Today, with the help of the one and only @blueringoct0pus Concrete Fetish is lucky enough to be able to take a closer look at a peice hidden in the mangroves of Brisbane/Meanjin. CF: So this is a tribute piece to Fawts, I never got to meet him unfortunately. But his impact on the scene rings loud. Could you tell us how you two met? H: Fawts was dropped into a crew I was writing, and that's how we met. He was mates with a dude named Siner. I met those two together, but hit it off with Fawts more. CF: What about the others on this production? We have, of course, Charms to the left and Imaks to the right. H: Charms transfered to my school in the year 2000, he had already been painting a couple of years and he got me into it. I had done a few tags before but he was already peiceing. We wagged school one day and went to paint near Lota skatepark. We met a kid there doing a 3D piece - Imax. He had his photo album and Charm and him hit it off. CF: Man, that's kind of old school. Photo albums aren't so much of a thing anymore. H: We used to rack disposable cameras from woolies and give false names to have them developed. I have thousands of early 00's photos to this day. CF: Painting at the turn of the millenia - who influenced you guys. Early internet, mags? H: I didn't have internet when I started painting. I suppose it was around but we were broke. Hype Mag and West line graffiti influenced my style. Mainly FM crew, DSM crew, BWP and further towards the city DTS and RFW. Not to mention just whatever was on the lines back then. Can't forget Detoks and Epic if I'm talking early 2000's westline. Oh and I should mention TBK, KOC, MTV and RCF as well. My school had internet and I would waste time in class looking up SUK crew webpage and a site called Aerographix. Later on 12 Ounce prophet forum popped up and that was a cool way to share flicks and beef with other writers. (crylaugh) CF: So how did this wall come about? H: The prody was arranged on Fawts birthday. Whenever I think of Ryan the first thing that comes to mind was how passionate he was about painting. It was infectious and a part of my passion died with him. He was loose and never took himself very seriously always joking. Very different to a lot of writers I've met. Everyone who met him got along with him, just a cool dude nonthreatening. We used to wag school and go to the Sabres Phatstuff to watch the rap and beatbox battles back in the day. I remember watching a young @tomthummer carve up the beatbox competition. Sabre was mad, he had respect for all west liners and used to spit violent bars when we walked in. That was a good way to connect with the other crews. (...) CF: What paints am I looking at here? H: My piece was Export chrome, Bezrock black from @crushcity and dribs and drabs I had left over. I think I was the only one of us using export because I remember (the others) whinging about fumes lol CF: Teamwork makes the dream work. H: Whenever we do productions we usually rock up and share cans for backgrounds etc. It usually helps pull the pieces together. Scum from our original crew came down for some beers and a chat - mozzies got pretty bad for it later on in the afternoon too. (...) CF: Your style is intensely organised, not a line out of place. How closely do you follow a sketch versus off the top of your head? H: I have never painted from a sketch. Sketching feels like work to me. I like to just start marking up on the wall. I suppose I might take a little longer to mark up because I stand back to get an overall feel of it before adding little connections and doodads. (...) CF: Any last words? H: I wish I could paint more but in my opinion graffiti is always there for you. It's there when you're pissed off with the government it's there when you're feeling artistic. It's nice to be part of a community. I've met some of the best people I know through graffiti and some of the biggest fuckwits. CF: Thanks for your time