Today Concrete Fetish speaks to the one and only Vedas. A writer from the 00’s who has taken a more spiritual path than most.To explore his journey through graffiti and beyond. Q: First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for the future record. Now lets get into it - what was the first place you saw graffiti? V: Narangba, about 2000 - I was new to the area and I saw this tag everywhere. Q: What drew you to it? V: It was stylish and I liked the idea of having my own. Not knowing who did it was part of the appeal. Graffiti art is cool in part because it's a mystery - how it got there and who did it. 2023 Q: Would you say that the tags you saw built up their own mythos as you saw them around and wondered who did them and why? V: Yeah I definitely liked the mystery of them. The style of the lettering and the way they claimed the streets was impressive to me at that age. Most people don't think about changing the public environment. Q: So from seeing graff around you to taking part - whose style influenced you when you picked up a pen/can etc? V: When I started writing Vedas it didn’t cross my mind to try and fit a genre of style. I really did my own thing and I think that’s what got me well known even though I was a toy. I’ve always been a black sheep. I’m even a black sheep among the other black sheep I hang around. My cousin Ebony was dating a guy from RFW and showed me some tricks. I was hooked and came up with my first tag Beras. Q: That actually dovetails really smoothly into my next question. How did you end up choosing your word/s? V: I formed a crew called JMJ which stood for Josh Mitch Josh inspired by Dogtown and Z-boys. We made our own boards and skated a lot. I made the letters into a heart with arms and legs. Then I met Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees and started painting Vedas which is sanskrit for Truth. Now I paint "Kṛṣṇa". Q: I think that is the point I became aware of you. The hand style you had at the time reminded me of classical Greek lettering and seemed to be everywhere. V: Yeah the readability and the triangle letters definitely helped my name stand out from the crowd. 2009 Q: Were you down with any other crews? V: I was in ZRF and NWO and just stopped putting them up as I got more into my spiritual lifestyle and friend circle. Now I'm part of a global crew called GBC. I still have a connection with Rambo who invited me. Or maybe it was Putup.. Q: Now while the world was getting to know you as Vedas, you were also getting to the underground. Literally. There are quite a few surviving pieces in the darkness beneath Brisbane. How did that journey begin? V: Painting drains combines exploration and graffiti. Exploring the storm water system was the most anti-social thing I could do and I loved it. I also spent a lot of time on rooftops, in freight yards and in other off limits places. When I wasn't exploring the city I was at the Hare Kṛṣṇa restaurants inquiring about vedic cosmology and philosophy. Q: Out of interest, is there any conflict between the act of graffiti and the spiritual path of Krsna? V: Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. In India there are devotional street artists who paint Kṛṣṇas name everywhere and they are loved by everyone. Kṛṣṇa is literally the Supreme Personality of Godhead and generally Hare Kṛṣṇa people are law abiding as a principle. 2020 I've definitely been conflicted about tagging but doing Kṛṣṇa graffiti is actually an instruction my guru gave me in 2009. It's all about awakening people to the transcendental realm beyond mundane consciousness. I've slowed down my illegal graffiti in favour of a different approach. This year I'll do 100 pieces and I have an auction coming up. I have other projects too. When I lived in Wellington I was suggested to clean up my tags by a mentor, which I did. That was an interesting experience. I went around cleaning white out tags and even rooftop tags and felt really good. I did the 12 step program and Landmark too so everyone I respected was gently guiding me towards a life of integrity. Q:Do you consider yourself post-graffiti, as in where to from here? V: I paint murals professionally and do pieces when I can. I’m always evolving my handstyle and putting it up mentally. I'm also working on a project called Murals in Schools, an auction of canvas work and a publication at the moment. Q: Do you view graffiti any differently today as opposed to back in the day? V: My view on graffiti in terms of getting up has always been in a state of evolution since I started writing almost 20 years ago. I saw a wall as prime real-estate back in 2006 and all the way up to 2019. Now I see a nicely painted blank wall. Tags are usually inconsiderate by nature. Even if the writer has boundaries it's still about ego. Unless it's a message. In an ideal world youth would have a voice and they wouldn't need to go out bombing to be seen and heard. Tagging for me came from a need to be someone in the world. Writers are entrepreneurs who don't have capital to get their message on billboards and resent the stuff that's on them. 2021 I believe everything in modern society is a conspiracy and the subcultures are the controlled opposition. Graffiti is a controlled opposition. They pretend they don't want rebels running a muck but they wouldn't allow it if it didn't have some payoff. Q: It sounds to me as if you have arrived at a point where your ego has been fulfilled and you no longer need the outlet of graffiti. If we were talking in psychology terms I might say self actualization, though that may be inaccurate to your circumstance. V: For sure, self realisation is literally my jam. I was a monk for 5 years selling The Science of Self Realisation on the street. Q: Riskiest spot you’ve hit? V: When I was writing JMJ in 2006 and had just created the Love heart man man symbol I went out with a crew member at 3am. He kept watch and I climbed up onto the tracks and onto the ledge of the bridge. It was one of the best spots in town because of its visibility from the main road and I went past it daily on the way to school. It was dirty as anything so moving across to the middle was nasty. 2008 I hit up a love heart man with some metallic blue spray paint I got somehow. It was trash paint but I got up. Then I saw the police spying from the road so I ran and hid in a tree dense area by the oval where CPHO has a production wall. It was scary but fun and I met up with my crew member somehow and we went home. Q: Are there any shout outs you’d like to give? V: The main actors in the show: Remok who showed me how to piece, Zodiak who showed me around the Brisbane underground, Mikey and Cpho who taught me manners, Adam Lewczuk who put me into the Urban Scrawl exhibition, Dyzla and Fani for their encouragement on the bus, Emmanuel Moore who led the charge on the Sunny Coast, Shida who put me in a crew, Sean from Juddy Roller for his support, Phibs and Deb who had my back when the police turned up, Ty, Liam, Isaak, Ash, Sofles, Kaput, Ques, admirers, haters, yourself, all the writers who have contributed a Kṛṣṇa sketch for our book and all my Hare Kṛṣṇa family who fuel my fire. And shout out to Kardama Kapila, Mayapura and Hari who are the most prolific in GBC. Hare Kṛṣṇa Q: Thank you for your time V: Thanks for the questions and allowing me to share. 2009