10 Spot Interview with Busy - TD. C4. ARE. FDA.

Photo by Nick Gervin.

BUSY interview by Nick Gervin.

This interview was conducted in 2017 and is now just being released in its entirety.

NG: What is style to you?

B: To me, style is your flavor. It's what oozes out of you as far as how you carry yourself in every sense of life, not just graffiti. You either got them terps or you don't, but they can develop over time if you shed the right light on yourself. I will say (considering how relaxed and chill I am) my style of graffiti seems to be semi-aggressive/sharp, if you will. Style is the confidence that you are who you are and you're cool with that / borderline: your identity.

NG: What motivates you to get up?

B: There are a few reasons why I paint. For me, it first started as a way to get some adrenaline and just have fun being mischievous. Then, for a while, I enjoyed seeing it as I drove by or heard other people say they had seen it. I had a phase where I was painting for the flick and didn't care if it ran or not, but that gets old quick. For a while it was just something to do with friends, but it changed for me when I started to paint freights. Freights brought all those things together and the time spent in the yard became therapy. I'd say, at this point in time, my biggest motivation to paint is to have a good time. I just wanna do hoodrat stuff with my friends.

NG: Why freight trains?

B: There's a lot of reasons I choose to paint freights more than anything. First, it was because I was on probation and still wanted to get up but be safe. I figured if you paint things that no one will be pissed about, then the reciprocal will be true and no one will be pissed. The metal also forces you to increase skill level or it shows. Once you learn enough about the railroad, it becomes like Pokémon, trying to paint all the different kinds of cars and finding all the places they go. It's kind of a never-ending game. The freights also used to get a lot more respect than they do now, in the sense that if there weren't open panels you would leave and not just go over something because you can go bigger. I also liked seeing other people's work that I didn't know locally or online. Plus, where I'm from kids will go over anything on the walls, but they weren't focused on freights and your graffiti can run a lot longer. Once I started getting dope benched flicks, it was clear to me freights were my thing.

Photo by Nick Gervin.

Photo by Nick Gervin.

NG: What does your graffiti say about yourself?

B: I write Busy and it's been a pretty accurate name for some years now. I love graffiti, but have a lot of other things going on in my life and think it is kind of ironic at just how well the shoe fits, if you will. I try to stay relevant, but have been directing my focus elsewhere lately (to be honest) so I need to get busy soon. I've had people tell me on multiple occasions mid-piece that my fills are very busy looking without knowing it says 'busy'. My color schemes also tell a bit about my mood sometimes, can't lie.

Photo by Nick Gervin.

NG: Who is a writer you respect and why?

B: I'd say the writer I respect most is my homie Rels TD C4 ARE LBS. Since the day I met him, we clicked and it was peace. We've been through situations of wanting to kill each other for everything from graffiti, to women, to business, and more. With that said, we've always remained family over any issue. He does graffiti for the right reasons; loves to get up, but doesn't let graffiti run his life. Also doesn't buy into the online and ego bullshit; if someone has beef he'll be at the door not on your phone. Beyond that, he has an awesome original style that has been influenced by his elders but not straight bitten like a lot of what's out there today. Rels is also one of the most versatile writers I know who can get in where he fits in, and is always humble. That's my ace.

NG: Can you recall your first experience with the rails?

B: My first rail experience was a nightmare, lol. I was like 17 in Lynn, Mass with my partner at the time who wrote Tense. We were toys. Decided to paint this hopper that was laid up in the same spot for a month, it seemed. To get into the spot, we didn't think to walk down the tracks so our dumbasses climbed on top of an 18 wheeler. From there, we had to climb like a 7 foot barbed wire fence that had a 3 foot gap between the fence and truck. If you know me, you can imagine how funny it must have looked, seeing as I'm not the most agile person I know. After that (years later), my first real rail experience was going after the Nashua and Hartford yards with Art, Rels, Kwote, Cutz and Erax.

Photo by Nick Gervin.

NG: What are some of the harshest lessons you have learned from graff?

B: Harshest lesson in graffiti? Nothing lasts forever. Do it for you and you'll have fun. You do it to impress others and you'll never be satisfied. No spot will run forever, trains get capped, trains get scrapped. Plus, ya know (living in the city of graffiti nazis), you learn early that graffiti isn't a game out here. Between fighting people and fighting the law you either are in it or you ain't.

