How easy is it to lose something you have spent hours working on? Pretty easy. A bumped bottle of paint ruins a canvas, a slip with a knife destroys a carving and the stroke of a key can delete a document forever. It is through remarkable luck that this interview - taken years ago, has resurfaced. Special thanks to Esber for his patience. C: First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions, it’s much appreciated. Let's get right into it, by going backwards - what was the first piece of graff that really caught your attention? E: The first piece of graffiti that caught my attention would have easily been a Pawn piece at Northgate station. I probably would have been like ten at the time trying to figure out what it even said. Even though I couldn’t quite read it at the time, I was inspired and tried to draw graffiti later that day. I couldn’t even come close to what I would see around the Northside of Bris, but I started sketching and tagging with shitty permanent markers everyday from then onwards. C: Classic origin story of being inspired by what you see up on the lines. I may have seen the same piece, as I have a vague memory of a Pawn in that spot. So how long have you been painting for? E: I’ve been into graff for about fifteen years now but painting wise I’d say for the past ten years - I don’t really count the first five years when I was just tagging. I was just in primary school then and I was only doing tags with shitty pens and the odd one in paint if I could find scrap cans. C: What are your tools of the trade for painting? E: I love Loops and anything that’s cheap. If it’s over $7 a can I’m not keen on buying it. These days I just go to Crush City and just buy their cheapest tins - so the Bez rocks, Ironlak basics and a lot of the good ol Aussie exports. I used to love the ‘4 for 10’ deals but sadly I don’t think they do that anymore. For canvas work I use mainly random brands I get from the mis-tint section at Bunnings. I love that section, you can find some good colours for cheap there if you’re lucky. C: In those ten years of painting, how have you seen the scene change? E: When I was younger the train lines were covered in graff and sadly these days this just isn’t the case. The buff is strong and sometimes knowing your work will sometimes only last two weeks if you’re lucky doesn’t motivate you to do a nice piece. Sometimes you'd rather walk the line just practising hand styles for as long as you can until there's no paint left. If the buff wasn’t as strong I think you would still see full on productions on the lines. Heaps of cameras, sensors and security have made painting trains harder too but there’s still ways to do everything. C: Yeah, the slow creep of the olive buff was a massacre of history. I suspect we're going to see a similar if not larger wipe out before the 2032 Olympics. I'm told that before expo 88 a similar purge happened, and in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics too. E: Oh yeah I can see the same thing happening too. In 2012 or around then the G20 was in Brisbane and there was a huge buff. (Editor's note: 2014) I remember this def threats piece just before the valley station got buffed. I was sad to see that one go because the spot was so good and the piece was super dope. Also the WTCS piece across from the Def Threats, that was a dope link. Toombul station was amazing back in the day and same with Bald Hills and Geebung, man I miss catching the Shorny and Cabo line when there were heaps of pieces everywhere. C: Do you remember the huge pink Sofles/Joe rollers right on Toombul station? E: Yeah they were mad stompers and then there was the ‘While the city sleeps’ piece next to it. Plus an AKM piece on the other side of the Sofles piece, such a dope wall. C: The blue spell out? That spot had a few really good ones. It's all apartments now of course. E: Yeah, by Cekios, I used to catch the bus after school to Toombul just to look at that wall then jump on the Shorny line and catch the train home. I miss those days. I’ve had some good times running amuck around the area of Toombul station. C: Who or what has inspired you to push your style in the direction it has gone? E: It all depends really on where I get inspiration from the time of my life or what I’m seeing. In the early days it was seeing Ironlak videos of Sofles, Linz, Tue and Reals. Or River City 1 and 2 - they were such good movies. Writers like Iroks, Slor, Banos and Pawn were inspirations to me when I was young. Lately though I’ve been loving heaps of works coming from overseas from writers such as Buge, Nerks, Saber, Astoer. I’m a new generation writer so I get a lot of inspiration from online as books weren’t big for me. I didn’t even hear of the book Style Wars till I was already deep into graffiti. Also the SDK videos on Youtube were a huge inspiration too. I used to watch those videos nearly everyday. C: The Dirty Handz series? The third one is the gold standard for what graff movies should be. E: Yeah that was a good series - but no I meant the stomp down killers graffiti videos on YouTube. C: Oh shit - yeah the Canadian SDK. Like Keep6, Doug, Lessen. Real Youtube pioneers that lot. (Editors note: anyone remember a guy called Above?) E: Yeah the Canadian SDK, I watched them heaps and still do. C: Any ambitions to sell canvases and go legit or do you enjoy the process as it is and want to keep it as a hobby rather than a job in the art world? E: I’ve been selling canvases for years now and I’ve also done a few paid mural jobs before, it’s super fun doing mural work I find so if I can get the chance to do more I’ll be doing more 100%. I love art and graffiti and I don’t see myself ever stopping. C: So MBA - like minded individuals with Masters in Business Administration. How did that kick off? E: MBA is just a group of mates that kick it on the regular drinking and smoking cones. It started around 10 years ago with Rains and Rike. I wish there was a good story about the name. Truth is I feel it’s the only name we could come up with that we thought wasn’t taken at the time, I feel like coming up with a name to write and a crew name these days is hard with so many different writers around the world. C: How did you end up with your word? E: I liked the letters E S R a lot, so I just kept playing with those letters and adding different ones to try and make a word up and somehow ended on Esber, no real interesting story on it I feel. C: That's kind of interesting though because I think most people would choose a word instead of having an alphabet soup and fishing around until it worked. Very organic. Is music important to your creative process? E: I’ve never thought of that, don’t really have an answer. I like to listen to music or a podcast while drawing or painting though C I've been listening to history (podcasts) lately - it's crazy how much good info is out there for free. What podcasts would you recommend? E: I listen to comedy podcasts like Tom Sergura, Joe Rogan, Joey Diaz. They’re a good listen, I find them entertaining and it’s always good to laugh. C: Do you feel that coming up with mostly online influences has been an advantage? E: I feel coming up with being able to use social media to see a wider range of graffiti is a lot easier than going outside. You’re able to see more techniques and don’t really necessarily need to know some older writer for you to learn the basics. If you're dedicated enough you can pretty much teach yourself anything using guides from online sources, but it’s always better to know people in real life that are into the same hobby as you so you can learn from them too, not just some video online. C: How has your opinion of graff changed over the years? (Or has it?) Do you still feel the same energy and passion to paint and draw? E: I’ll always love graffiti. My opinion on graffiti hasn’t changed. It’s still better seeing graff than blank walls and it’s always good fun going out bombing. I don’t paint as much as I used to due to life things but I draw as much as ever and don’t plan on stopping painting any time soon. C: Do you sketch your pieces or go with the flow when you get there? E: I freestyle every piece I do, I get a feel for the wall and go from there, it also depends on how much paint I have on hand and time to paint too. I just try have fun that’s the main part C: Damn, another one for team no sketch. E: Haha yeah I just sketch a lot and just try to remember them when painting C: Well thats about all we have time for - any shout outs you’d like to give? E: Shoutouts to the boys! Nous, Rains, Rakm, Ytoks, Epar, Hanso C: Thank you for your time!