THE BEST CHOICE: HARDCORE 2 MIKE BAM INTERVIEW

I am Mike Bam of TWS (Together With Style) from San Francisco and 808Urban from Hawaii.  I was born & raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, but now I live in San Francisco.

QUANTITY
How many pieces have you made on the longest painting day you did?

I’m not a bomber anymore, so I usually just do 1 piece in 1 day. However, the most number of pieces I have done is only 2 in one day.

COVERAGE
In what cities have you painted?

In the USA, I’ve painted in Honolulu, Hawaii. I’ve paint mostly in the Northern California Bay Area cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. I’ve also painted in Los Angeles, New York City, New Jersey, Chicago, Hiroshima, Japan and now Barcelona!

PRESSURE
Which is the biggest issue you have faced while painting?

I have been caught by the police before, but interestingly, it is NOT the worst story that I have.  Bad stories are because of situations when your life is in danger.  Therefore the worst story I have is about the day that my friends and I back in the late 80’s found a way to get into the San Francisco BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) tunnels. It was through what looked like an air vent structure that had a door. There was about 5 of us in our group and when the last writer in our group shut the door behind him as we entered the tunnel, we all were in shock because the door locked behind us! We were trapped in the subway tunnels! While all my friends where stoked and thought it was cool that we were in the BART Train tunnels, I realized that we had to figure out how to get out. So while they were tagging and taking pictures, I yelled at them that we needed to figure out the timing of the trains and what the interval of time was between when trains pass by.  This was because we needed to run to the next trains station to get out and there was no space between the narrow platforms and the train tracks, so we would need to run to the next station immediately after a train passes and hope that it would only take 5-10 minutes to get to the next station.  Luckily we made it and no one died that day!

COLORS
What color combinations have you chosen this time and why?

Being from Hawaii, I immediately choose greens and blues since I love the ocean and green mountains. However, since I just painted with Musa I tried out her clown colors, which is mostly warm colors.  I also like what American writers call the “Bubble Gum” colors of hot pink, banner red, lava orange and pistachio green. I never use black as an outline color. Estria(painting partner) and I usually use the darkest of any color to be an outline color.  I also never use pure white since I would rather use the lightest of any MTN94 color, like Angel Blue.

DRYING
What is the maximum time you have gone without painting?

I stopped writing for a good 15 years, so that technically would be the longest amount of time. Currently, I sometimes go without painting for 2 weeks and I start to get the “fever” or “itch” to want to do a piece or just paint with the spraycan.  I try to paint at least every weekend (Saturday or Sunday), but it’s hard as I’m older now and have a full time office job during the day.  I have to spend time with my wife and family and balance that out also.

What you think of the experience using Hardcore 2?

I first tried Naranja Pastel on a concrete wall that was not buffed. It went on very opaque and I was surprised how even coverage hardcore dos is right now! It is similar to MTN94 because I don’t have to wait longer for it to dry.  Before I would have to wait a little longer for Hardcore to dry when mixing it with MTN94 due to the older mixture having a little more solvent. The new Hardcore 2 solves that problem. To me, it seems just a little thicker so light colors can cover darker colors.  At first a few local writers were mad because the darkest
colors from the original Hardcore line are now not manufactured. However, I just tell them to use MTN94 or the MTN Alien line if they still want to use those dark or super light colors.

I have to paint faster now when doing pieces so Hardcore 2 is perfect for me with it’s fast pressure with a Pink Dot fat cap. Therefore it forces me to paint faster.  The faster the better!

Thanks for interviewing me. I hope to do more pieces with Hardcore2 coming soon!