NG: When were the golden years of writing for you and what were things like then?

B: Woo, my golden years were from 2008 to 2012. Now I'm into my platinum years. It was all so new to me then. Had a blast getting better and painting constantly, finding new spots and creating lifelong friendships from the bonding of being in high risk environments that involve a lot of trust.

Photo by Nick Gervin.

NG: Does your graffiti have any political influences or messages?

B: There was one time a couple years ago, I was going hard at a spot in the woods in western Mass, doing a ton of panels and working my way up to do whole cars. So I bring a GoPro, my ladder, and a hiking bag with no less than 45 cans on a hike to the spot 45 minutes into the woods. I get there, check the spot, everything's great, quiet, dope cars laid up. So I start painting. I map out my 4 letters and go straight to town filling in the "b" top to bottom. After about 25 minutes painting, I see a truck far down the path and I'm on the ladder so I hop down, collapse the ladder, grab my stuff and run into the woods for 15 minutes. No one came. So I go back and get set up and get up the ladder and, not a minute in, comes this truck barrel-assing towards me. So I get down, grab everything (at this point I even have a trash bag of empties). The truck gets as close as they can and an old guy gets out and tries to chase me. I'm dusting this guy even with all my shit. He keeps yelling, "I just wanna talk! I can't keep chasing you! I'm too old for this shit!" In my head I'm like, "Aight, I'll fuck this guy up if he tries anything so let's hear him out". I stop running, crazy adrenaline and out of breath. I tell the guy, "Listen, man, I don't want any trouble. I'm not going over the reporting numbers. I'm running away with my trash, even. I have respect for the railroad", etc. The worker is like, "I don't care if you paint the things top to bottom, I just wanna make sure you weren't stealing from the train", because of my huge backpack. He's like, "Listen, man, someone saw you out here and they came and told us. I'm not gonna call the cops, but I can't guarantee the other person isn't. But I'm leaving and you can stay, leave, do whatever.” I still had to fill in the "usy", background and outline my wholecar. Thank God he was the man, because I finished and nothing happened. Unfortunately, my GoPro was set to timelapse pics every 2 seconds or I would have had the whole conversation saved. Still got the footage.

NG: Can you share some of your crew's history or stories?

B: TD C4 ARE FDA #. The first crew I was put down in was TD. The crew was Art, Edit, Emty and Eyon and then myself. Later, Rels was put down. TD is the only crew I'm in that doesn't have a head of the crew, it's an all-or-none thing. Most of the crew, except for me, is from Connecticut. From there, I got introduced to Skem, who now writes Class C4. After a year or so of constantly painting with them, the bond made sense that I rep their crew. C4 consists of all of TD, plus Class, Keph, Game, Vile, Stress, Mock, Zero and Nest. Nest leads us to my next crew, ARE. R.I.P. Spre and Zyre. I met Nest in Springfield one day where we were drinking and doing nose beers heavy. We also instantly clicked, and we have a blast every time I see him. He later moved to Boston and we kicked it and painted a ton. He wanted to put me in ARE fairly quickly, whereas the late great Spre needed more time to see who I was. Eventually, we also became tight to where I repped ARE on a couple hunnit freights for sure that year. FDA is Monoe's crew and I really should rep it more than I do because Monoe is the man. I also have a lot of respect for Spek; he opened my eyes to the world of freights which I'll be forever grateful for. He introduced me to writers from Maine, Rhode Island, and my area that I looked up to for years. Dwel and I became close friends, having a mutual love for graffiti and having a good time. Tint is another awesome writer who is cool as fuck and keeps to the grindstone, not giving a fuck what people think. I got along with just about all of ITD and Circle T. I was the only writer to be put in ITD after about 10 years almost, but Drift and Epik didn't want the crew to expand. I repped the crew for about a year, and then Drift and Epik kinda put an ultimatum to Dwel to drop me or they'd drop the crew. Sadly (for me), he fell to that and asked me to stop repping the crew. At first, I was bummed and it slowed me down big-time, but it got me to put my own crew LBS # at the forefront of what I was doing, and caused me to love graffiti for myself and not to appease others at all anymore. The members of #'s other than myself are Rels, Kwote, Erax, Cutz, Nest, Tuch, Art. Hey hey hey hey, smoke weed everyday.

Photo by Nick Gervin