot wall already was hit so I walked up to the backside wall…this was middle of the day, probably around noonish. I just roll up and say “fuck it”, drop my duffel and set up shop and get to work. This wall was pretty high profile and well outside my neighborhood so I had to do something good. I acted like I owned the place (it was a Sunday, everything was closed) I had lots of racked paint laid out and sketch in hand with no concerns about one time or what I should’ve been concerned with: cholos rushing me, thinking I’m from a rival set and jacking my paint. Nope no cares at all. So I’m painting and probably 80% done. Had been there over an hour, and out of the corner of my eye I see a black and white LAPD cruiser accelerate towards me. DAMMIT! I thought. I start to turn to run and the cops were already right there so I just turned, bent down and grabbed a different color and continued painting. The cops jump out of their car but don’t rush me, instead they get out and stare at the wall. I went ahead and commented’How you guys doing today’ or some cordial bullshit like that. They proceeded to tell me they received a call about someone doing graffiti at this address but “this is obviously NOT graffiti “. Yes they said that. Now remember this is 1985 and the city is in the grips of gangland warfare with gangs in every inch of the city, with these gangs came the placasos. That’s what they knew as graffiti. A big, detailed, colorful piece did not look like anything they had seen before or like anything in the city. (There was only a handful of spots that had real pieces) we proceeded to have a conversation about what it was and what it said…and coincidentally it was the very first piece I ever did where I spelled it with a Y, previously I spelled it PIRO. The cops, in the middle of our conversation hear a call over the radio about shots fired (which was very common) jumped in their car and sped off. I turned and finished my piece, packed up and went home. There actually is a photo of this piece, one of the few pieces with photo proof. Lol So there it is, my old school cop story. Not what anyone would’ve expected. We all got chase stories and gun/gunshot stories but who has a story of cops being dumbfounded. Ha!
The wall is yours, speak your last words.
Last words huh… I thought about diving deep into some topic but I’ll just leave you with this… I’ll be writing on shit till the day I die. Cut!