Sake

Illegal and without permission. That’s how Sake sees graffiti. Infamous graffiti writer Sake sheds a little light about who he is, how he started, and how he operates. Sorry to the snipes - you won’t find anything here that identifies him. Note that this interview was conducted years back and never released. Here are excerpts from our conversation.

Please tell us about yourself.

I write “Sake” and I’ve been writing graffiti for about 16 years now, since about late ’94. I’m still here, 16 years later, keeping graffiti in the streets, where it should be – illegal and without permission.

Your alias, “Sake” – did someone give this to you or did you choose it yourself?

Everyone starts off the same where they don’t really know what to do with their own name. I had acertain name with an “S” in it but I wanted to change my name because I wasn’t happy with it. I was playing with letters and picked a few letters that I really wanted, and “Sake” just came about like that.

For many people, their aliases can begin with a meaning, or a meaning for the alias is created over time. Do you have a meaning for “Sake”?

No. The best meaning that I can come up with might be, “For fuck’s Sake” or, “For God’s Sake”. Other than that, no, it just represents me. If they know that name, then they’ve seen my stuff and they know a bit about me. “Sake” is just the name that I picked and I have no definition for it.

How did you get into graffiti? What first got you to pick up the can?

I was always creative and I had a creative mind. I was always creating and scribbling shit. I had this big silver marker and my friend asked me to go tagging with him. I didn’t know what that was and I was bored, so I joined along. We were in the middle of the mall writing on bathroom walls and shit. We were writing on benches too, it was just something to do. I was getting a little older and I wasn’t a total youngster anymore, but it was something to do. Two years later, I started realizing that it was a whole other world and now, it is what it is today. I just like it because it’s something to do.

How do you keep yourself safe while doing what you do?

I just try to be smart about it but sometimes it’s the luck of the draw – you could be in the safest spot ever but bad timing happens. I try to learn from my mistakes and not make them twice, and I am aware of my surroundings. I try not to tell too many people about myself. Over the years, I would meet people and tell them who I am. Now, unless I’ve heard of you, I’m not going to tell you who I am. If people come up to me and say that I’m “Sake”, I say, “Nope.” I will deny it. Some people need that fame and they need that attention, but for me, I know who I need to know and other than that, I don’t like meeting strangers.

What are your views on legal graffiti?

Legal graffiti is an oxymoron. Graffiti is illegal and once it is legal, it’s not graffiti anymore. It can be graffiti inspired art, but it’s not graffiti. It’s like hip-hop these days with Lil Wayne and all those little guys – I don’t consider that hip-hop – I consider that pop or rap. Every time something pure comes out, it gets raped by humans. It gets recycled and changed by the masses. For me, graffiti is pure and it’s about putting my life on the line for it. It’s like bombing in the States – if you get caught, you’re not allowed back in the States ever again, you know? There is a big difference between those two aspects, graffiti and graffiti inspired art. Yeah, it can be visually appealing and all, but it’s not graffiti. Graffiti is in the streets and it always has been. When it’s legal, it is graffiti inspired art. I have a lot of friends that do great murals and they travel the world and get paid, but they will still paint the streets illegally and I’m down with that. But, if a person who has been painting for 10 years has painted the streets for a year or two, and then stops painting the streets and paints murals, they stopped being a graffiti artist eight years ago. As long as you’re painting legally and not illegally, you’re not a graffiti artist.

Over the next few years, what are some of the things you want to accomplish?

I just want to get up off my ass and travel more. I want to get up in other cities because being in the same city all the time is almost like a job. If some of my spots got buffed or repainted, I have to maintain them – it’s almost tedious, but it’s still fun. When I go to a city that I haven’t touched yet, I’m like a kid in a candy store. It’s almost overwhelming because I’m starting all over again. I just want to keep coming up with different lettering and work on my throw-ups.